Chapter 7 #2
“Grace has an OB appointment around the corner at the Brigham, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to come over and badger you along with this guy.
” Grace is our baby brother, Oliver’s lifelong best friend.
She ended up on Carter’s doorstep by accident after she left her cheating fiancé and the two of them got together and ended up pregnant.
Carter proposed on Valentine’s Day just last week and is as anxious as Luca to seal the deal.
I shuck off my coat and hang it on the hook behind my door. “Badger away while I get organized for my day.” Taking my chair, I glance quickly over the case files waiting for me on my desk.
“How did the announcement go?” Luca asks, sitting relaxed on my sofa, his hands behind his head, his eyes trained on the window overlooking the street.
“Fine. As expected. Mom was choked up and emotional in an Octavia Fritz I’m-in-public way.
I had very little to say other than being sad about the circumstances for my taking over and lying about being excited that I am.
Mom mentioned again this morning how an arranged marriage would be advantageous given the new climate of my life.
Oh, and she hired the woman I nearly hit with my car on Saturday to be my new executive assistant. ”
“What?” That’s Carter who is now staring at me as if I’m speaking Greek to him.
“The woman who ran into your car on Saturday?” Luca picks up when I don’t respond. “You mean the runaway bride you told us about over drinks that night? Why the hell would Mom hire her?”
I fall back in my chair, bouncing a couple of times as I level my brothers with my annoyed scowl.
“That’s a seriously good question, Luca.
Because other than having a master’s degree in business and finance, the woman has zero experience with charitable foundations.
So why our mother trusts her other than the fact that she claims she’s not after my dick or wallet like the runner-up candidate for the position is, I cannot see the logic.
She’s also an impertinent little twit who seems to barf up whatever thoughts hit her brain the second they hit it. ”
Carter and Luca both spring matching smirks before exchanging looks that say a lot more than I’d like them to.
I glower. “Don’t start.”
“You like her.”
I flip Luca off. “Not even a little. She’s a supreme mouthy pain in my ass.”
“You think she’s hot then.”
“Grow up, Carter. She’s the exact opposite of the women I used to date.”
Now they’re both laughing. “Which is why we now know for a fact you not only like her but think she’s hot.
You can’t stand any of the women you’ve dated, and we all know that’s intentional.
If you’re not attracted to them or hate their personalities then you won’t be tempted to be interested in them or risk trusting someone, or God forbid fall in love and end up married. ”
Wow. I had no clue I was that transparent.
“Where did you dig that psychobabble fluff up from? Since you became all in touch with your feelings about Grace you’ve been an insufferable sap with them.”
Carter snickers, planting his hands on my desk. Right on the case files I’m pretending to look over.
“Why are your fists clenched, Kap? That baby-face jaw of yours too? If there is no merit behind what we’re saying, why are you so tense over one woman?”
I glance up blandly. “Have you been listening or are your ears filled with placentas?”
I get a raised eyebrow, and Jesus, I am seriously not in the mood to go another round over this.
“Mom hired an unstable woman who literally threw herself onto my car to escape her wedding. Mom met her in the hotel right before our lunch. Other than a background check, she knows next to nothing about the woman she hired to help me run the foundation our great-great-grandfather started. Am I the only one who sees this as a problem?”
“Is she unstable because you like her and think she’s hot or because you know she’s genuinely unstable?” Luca questions. “And running out on a wedding from an asshole fiancé who you discover is cheating and using you does not make you unstable. It makes you smart.”
“Fine. I don’t know if she’s legitimately unstable, but I don’t trust her either. There is something about her I can’t quite put my finger on, but I know it’s there.”
“For the record, you didn’t deny you like her and think she’s hot. Does Mom know you want to inappropriately touch your new assistant while making her scream your name?”
I glare at Carter, ready to reach out and strangle him.
“It is a bit weird,” Luca concedes, saving his younger brother’s life.
I toss my hands up in the air. “Thank you. Finally. Someone who isn’t taking crazy pills with their morning coffee.”
Carter sharply shakes his head, cutting me off.
“Mom would never hire anyone for that position who she didn’t feel could do the job not just well, but up to her impossibly high standards.
If the runner-up is a gold digger, then obviously, she’s out, but Mom doesn’t do shit hastily or without the utmost consideration. ”
“Right,” Luca agrees. “What he said. She must know something we don’t. Or maybe she’s just running on instinct, and you should trust her.”
I fall back in my chair, scrubbing my hands up and down my face, my eyes closed.
Why couldn’t she have hired a fifty-year-old lesbian, mother of three, who has been happily and devotedly married for the last twenty-five years?
Why did she have to hire the one person I allowed myself to find moderately attractive because I never thought I’d see her again?
“She can’t stand me.”
“Who?”
“Bianca. The new girl. I need her to quit because Mom set a moratorium on firing her for the next month. I want to hire someone who knows what they’re doing. Someone who can literally run this for me because I can’t.”
Carter’s phone pings with a notification, interrupting my miserable thoughts.
“Shit,” he hisses.
My eyes snap open. “What? Is Grace okay?”
“She’s fine. Finishing up. Baby Owen is growing like a champ. But she sent me this.” He flips his phone around and suddenly Luca is behind my desk, right by my side as we read the headline.
“Kaplan Fritz, Boston’s last billionaire bachelor, is now CEO of the Abbot Foundation, adding to his immense wealth and power in the city. Ladies, may the odds forever be in your favor.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. The press had to put an even bigger target on my back? The assholes Hunger Games ’d me.”
“You should pull an Oliver,” Luca muses in such a way I can’t tell if he’s kidding or not.
“Funny you say that. I mentioned something similar this morning to Echidna as I’ve affectionately taken to calling my monster of a new assistant.”
“You didn’t!”
“Call her that or say that?”
“Don’t be a dick.”
I roll my eyes at Carter. “Both? Yes. Will act on pulling an Oliver? No. Not a chance in hell. Evidently, as the Fritz heir, I have to marry a certain caliber of woman,” I mock in an obnoxiously posh accent only with a growl. I hate this. I hate absolutely everything about this.
Why can’t the damn world leave me alone?
Luca sits on the corner of my desk, his expression serious and solemn.
“This is why Mom and Dad are pushing for the betrothal or for you to finally get off your ass and meet someone. Dude, I know you don’t want to get married, and I know love isn’t your favorite topic, but I’m starting to think it’s not a bad way to go. ”
I sigh. “Being the eldest sucks balls.”
“Better you than us,” Carter quips.
“Thanks,” I mutter dryly, picking up a pen and twirling it through my fingers.
“But this woman she hired? She’s not interested in you?”
I shake my head, already knowing where Carter is going with this.
“No. I don’t think she is. She’s recently jilted in love and has plenty of money of her own, coming from an affluent family in Texas or something. She seems to hate me for reasons I can’t quite figure out.”
Carter points at me in an aha way. “ That’s why Mom hired her. She knew this would happen with the press the second the announcement was made. My advice? Give this new woman the month and see if this crap dies down so you can hire someone else if she still isn’t what you need for the position.”
Luca nods. “Carter is right. I think it’s your only option.”
Great. One month suffering through Bianca Barlow as my new assistant. If we don’t kill each other first.