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“And you’ve been acting allAmerican Psychosince the meeting. More so than usual, I mean,” Luke goes on. Annoyingly. “Why?”
“Just tired,” I lie.
“Liam, I saw you looking at the new girl.” Luke points my stapler at me accusingly. “I understand that she’s objectively hot, but you never react that way to hot women. You’ve never so much as looked at Vanessa twice, and she’s always checking you out.”
So Luke’s not blind to it either. Small comfort.
He also has no idea when to shut up.
“We can’t be talking about this,” I mutter, my voice almost a growl. “This is breaking all kinds of HR guidelines. Vanessa would have a fit.”
Luke rolls his eyes. “She’d have a fit because you weren’t talking abouther.”
“Whatever.” I wave a hand. “It’s unprofessional to be calling the new woman ‘hot’.”
Luke sighs deeply, like I’ve rained all over his carefully-curated, cotton-candy-filled parade. “I know. I’ve seen Annie Jacobs’ CV—impressive, what she’s capable of. But you need to lighten up, lil bro. I’m just giving you a hard time.”
I grimace instinctively, my gaze falling on the glass door to my office. Barb is speaking to Vanessa and shooting glances my way.
Whatever they’re saying about me, it doesn’t faze me. None of them understand how important it is that we secure this funding. I’ve put years of blood, sweat and tears into this app, but my employees have given me this part of their careers.Andmy one and only brother gave the money needed to move forward at a crucial point in the app’s development.
Stay Inside the Lines might be my passion project, but it’s also my responsibility. Without this funding, payroll is going to be difficult to swing for the foreseeable future.
“So, do you know her?” Luke is still staring at me, wiggling his eyebrows expectantly.
“We have more important things to do than talk about our new hire,” I say quickly, turning my attention to my computer screen. I’m desperate to take control of this wayward conversation and turn it to what actually matters: business. “Especially since you’re going to be busy with wedding planning, and I’m going to be busy with Legs’s schedule. We need to get our V2 renderings together, and we need a reliable foot soldier to get us the data so we can make these app upgrade decisions, not a distraction that leads to pointless speculation.”
“Youdoknow her!” Luke gloats, rubbing his hands together.
Alarm bells go off in my head. How did…? “No, I—”
“He doth protest too much!”
I hate my brother.
“Tell me how you know her.” Luke is practically dancing around the office, pointing at me and shaking his hips. I’m tempted to record this moment for Mindy so she can see what she’s getting herself into. For better or for worse, indeed. “Tell me!”
I sigh. “You’ve clearly gotten hit in the head one too many times at the boxing gym.”
I don’t like lying to him, but I need to figure this out on my own. This HR issue needs to disappear if we are to have any chance of securing the funding from Wiseman’s company. Besides, Luke has enough on his plate with his upcoming nuptials—I can’t exactly burden him with this ridiculous situation.
“Um, hi.”
Her voice makes me jolt backwards in my seat, almost overbalancing.
Luke freezes mid-butt-wiggle, a hand on his hip and the other pointing in the air like he’s doing theNight Feverdance by The Beegees.
Both of us slowly, oh-so-slowly, look towards the door.
And there she is.
Annie Jacobs, standing in my office doorway, eyes bugging out of her face. Luke uses his “pointing” hand to smooth his hair and I clear my throat.
“Sorry to interrupt…”
“You weren’t interrupting,” I interject.
She nods. “This is where I’m going to be sitting, right?”
