Chapter 4
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I’ve never been more ready for a day to be over than I am now.
As I’m preparing for the two o’clock meeting, Alex and Sam walk in the door. I force a smile that I’m not feeling to my face. “Hey, guys, how’d it go?”
Alex hands me the clipboard. “Three full-service installations and one camera installation. All the paperwork is complete and filled out, and I think Sam here is ready to go on his own.”
I flip through the pages on the clipboard.
It’s been a process. Stronghold Security has been a lot busier than Zach thought it would be, and we needed a system to streamline what we were installing, the current inventory, and an automatic ordering system.
It took me a bit to get it all organized, but I think it’s working well.
When I see that everything is in order, I smile. “Great job, guys.”
They both smile, and I look at Sam. “So you feeling good about it all? You know you can call any of us if you get in a bind or need help.”
Sam blushes. He has a crush on me, but I act like I don’t know about it. Both Zach and Alex have talked to me about it to make sure I wasn’t uncomfortable. Sam clears his throat. “I feel like I’m ready.”
I pick up another clipboard. “Great. We got a call for another installation. It’s in the city limits. You wanna go?”
Sam sucks in a deep breath and lets it out. “Yes.”
I hand him the clipboard. “Great, just call Alex if you have any problems.”
As Sam walks out the door, Alex points a thumb over his shoulder. “Logan in his office?”
I nod, and he says, “Cool. I’m going to go check in with him.” He gives me a questioning look. “You doing okay?”
I force another fake smile. “Yeah, I’m doing good.”
He doesn’t believe me, but he doesn’t ask me any more questions as he knocks on Logan’s closed door and then lets himself in.
I no sooner sit down than the front doorbell rings, and a woman walks in.
“Hello. How can I help you?”
The woman is dressed to the nines with heels and everything. She has long eyelashes, big, pouty lips, and her breasts are so high it’s hard not to stare. She looks around the office. “I’m here to see Logan Brody.”
I look down at the notepad. Logan came out of his office earlier and begrudgingly told me he’d scheduled an appointment for two o’clock today. That was the only time I’d seen him. “Are you Amy Burkhardt?”
She nods. “Yes, that’s me.”
I look at the clock. She’s ten minutes early. “Have a seat. He’s in a meeting right now but will be out shortly.”
She takes a seat and then leans toward me and whispers loudly, “So is he still as handsome as he was in high school?”
I grit my teeth and stand, barely able to hold back an eye roll. “You want to follow me to the conference room? I’ll get you set up, and I’m sure he’ll be right in.”
Her heels click-clack behind me as I open the door to the conference room. With a hospitality that I’m not feeling, I ask, “Can I get you something to drink? We have water, coffee, or tea.”
She points to her perfectly painted lips. “Thank you, but I don’t want to ruin the lipstick.”
I almost crack the pen I’m holding. “Right. Well, I’ll go let Logan know you’re here.”
I walk out of the conference room and knock on Logan’s door. He must know it’s me because I hear the snarly voice he seems to save for me say, “What?”
I open the door and peek in. “Your two o’clock is here. I put her in the conference room.”
He nods and then waves at me as if I’m dismissed. I walk to my desk, pick up a notepad, and then head back to the conference room.
I sit down across from Amy. “Logan should be joining us soon.”
She sits up a little taller and pushes her breasts out even farther. She has a smile pasted on her face as if it's frozen there.
Normally with Zach, I get the conversation going, but I’m not sure what Logan expects, and I sure as hell don’t want to piss him off even more than he already is. So I sit here quietly, writing on my notepad.
I write the client’s name at the top with the date and the time of the meeting. A lot of this is just habit that carried over from my last job, but I figure it doesn’t hurt to be extra organized.
Only a few minutes go by before Logan walks into the room. His gaze falls on me immediately, and he frowns, but before he can say anything, Amy is bouncing from her seat. “Logan, it’s so good to see you. I didn’t mention this on the phone, but we went to school together. Do you remember me?”
Logan is not one to placate anyone. “I’m sorry. I don’t remember an Amy Burkhardt.”
She playfully slaps him on the chest and blinks her fake lashes at him. “I was Amy Ringer in high school. I was married, but now I’m single.”
Her admission leaves the room in silence until Logan tries to take back control of the situation. “Well, Amy, it’s good to see you again. Let’s have a seat and we can talk about why you’re needing our services.”
She nods and throws her hands out wide. “Right, well I want the whole thing. Cameras, alarms, all of it.”
My leg is going a hundred miles a minute under the table. I’m tense and ready to pull Amy’s fake blond hair from her head. “How many square feet is your home, Amy?” I blurt out.
Logan tenses just hearing my voice. He holds a hand up. “I’m sorry, can you excuse us for a minute?”
Amy is taken aback but nods her head. Logan stands up and gestures to the door. “Bree, can I see you for a minute?”
I leave my notebook lying on the table and uncross my legs. “Sure.”
I stand up and follow him out the door and into his office. I stop a few feet away from him and wait for him to say something.
He gestures behind me. “What was that?”
Perplexed, I wrack my brain because I have no idea what he’s talking about. “What was what?”
His jaw tightens, and he cracks his knuckles. “Why were you in my meeting?”
Stunned, I rear back. “Oh. Uh, Zach always had me sit in on his meetings. It saved time because then I knew what to order, what dates and times we had available for installations, and everything.”
His silence is too much for me, and I can’t stand it. “I mean, if you’d rather meet with big boobs on your own, that is perfectly fine with me.”
Even I can hear the jealousy in my voice, and I hate it.
Logan opens his mouth. I wait for him to tell me to go to my desk or to go to hell or something, but he actually smiles at me. “You know what? You can sit in.”
He turns away, and I can only follow him back to the conference room.
The rest of the meeting has me wishing that I’d never met Logan Brody.
It’s obvious he knew I was jealous and is really playing it up now.
He’s openly flirting with Amy, and it’s taking everything in me to remain in my seat.
By the end of the meeting, I’m staring down at the notepad and refusing to look up.
I just can’t do it.
Seeing him smile at the woman across from him as they make flirty touches with each other makes me crazy.
“Bree,” Logan says.
When I hear my name, I look up, and there’s no hiding the hurt on my face. “Yeah?” I ask, void of any emotion.
Logan is surprised by the look on my face, and I shake my head. “Sorry. What are you asking me?”
For the first time in three months, he speaks to me softly. “When is our first available appointment?”
”Alex has availability in the afternoon next Tuesday.”
Amy gasps. “Alex? But no, I don’t want just anyone at my house. Can you do it?” she asks Logan.
I’m about to throw my pen at her when Logan nods. “Sure.”
He looks at me. “Put her down for Friday afternoon.”
I nod, jotting down the note even though I know I don’t need to write it down. There’s no way I won’t be thinking about this stupid appointment the rest of the week.
Because I can’t take another minute of this, I push away from the table and stand up. “Well, I’ll let you two finish up.”
Without another glance at them, I walk out of the room. It’s at least fifteen minutes before they come out of the conference room, and then Logan walks Amy out to her car. My stomach revolts, and I feel like I’m going to be sick.
Seeing Logan with another woman, watching as she pawed at him and flirted, literally tore my heart to shreds. It physically hurt to watch.
That’s how Logan felt.
I don’t know where the thought came from, but now that I’ve thought it, I can’t get it out of my head. I’m sure it killed him to see me at dinner with another man. I’m sure he felt sick seeing me kiss someone else when I belonged to him.
The day has caught up to me, and I can’t hold it in a second longer. I shut down my computer and grab my laptop and purse. I stop by Alex’s office and knock on the open door. “Hey, I need to go. Can you lock up today?”
Surprised doesn’t even begin to cover it. I don’t blame him. I haven’t left early one day in the last three months. Hell, I’ve worked overtime most days, but I can’t be here when Logan comes in from walking Amy to her car, probably with that bright red lipstick on his lips.
”Sure, I got it. Go.”
I give Alex a nod, and then I’m walking to the back door to make sure I don’t run into Logan.
There’s no way I’m explaining why I have to leave early.
I’ll just let him come to his own conclusions.
I’m going home to pour myself a drink and do my best to get the image of Logan and Amy out of my head.