Chapter 5
LOGAN
I come in early the next day, and I’m surprised that Bree is not already at her desk.
Yesterday, she left while I was walking Amy Burkhardt to her car. Hell, that was the only way I could get her out of the office, and by the time I got back inside, Bree was gone, and Alex said she’d had to leave.
I thought about her all night.
I’m not sure why, but I felt like I owed her an apology, which is crazy. I don’t owe her anything. Well, at least not for flirting with Amy. Maybe I do owe her apology for being an ass to her, though.
If my mom knew, she'd have me by the ear for treating a woman like I did yesterday.
It’s exactly eight when I hear the front door open, and I don’t even have to see her to know it’s Bree. It’s as if my body is attuned to her and knows she’s close.
I’m on my feet and standing next to her desk before she can even set her things down. She doesn’t look at me as she unpacks her laptop and notebooks. “Bree,” I start.
She looks at me, defeated. “Yeah, Logan?”
The sadness in her voice is disarming. “You okay?”
She nods. “Yeah, do you need something?”
I clear my throat. “Yeah, can we talk?”
Her eyes light up, but I raise a hand. “I mean about work.”
Her smile fades, but she picks up a notebook. “Yeah, sure. Your office or the conference room?”
”Uhm… The conference room.”
I pick it because it doesn’t have a couch that I’ve already thought about laying her down on.
Although there is a huge table that I could spread her out on in the conference room.
I think about that as I follow her. She’s wearing a tight skirt today, and I watch her ass sway back and forth as she walks.
As soon as we’re in the conference room, I have to sit down or else she’s going to see the bulge in my pants. “Have a seat,” I tell her, gesturing across the table. I don’t need her sitting anywhere near me.
She sits down with her pen in hand as she looks down at the notebook. She’s avoiding my gaze, and that should make me happy, but right now, it’s irritating. “Look at me, Bree.”
She raises her eyes with a stubborn look on her face and still says nothing.
I hold a hand up. “First, I want to apologize for yesterday.”
She doesn’t even try to hide the surprise, and for some reason, that bothers me. She has to know I’m not some kind of asshole that gets off on treating women poorly. “No matter how I feel about you or our past, I shouldn’t have treated you like I did. I’m sorry.”
She doesn’t acknowledge my apology, so I continue. “I wanted to ask you if you’d had time to think about my offer yesterday.”
Her forehead creases. “Your offer? You mean the one where you offered to buy out my contract?”
I nod. “Yeah, that’s the one. Have you reconsidered?”
She sits up a little taller. “Logan, let me give you something to think about. In the three months I’ve been here, I’ve brought your company into the black.”
I start to talk, but it’s her turn to raise her hand.
“I’ve hired three full-time bodyguards and have them scheduled out for the remainder of the year.
And we’ve hired four full-time installers, and at the rate we’re going right now, we need three more to keep up with the work that my advertising has brought us.
It was your dream to be profitable in the first year, and I made it happen in the first three months. ”
I’m about to dispute her claim when she drops a bombshell. “And this is without the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars your brother Miller invested into the company.”
I rear back, surprised. “What do you mean?”
She lifts her chin. “Zach didn’t feel right taking that money to protect Skyler, so he hasn’t touched a penny of it. It’s in a separate account, earmarked for you.”
She angrily leans toward me. “And so help me, Logan Brody, if you offer me that money to get rid of me, you and I are going to have problems.”
Anger doesn’t even begin to describe it. She’s furious just thinking about it. I hold my hands up, palms out. “I wouldn’t think of it.”
She jerks her head up and down. “Good, but if you need ideas on how to spend that money to expand, I have them.”
I know when I’m had. Zach and I had this dream and wanted to make it a reality, but our training did not equip us for this side of the business.
If it was just Zach and me, we would be working out of a half-empty office with no clients and a team that didn’t know what they were doing day to day.
There’s no doubt she’s made progress here, and I guess I’d better take advantage of the situation because in nine months, she’s gone. “Fine. I’d like to see the report.”
She nods. “I’ll email it to you when I get to my desk. Is there anything else we need to discuss?”
I open my mouth and then close it. I told myself I wasn’t going to ask, but after seeing the lines around her eyes, I know I’m going to. I gesture to her face. “Why are you having trouble sleeping?”
She pinches her lips together, and I shake my head. “Don’t lie to me. Just tell me. Why are you having trouble sleeping?”
She inhales and slowly blows it out. “Nightmares. I’ve been having nightmares.”
I wasn’t prepared for that answer. “What do you mean, you’re having nightmares?”
She shrugs. “It’s not your problem, Logan. While we’re here, can I go over a few things with you?”
Dumbly, with my mouth hanging open, I nod my head. I want to go back to talking about the nightmares, but obviously, she’s not having it. “Sure.”
She flips through the pages of her notebook. “Sam went on his first call yesterday on his own, and he did great. Are you okay with him getting his own assignments the rest of this week?”
I tilt my head to the side. I’ve been gone three months. I don’t even think I’ve met Sam yet. “What do you think?”
She rears back, blinking at me. She didn’t expect me to ask that. After yesterday, I can’t say I blame her. “Well, uh, I think he’s ready. And if he needs anything, he can call Alex or me.”
I nod. “Okay, sounds good.”
She flips through more pages and stares down at some notes as she speaks to me. “There is a fundraiser next Friday night. We sponsored three tables. Should I put you down for one ticket? Or are you bringing a date?”
“Uh, put me down for two tickets.” I’ve known about this fundraiser for a few weeks, and my brother Penn has been worried about me, so he set me up for a date with one of the nurses at his hospital.
Her face turns red, and she nods as she stands up without looking at me. “Okay, I think that’s it.”
She turns to go, but I stop her. “Two more things.”
I can see her pull her shoulders back, sucking in a breath as if she is preparing herself for something unpleasant.
I wait patiently for her to eyes to settle on me, but when she does, it’s shocking.
She’s upset. I’m not sure what to make of this.
She cheated on me. She broke us. Is she really bothered that I might take a date to a party? It’s not adding up.
She puts a hand on the chair in front of her and clenches it. “Sure. What do you need?”
You. That’s the first thought I have. I need her, and the fact that I feel it makes me hate myself. I grit my teeth. “First, I wanted to make sure that Guy has a ticket.”
She bites her lip as she searches her memory. “Guy… your brother… the baseball player?”
I stand up and put my hands in the front pockets of my pants. “Yeah, he’ll be in town, and I wanted to make sure he had a ticket for the event.”
She hugs the notepad to her chest. “Yeah, Zach made sure every one of your siblings had a ticket.”
I shift my stance. “Okay, lastly, I need to learn this computer program you’ve set up.”
She looks at me blankly, so I remind her. “The one that handles the inventory, the installers’ schedules, all that.”
She nods, lifts her notepad, and starts writing. “Of course. I’ll have a training manual for you by the end of the week.”
I clear my throat and cross my arms over my chest. Bree knows me. Hell, she knows me better than anyone, and she knows that I’m not going to want a training manual. I clear my throat. “I’d rather you train me.”
She points at her chest. “Me? I’m sure Alex—”
I cut her off and take a step toward her. “Alex is out of the office all day. It makes more sense for you to show me.”
I’m not sure why, but I like that I still make her flustered. I’m not sure she realizes it, but she takes the notepad and uses it to fan herself. Then she realizes what she’s doing and drops the papers to her side. “Yeah, sure, no problem. I’m booked up today… but this week, for sure.”
I can’t get another word out before she’s running from the room.
I came in here today determined to keep to myself, and already I’ve forced a meeting with Bree and now have set up a training that is going to force us to work closely together.
Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment. Maybe I’m not as over her as I thought I was.
Or maybe I just like knowing that she still wants me.
Whatever the case, I know that I can’t go down that road again.
She broke my heart once. I’m not giving her a chance to do it again.