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He glanced at me, frowning a little. “Sure. Do you want me to grab you something for lunch?”
“She’s still making up her time,” Kathy answered for me.
Gage turned and I knew he was going to tell her what happened. I did not want that out there. It was bad enough that people might have seen me faint, but I didn’t want this woman looking at me with pity.
She’d probably just squish me under her stupid stained Crocs with a sneer.
“I’m fine, Gage. We’ll catch up later.”
“No, it’s not fine. If you had seen her earlier, you wouldn’t be giving her crap. I wanted her to stay home and rest, but she was adamant about coming in to work.”
“She looks fine. Maybe she was just tired because you two were out partying.”
He took a step toward her. “We were not.”
“You seem awfully involved for someone who is just her brother-in-law.”
“Family takes care of each other.”
I swallowed down the flood of warmth at his words. I had family. It wasn’t as if I was an orphan or unloved, but my parents weren’t exactly the type to get all up in someone’s business on my behalf.
“Well, she seems fine. I think you’re exaggerating. Now, she has a lot of work to do.” Kathy crossed her arms, her face inscrutable.
I grasped his upper arm. “It’s fine.”
“No, it’s not. Who acts like that about their employees?”
“It’s really not that big a deal.” I tried to drag him back near the door, but he wasn’t moving.
“This is the third time she’s been late.” Kathy sniffed.
This time, he turned to me. “Has this happened before?”
I knew what he was talking about, but Kathy did not. “Let it go.”
He frowned down at me and reached out to touch my cheek.
I backed up. Embarrassment flamed up my chest and neck. I hated being put on the spot like this, which was funny since I wasn’t exactly the type to downplay reactions to being cornered.
But I needed this job. And while I might not have been wild about Kathy or her judgy, cheap ass ways, I would deal with it until I found something else.
“Have you seen a doctor?”
I shook my head. Sleepwalking and insomnia weren’t exactly conditions I wanted to shout out to the world. I’d tried sleeping pills, but those lovely side effects they talked about in the commercial? Yeah, not even close to reality.
They made me way worse.
“Why would you need a doctor?” Kathy came forward.
“I don’t need a freaking doctor. I just need everyone to leave me alone about it. I didn’t sleep well and overslept because I was…sick.”
Yeah, that sounded believable. Not. Maybe if my tone hadn’t been so damn uncertain.
“I’m sorry, Rylee, but I don’t want liars working for me.”
I whirled around. “Kathy, I’m not lying. I just have to get used to being in my new place and a new job. I’ll be better, I promise. You won’t have to worry about me.”
Panic shoved down the warm gooey caramel feeling Gage had created. I’d just moved out on my own. I couldn’t lose my job too.
