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“Well, we just kept flirting and I ended up closing down the place with him,” she told me.
“Way to go. I’m proud of you, Liv,” I said.
“I’m proud of you, too. Kissing the sexy boss in the dark bar. More my style, but I like it.”
“And there it is,” I groaned. “I was really hoping somehow that had missed you.”
“How could it miss me?” she asked. “You dragged me into the bathroom after he left and told me about it.”
“I did?” I asked, rubbing my forehead. “Well, at least I was gossiping about myself and you aren’t just teasing me like Brandon.”
“You have to admit, it’s pretty funny,” Olivia said.
“No, I don’t. Because it’s not.”
“I think it is,” she said with a giggle.
“I don’t even remember it. And I’m glad you all find it so amusing, but I’m actually worried I’m going to lose my job because of it,” I told her.
“Why?”
“It’s not exactly what he hired me for,” I pointed out.
We chatted for a bit longer before the pain rushed back into my head, and I got off the phone. While Brandon and I ate, I thought about how I was going to handle going back to work. This wasn’t something I could just pretend didn’t happen like Brandon suggested. Even if he was like me and woke up not realizing what had happened, chances were Quentin had heard the news from Cole. I needed to be prepared to handle this head-on. By the time I crawled into bed that night, I’d worked out a pretty solid conversation to have with Quentin on Monday morning in hopes he wouldn’t fire me for breaking some sort of fraternizing rule.
19
Quentin
Sunday was usually the day I had my brothers and parents over for family night. I normally looked forward all week long to hanging out with them around the fire and catching up. Even though I worked with most of them and talked with Vince and Nick on almost a daily basis, it was still good to just be able to get together and relax every week. But I just couldn’t do it today. It was already early afternoon by the time I managed to pry my eyes open and fight through the headache searing through to the back of my brain. Thankful for the family group text we maintained, I jotted out a quick message to cancel the usual gathering, saying I needed a breather before we started to gear up for the race on Wednesday.
I knew they would understand. We’d already been pushing so hard, and the days leading up to the race would be even more intense. We’d been putting in more hours, and it would be stressful and tiring, so all of us having a day to just kick back and relax made sense. In reality, I needed to talk to Cole. Though my memory of the night before was fuzzy when I first got up, it didn’t take long for me to remember being in that hallway. I could still feel Merry’s body against mine and taste her kiss.
“Tell me something,” I said when he came over that afternoon and we were floating around the pool. “What happened?”
“I thought I already told you all this. You said you were going to the bathroom, and you were gone for way too long and I came to make sure you hadn’t gotten sick and passed out or anything, and I found you and your social media guru attempting to swallow each other whole against the wall,” Cole told me.
“I meant before that. When Merry first started working for the company, I didn’t exactly want her around. I thought it was ridiculous that Mom even thought we needed a social media consultant, and she aggravated the hell out of me. The first time I met her, I couldn’t help but snap at her. How did I get from there to here?”
“Uhh, because she’s crazy hot?” he said.
“Well yes, but I’m not a damn caveman and can usually control my baser impulses. Especially around my damn employees,” I said.
Cole just smiled at me. “I think you’ve liked her from the get-go and that’s why she annoyed you. Your response to the attraction was to push her away because you’re afraid to let anyone get close to you again.”
I blinked a few times, processing what he said.
“Wow. Being in the mountains with the monks really did clear your mind, didn’t it?” I asked flatly.
“Seriously,” Cole said. “Think about it. You don’t have the greatest track record with relationships. And you’ve managed to keep yourself totally disjointed from anything having to do with a real connection to a woman for a long time. Then all of a sudden here comes this smart, gorgeous woman who’s going to be working in your office. It threw you off your game, and that pissed you off. You’d rather be aggravated at her and convince yourself you didn’t like her than deal with what you were actually feeling.”
