Thirteen

Morgan

“Knock, knock,” a voice said from the door of my office on Monday morning.

“Julia,” I said with a smile. “Come in.”

“Are we still doing lunch?”

“Yes, let me send out this email, and then I’ll actually eat lunch today.”

She laughed as she walked over and plopped down in a seat in front of my new desk. It had come in this weekend, and Jensen’s office was finally starting to feel like my own.

“I’m excited that you invited me to lunch. I like having girl time with you,” Julia said.

“Same. I didn’t really have girlfriends before you all started dating my brothers.”

“I’ve never been that great at girlfriends either,” Julia said. She swept her rose-gold hair to one shoulder, revealing the myriad of piercings on her ear and the tattoos peeking from her shoulder. “Heidi kind of forced me to be friends with her.”

“She and Emery are quite a pair.” I sent out my last email and then stood. “Okay, I’m ready.”

“Great! I was thinking Thai Pepper if that’s all right?”

I glanced at my clock and sighed. “They’re so slow though.”

“Yeah…but the food is worth it.”

“All right. I should probably let David know on the way out.”

Julia sent me a sly look as we left the office. “David’s cute, right?”

“Is he?” I asked, taken off guard.

“Come on. You’ve noticed. You work with him all the time.”

“Haven’t really noticed.” I waved at David when we got to his office. “Taking a long lunch. Text me if you need me.”

He was on the phone and held his thumb up. I really looked at him for the first time. Julia was right. He was good-looking. Tall and broad-shouldered with an energetic smile. No wonder Patrick had been worried about David when he saw us together.

Oh well. It was probably good I had no interest in my own CFO. Talk about trouble. That would make Patrick look like nothing in comparison.

“He is kind of cute,” I admitted as we started to walk out of the building together.

“Right! Good. I’m glad you think so. I think you should go out with him.”

“Are you crazy? He’s my subordinate.”

“As the head of HR for Wright Construction, I will agree that it is crazy and a horrible idea…but as your friend.” Julia winked. “He’s, like…barely your subordinate.”

I shook my head. “That’s an awful idea.”

“The girls and I are determined to hook you up with someone by Christmas!”

“Uh,” I said in response.

What the hell could I say to that?

It’s not like I could say that I’d started talking to Patrick. That would get straight back to my brothers. Something I did not want to deal with yet. It was enough that Patrick liked me and wanted to see where this relationship was going. If it really went somewhere, well, then we’d cross that bridge when we got to it.

“It’ll be fine,” Julia said.

I didn’t correct her. It was easier that way. It wouldn’t come to that anyway.

We drove across campus in Julia’s black Tahoe and parked in the back lot outside of Thai Pepper. It was a hole-in-the-wall sort of place that was always packed for lunch. It was noisy and hard to find a table, but the food was too good to pass up.

“Ah, there they are!” Julia said when we entered the restaurant.

“They?” I asked.

My eyes scanned the room and landed on Heidi and Emery holding a table in the corner. I laughed and shook my head. I should have known that she’d invited them. This was clearly an intervention. I was the only one who hadn’t known what was happening.

We maneuvered our way across the crowded room. I pulled out a seat across from Emery, and Julia sat across from Heidi. They were a commanding trio. I was the CEO of a huge organization, but I was out of my depth with girl chat. The last time we’d had a girls’ night was to celebrate my promotion. I’d gotten wasted and hung out with Patrick most of the time. I couldn’t even remember what had happened at the end of that night, except that he’d gotten me home somehow. This was all to say that I failed at girlie things.

“Morgan, we’re so glad you wanted to do lunch,” Heidi said with a wide smile. Her blonde hair was in a slicked-back ponytail at the top of her head, and unlike her friends who preferred shades of black, she was in a fitted, long-sleeved pink top.

“What Heidi means is,” Emery said, “thanks for letting us commandeer your lunch with Julia. Now, I hope you don’t mind Heidi trying to butt her way into your love life.”

“You should get used to it,” Julia agreed.

“Hey, I’m not that bad!” Heidi cried.

“No, you’re worse,” Emery said.

“I don’t hear any of you complaining now that you’re engaged and shit.”

“Whatever,” Julia said. “We all know the real hook-up is you and Emery.”

“I do love her,” Heidi said, draping an arm across Emery’s chair and batting her eyelashes at her.

Emery kissed Heidi’s cheek. “You know it.”

“Get a room,” Julia groaned. She turned to look at me. “Can you believe these two?”

I laughed and shrugged. They all seemed pretty amazing to me. I hated that I always felt like an outsider, even when they were including me. That was how I felt about Steph inviting me to be in her wedding. We’d talked on the phone this weekend, and I still couldn’t believe that she wanted me to be a part of it. I wished relationships came as easy to me as my loyalty to my family and my passion for work.

“Now, as we were saying,” Heidi said, pulling out a notebook after we ordered our pad thai, “we’re on a mission. We know there’s the big Wright Christmas party coming up in, like, three weeks. We thought we’d help set you up on some dates.”

“Heidi made a list,” Emery said with a dramatic eye roll.

“Y’all, I really appreciate this,” I said. I chewed on my lip. How the hell was I going to get out of this? I didn’t want to go on any blind dates, and I didn’t want to tell them about Patrick.

“Just give it a shot,” Julia encouraged.

“Okay, option one is,” Heidi said, “Todd Hammond. He’s a pretty boy. He likes to wear Ralph Lauren polos and boat shoes. One of those frat guys, but he’s not a douche. Emery will pull up his picture.”

“Um, y’all…”

“Option two, Jeremy Masterson. He’s one of those gym guys. Likes to wear sleeveless shirts sometimes. We’ll forgive him because he’s the hottest option.”

“Heidi, stop!”

All three girls looked up at me with wide eyes.

“While I appreciate it, I’m not going on any blind dates. I’ve, um…actually started seeing someone.”

Heidi put down her notebook and looked eager. “Oh my God, who?”

“Uh, you don’t know him,” I lied.

“Where did you meet him?” Emery asked.

I swallowed. Shit. “We were at a party together. We hit it off, and things have been going well so far.”

“That’s so exciting!” Julia cried. “What’s his name?”

Fuck.

“Joe.”

“Joe,” Heidi said in delight. “That’s amazing. We’ll table the list for now. Tell us about Joe. Is he hot? Does he treat you like royalty? When do we get to meet him?”

“Um…it’s still really new. I haven’t told anyone about it yet. So, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t all blab to my brothers.”

Heidi zipped her mouth shut. Emery held up her hands.

Julia promised, “Don’t worry about us.”

Yeah, right. I’d probably have a call by the end of the business day, and that was if I was lucky.

I spent the rest of lunch feeling like a total idiot as I invented my fake boyfriend. I tried to keep everything as true as possible. Lies were better when they were mostly true anyway. Then, you wouldn’t slip up. I’d learned that in business long before I ever had to apply it to a relationship.

By the time I got back from lunch, I was frazzled. I appreciated finally having friends, but, shit, it made everything much more complicated. I just needed to get back to work and piece together how that lunch had gone so wrong.

I was still reeling when I entered my office and found Patrick standing in front of my desk. I cleared my throat. He whirled around and smiled the most adorable lopsided smile. My stomach flipped.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey.”

We’d spent most of the weekend together, but it was still surreal to see him here, in my office. Part of me kept wondering when the rug would be pulled out. That, all along, maybe I had just imagined this. But he was smiling at me with light in his eyes that said he was remembering everything we’d done all weekend.

“What are you doing here?” I stepped further into the room, toward him.

“I wanted to see you.”

“Here?” I asked, glancing back to the door.

“Where else? Don’t you live here?”

“Austin works on this floor.”

“Yes, well, that will be a convenient excuse.”

I rolled my eyes. “Excuses, excuses.”

“Hey, I’m here to see you,” he said, reaching for my hand and tugging me closer to him. “Why don’t we hold the snark for a minute or two?”

“Not possible.”

“Oh, believe me, I know.”

“So, you just came to see me?” I asked suspiciously.

“No. I obviously have ulterior motives.”

I couldn’t even get the words out to ask what his ulterior motives were before he dropped his lips down onto mine.

Patrick Young was kissing me.

In my office.

At work.

Where anyone could see.

What was my life right now?

Amazing. Just like the taste of him and the way he fit against me and the desire that swept through my body.

I melted into him, delirious from the moment. His hands were on my face. Our breathing ragged and desperate. The kiss unimaginable, raw, and addictive. Just like the man before me.

I didn’t want to pull away. If this was wrong, I didn’t want to be right.

He gently released me and landed a light kiss on the tip of my nose. “That’s why I’m here.”

“I suppose you can visit me in my office anytime then.”

“You suppose?”

I nodded, staring up into his baby blues and feeling my body floating off into the clouds. I could get lost here. It was tempting to forget everything else that I had going on, but I couldn’t do that. Just because I finally had Patrick, it didn’t mean I could slack off.

“Yeah. But…maybe not right now. I’m pretty swamped.”

Patrick grinned. “All right. You free for dinner?”

“I probably should eat here,” I said with a sigh.

“All right. We’ll figure it out. I know how important your job is.”

“Are you coming for Thanksgiving?”

“Can’t. Austin asked me already, but I’m having dinner with the fam. Steph left, and I hate when they have to be alone for the holidays.”

“Probably for the better anyway. The girls are snooping, and I’m not ready for my brothers to suspect something between us is happening anyway.”

“It’ll be fine. They won’t figure it out.” He dropped another kiss on my lips. “But maybe…come over whenever you’re done?”

“Maybe,” I said coyly.

“I like my chances.”

He straightened and then exited my office. I sighed heavily, loving where my life was right now. Probably not the best idea to keep this from everyone or to be sneaking around and lying. It all made me frantic and unsure, but when I was in his arms again, everything else would just slip away.

A knock at the door made me jump. I turned back around, expecting Patrick to stroll back in for one more kiss, but I was disappointed to find Uncle Owen intruding instead. I suppressed a disappointed sigh.

“Owen,” I said in greeting. “Our meeting isn’t for another hour.”

“Considering how you weren’t prepared for our previous meeting, I figured we could use some more time.”

There went the carefully plotted out afternoon I’d scheduled. Instead, I would have to deal with my douche uncle, who seemed to be making it his sole mission to piss me off. All I wanted was for him to go back to Vancouver. I’d much prefer our meetings be about raising Wright Construction into the new age. We were already above the bar for most construction companies, but we wanted to lead the pack in environmental awareness and new digital and technological advancements. Getting caught up on what the Canadian branch was doing and how to bring them closer into the fold was taxing. Owen had good ideas, but being in his presence was repulsive.

“By all means, let’s get started,” I said, gesturing for him to sit.

“I’m just curious. How did the board approve you?”

I wanted to snap back that it was none of his fucking business. Instead, I said, “Jensen recommended me, and I was approved unanimously. Just like Jensen was after our father died.”

“Ethan,” Owen practically hissed. “How charming that the board continues to think his children are as capable as he was.”

There went all my good feelings from my kiss with Patrick. I needed to restrain myself. He was baiting me, and blowing up on him would just give him satisfaction.

“It is charming, isn’t it?” I said with a broad smile.

His smile dropped at my flippancy.

Morgan: 1.

Owen: 0.

“Now, back to numbers…”