I dropped my head to my desk. “Mr. Dixon was wrong. I am in a long-term relationship.”
“I beg your pardon?” I looked up. He appeared as serious as always. “I’m here because I only surround myself with the best. And you give me a raise whenever I ask.”
Was that a compliment? Gerard didn't throw those around very often, if ever. He was brutally honest, which I appreciated. Finesse was one thing. Sugar-coating was another.
“Are you asking now?”
“Are you offering?”
I’d always liked that he went after what he wanted. I waved my hand toward the door. “Refer the man out there to somebody else.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Stop calling me sir.”
Gerard did a little bow before he left.
I logged into the payroll system and bumped his salary up another thousand bucks a month.
Chapter Thirteen
Marlow
“You don’t have to do this.”
I lifted my gaze to Holt from my position on the floor where I’d been for the last half hour.
“I know I don’t,” I said acidly, then winced at my abrasiveness.
My head throbbed. Muscles I didn’t know I had ached. And I didn’t want to talk to anyone.
“Heard dinner last night didn’t go well.” He slid down the wall and sat beside me.
“One day you’ll all learn to stop inviting me.”
“Is that what you want?”
I hugged my knees to my chest. Should have been an easy answer. It wasn’t.
“Not now.”
“Have I always annoyed you?”
I jerked my head toward him. “Pretty much. But don’t take it personally. Andrew aggravates the hell out of me too.”
I was the oldest sibling. The only girl in the house growing up. The only one in our family until recently. Sometimes I wondered if that was why I didn’t have the emotions most women did. Because I hadn’t really been around any for most of my life.
But my brothers and father had that something I didn’t. They were empathetic. I was just . . . angry.
He fiddled with a piece of string hanging off his sleeve. “She showed up over at Ed’s again.”
The she was no doubt our mother. Ed owned the garage Holt worked for before deciding to go on his own.
The anger that was my best friend intensified. How dare she bother my baby brother?
“What do you mean again?”
“The first time she wanted me to have dinner with her. Gave me her number and everything.”
Please don't ever let him fall for the same load of crap I did.
“Yeah? What’d you say?”
“I threw the card out after she left. Didn’t see her again until she showed up in Wyoming.”
I should’ve known that. Holt was smarter than I was and definitely had better instincts.
“I thought that’s what you had wanted.” I propped my chin on my arms.
“She didn’t mention it to you?”
“Does it sound like she did?”
He hefted out a sigh. “Would it be so hard to just answer the question? You don’t have to treat me like I’m an idiot.”
“No. She never said a word.” I softened my tone. Bark. That seemed to be the only way I knew how to react to anything. I’d always been blunt, but this bad habit had only gotten worse since—not now. “For the record, what she did to you, saying that man was your father, was shitty.”
“You seem confident that he wasn’t.”
I stared at him incredulously. “Out of the three of us, you’re the most like Dad. Sure, he and Andrew look more alike, but you’ve got his heart. And his smile.”
His lips parted. “I do?”
I punched him in the arm. “Don’t tell me you never noticed.” I made a hand over the goods gesture. “Give me your phone. Show me a picture of the two of you.”
He didn’t have to scroll long before he found one. At the bar before all hell broke loose during our brother’s wedding weekend.
“See.” I held it up.
He scrutinized it for a minute. “We do, don’t we?”
He grinned at me. It reminded me so much of when he was a kid and I let him tag along to the movies with my friends.
“You should listen to your sister. She knows what she’s talking about.”
He took his phone back, studied it a little longer before returning it to his pocket.
I bumped his shoulder with mine. “You really never noticed?”
He shook his head. “Seems kinda hard to miss now that you point it out.”
“Ya think?”
“I should get back to it. One more day and I should be finished with the bathroom remodel.” He stood and dusted off his jeans.
“Give me a key. I want to come early to beat all the commuters.”
“I’ll get one made. Bring it to you tomorrow. What time do you think you want to get here?”
“Six thirty. Sevenish.”
He scratched the back of his neck. “You could stay with us. So you don’t have to make the trek.”
I blinked at him. That was a big offer, especially considering how strained things had been between us. I could learn a lesson in easy forgiveness from my brother.
“I’m sure your fiancée would be thrilled.” I deflected, the only thing I knew to do with the emotion swirling inside me.
He held out a hand and pulled me to my feet.
“As long as you don’t speak, I think it would be okay.” He chucked my chin. “She likes Blake.”
“How could she not?” I winked at him, and he laughed. “I can’t make it next Tuesday.”
“You don’t have to report to me.”
I shrugged. “Didn’t want you to think I flaked out on you.” I had so much to prove to him. The last thing I wanted to do was let him down.
“What do you have going on?”
“Group of other military wives,” I said quickly.
“You go to a support group?”
“No,” I said as if offended. “It’s an excuse for a liquid lunch.”
“Gotcha.” I sensed his disappointment, which I didn't like, but did nothing to dissipate. “It’s getting late. Go get Blake so you can beat all the commuters going your way.”
“I have a little more I want to finish up.”
Concern shaped
