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“Fine. We keep all Lipscombe Public Schools incidents to ourselves, and nobody gets hurt.”
“Deal.” I caught her silver-crystal gaze for a moment before reminding myself to barrel forward. The clock was ticking. I had too many things on my to-do list, and too many thoughts about Jessa that I wanted to ignore. We needed to wrap this up and move forward under a new dynamic: distant and professional, employer and employee.
A soft rap at my door had me looking up. Trace’s tall, boxy frame entered the office a moment later.
“Wow! Jessa Walton, is that really you?” Trace’s good-natured baritone didn’t betray an ounce of the tension that we Fairchild brothers had been living for with the past few months. And to be honest, I still wasn’t sure how deep I planned to let Jessa get into the family bullshit. She’d be my confidential secretary, but that didn’t mean she needed to knoweverything.
“It’s me! Good to see you again, Trace. How are things?”
“Oh,” he said, tapping a rolled-up sheet of paper against his closed fist, “it’s going. I’m sure you’ve heard about…everything.”
“I’ve heard about some of it, for sure. But I want to help you guys however I can.”
“I appreciate that, Jessa. How’re Jeremy and Tara and your folks?”
Jessa shrugged. “Everyone’s the same. For better or worse.”
I knew through Jeremy that their mom had gone into rehab for heroin again this year, a habit she’d started when Jessa hit freshman year of high school. Which meant her mom would be over on theworseend of the spectrum.
“We should get Jeremy up here sometime,” Trace said. “You can show him around, we’ll wine and dine him. It’ll be great.”
Jessa snorted. “Good luck. I think that man is allergic to crossing the Kentucky state line.”
“I could get him up here,” I blurted. “Trust me. With how much Jeremy loves pizza, I’d get him here.”
Jessa giggled, covering her mouth with her hand. “You might be right about that.”
“Let’s pencil in a Jeremy kidnapping then,” Trace said, unrolling the paper in his hand. He came up to my desk and passed it to me. I scanned it while he continued speaking. “Meanwhile, you should look into this, Damian. Fundraiser for Teens 4 Tech. We should probably get our names behind a big donation here.”
The fundraiser was happening the following weekend, and the whole premise focused on getting computers and coding skills into the most underserved areas of New York City. It was a mission so beautiful I was upset our own charity wasn’t already doing it. This shit was near and dear to my heart—especially the coding part. And with my own code hanging in the crosshairs of the SEC investigation, I saw Trace’s point.
“We should donate, and we shouldgo.” I set the paper down, my gaze sliding toward Jessa. “You ever been to a fundraiser in Manhattan?”
“I, uh…” She swallowed hard, looking between Trace and me. “I haven’t had any funds, so…”
“Let’s consider this your first assignment,” I said. “We’ll all go. You can take notes in case we ever need to do something like this in the future.”
Trace’s brow lifted appreciatively. “Now there’s an idea.”
“And afterward, you’ll probably have a better idea if this job is a good fit for you,” I told Jessa, looking her up and down as furtively as I could. Appreciating the enticing swell of her chest, the tantalizing dip of her waist, the ruffles over her hips that begged me to give them a little tug.
Jessa had been finishing her sophomore year the last time I’d seen her, too young at the time and too off-limits because of her brother.
But now? She was all woman, pure curves and style, with a gleam in her eye that had me ready to throw my office policies aside.
“Sounds like a plan.” She pinned me with a toothy smile, one that sent my belly flopping.
“Great.” I crossed my arms over my chest, reminding myself of therealplan: get Jessa to employee status ASAP, where I wouldn’t dare fantasize about her, be tempted by her. Because my life had zero room for romance or anything more than the occasional blowjob. “Welcome to Fairchild Enterprises, Ms. Walton.”
Ms. Walton.That’s how it needed to be from now on. That’s how it needed tostay.
If we were anywhere else, she’d be my first pick. But here, inside the walls of Fairchild Enterprises, I could have her no closer than arm’s length.
CHAPTER THREE
JESSA
Pinch.
