Chapter Eleven
Olivia
I smoothed my dark blue skirt one more time and glanced down at my white blouse before pulling open the door to Acker Real Estate.
I was way more nervous than I’d expected to be on my first day, but I’d never had a desk job before.
I was a good waitress and bartender, good at managing schedules, and good at juggling all sorts of tasks during my shifts to keep Harrison’s running smoothly.
For the last year, Jackson had been leaving me in charge at the restaurant when he left for the day, but I had no idea what working in a corporate environment would be like, and I wasn’t positive I was cut out for it.
“Jace, I can escort her up myself, there’s no need for you to wait—” the receptionist cut himself off as he saw me enter the lavish building. I’d met Jace here a few times, so I was familiar with the ornate, white marble design surrounding us, allowing my eyes to focus solely on my new boss.
“That won’t be necessary, Cole,” Jace said as he took a step toward me. He had a cup of coffee in his hand and a smile on his face as he hugged me. “Happy first day, Liv.”
I chuckled and wrapped my arms around him, trying not to linger, despite the enticing scent of his cologne. “Do you greet all your assistants in the lobby on their first day?”
“Not a single one,” Cole said with a sigh. “Because he has more important things to tend to and I’m capable of doing my job.”
Jace narrowed his eyes at Cole in a way that was less relaxed than his norm. “There is nothing more important on my schedule than greeting Olivia and showing her around.”
“I’m sorry, Jace,” Cole said sheepishly.
“I’m not trying to imply you can’t do you job, Cole. You’re great at it, but Olivia is my priority today,” Jace said.
His defense of my importance to him shot a thrill through me. I knew where I stood in his life. At least, I was pretty sure I did. Still, that did nothing to damper the appreciation I had for him making it crystal clear in this moment.
Jace turned his attention back to me and handed me the coffee—pumpkin spice from Ackerson’s, based on the scent.
He lifted an ID badge from around his neck and slipped it over my head, his fingers brushing my neck in a way that caused my body to tingle.
“This will get you everywhere you need to go for now. Our first stop is security so they can get your photo and have your badge ready by the end of the day.”
I lifted the badge off my chest to look it over and saw Jace’s face printed on the front. “Surely your access is much higher than mine,” I said with a laugh. “This feels like too much power.”
Jace placed his hand on the small of my back and led me around the reception desk to a door in the back of the lobby. He gestured to the badge reader, and I swiped us through.
“You have access to everything, Liv. You’re my assistant. You need to be able to go wherever I go. I trust you completely.”
We stepped through the door and he led me down a short hallway to another door marked with a sign for security.
“Am I going to be your lacky?” I asked, stopping in front of the open doorway of an office where a security employee was engaged on the phone.
Jace smiled. “I would never describe this role like that. You’ll come to some of my meetings and take notes, yes.
You’re also responsible for the office budget, approving several different requests from the other departments on my behalf, and most importantly, making sure I’m where I need to be on time. ”
I chuckled as the man inside the office continued his phone conversation, gesturing with one finger in the air for us to wait for him. “Is ensuring you follow a predetermined schedule usually a challenge for your assistants?”
If so, they seem vastly incompetent.
Jace smirked at me, his green eyes twinkling, and I got the sense he knew he was about to expose his fatal flaw, the reason all his assistants quit.
“I pretty much never look at my clock, prefer to let every meeting take as long as is required to get to next steps, work out during my lunch break and then get incredible cranky in the afternoon when I’m hungry and have no time to eat, and constantly cancel meetings and shuffle things around whenever my best friend or her daughter need me. ”
I sighed. “You really are going to be a nightmare. You’re lucky I like you. I’m already thinking about how I can be proactive to feed you. I don’t need a cranky Jace snapping at me.”
“I probably only seem like a pain in the ass because the corporate culture is so against my natural style,” he said. “Regardless, I’d never snap at you.”
“We’ll see. Maybe I’ll let you miss lunch today and test that theory.”
“You’re already my favorite assistant,” he said with a charming grin as he tossed his arm over my shoulder. “I like your back talk.”
My body warmed, reminding me why this was going to be a torturous gig. Just think about Kaylee, you can do anything for her. You can even spend eight hours a day with a man you desperately want to climb like a tree.
“So far it sounds more like you need a wife than an assistant.”
Jace chuckled and leaned close to my ear, speaking in a low voice. “Be careful, Liv. We’ve got a good thing going, but if you put ideas like that in my head, I might just risk everything. But I’d never expect my wife to manage my life for me.”
I stilled, his breath warm on my neck. It was the most suggestive thing Jace had ever said to me. I was dying to know if he meant it or if he was just making a joke that was dangerously close to what I wanted.
The security guard hung up the phone. “How can I help you, Jace?”
Jace dropped his arm from my shoulders and stepped forward.
“Morning, Ralph. This is Olivia, my new assistant. I need you to get her set up with full access and then personally escort her to IT, please.” He turned to me.
“I need to take a quick call with Martin. It was the only thing I couldn’t cancel this morning.
I’ll be done with him before you’re finished, I promise. ”
“It’s fine, Jace. I’m sure someone can show me to my desk,” I said, sitting down in a chair across from Ralph.
“I’ll meet you at IT in thirty minutes, Liv. And don’t argue with the boss in front of my employees.” He gestured to Ralph with a boyish grin. “You’re making me look bad.”
I laughed as Jace said goodbye to Ralph and disappeared down the hall.
Fifteen minutes later, I finished with security and Ralph walked me down the hall to meet Steve, the lead IT guy who’d already been briefed on setting up my laptop.
I signed into several programs, testing them with Steve to troubleshoot any new-user issues, and was just wrapping up when Jace reappeared to fetch me with a proud smile on his face.
He spent the next two hours walking me around the lavish building and introducing me to the head of each team in his division.
He claimed he wanted them to know my name and face since I was the one they had to go through to get access to him, but it was clear he wanted me to see all the different roles and opportunities at the company for when I was ready to consider other jobs.
After the tour, he stopped at Cole’s desk to retrieve a bag of takeout and then showed me to the private elevator that brought us to our floor.
My feet were tired from all the walking since I’d worn heels, and I was blown away by how much time Jace had already spent with me.
I wasn’t about to repeat Cole’s ill-advised words from earlier, but surely Jace did have more important things to do than show his assistant around all morning.
We stepped off the elevator and I walked around the large, open-concept space.
My desk was right in the middle of the room, a position that provided a clear line of sight into the open door of the corner office that Jace said was his.
However, if he closed his door, I’d have no visibility into the room since it had no windows.
A large, glass-walled conference room was right next to his office.
A kitchenette that was separated by a glass wall and had entrances on both sides sat to the right of the elevators. “This space is beautiful,” I said.
“I’m glad you like it, since you’ll be spending a lot of time in it. I’m pretty sure Zachariah Acker designed it for himself—not that he ever spent any time here.” Jace glanced at his watch and gestured to his office. “I have a meeting in an hour, but we have time to eat together.”
I followed him as he led the way, shaking my head. “You went one morning without an assistant and look at you. You ordered lunch and checked the time of your meetings all on your own,” I teased.
He set the paper bag on his desk and started unpacking several Chinese takeout containers—my favorite, which he knew I rarely ordered since Kaylee didn’t like it—and gestured for me to sit in one of the white chairs in front of his desk.
I sat down and he grabbed two forks out of the bag, handing me one as he sat next to me.
He passed me the chicken lo mein and opened the pork fried rice for himself.
“Cole ordered the food for me,” he said.
“At my request, obviously, but still, I am not capable of managing on my own up here. I’ve got good business sense and a lot of vision, but I have the mind of an artist, Liv.
I flow wherever the current takes me, and my biggest flaw is getting wrapped up in something exciting and forgetting about something necessary. ”
I laughed, trying not to choke on a piece of broccoli. “I will get you under control. If I can manage my personal schedule and that of my three-year-old, I’m certain I can handle you.”
“I know you can,” he said, grinning again. “I really am glad you took this job. Even if it’s temporary. I’m grateful for however long I get to have you working with me.”
“You’re doing me a massive favor, Jace,” I said, twirling noodles around my fork.
“I’m not,” he said. “I know it seems that way, and I would have offered you this job because you need it, but I need you here too.”
The corners of my mouth twitched upward, and I resisted a smile. “Why, Jace Cohen, this might be the first time you’ve ever let me be what you need.”
“What are you talking about?” he said. “I need our friendship just as much as you do.”
I shook my head. “You never admit that.”
He looked down at his food before meeting my eyes. “Well, I do, Liv. I need you more than I could ever put into words.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“Have you thought at all about what you want to do long term? Or did anything you saw downstairs pique your interest?” he asked.
I shrugged and took a few more bites. “I’ve been so focused on making decisions for Kaylee over the last few years that nothing seems appealing anymore unless I know it will work for her. The last thing I was excited about was bartending.”
Jace smiled sadly. “You can go back to the restaurant industry when you’re both ready. If that’s what you want to do, you shouldn’t give it up forever.”
I pursed my lips and sighed. “I feel like I’m supposed to have bigger life goals. Society is set up for us to always want more.”
“Society isn’t set up in a way that works for everyone. In fact, it can be rather closed-minded. You want to be a good mom and you want to work in a place where you feel happy while you’re there. Let that be your goal.”
I nodded. “Thanks. I’ll still check out the company while I’m here. Just in case my lifelong dream is lurking around the corner.”
He reached across the arm of his chair and squeezed my hand. “You can explore whatever you want with no pressure. This job is yours for as long as you want and whatever you choose to do next, I’m going to be there cheering you on.”
My heart flipped. Probably not a good idea to tell the boss you’re in love with him on day one.
“So, what’s on the schedule for the afternoon?” I asked, stuffing my mouth full of noodles.
“I have a meeting with my architect for the rehab facility right after this and then a couple of non-urgent things, I think. Probably. We should look though.”
“You have no idea, do you?”
He scratched his beard and gave me that charming smile again. “I just know about the architect.”
I laughed. “Damn it, you are going to be a lot of work. But fear not, Jace. I can handle you.”
Jace and I wrapped up lunch with enough time for me to get settled at my desk while he returned a phone call to Leo.
Apparently, his cousin had left him a voicemail asking Jace to find out if I drank coffee while I was pregnant and if Kaylee had been smaller than average as a result.
I’d laughed hysterically while Jace groaned his way through repeating Leo’s question.
I’d drank one cup a day when I was pregnant and Kaylee had been fine—unless the coffee was the reason she was so high-strung.
Leo hadn’t liked the doctor “siding with Sophia” by agreeing that one cup of coffee a day was perfectly safe.
The amount of love I saw between Leo and Sophia whenever they were at Harrison’s was adorable and I was pretty sure Jace would love just as obsessively when he fell for someone.
If that person wasn’t me, I was going to have a hard time witnessing it.
I printed Jace’s afternoon schedule and pulled it from the printer, reading it as I brewed a fresh pot of coffee.
Jace hadn’t asked me to make him coffee, but I was worried he just didn’t want to ask me because of our relationship.
I was going to fulfill all my assistant duties, even the ones he wouldn’t ask of me.
The coffee sputtered into the pot as my eyes landed on the name of his architect.
Kayden Meacham. Just the name Kayden was enough to make my heart skip a beat.
It wasn’t a common name, and I hadn’t met anyone else in the last four years with that name.
Seeing it in black and white was enough to make my mind wander.
I wonder what happened to him. Does he ever think about me too?
I shook off the thoughts like I always did when he popped into my mind.
There was no use in daydreaming about a path not taken.
I poured the coffee, stirred in far too much sugar—the way Jace liked it—and walked into Jace’s office.
He was typing away on his computer but looked up with a smile when he saw me standing there.
I heard the elevator ding as I walked around his desk to hand him the coffee.
Crap, that must be the architect. The first person I’m supposed to greet out there and I’m not at my desk.
“You don’t have to make me coffee, Liv,” Jace said, reaching out to take the steaming paper cup. “But I’ll never turn it down if you feel so inclined.”
“Isn’t making coffee task number one for an assistant?” I asked. “You can’t go easy on me just b—”
“Hey,” a deep voice filled the doorway, and I looked up to see a tall, brown-haired man wearing glasses. I gasped and released the coffee cup like it was a hot potato.
“Oh shit!” Jace exclaimed.