Thank you
Hitting send, Icleaned up my desk and made a few notes about the details I needed to send toMichael later. But before I could put everything away and find out where Austinhad wandered off to, another email popped up.
Opening Michael’s response, I almost fellout of my chair.
Liar. A pool partyis not a meeting. But it sounds like I’ll be able to get those details soonerthan you thought.
“Fuck.” Taking abreath, I looked up. “Austin.”
He danced back into the room, all smilesuntil he saw the look on my face. “What?”
“Who did you invite to the party today?” Ithought I already knew that answer, but I was going to walk through itlogically.
He didn’t question why, thankfully. “Justthe regular group plus Simon. I was easing him into the insanity. Even Clay isn’tgoing to be able to stay because he has the afternoon off.”
“What did you say Simon did for a living?He’s some kind of computer programmer, right?” Wasn’t that different thansomeone who built websites? Dakota had said that when he’d needed his sitebuilt, he’d needed to find someone who specialized in building websites.
Austin paused his wiggling and thought fora moment. “Simon says he’s boring and said something about programming. Shanesaid Simon works from home and consults for several different companies.”
That was it?
“Look at this response from the websiteguy.” I pointed to the screen as I moved my chair back so Austin could see.
His eyes got big as he read the simplemessage, then he started laughing. “That’s fabulous. We can keep it in thefamily and if he does something insane, we’ll tell his mother he was mean tous.”
There was some logic in that, but it wasn’twhat I was focused on at the moment.
“How long do you think he’s known?” Had hebeen messing with me from the beginning?
Austin shrugged but still lookedthoughtful. “I’d have to guess we gave it away when we talked to him onThursday night. My computer guy wouldn’t have told him it was us without lettingme know. He values his freedom too much to piss me off.”
The easygoing way he said that didn’t makeit any less disturbing.
“I’m not even going to guess what you meantby that.” I was trying to find my footing when Austin spoke up again.
“When did you last email him before this?”He was probably connecting the dots. He’d known me long enough to get inside myhead fairly easily.
“Thursday. Early evening. I meant to returnhis email earlier than this, but there was too much going on.” I let my headrest back on the chair. “He didn’t seem to know when we first startedemailing.”
“He probably didn’t.” Austin reached up andstroked a hand over my head. “My friend said he was going to pass along theemail address we gave him and to let him know the basics of what we need. Youknow, public side and private side kind of things. He said that we would be theones to give details and to decide when to give personal information.”
Austin sounded so sure of that, I foundmyself relaxing. “He wouldn’t have lied to you?”
Austin gave me a smile that would have madeany bad guy shiver. “No, I made my views on privacy very clear when we firststarted working together.”
He was scary sometimes.
“Alright.” I pointed to the screen. “Whatdo we do now?”
Austin snorted. “Tell the smart-ass he’snow in charge of bringing beer for everyone. If he’s taking side jobs likethis, then he has to bring more than just dessert.”
Laughing, I shook my head but reachedforward to hit the button, replying to the email.
The drama queensays you’re now in charge of beer too. No cheap shit and bring enough foreveryone. And don’t think you can get away with not bringing dessert either.
In seconds areply popped up. I had a feeling he’d been waiting to see how angry we were.Austin laughed.
I know how to dishout a punishment so I guess it’s only fair if I take one too. See you in a few.
