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She hated herself for how he made her feel now. Just like he had when they were in college that one night.
The night she’d made a complete fool out of herself and would never be able to erase that from her memory.
It drove her insane Gabe couldn’t pretend it never happened and it was almost as if he poked at her to get a rise out of her now.
She just wanted to be away from him because she couldn’t control her body and she wondered if he knew that.
“Then do what Dad said,” Royce said. “There is no reason for you to work your butt off on this. We are making money hand over fist on these projects.”
“What happens when the building is done and I’m not as busy?” she asked. “Then we might have someone on staff we don’t need.”
“Please,” her father said, waving his hand. “You and I both know that isn’t the case. Knowing Grant and Garrett, they’ll probably find a third building or some other venture. If that is what is holding you back then stop. You know as well as I do we are growing like crazy. You don’t need to be working as much as you are. You said you wanted time to spend with Willow.”
“I do,” she said. “I’ll put some things together. The work won’t hit us for a few months, right?”
She knew the McCarthys had to get into the building and do their things first. Last she heard that wasn’t going to start until the first of the year.
“We’ve got a few months,” Royce said. “But that doesn’t mean renters aren’t already looking for space. You know Grant and Garrett. They find people fast.”
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll work on it and maybe we can start interviewing soon.”
“That’s my girl,” her father said. “And maybe you’ll have time to go on a date now and again.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t even think about throwing my name around to the Fierces, Dad. I thought I was very clear about this.”
Chloe and Royce started to laugh. “You might be able to stop your father, but you can’t stop my bosses,” Chloe said.
“We’ll see about that,” she said.
4
JUST A HOMEBODY
“I’m starving,” Gabe said when he walked into his parents’ house on Thanksgiving afternoon with his younger brother, Jayce.
“Me too,” Jayce said. “Gabe has shit for food in his house. Not sure how he can stand it.”
“No one says you couldn’t have made breakfast this morning,” he argued. “Or gone out and bought it.”
Jayce lived in Charlotte about ninety minutes away. His brother was the only one that didn’t work for the family business. Sometimes he thought his brother was the smart one. Other times, he thought his brother was an idiot and ran from something that no one knew about.
“And what could I make for breakfast when all you’ve got is bread and sandwich meat in the house?” Jayce asked. “You didn’t even have eggs. No oatmeal, nothing but sugary cereal and milk.”
Gabe laughed. He’d have to say he was the good-natured one of the kids. “Those are easy things and I don’t have a lot of time in the morning.”
“You’d have more time if you got up earlier,” Jocelyn said.
His brother and sister were three years younger than him and twins. He didn’t know why Jayce couldn’t stay with Jocelyn when he came to town, but his brother always wanted to be with him.
He supposed, being the older brother, that was normal. It’s just as Jayce said, there wasn’t a lot of food in his house and he didn’t plan much for company.
Not that he felt his brother was company. He was lucky Jayce got clean sheets on his bed. Which Gabe had to do when Jayce showed up because the spare bed hadn’t been made since his brother had been there over the summer.
He barely remembered to strip the sheets back then and wash them. It’s just he didn’t make the bed after.
“Not everyone needs to get up at the crack of dawn to plan their day,” he said.
“I don’t get up that early,” Jocelyn argued.
