Chapter 11
Indy
Tension was high in the Cheesecake Factory’s auxiliary room.
Dylan and James were locked in some strange stare-down that was, honestly, kinda hot.
Watching two attractive guys glare at each other filled the room with all kinds of testosterone and moody angst. I was a fan.
I mean, obviously I was on Dylan’s side—he was defending me after all—but James was kinda cute in that muscular, nerdy way.
Plus, it was the first time in my entire life two guys fought over me. I restrained the urge to fan myself. Barely.
After one more glare, Dylan buried himself behind his huge menu, and I picked up mine with a sigh.
Then I turned the pages in confusion. There was so much to choose from.
What the hell could they make that was good if they made this much food?
And so diverse! Tex Mex, egg rolls, burgers, pasta. I didn’t know where to start.
“Uh, what’s good here?” I finally asked Dylan, all the options spinning in my head.
He grunted then looked up at James. “I’m assuming you all are paying since you’re filming?”
James glared back at Dylan then finally jerked his chin in a nod.
“Get whatever you like, sweetheart. I’m ordering the Steak Diane. Then maybe some carrot cake.”
“Carrot cake? But this is the Cheesecake Factory. Shouldn’t you order cheesecake?” I whispered furiously as the waitress approached the table.
“You could. Their Godiva chocolate brownie sundae is fucking delicious too.”
Then he turned to the waitress and flirted with her.
I crossed my arms over my chest and would’ve said something snarky, but movement out of the corner of my eye reminded me that we were being watched. Literally. Hundreds of thousands of people could eventually watch me be annoyed that Dylan found our waitress attractive.
And was that what I wanted people to think when they saw me?
Oh god, how could I ever act normal when I was so aware of them?
“And you, darlin’, what can I get you?”
I’d been so into my feelings that I hadn’t even registered what Dylan had ordered. After shaking my head slightly, I smiled up at the hovering blonde. “Uh, I’m sorry. Are we doing drinks or ordering food too?”
Dylan gave me a concerned look. “Food, remember? I’m getting the Steak Diane.”
“Right. Uh…” I looked down at the menu and ordered the first thing I saw. “Can I get the eggroll sampler as an entrée? With a side salad and just water for me. Please.”
I tacked the please on the end when she continued to stare at me.
She tapped away at her tablet before giving Dylan a flirty smile. “I’ll have that right out for you. Please let me know if you need anything else.”
Then she turned and gave her walk a little extra jiggle as she left the room.
But it was all for naught, since Dylan didn’t bother to watch her go. All his attention was trained on me.
“So what did you think of your first morning at Badass Builds?”
I gave him a quick smile even as my eyes darted to the camera currently circling the table. It was so hard to pretend like they weren’t there when they moved around. “Um, well, it was a lot of paperwork. I’ve never had a job that required so much paperwork on day one.”
“Half of that was because of them.” He nodded at the hovering production staff.
There were literally five guys standing around watching us sit in a restaurant. This was all so surreal.
“Right. Um.” I had to pause and clear my throat. “I did, uh, get around to listening to some of the voicemail for the office before we left for lunch.”
“Oh yeah?” Dylan smirked and leaned back in his chair. “You hear anything interesting?”
“I didn’t get through all fifty-nine messages, but most were from women. More than half of them were asking for you by name.”
Dylan shook his head, but I could’ve sworn his cheeks darkened with a blush.
Was he embarrassed?
“But that’s to be expected, right?” I teased him gently. “Aren’t you the last remaining bachelor Burns brother?”
“Technically only Austin and Ryan are engaged, but yeah. I’m the only single brother.”
“Is that difficult?” I asked, leaning on the table and angling my body toward him. “Do you feel like you have to carry the mantle for your fallen brothers?”
“Wait, you don’t think I’ve been with all those women, do you?”
I blinked a few times. Honestly, I had wondered. I shrugged. “Maybe?”
“Wow. How big of a whore do you think I am?”
My shoulders hunched as I shrank in my chair. “Well, a lot of them mentioned wanting to see you again. What was I supposed to think?”
“That I met them at a meet and greet. We do events around town all the time. I don’t—I haven’t… I wouldn’t,” he finished lamely.
“I’m sorry, okay? I just assumed—”
“Have I brought any women home? Have you tripped over any bras in the hallway?”
“Wait,” James interjected. “You guys are living together?”
Dylan muttered a curse under his breath. “What does that matter?”
“What exactly is the relationship here?” James asked, his finger pointing at Dylan then me. “I thought you said she was a friend.”
I nodded. “I am.”
“She is,” Dylan rumbled.
“But you’re living together? Since when?”
“Last weekend.” Dylan’s glare returned full force. “Is this going to be on the show, or do you want us to get back to our conversation?”
James shrugged then made a grand gesture with his hand for us to continue.
Dylan huffed and turned back to me. “What were we talking about again?”
“You being a manwhore,” the camera guy pointed out, oh-so-helpfully.
“Thanks for that,” I muttered.
He tossed me a charming smile from behind his camera, and I felt my cheeks heat. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been the center of so much male attention.
This was so weird.
Dylan cleared his throat. “Right.” His eyes were steely when I turned back to him. “Like I said, I haven’t been with any of them. Otherwise, they’d have my personal cell number. I don’t give out the shop’s phone number to hookups.”
“Right,” I whispered.
“So like I told you earlier, most of your job will be to keep the crazies away from us—both on the phone and in person.”
“Wait, they come into the office? Seriously?”
“A few have. It got pretty bad when production”—he tipped his head at the filming crew—“started having casting calls to try to fill the receptionist position. They came out in droves and wouldn’t leave us alone. We had to hire personal security for a few weeks. One woman even followed Ryan home.”
“That’s unhinged.”
“Welcome to Badass Builds,” Dylan returned with a sardonic smile.
It was almost a relief when the waitress came back with our drinks. Water for me and a soda for Dylan.
“Do you need anything else?” She leaned over the table, giving Dylan a look down her blouse while pointing her ass at the camera behind her.
If I rolled my eyes any harder, they’d be in the back of my head.
And then I saw that the camera wasn’t trained on her behind. It was clearly pointed at me. I glared at the previously flirty cameraman, and he grinned toothily back at me.
“How about Indy’s salad?”
I didn’t register Dylan’s question at first.
And apparently neither did our waitress. “Hmmm?”
“She ordered a house salad with vinegarette.” Dylan raised his eyebrows.
“Right.” She straightened up, but her eyes never left Dylan. “I assumed she wanted that with her entrée.”
“Sounds like a question for her.” The annoyance in Dylan’s voice was plain.
“Right.” Our waitress swung around and blinked down at me.
My eyes darted between Dylan and her. “With the entrée is fine.”
Really all I wanted was for this uncomfortable moment to be over.
“Right.” She turned back to Dylan and smiled prettily. “Your order should be up soon.”
I seriously doubted that. But I was glad when she finally left. This time with considerably less bounce in her step.
“So fucking annoying,” Dylan muttered.
“You poor baby.” I blinked in feigned sympathy. “Women throw themselves at you often? It must be so hard to be wanted.”
A small smile cracked his annoyance features. After a beat, he rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”
“The charmed life of a reality star.” I folded my hands under my chin and smiled. “So much hardship. However do you get through it?”
Dylan scowled. “It’s not all fangirls and boob signings, you know.”
“You mean you do actual work? Like it’s not all just for the cameras?” I sat back in my chair with a smile. Teasing him was so much fun.
He grunted again. “Something like that. You know we had the shop before the show, right? We’ve been building bikes while you were still playing with Barbies.”
“Wait, how old do you think I am?” I gestured between us. “There’s only an eight year difference between us.”
His eyebrows went up. Yeah, I’d done the math. “My point still stands. I started working for my brothers in high school. Which would’ve made you…eight.”
“I’ll have you know I stopped playing with Barbies long before that.” Mostly because we couldn’t afford it, but like hell was I admitting that in front of the cameras.
Dylan shrugged. “All I’m saying is that we’ve been doing this for a while.”
“Because back in my day,” I said in a feigned elderly voice.
Dylan rolled his eyes. “Just remember, Sacramento might be a big city, but the industry is surprisingly small.” He huffed then muttered under his breath, “Especially if you screw people over.”
But I still heard him. “You mean your dad.”
“No, I mean me. I was the one who got him jobs. I was the one who promised that he was someone worth hiring. I was the one who had to pay them all back after he stole from every single job. God, he’s an ass.”
“But he’s out of your life, now. Right?”
Dylan’s gaze darted away and a muscle flexed in his cheek like he was biting down on his answer.
“Dylan?” My eyes flicked to the waiting camera crew. “Um, we can always talk about this later.”
His eyes finally met mine and he looked so tired.
He shook his head. “There’s no point. James will get it out of me one way or another.
But uh, my dad has been sending me threatening letters.
I mean, they sound innocuous on the surface, but I know what he means.
He’s pissed that he’s back in jail and he blames me.
He talks about how he can’t wait to meet up again next time he gets out. ”
“Dylan.” My heart broke for him. “You should tell someone.”
He shrugged. “It’s not like he has any friends. He burned all his bridges. Like father, like son, right?”
“You’re not like him. You’re the furthest thing from that asshole. You have to know that.” Dylan was nothing like the guy my dad had ranted about on the phone when I spoke to him last.
It was starting to make me wonder what else he’d gotten wrong.
It broke my heart that Dylan still blamed himself for so much of what his father had done. It wasn’t his fault his dad was an asshole.
I was starting to think maybe mine was one too.
We were contemplating dessert when the door opened and Dylan’s brothers walked in.
“Wait, are we late?” Austin’s head swung around as he took in our plates and the film crew. “What the hell, James?”
“They wanted me and Indy here earlier so they could get a lay of the land.” Dylan sat back and crossed his arms over his chest. “See what our relationship is about.”
“And did you?” Austin asked the producer.
James’ eyes flicked between all of us before resting on me. “I’m getting there.”
Something about the way he said that was unsettling and ominous.
Dylan picked up on it too. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
James blinked innocently. “That Indy is new? What do we really know about her?”
“You know all the shit she and I have told you.” Dylan sprang up from his seat and stomped over to James to jab a finger into his chest. “You don’t do shit about her. We clear?”
While they were busy staring each other down, my pulse thrummed loudly in my ears.
What did that mean?
What was James going to do?
“You forget who you’re dealing with here.
” James stared menacingly back at Dylan but didn’t move a muscle.
“I’m the one who called for help when the West Coast Kings were beating the shit out of your brother in the parking lot.
I’m the one who’s got the ear of the network.
I’m the one holding your destiny in my hands. ”
James took a step into Dylan’s finger then lowered his voice.
“Do. Not. Fuck. With. Me. Boy.” James cocked his head. “You won’t like what happens if you do.”
Dylan narrowed his eyes but didn’t move away.
Austin, Nathan, and Ryan stepped up behind Dylan.
“You think you can fuck with us?” Dylan finally asked.
“You think you can threaten one of us, and we’ll all let it slide?” Austin bit out.
Nathan cocked his head. “I think you’re seriously underestimating our family loyalty, boy.”
James finally took a step back and lifted his palms. “Clearly things have gotten out of hand. We should—”
“You all should leave.” Austin stared down the producer. “We’re done filming for the day.”
“That’s not a call you get to make.” James grinned, his teeth glinting like a shark’s.
Nathan grinned menacingly back. “I think you’ll find if you continue filming, you won’t like what you get.”
Ryan pouted. “You wouldn’t believe what Felicity is eating right now. Vegetables! She loves peas.”
“Oh really?” Austin asked. “I can’t get Wyatt to even try something green. What’s your secret?”
“You gotta make it like a game. Or even better, feed them off your plate. Just make one big plate for yourself, and they’ll come right over to try whatever you’re eating.”
“Stop, stop, stop.” James waved his hands.
“We didn’t even get to the girlfriend talk,” Nathan protested. “I wanted to talk about this cute thing Maddie does in her sleep. It’s like a whispery sigh. Gah, it gets me every time I hear it.”
“Pack it up, Will. Liam, we’re out of here.” James shook his head in disgust.
It was taking everything inside me not to giggle like a loon. I never would’ve believed these four tough, blue-collar men would solve this disagreement with baby talk. Where were the swinging fists and threats?
The camera shut off and everyone unclipped their mic packs. Austin elbowed the sound guy, Liam, out of the way, to inspect that all ours were off. Then he stepped up to James and had a whispered conversation I couldn’t hear but still made the hair stand up on my arms.
It was intense and furious.
“We’ll see about that!” James hollered before stomping out of the room like a three-year-old.
Austin smiled placidly back at him then grandly gestured for them all to leave.
I breathed a sigh of relief once James left.
Austin turned to the table and sighed. “Someone want to tell me what the fuck just happened?”