“In your pea-head dreams, bro.” Laughing, I shake my head and reach for a pen on my messy desk.
A soft knock on the door makes me look up. Tori peeks in my office, and I have to force myself to not charge toward her and pin her to the wall for a kiss. “Hey, honey. What’s up?”
She gives me one of those smiles that sends prickles of heat all over my body. “Just wondering if y’all wanted some dinner. I know you’re waiting for that client, but I made some stew. I can bring it in here if you want.”
God, this woman.
Logan taps a pencil on the desk. “Actually, can you come in here a sec? I wanna ask a favor.”
Sighing, I sit back in my chair, wary of whatever harebrained idea my brother’s concocted.
“Sure.” She smiles hesitantly and sits in one of the chairs opposite my desk, next to my brother.
He motions toward the kitchen. “Joey’s still here, right?”
She nods, and he darts out of the room for a second and then returns, settling back into the chair. “Joey’s gonna watch the kids for a sec. Okay, so you see this mess?” He waves at the mountain of paperwork in front of me and the files behind me, stacked in precarious piles on the cabinet. “Think you can help us get organized in here?”
What the fuck?“Logan, really? What did wejusttalk about the other day?” I specifically told him he’s not allowed to ask her to do any more around here.
He jabs a finger on a pile of bills. “I said I wouldn’t give her more work on her current salary, and I’m not. I mean, not really. Hear me out.”
Turning back to Tori, he breaks out one of his flirty smiles that makes me want to punch him in his pretty face. “I was thinking that Ethan and I are great with the horses but shitty with organizing all of this, and we really need to get our act together before that court date this week. I’ve gathered our tax returns and supporting docs for our attorney, but we’ve been so overwhelmed with that and our clients, I’m afraid we’re gonna miss paying one of our vendors or a tax bill or the vet. Who knows? We have a million things we’re not on top of right now, and I generally leave all of this to Ethan, but he’s working at max capacity right now.”
Internally, I cringe, because he’s right. If I’m being honest, I could cut out the few hours of baseball Tori and I watch. Except, fuck, when will I ever get a break? Even after enjoying a few innings, I head back to the barn to get all the horses to bed if I haven’t yet. Yes, even horses get tucked in too. Some require blinders. Others might need blankets if it’s raining. All of them like a little soothing talk. A few scratches behind the ear. Some TLC.
She nods sympathetically. “Makes sense. You guys have your hands full. What would you need me to do?”
Logan practically wags his tail, he’s so pleased with himself. “You worked at a law firm for a while in college, right? You probably have some office experience we could use here.”
Her face is blank, and she licks her lips. “Yeah, I mean, I didn’t work there long, but I can organize your bills if that’s all you need.”
“Cool. Your sister mentioned it when she first brought up you working here, and I thought maybe some of those office skills might be handy right about now.”
“Oh.” She seems to breathe a sigh of relief but then furrows her brow and looks down at her hands. She swallows. “I, uh, I should tell you that I got fired from that job.”
Logan and I look at each other, and he lifts an eyebrow.Shit.
I rub my forehead again.This is what happens when I let my brother run the background check.Half-assed as usual.
Not that I’d change anything. Tori is amazing with the kids, and I’m pretty damn fond of her myself. She’s done nothing to make me question her character. Even that one argument we had when we met isn’t really her fault. Iwasbeing an asshole.
I almost smile at the memory. Her all feisty and pissed. I love her fiery side. It’s different than Allison’s rage, which is always mean and manipulative.
No, unless Tori stabbed a coworker with a letter-opener, I don’t care that they fired her. It’s their loss.
He clears his throat. “Mind if I ask why?”
She gives me a sheepish smile. “I told off my boss.”
I laugh. “Did he deserve it?”
“Of course. I think in legal speak it’s called sexual harassment, but everyone ignored his behavior. Boys will be boys and all that.”
“He harassed you?” I don’t disguise the anger in my voice. The thought of some fuckhead being disrespectful toward Tori makes me want to kick that loser’s ass.
“No, thank God. He was perving on his secretary who put up with his behavior. I called him out on it one day, and he had me fired for insubordination and a lack of professionalism.” Her eyes tilt down again, and pink tints her cheeks. “I was just a college student, and I couldn’t afford the kind of expensive clothes they expected me to wear. He used that against me. Said I didn’t uphold their standards, and since I was a lowly paper-pusher and he was a senior partner, no one cared what I had to say about any of it. But the real kick in the head is the secretary I stood up for denied anything shady happened because she was afraid of losing her job.”
“Oh, darlin’, I’m so sorry.”
