How to Defy Your Boss (The Ashford Brothers #3)

Chapter 1 Logan

LOGAN

“Are you kidding me? The fucking Funfetti is missing as well?”

I’d been on my way back to my office when the call came in.

Not wanting to make a scene, I had no choice but to duck into our main conference room in the cruise ship’s business center to take it.

No need for my valued guests to overhear the beatdown I was about to deliver over a cake flavor.

I even managed to grin believably while I threaded through them.

Could they pick up on the tension in my face? Probably not. A lifetime of customer service meant that my bland, pleasant expression could mask a fucking volcano of fury.

Which was exactly what I was at this very important moment.

It was the Royal Oceania’s maiden voyage, and even though I’d taken every precaution to ensure a flawless experience for my guests, shit was already blowing up in my face, and we’d barely left port.

Thankfully, the business center was empty and probably would remain so for the voyage.

The Royal Oceania was our program’s first family-focused cruise line, which would hopefully mean most passengers would opt to spend time making memories, not holding meetings.

The conference room wall was a giant window that looked out to the rest of the business center, so I flipped the switch to the smart glass windows to turn them from clear to opaque to ensure that no one would be able to see me seething as I held the asshole’s feet to the fire.

I flipped open my laptop and spread out.

Based on his shitty attitude, I was going to be anchored here for a while.

Did I have to raise my voice? Of course.

The many f-bombs I dropped might have been a little over the top, but that was between the two of us.

The phrase “curse like a sailor” existed for a reason, and while my vessel had a motor, I still honored that part of the legacy of a life on the water.

When the supplier tried pinning the Funfetti oversight on my team, I lost it and unleashed a string of expletives so vicious that I probably made his ears bleed.

I hoped so, anyway. It was the least he deserved.

A sharp knock interrupted my tirade, and I chose to ignore it. The supplier wasn’t backing down, or even apologizing, and everything else could wait until I got him where I wanted him.

“I’m sorry, did you just tell me to fuck off?” I roared into the phone.

Another round of knocking, this time even more urgent.

And continuous. After ten seconds of nonstop knocking, I finally couldn’t take it anymore.

I marched over to the door, flipped the lock, and yanked it open. “What? Does a locked door mean nothing to you?”

The woman on the other side looked shocked at my fury, her hand frozen in the air.

Nina Reyes. I prided myself on knowing every employee’s name, although it would be hard to forget a face like hers.

What the hell did the Kids’ Club manager want with me?

My micromanager tendencies meant I also knew exactly what everyone was supposed to be doing at any given moment—I literally ran a tight ship—and Miss Reyes was supposed to be doing a baking lesson with our young cruisers.

Specifically, making Funfetti cupcakes. Damn it.

“Yeah, I know,” I barked at her. “I’m on the phone with the fucking idiot supplier. Can’t Chef sub in another cupcake flavor?”

She frowned at me, like it was my fault our carefully planned activity had fallen apart.

“No, unfortunately he said they’re behind unloading a late shipment, so they need more time.” She pointed beyond me, into the conference room. “I came up here because I was thinking that in the meantime we could—”

“Listen, I don’t have the bandwidth to troubleshoot this with you right now. I need to deal with this fuckwad’s dumpster fire, okay?”

Her pretty face went even more pained, and she glanced over her shoulder.

“What?” I demanded for a second time.

“Fuckwad!” A tiny voice sounded off from behind her.

I swallowed hard. No, this couldn’t be.

“Dumpster fire, dumpster fire,” another sang out. “Fuckwad dumpster fire!”

I held my phone to my chest and leaned out the door so I could see beyond her.

“Fantastic. Thank you for giving all of us a vocab lesson,” Nina fumed at me. “Do you want to explain to their parents once the f-bombs start flying over dinner?”

Ten adorable mini sailors were currently ring-around-the rosie-ing using my choice vocabulary as their soundtrack. A little girl with braids walked up to Nina and tapped her hip.

“Is this boat on fire?” She pointed at me. “Because that mean man said the word ‘fire.’”

Nina spun to face her, then bent down so they were eye to eye.

“Oh, no, Becca, not at all! He was just having a grown-up conversation that wasn’t for our ears.

I guess Mr. Ashford didn’t know that these are very thin walls!

” She rapped the glass and smiled at the child, then shot me an evil look.

“We heard all sorts of silly things, didn’t we? ”

Nina stood up and shook her head as the chaos continued to unfold.

“He said the f-word, he said the f-word!” a child chanted at the top of his voice, pointing at me with gleeful eyes. “He’s gonna be in time out forever!”

“I gotta call you back,” I said into the phone and hung up before he could answer.

I fixed my gaze on Nina. “Why are you here,” I pointed to the ground between us, “and not in the Kids’ Club?

Our team worked hard to make sure that you have a facility stocked with everything you and the kids could require so that when you’re between activities you have somewhere to go. Somewhere that’s not here.”

Her expression slipped from cheerful child wrangler to a glare.

“It’s quiet time for the little ones in the Club, and as you can see, this crew is anything but quiet.

Since our baking activity is canceled,” she dialed up the glare, “we needed a Plan B, and we decided we should play Pictionary. Noah told us that there’s a whiteboard in this conference room, so we figured we could play here. ”

Yes, Noah knew about the whiteboard. I’d offered to let him draw on it to entertain himself last week while I held a meeting to go over final details with some of my team, but he hadn’t shown much interest. He hadn’t shown interest in much of anything lately.

I glanced at the group of kids and spotted my son alone, off to the side and looking small and quiet and sad, a marked contrast to the other kids who were bouncing off the walls like profanity-filled pinballs.

Fuck.

A younger boy walked over to Nina with his eyes wide. “My mom told me that the f-word is a swear and kids aren’t allowed to say swears. But all of them are saying it! Does that mean I can too?”

Yeah, I’d accidentally given our VIP kids a vocab lesson their parents might hate me for.

“No, absolutely not, Evan!” Nina replied quickly. “No one should say those kinds of words. They’re very naughty.”

She shot me yet another surly glare as the boy ran off to join the rest of the kids.

“What?” I demanded. “It’s not like I did it on purpose. No one was supposed to be around.”

“Well, I knocked on the door to warn you to keep your voice down,” she fired back at me. “But you were too busy absolutely screaming at the poor person who dared to get on your bad side.”

“Oh, you mean the supplier who is the very reason why these kids aren’t doing what they’re scheduled to be doing? If one of my business partners or any of my employees fuck up—”

Nina dared to shush me, and I forced myself to ignore the way her pink mouth looked as she did it.

She was so fucking gorgeous it was distracting.

The dark, perfect ringlets that framed her face, the lush lips, and eyes that said just as much as that mouth of hers.

She was wearing our standard-issue uniform for the Kids’ Club—a slim-fit white golf shirt with our logo on the pocket and khakis—but somehow, she made it look like couture.

In spite of myself, my eyes trailed down to check out her ass when she turned to answer a question, but after only a beat, I forced myself to look away.

No. Not now, and definitely not her. I didn’t know her well, but I could already sense she was trouble.

“As I was saying, if someone makes a mistake,” I continued in a strained half whisper, “I expect them to own up to it, not give me a runaround. And I expect my employees to be able to pivot when necessary. Children going corporate is not an acceptable pivot, Miss Reyes.”

“Oh? And what should I be doing with the children since our carefully planned activity isn’t an option, hmm?” she shot back. “Please fill me in, because I think a couple of rounds of Pictionary until Captain is ready to give them their scheduled tour is a great way to pass the time.”

“On a luxury cruise?” I asked her. “That’s the best you could come up with? Not a project in the fully stocked craft room?”

The din from the kids went a few decibels softer, like they could sense a bigger storm brewing between us.

“Oh, so you didn’t hear about the issue with the floor?”

I massaged the bridge of my nose at the unexpected reveal. Not only was there was more bad news, but what was worse was that I knew nothing about it. Why hadn’t maintenance alerted me? And was this entire voyage going to be cursed? Because it sure as hell was off to a shitty start.

“What…issue?” I spat out.

“Housekeeping used the wrong kind of floor cleaner, and now it’s so sticky that it’s a hazard. They’re working on it.”

“Damn it,” I bellowed before I could stop myself.

“Language,” Nina hissed at me, then threw a worried glance at the kids as they all started giggling and covering their mouths in shock.

The laughter got louder, all the kids feeding off each other’s nervous energy, and I could sense we were seconds away from chaos. The combination of being on the giant boat and away from their parents was as potent as a mixture of Pixie Stix and soda.