Chapter 8
EIGHT
Isla
I’ve been coming in early since I started my new job. It helps me to get through all the calls for the day and sort who’s going where, as well as pick up any messages on the machine and see if I need to try to slide any emergency calls in for the day. Eventually, I won’t need to be early once I get to know the job better and how much time each call will roughly take, but for now, I appreciate the extra time to ease the pressure.
I hear the guys’ trucks arrive and park out back, the sounds of their doors closing, but they don’t come inside.
Shit. Are they talking about me? Are they trying to find a nice way of firing me?
I spent all weekend convincing myself that wasn’t the case. Lucas and Josh don’t seem like the kind of guys to do that. But Travis is a wild card. Or should I say Eddie? What the hell is with that? He was pissed when I ditched abruptly on the night of our date. But I couldn’t help it. I didn’t know that?—
The back door opens, and I stop what I’m doing and sit up straight in my seat, feeling like a defendant on trial waiting for the jury to file back into the room with their decision.
Lucas walks into the living room that serves as my office, followed by Josh and then Travis, who doesn’t look at me.
“Morning, Isla. How was your weekend?” Lucas asks. Nothing in his voice tells me whether this is just a warm-up before he fires me.
“It was good. How about you?” I pick up the papers in front of me and arrange them neatly just for something to do with my hands.
“It was good, thanks. I wanted to chat with all of us here before Brady shows up this morning. There’s something we need to discuss that doesn’t involve him.”
I bite my lower lip and can’t help but glance at Travis. He’s leaning against the wall, looking at his boots. Coward. Gets me fired and can’t look me in the eye.
“Okay…” I say.
“Don’t look so nervous, we’re not canning you,” Josh blurts out and slides into one of the two chairs across from my desk.
Relief washes through me, but as soon as that passes, I’m aware of the awkward silence.
“That’s certainly good to know.” I smile.
Though his delivery could have been better, I appreciate Josh’s candor. At least now I won’t be waiting for the guillotine to drop through the entirety of this conversation.
Lucas shakes his head at his youngest brother before he continues. “I might have mentioned during your hiring process that we want to expand into Seattle. Things are going really well here, and there’s no reason to think we can’t make the same thing happen in the city. But scaling requires time and money. I’m going to advertise there, but I think between the four of us, we need to discuss the logistics and systems we need to have in place to make it work.”
I nod. “Yes, you mentioned expanding during our interview. Are you thinking you’d run all the calls out of here, or will you have an admin person in the city as well?”
A huff of air leaves his lips, and he sets his hands on his hips. “For the time being, I think we do it out of here for as long as you can handle it. Then, if it gets too busy, we’ll find someone in Seattle or hire a second person here to help you.”
That sounds feasible. I love a challenge, so I’m excited to hear that they’re moving ahead on their expansion plans, though at the same time a little wary since I’m still new in this job.
“I’ll do it,” Travis pipes up from the room’s far end.
Lucas’s head whips in his direction. “You’re going to do the admin work?”
He pushes off the wall and steps forward, stuffing his hands in his pockets and finally meeting my gaze. “I’ll work in Seattle. Get us established there. As business increases, we can hire another guy or two, then I can come back here. Brady can take on more calls here. He’s figuring it out now, moving quicker through his day. It might be a strain for a while, but we need to put our best foot forward in Seattle to solidify our reputation and online reviews. We can’t be sure we’re doing that if we hire someone and let them have at it blind. One of us needs to be the representative of our company.”
Josh shrugs. “He has a point.”
“You’re willing to commute into the city every day? It could take months. You’d never be around,” Lucas says.
Travis’s gaze flicks back to me, and I realize that’s exactly his point. “I said I’d do it.”
Jeez, what a dick. He’s still having a little temper tantrum because I didn’t sleep with him that night? Thank God I didn’t reach out to apologize while he was away. This was going nowhere anyway.
“I mean, works for me if it works for you,” Lucas says.
Travis’s shoulders seem to relax under the stretched cotton of his RENT-A HUSBAND T-shirt. He does fill out a T-shirt nicely. “All right then. Let’s plan for next Monday. You do your thing with the ads, Lucas, and I’ll take care of my end.”
Lucas nods, still seeming surprised by his brother’s suggestion. “Done.” Then he turns back to me. “We can chat later this week about how you’re going to let Trav know what calls he’s gonna have and figure out the logistics.”
I nod.
“All right. Meeting adjourned.” Josh stands from the chair. “I still have seven minutes left to have a catnap before the day starts. I’ll be in my office.” His heavy footsteps thud on the wood floor as he makes his way toward the back of the house and the converted bedroom that is his office.
Lucas looks between Travis quickly and me, then also leaves the room. When I turn my attention to Travis, he’s staring at me with a blank face. Eventually he steps forward, closer to my desk.
My breathing picks up a bit as he makes his way over. He may be my boss now, and he may have pissed me off with his abrupt attitude shift the night I bolted from his house, but he’s still a hella attractive man.
When I think of that night, I feel like a complete idiot for how I gawked over his body. It was like discovering the taste of chocolate for the first time. I mean, sure, I’d seen bodies like Travis’s on TV and on socials, but I’d never seen one in real life. Never been able to touch one. It’s an experience every woman should have at least once in their life.
I’m not sure what I’m expecting him to say when he comes to a stop directly in front of me, looking down at me as if I’m an ant he’d like to squash with his big boot, but I brace myself for his words.
“In the interest of working together and since I’m essentially your boss now, I think it’s probably best if we carry on and pretend nothing happened between us.”
I state the obvious. “Nothing did happen between us.”
He levels me with a look. “You were stroking my cock a couple of weeks ago. Maybe that’s nothing to you, but it counts in my books.” He speaks quietly, probably so his brothers don’t overhear.
My eyes widen, and my face heats. I swear the imprint of his thick dick is imprinted into my palm as though I can still feel my hands wrapped around that silky steel. My hand flexes where it rests on my desk. Travis notices, and his nostrils flare.
“It was not nothing to me,” I say with a clenched jaw, trying to keep my temper in check because this man is now my boss. “I just meant that we didn’t…” I feel my face heat even more. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter. But yes, I agree.” I nod to show him how very much I agree. I would love nothing more than to never speak of this again.
“Good.” He nods back and turns to leave but abruptly turns back around. “The reason I used my middle name at the bachelor auction is because I didn’t want anyone to look me up on socials.”
“Oh… okay.” I guess that makes sense, though he had plenty of time to tell me differently on our date. Then again, maybe he was hoping to sleep with me and make it hard for me to track him down after.
“Just didn’t want you thinking I was playing games.” Something about his voice feels like an accusation. As though he thinks I was the one playing games.
I want to fire back at him with a snippy comment, but I remind myself that he’s my boss and I like my new job. If we can get past the awkwardness that plagues Travis and me, things will be fine.
So rather than saying what I’d like to, I smile and say, “Thanks for letting me know.”
Travis studies me for a beat before he leaves without another word.
It’s going to be a long-ass week until he goes to work in Seattle.