Two
Jameson
Argh! That woman!
Arguing with her should not give me such a hard on. Like…literally. And she’d noticed, which was both embarrassing and encouraging. If she was looking, she wasn’t as over me as she liked to believe.
I got into my town car, directing my driver to take me to Cassel Brothers , then took deep breaths until my inopportune erection subsided. It took a minute, because every time I started to think about Willow, it chubbed back up again.
Damn her.
I called Luke while I rode back to the office.
“Tell me something good,” he begged when he answered.
“The permits will be back in place by Monday. You want me to call the crew?” I asked.
“Nah, I should probably go into the office today anyway. I’ll make the call.” I heard a pretty heavy sigh in his voice.
“How are things with Laura?” I teased.
“How are things with Willow?” he shot back.
“I just hired her to work at the firm.” I actually hadn’t planned to mention it to him. But I figured he’d find out soon enough anyway, so whatever.
“You did what?” he bellowed, his voice so loud through the speaker it bounced around the entire car.
“Calm down, dude. Y’all have wanted her there for years.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, his tone calmer. “But, you talked us out of it. Every time we’ve tried to bring her in, you gave us a hundred reasons why it would be a bad idea.”
I shrugged, even though he couldn’t see me. He wasn’t wrong. But things were different now.
“Look, I’ll support any decision you make in this firm,” Luke continued. “I know the others give you a hard time, and it’s got to be tough being the baby of five brothers, man.”
“Not any harder than being the oldest I’d imagine,” I told him.
“Anyway, if you want her to work there, I’ve got your back. But let her work,” he warned. “Don’t bring her in if you just think this will be a way for you to get some control over her.”
“First of all,” I said with a laugh. “No one will ever have any kind of control over Willow Tate. Second of all, why wouldn’t I want her to work? She’s smarter than the five of us combined.”
“You love her,” he said.
“I despise her,” I lied. “But I’m about to get her fired from S&S , so I’m giving her a backup option to smooth things over a little.”
“Did you have to get her fired?” he asked, his tone growing sharper.
“Shultz senior called to warn me if I get the permits reinstated, he’ll fire her for gross negligence.” I had no idea how Shultz knew I’d care about what happened to Willow, but as we traveled the same circled, he must have picked up something. I blew out a heavy sigh. “What was I supposed to do? Pick one girl over hundreds of people’s jobs?”
“I think you might have grown up a little too much,” Luke said sadly. “Look, thanks for getting it done. I hope this works out for you.”
Yeah, I was pretty sure it wouldn’t.
* * * *
“You selfish, arrogant asshole!” Willow yelled, startling me as I left Luke’s office. I had no idea where my brother was, so I’d been searching his desk for some paperwork I needed. My mind had been fully on that, I hadn’t notice the woman who drove me crazy until she growled at me.
“How did you even find me here?” I asked, playing it cool. I hadn’t expected her sneak attack since it had been days since I’d seen her.
“You got me fired,” she said, stomping her foot in apparent frustration.
“Yeah,” I agreed. I turned and handed Luke’s assistant, Roz, a folder. “Can you get copies of those sent to Doug at the site, please?”
“Of course, Mr. Cassel,” she said, standing quickly, probably hoping to make a fast escape.
I raised an eyebrow at that. Roz had never called me Mr. Cassel, not once in my entire life. If she was trying to make me look good in front of Willow, it was sweet, but that ship had long since sailed. Speaking of my frenemy, I refocused on her.
“You’re late,” I said, crossing my arms and glaring at her.
“What?” Her eyes widened, and she took a step back from me, her hand resting on her stomach. “What are you talking about?”
“I told you to be here last week. I told you to come work here. Your office is ready, and your assistant has been sitting at her desk for days with nothing to do.” I studied her, wanting badly to pull her into my arms and at the same time, damning myself for the urge. “Wills, why didn’t you come to me right away?”
“I don’t like who I am around you,” she admitted, hugging her arms across her stomach. “And I don’t know how to not be that way. You bring out the worst in me, Jamie. And I hate it.”
“We could try a different tactic,” I offered. “We could maybe…start over? Try being nice to each other?”
She made a gagging noise, and I laughed. Twenty-some years of animosity was hard to erase. But damn it, I actually wanted to try.
Roz came back as her phone started to ring. I motioned for Willow to take our conversation out into the hall but froze when I heard Roz say something about a wedding chapel.
“You want me to book a wedding chapel for you and Miss Moretti?” Roz met my gaze across the room. “No, Luke, I won’t call your family. But your mother will be very disappointed.”
I looked at Willow in shock. My asshole brother was about to get married without any of us there. That wasn’t happening.
By silent agreement, we both walked back to Roz’s desk the moment she hung up.
“Well?” I asked.
“What?” She glared at me. “He specifically asked me not tell the Cassels what was happening. If you’ll excuse me, I have some calls to make.” She pointed at the chairs across from her desk with a wink.
So, Willow and I sat while Roz made calls and got my brother booked at the Tie the Knot wedding chapel. I thanked Roz, and we dashed out, eager to get across town and not miss the ceremony.
“I still can’t believe you got me fired,” Willow snapped as she followed me down to the sidewalk where my driver was waiting, since I’d texted him as Roz made arrangements.
“Technically, you got yourself fired,” I told her. “You knew what would happen. You didn’t even get them pulled. You got them frozen.”
“Well, I needed more time than Shultz gave me, so yeah, I froze them until I got the right signatures to have them pulled.” She climbed into the back of my town car and slammed the door behind her.
“Whatever,” I said, getting in on the other side. “Look, you can pretend to be pissed at me all you want. But we both know you were always going to end up working here.”
“And where exactly is here ?” she asked, her tone dangerous.
“At the family firm,” I answered. “Where you belong. Regardless of what happens between you and me, can you really deny you’re part of this family?”
I knew her family wasn’t great and her mom had passed when Willow was too young. When we were younger, we’d bickered a lot. Some would say we’d fought constantly, but we were also joined at the hip all through school. She was nearly always my partner on school projects, and outside that, she was a fixture at my house. None of the Cassels thought that strange, and my mom had basically adopted her. Sometimes, I was pretty sure my mother loved Willow more than she did me, and I knew my brothers all adored her. As a little sister, of course. I’d kill any of them who thought to make a move on her, and they all knew it.
“Nothing is happening between you and me, Jameson,” she said, taking subtext from my statement—subtext I hadn’t realized was there.
The finality in her tone just made me want her more. Made me want her forever. For just a second, and I would never have admitted it to anyone, I wondered if I could con her into marrying me while we were at the chapel.
Probably not. Besides, when I finally got Willow Tate down the aisle, and I would someday, I wanted her in the big white dress and I wanted all of our family and friends there. As prickly as my girl could be, I’d need all the witnesses I could get.