Chapter FiveFischer #3
I clear my throat when Micah glances back at me with a raised eyebrow. “That’s great,” I add, which is just as lame as oh . The elevator stops, opens, and lets us out, and I can breathe again now that I’m back on solid ground and in the open.
“But he’ll need a contract, or his agent won’t let him do it,” Micah adds. “As a precaution.”
“I’ll handle that.” When she raises an eyebrow at me, I balk at her skepticism. “I can do my job too, you know.” Besides, I’ve been feeling pretty useless with this thing since the potato bites this morning, so I’m almost desperate for something to do that isn’t answering pointless questions.
She puts a hand on her hip, twisting her lips up in a smirk. “I’m sensing an apology on its way.”
Though I grit my teeth because she’s right, I’m not exactly eager to admit my failings. So I do the next best thing, folding my arms and growling. (Apparently the next best thing is pathetic.)
To no one’s surprise, Micah doesn’t dim in the slightest. It’s like she’s made of pure sunlight, and the only thing that will block her warmth is hurricane-level grumpiness that even I’m not capable of. Let’s hope, anyway.
“I’m going to try to translate that,” she says.
“This is pure assumption, but I’m guessing that little growl of yours was actually you saying, ‘I’m sorry I’ve been misjudging you from the moment I met you because you’re too bubbly to take seriously, but thank goodness you’ve proven me wrong with your cleverness and quick wit. ’”
“Actually, I was going to say cleverness and spunk.” I blink. Where in the devil did that come from? It’s like I was possessed by a far more self-confident man who is eager to flirt with the woman who has no idea she holds his fate in her hands.
Micah bites her bottom lip, forcing me to look away before my head gets any bad ideas. “Is there any particular reason you hide those little quips away most of the time? You’re starting to convince me you’re secretly funny.”
“That’s not a word most people use to describe me.”
“Hence the secret part. It’s not something you need to hide, Fischer.”
I shake my head. Though I’m not sure I should really be having this conversation, I want her to understand, at least in part, why I’m so closed off. “You’re better off not knowing me, secret parts or otherwise.”
She grins. “Well, that can’t be true.”
“Miss Taylor? Are you finally back?”
At the sound of Lila’s voice, we both turn toward her office. Weirdly, it feels like we’ve just stepped back into reality after spending the last couple of hours in an alternate universe.
“Back to work,” Micah breathes, which has me wondering if she feels the same way.
Still, she bounces over to Lila’s office and jumps right back into assistant mode, her voice cheery and bright.
“Everything is confirmed for the twenty-sixth, and Debbie will oversee the event personally.” She opens up the box of leftover samples and holds it out to Lila.
Lila scoops out one of the liver paste bites and takes a delicate bite. She shudders as soon as it hits her tongue, but she does a surprisingly good job of hiding it. “Mm, it’s exquisite, as always,” she says, setting the rest of the bite back in the box.
Grant, who sits across the desk from Lila, eyes it warily, and I know he’s thinking it probably tastes as awful as it looks.
In all ways he is a meat and potatoes guy, which is the only reason I felt moderately comfortable letting Micah make the switch.
“I’m sure it will all taste wonderful,” he says with a healthy dose of skepticism.
“Debbie won’t let you down,” Micah throws in.
“Yes, I personally discovered the chef years ago,” Lila says. “I’ve never trusted anyone else with our most important events.”
It’s subtle, but Micah’s shoulders sink and her smile falters as she stands there like a servant waiting for her mistress to give her an order.
I thought she was the one who brought Debbie into the Ember fold.
Not Lila. Again, I wonder why she works for this woman when she could do just fine on her own.
Why stick with a woman who passes her ideas off as her own?
“Any news on Houston Briggs?” Grant asks, looking at me even though Micah was the one who suggested him.
I could defer to her, but with the way Grant hasn’t given Micah a single glance since she came in here, I have a feeling he’s not going to listen to her anyway.
“I’ll be sending a contract to his agent this afternoon,” I say, and I don’t miss the way Micah deflates even more. Does she think I’m taking credit for her work? “Miss Taylor worked out all the negotiations.”
Her eyes jump over to me, wide and watery, though she’s not quite crying.
I swear, she looks at me like I just gave her her dream job, and my chest grows tight thinking about this intelligent and spunky woman getting swept under the rug so often that she’s surprised when someone gives her recognition for something small.
I wonder if she ever takes the blame for other people’s mistakes along with letting others accept rewards for her successes.
As someone who took blame for someone else’s huge mistake, I absolutely do not want that for her.
No one deserves to pay for someone else’s sins, and I would hate to see her light snuffed out like mine was.
Not that I was ever as bright as she is, but the notion still applies.
“Oh,” Lila says, as if she’s surprised that her assistant would do her job. “Good work, Taylor.”
I don’t like the shocked look on Micah’s face after hearing those words.
“Grant, you have a one o’clock,” I mutter.
“Yes, I know,” he grumbles, which means he had no idea he had any other meetings today.
Maybe I should set him up with Micah’s colorful calendar.
Maybe then he’ll actually look at it. “Lila, I look forward to seeing these plans take shape.” He reaches for her hand, and their lingering eye contact after their handshake lasts way longer than it needs to.
Micah notices too, though she seems more excited than concerned about the two of them trying to push the boundaries of a business relationship.
Mixing business with pleasure is never a good idea, which is why I tell myself that I should never be in a small space with Micah Taylor again if I can help it.
The more time I spend with her, the more ideas my brain is going to get. Well, not my brain. There’s no logic to the way I’m drawn to her, which is exactly why I need to keep my distance if I can. I can’t afford to get distracted again.
“I’ve got the car,” I tell Grant, which finally pulls him away from Lila.
“Send over that contract before you send it to Briggs’s agent,” Lila says. “I want my people to look over it first.” She points at Micah before turning her full focus to her computer.
Micah offers a shrug and follows me out. “I don’t know much about contracts,” she admits quietly. “And our lawyer isn’t super great. This one is on you.”
“Luckily for you, I am well versed in contracts,” I say, though my words come out rough.
Not surprising, considering how much trouble the last six months have been for me because of contracts gone awry.
I’ve learned my lesson, and I will be sure to have everything airtight.
It helps that there won’t be any money exchanged with Briggs, so things can only get so muddy.
Grant shoots me a look that says he heard what I said about contracts, and he seems to be asking me if it’s a good idea for me to be handling that part. I’m honestly surprised he made the connection; he knows all about the trouble I’ve been in, but I wouldn’t have thought he would remember details.
I turn to Micah. “Anything else you need from us today, Miss Taylor?”
She offers a bright smile to us both, and I hate that jealousy rises up knowing Grant gets the same smile as me. It’s so stupid, how much she pulls me in. “Nope. I’ll be in contact if any other decisions are made today. Be sure to let me know if you need anything from us, Mr. Bradley.”
Grant barely acknowledges her—impressive, considering she’s very much his usual type—and leads the way to the elevator. It’s only when the doors shut on us that he speaks. “You sure that’s a good idea?”
He’s talking about the contract. Hopefully.
If not, he’s talking about my attraction to Micah, but I doubt he’s that observant.
“This is about as innocent as contracts get,” I tell him.
“There’s no money involved, and his agent wants to ensure we don’t expect anything outrageous. Just an appearance.”
He folds his arms, tapping his foot as the elevator takes us down. “You thought the last contract was innocent.”
“I didn’t read the last contract all the way through,” I counter. “I made a mistake.”
“Your business partner stole everything from your clients and tried to pin it on you because of that mistake.”
My heart feels like it’s being squeezed in someone’s fist as I try to keep breathing in this metal box.
I didn’t need the reminder. I’m well aware of what Miranda did to me and the nightmare she turned my life into.
I’m inordinately lucky that my lawyer was worth the arm and leg I paid for him and was able to help me avoid jail time.
Technically, the contract that doomed me also saved me in the end because it proved Miranda was the beneficiary instead of me, but I still signed the thing.
I lost people millions of dollars. Their livelihoods.
Emergency savings, college funds, nest eggs. All gone.
How am I supposed to come back from that?
“Fischer.” As the elevator doors open, Grant puts his hand on my shoulder. His touch is steadying. Grounding. He waits until I look at him, and then he gives me a grim smile. “I just want you to be careful. You trust too easily.”
“Not anymore,” I mutter. Except, I’m trusting that Micah knows what she’s doing as she flies under the radar and changes everything that her boss is trying to accomplish.
What if she’s wrong? What if Lila really does have the better ideas and this whole thing is going to blow up in my face because my heart is too prone to listen to a beautiful woman who claims to have my best interest at heart? It wouldn’t be the first time.
“Grant,” I say, stopping just outside the elevator because I need a distraction. “What are you hoping for with this reopening? What kind of event do you want Ember to plan?”
He rolls his eyes, back to being his usual dismissive self as he continues toward the car as if he wasn’t decent just then. “If you had been in that meeting with Lila instead of flirting with the pretty assistant, you might have—”
“That’s not an answer, and I wasn’t flirting. I was making sure Ember doesn’t screw this up. You and I both have a lot riding on this project going well.”
I haven’t unlocked the car door, which means he’s stuck having this conversation unless he wants to wrestle the keys away from me. With the way he’s looking at them, that’s more likely than I would prefer.
“I want people to be inspired,” he says eventually, and I can tell he’s been thinking about this a lot. “The Greenwood used to be a place where people would go to escape their mundane lives and find a spark again. That’s what I want.”
I hit the unlock button, and he slips into the car like it’s the only way to escape those words he just spoke.
Yeah, he was talking about the lodge, but I have a feeling he was talking about his own life too.
Sometimes I’ve wondered if he’s even trying to get his life back together, but now I know.
Grant is drowning just as much as I am, and we’re going to have to work together if we want to survive.
And, as much as it terrifies me, we’re going to need Micah to help. She might be the only person in the world who has spark to spare.