Chapter 3
Chapter three
Kelsey
“We need another desk in here,” I say as I look at my sister Bryn across the folding table where we’re both working. “Remember the good old days when Lila’s desk was free for us to use?”
“Or you could both go to your homes where you have offices,” Izzy replies, leaning back in her nice office chair.
I wonder if I can convince her to give me her desk to work at today.
“No,” Izzy says, as if reading my thoughts. “This is my office. Becca and I pay money for it. You can’t have my desk.”
Becca laughs from behind her screen, but I keep my gaze focused on Izzy.
“I’m not giving in to your mind-ninjaing,” Izzy says sternly. “Buy your own damn desk if you want one in here.”
“Why would I buy a desk for in here?” I reply. “This isn’t my office. I have a perfectly good one at home. With far less company.”
Izzy lifts an eyebrow. “Exactly my point. Go work at your house.”
“I need to finalize things with Lila for when I leave next week.”
“Then go work at her house.”
“I pay for a desk for her here,” I say.
“Which I’m at,” Lila chimes in.
“See?” I ask.
My sister’s long brown hair sways as she shakes her head. “No. What am I supposed to see? You do this on purpose just to fuck with me.”
I can’t keep a grip on my grin anymore, and I can tell Bryn, at least, notices, because she lets out a snicker.
“You know what?” Izzy asks, locking her computer as she stands up. “I need another coffee anyway.”
As soon as she’s out the door, I pick up my laptop and slide into her computer chair, moving her keyboard aside to make room.
“You’re kinda a dick, you know that, right?” Bryn asks from across the room.
“Well aware,” I reply. “But I’m a dick with a desk.”
“Whose dick is as big as a desk?” JT Johnson asks as he and another hulking man push into the office, making the room go from full to overflowing.
“And I was told a burrito was too big for a dick,” Bryn’s boyfriend, Jameo, replies as he leans over my sister to kiss her cheek.
“Can we please stop talking about dicks?” I ask. “But before we do, there are a couple in this room, specifically the ones attached to annoying men, that could leave. You don’t even go here.”
“Come on, Kelsey.” JT sends his bright blue, puppy dog eyes my way. “It’s too cold to golf, and we already worked out. We’re bored.”
JT and Jameson are both professional golfers who’ve decided to call Wild Bluffs home recently. Even though I’d never admit it to Bryn, I’m glad my random birthday party at Wild Bluffs Country Club was the catalyst for my baby sister finding love.
“You should’ve thought of that before choosing such a boring career path,” I joke. I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but somehow JT and his assistant, Sam, have become two of my closest friends in the six months since JT moved into Jameo’s house and started dating Lila.
“Some people like professional athletes, Kels,” JT says.
I roll my eyes at the nickname, knowing he’ll just use it more if I say anything about it.
“Some people are idiots,” I shoot back.
“Hey!” both Lila and Bryn say.
I look between them. “I didn’t say you’re idiots. Just that some people are. That’s a fact.”
“When do you leave again?” Bryn asks. It’s her favorite joke these days.
“Not soon enough,” I say, giving my usual answer.
“Lila says you finalized the advance-team-planning, top-secret security stuff with Mitchell Security,” JT says.
I shoot my employee a glare for sharing work details with someone outside of work, but she just rolls her eyes.
“That’s literally all I told him. No sensitive information left my lips,” Lila says, defending herself.
“Do you want to murder Trent yet?” Bryn asks me from around Jameo’s large body as he leans against the folding table. I question its ability to hold a man his size but decide it’s not my problem.
“Surprisingly, no,” I say. “He’s responded quickly with good questions and suggestions.”
“That’s…odd,” Bryn replies. “Didn’t he basically flunk out of high school?”
I roll my eyes. “No. It’s more or less impossible to flunk out of Wild Bluffs High School. The teachers would never let you fall through the cracks completely. Plus, they needed him eligible for sports. Though he wasn’t the brightest bulb in the light store.”
“Maybe he just didn’t apply himself back then?” Becca chimes in for the first time since her office has been overrun by uninvited guests.
As I consider her question, I’m distracted by Becca’s long blonde hair, the dark strands more prominent now that it’s wintertime and she isn’t getting any natural highlights.
“Maybe,” I offer.
The truth is that I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the virtual version of Trent. I was worried about working together after he handed out assignments at the end of our meeting like I worked for him rather than with him, but that level of arrogance hasn’t been there in our emails.
“I’m a little worried about my mental space right now because I’m starting to kinda like the guy. He’s surprisingly witty in his emails.”
Five sets of eyes all turn toward me, whatever flirting or work they were doing before completely forgotten.
“What?” I ask.
“You know he’s married, right?” Bryn asks.
I roll my eyes. “I said he was witty, not that I wanted to steal him from his wife and have his babies.”
“You probably wouldn’t have to steal him from his wife to have his babies if he’s anything like his dad,” Bryn offers.
“Now who’s being a dick, Bryn?” I ask.
“Um, Wilson Mitchell?” she asks like the smart-ass she is.
“Wait,” JT says, tracking our conversation. “So Carter and Trent are…half brothers? Stepbrothers?”
“Half,” Bryn and I reply at the same time.
“Their dad knocked up two women within a few months of each other their senior year of high school. Ended up marrying the first one—Trent’s mom,” Bryn explains.
“Wilson never really claimed Carter and vice versa, but then in high school Carter legally changed his last name to Mitchell and was at least acknowledged by Wilson and the rest of the Mitchells.”
“Damn. Did he know Wilson was his dad the whole time?” JT asks.
“This is Wild Bluffs, JT,” I say. “What do you think?”
“So…he knew?”
“Carter and the rest of the town knew. It was never a secret,” I say.
“But what is less clear is why he changed his last name,” Bryn explains.
“The working theory in town is that when Carter started high school sports and it was clear he was at least as good, if not better, at football and basketball than golden-boy Trent, Wilson wanted the Mitchell name on his back as well. Most people think Wilson increased child support or something like that to get him to do it. There has never been any love lost between Carter and his dad.”
“Sperm donor,” I say.
“What?” JT asks.
“I was in both brothers’ class growing up. Carter always referred to Wilson as his sperm donor.”
“And Carter is the one I met last summer at your parents’ house, right?” JT asks. “The one with the huge crush on—”
“JT!” Lila cuts him off before he can finish, clearly trying to avoid the awkward conversation about Carter being interested in her.
Izzy—and the rest of the town, really—were trying to set Lila up with the single men they knew, and Carter happened to be the one Lila was supposed to meet at the party.
Somehow, JT managed to worm his way into the game, and Lila ended up partnered with him rather than Carter.
I’d like to say the rejection is what caused Carter to be so quiet during the game, but that’s how he’s always been.
I’d guess he’s not my biggest fan, but I honestly don’t know what I could’ve done to make him dislike me.
“But, yes. Carter is the one you met,” I reply to JT’s initial question. “Trent is blond and has a twenty-four-year-old wife on his arm.”
“And is there something particularly wrong with having a twenty-four-year-old wife?” JT asks with a raised eyebrow.
“Hey, you’re not married. And you’re not thirty-four.”
“JT’s cradle-robbing aside,” Becca cuts in, earning a glare from both JT and Lila.
“Long story short, Carter took the Mitchell name in high school before earning an ROTC scholarship to college, joining the Army Rangers, and never looking back…until his mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s a couple years ago.
He moved home and started working for Trent at the security firm Papa Mitchell handed off to his golden son about five years ago. ”
“And now you’re about to go spend six weeks cozied up next to him at the hottest concert of the year,” JT says.
“I don’t think you understand what I do for a living.”
JT shrugs. “Oh, I certainly don’t, though Lila has tried to explain it to me multiple times. But I bet you could find some time for cozying if you really put your mind to it.”
“I assure you there will be no cozying. It would be unprofessional on so many levels.”
“What about with Jaxon Steele?” Jameo asks.
It’s silent as we all stare at him.
“What? What did I miss?” he asks, looking from face to face.
I stare at him a bit longer, finally realizing he’s not going to put it together himself. “One, he’s my client, so no, I will not be cozying up to him. Two, with his history? No way. You couldn’t pay me enough money to wade into that hornet’s nest.”
I don’t share the fact that I’ve mixed business with pleasure once before, and it almost ended with me being cut out of my own business. Though from the look on my sister’s face, she’s thinking about my stupid ex and the indefensible decision I made a couple of years ago.
“Fine. Fine.” Jameo holds up his hands in surrender. “You’re going to have to explain it to me later,” he whispers to my sister.
I glare at him again, just in case he thinks I’m getting soft, while silently promising myself this opportunity will be different. There will be no mistakes or anything that might make me or KH Security appear anything other than highly competent and extremely professional.
JT taps his chin, feigning deep thought.
“Obviously Jaxon Steele is a bad idea, but I do think we’re onto something here.
Six weeks of traveling across the world?
Plus a week in Vancouver? I think you need to live it up a little.
Find someone to do some cozying up to. You’re so single, it’s painful—according to Sam!
Not me!” he says defensively when my glare deepens.
I lift my eyebrow and set my jaw in a way I know has made at least one man cry before.
JT continues anyway. “So find someone else on the tour. Or find some random from the crowd. Or at a local bar. Hell, I hear golf courses are great places to meet someone. I’m sure they have at least one of those in every city you’re in. Find someone. Have some fun.”
“You’re an idiot,” I say, though my mind starts turning at his suggestions.
Obviously, I’m not going to go around dating the people I’m working with.
I’d never risk my company or my reputation that way, but I could go out a couple of nights when there aren’t shows. Meet some new people. See what happens.
But then I’m reminded of how one moment of weakness, of how putting my trust in one wrong person, can make me lose everything I’ve worked so hard for, and I know I will spend the entire seven weeks focused on my business.