“Not for another hour,” Carter laughed. “You can stay here and beg for attention.”
“Good!” That’s what friends were for—sympathy when you were a moron.
CHAPTER 3
Garrett
“What do you mean you plead the fifth? I just asked if he was making the furniture for the new club. He came in today and it was…odd.” It had taken three phone calls before Ben had picked up the phone. Garrett was going to be late for his meeting. With the damned thing being in his conference room that wasn’t going to make him look good.
“Well, I can’t tell you why I can’t tell you.” Ben’s slow Southern drawl made Garrett want to reach through the phone and strangle him. Hearing the noise and music from the club in the background didn’t help either. It had been ages since he’d had time to go up.
“What the fuck!”
“No need for that kind of language.” Garrett could hear Conner losing his mind laughing in the background. “We made some promises to some of oursubcontractorsabout privacy, that’s all.”
Privacy? “They’re subcontractorsnot submissiveswhy would they need privacy! Especially from their insurance agent!”
There was a long pause on the other end of the phone and if it weren’t for the laughter and occasional “Hush, Conner” he would have thought he’d lost the call. What had he said that—
“He’s a sub! From the club?”
More laughter and noise came from the other end of the phone. “Conner, hush, he doesn’t care if that rhymes. Sorry, Garrett, he was good this week and got permission to have a couple of drinks. They’ve gone right to his head. Now what were we saying? Oh, right. You’re going to be a good agent and send any paperwork a customer requests, without asking me things I can’t answer.”
He was a sub. Things were starting to make more sense.
“If you’ve promised someone privacy, I can’t ask you to break that. Club guidelines officially list respecting members’ privacy as a primary rule of the group.” Garrett tried to word that as carefully as he could.
Evidentlyit was enough, because Ben chuckled. “Very true. Listen, I have to go. He’s trying to talk me into another drink and if I don’t keep an eye on him he’s going to be dancing on the tables again. Naughty boy. Keep that up and you’re not going to get spanked tonight!” The smile in his voice, and the odd nature of the threat, didn’t make it sound very terrifying.
“Have fun. I have a meeting I need to get to.”
“Oh, I’m going to have fun. You should too. Maybe go buy furniture or something.” Then the infuriating man hung up.
“Go buy furniture…” Garrett was still mumbling and trying to work through everything he’d learned and everything that he hadn’t learned when he walked back to the conference room. What Ben hadn’t said was just as interesting now that Garrett wasn’t tempted to kill him.
He was still trying to figure out what to do next when he walked into the conference room. Normally, he didn’t mind meeting with everyone. It was only one Friday a month and he liked getting together with his family. Today, though, he wasn’t in the mood to deal with anything.
It would have been too much to ask for Calen to have kept his mouth shut.
As soon as Garrett stepped into the room, Calen called out. “So what did you find out from Ben and Conner? The little one is more than meets the eye, isn’t he?”
How many beers had he consumed?
Of course, that was too much for his nosey family. Just enough of a tease to make the hounds smell blood. Or in this case, good gossip. Between his three brothers and an assortment of office managers, the room was packed. They all started talking but Brent was the closest to the door and the least likely to say something obnoxious, so Garrett focused on him.
“Everything okay at the club?” Brent was always calm and had this feeling about him that you could depend on him. Garrett always found him the easiest of his brothers to talk to.
“Yeah, I had a question about some insurance for the new one they’re opening and talking to them was frustrating.” That was an understatement but Garrett knew if he went into more detail it would just lead to endless questions.
“Were they already at the club?” Brent looked nearly as jealous as Garrett felt. They’d all been working too hard lately and hadn’t taken nearly enough time off. Maybe in the next couple weeks he could make everyone take a weekend off and they could all go up.
“Yeah, Conner was already three sheets to the wind as a reward.” That part had honestly been funny so Garrett’s smile was genuine.
Brent laughed and leaned back in his chair, ignoring everyone else. “Was he on the table already?”
“Just about. Ben had to hang up and go chase him down. That’s why I’m running late.”
“Conner probably needed the stress relief. I know with the second club going up he’s been under a lot of pressure to keep things on schedule.” Brent frowned and shook his head. “With that, plus his normal projects he’s probably bouncing off the walls.”
