Page 6 of Kiss Me Forever

So she was one of those. Why not lean into the patriarchy because the patriarchy clearly has aided her in some way. Who cares about a woman having a job or any type of autonomy when you could make sure that the man in charge knew what he was doing. I knew for a fact that the board she spoke of was for a charity. One that maybe held one gala a year to donate money. The rest were just so they could pat themselves on the back and do lunch.

It was the same board my former fiancé’s mother was part of. Not that Mrs. Green knew that. In my dirty jeans, and dirtier hair, I did not look like the Brooklyn Montgomery who had once been on the arm of Duke. Duke Rochester. But I wasn’t that girl anymore anyway. She died right along with Duke.

“Do we have a problem here?”

I nearly jumped at the sound of Reece’s voice behind me. He didn’t stand in front of me or even beside me. No, he hovered right at my shoulder, but a few inches behind. That way I was still the lead, but now a man could come protect me.

“Are you the one in charge? Are you the one who can control this?” Mrs. Green asked Reece.

“I’m working on the house next door, and I wanted to see how things were going with you and Brooklyn Montgomery here. She’s the owner of the business I work for.”

“Hmmph.” Mrs. Green mumbled. “We’ll see what your boss has to say about this.” And with that, Mrs. Green stomped in her high heels to her convertible, slid in the seat, and slammed the door.

I was surprised she had the top down, but then she put a fat pink bow thing that turned out to be a scarf around her head, tied it under her chin, put on large sunglasses, and sped out of the cul-de-sac.

If I didn’t hate her, I would admire her fashion sense. Because that was kick ass.

“You okay?” Reece asked, that deep voice of his oddly soothing and annoying at the same time.

“I was handling it,” I said as I turned towards him.

“Whatever you say, Freckles.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“I can’t help it. You have so many damn freckles. I lean into the name.”

“Meaning they’re so original? Thanks. I know I’m covered in freckles. Have been for most of my life. Now if you could go back to doing what you were doing, I’ll go back to my job.”

“I didn’t come over here to take over.” He didn’t snarl the words, but it felt like he wanted to.

“Really? Sure felt like it.”

“I came to remind you that we have a meeting down in the office soon. We were only supposed to work a half day today.”

I cursed under my breath and pulled out my phone. I had four texts and one missed call, but I didn’t recognize the number for the call, so it was probably spam. Each text was from a family member, and I felt oddly disappointed that it wasn’t Chelsea. She was supposed to text me back yesterday, but I knew Duke’s sister was busy. She was always busy these days. I ignored the bile rising in my throat at the reasons why and put my phone back in my pocket.

“Thanks for the reminder. And I didn’t need backup.”

“No, you didn’t. Just because you can handle it though, doesn’t mean you have to do it on your own. Would you fight with your cousins if they stepped up?”

“Yes. But they know better than to try to act like I’m the little lady.”

“We both know that’s not what I did. We also know that they would one hundred percent show up to take care of that woman for you. Just like you would for them. It’s not a man-woman thing. It’s an adult thing. Get over it, Brooklyn.” And with that, he turned away from me and sauntered toward his truck. Perhaps it wasn’t a saunter, but he always moved with such purpose, that I couldn’t help but wonder what was going through his head.

And just because he might be right in his insinuations, didn’t mean I had to appreciate them.

With a sigh, I made sure my team knew what was going on, and to contact me if Mrs. Green came back.

My team member winked dramatically. “Don’t worry about it, Freckles. We’ve dealt with her kind before.”

I shook my head, annoyed with Reece all over again. Though I knew he wouldn’t say the name again. “You shouldn’t have to deal with it.”

“True, but you deal with it for us. Thank you, boss.”

I smiled then and headed toward my truck. Reece was already gone, and for that I was grateful. We didn’t always work on the same project sites. In fact, we rarely worked together. But we had gotten the contract for two homes in this neighborhood that happened to be side-by-side. Meaning there were plenty of Montgomery workers on call at once, and soon I would be moving over to Reece’s side. That is if I ever made Mrs. Green happy.

I drank the last of my water and thought about pulling in for coffee, then realized that maybe I needed to since Jamie was no longer there.