“Not any harder than being the oldest I’d imagine,” I told him.
“Anyway, you want her to work there, I’ve got your back. But let her work,” he warned. “Don’t bring her in if you just think this will be a way for you to get some control over her.”
“First of all,” I said with a laugh. “No one will ever have any kind of control over Willow Tate. Second of all, why wouldn’t I want her to work? She’s smarter than the five of us combined.”
“You love her,” he said.
“I hate her guts,” I lied. “But I’m about to get her fired from S&S, so I thought giving her a backup option would smooth things over a little.”
“Did you have to get her fired?” he asked, his tone sharper than it had been.
“Shultz senior called to warn me if I get the permits reinstated, he was firing her for gross negligence.” I blew out a heavy sigh. “What was I going to do? Pick one girl over hundreds of people’s jobs? “
“I think you might have grown up a little too much,” Luke said sadly. “Look, thanks for getting it done. I hope this works out for you.”
Yeah, I was pretty sure it wouldn’t.
* * * *
“You selfish, arrogant asshole!” Willow yelled.
“How did you even find me here?” I asked, walking past her out of Luke’s office.
“You got me fired,” she said, stomping her foot in apparent frustration.
“Yeah,” I agreed. I turned and handed Luke’s assistant, Roz, a folder. “Can you get copies of those sent to Doug at the site please?”
“Of course, Mr. Malloy,” she said, standing quickly as if hoping to make a fast escape.
I raised an eyebrow at that. Roz had never called me Mr. Malloy in my entire life. If she was trying to make me look good in front of Willow, it was sweet, but that ship had long since sailed.
“You’re late,” I told Willow, crossing my arms and glaring at her.
“What?” Her eyes widened, and she took a step back from me, her hand resting on her stomach. “What are you talking about?”
“I told you to be here last week. I told you to come work here. Your office is ready, and your assistant has been sitting at her desk for days with nothing to do.” I reached out and touched her arm. “Wills, why didn’t you come to me?”
“I don’t like who I am around you,” she admitted, hugging her arm across her stomach. “And I don’t know how to not be that way. You bring out the worst in me, Jamie. And I hate it.”
“We could try a different tactic,” I offered. “We could maybe…start over? Try being nice to each other?”
She made a gagging noise, and I laughed. Twenty-some years of animosity was hard to erase. But damn it, I actually wanted to try.
Roz came back as her phone started to ring. I motioned for Willow to take our conversation out into the hall but froze when I heard Roz say something about a wedding chapel.
“You want me to book a wedding chapel for you and Miss Moretti?” Roz met my gaze across the room. “No, Luke, I won’t call your family. But your mother will be very disappointed.”
I looked at Willow in shock. My asshole brother was about to get married without any of us there.
We both walked back to Roz’s desk the moment she hung up.
“Well?” I asked.
“What?” She glared at me. “He specifically asked that I not tell the Malloys what was happening. If you’ll excuse me, I have some calls to make.” She pointed at the chairs across from her desk with a wink.
So, Willow and I sat while Roz made calls and got my brother booked at the Paris Hotel wedding chapel. I thanked Roz, and we ran out, eager to get there and not miss the ceremony.
“I still can’t believe you got me fired,” Willow snapped as we headed down to the parking garage.
“Technically, you got yourself fired,” I told her. “You knew what would happen. You didn’t even get them pulled. You got them frozen.”
“Well, I needed more time than Shultz gave me, so yeah, I froze them until I got the right signatures to have them pulled.” She climbed into my car and slammed the door behind her.
“Whatever,” I said, getting behind the wheel. “Look, you can pretend to be pissed at me all you want. But we both know you were always going to end up here.”
“And where exactly is here?” she asked, her tone dangerous.
“At the family firm,” I answered. “Where you belong. Regardless of what happens between you and me, can you really deny you’re part of this family?”
“Nothing is happening between you and me, Jameson.”
The finality in her tone just made me want her more. Made me want her forever. For just a second, and I would never have admitted it to anyone, I wondered if I could con her into marrying me while we were already at the chapel.
Probably not. Besides, when I finally got Willow Tate down the aisle, I wanted her in the big white dress and I wanted all of our family and friends there. I’d need all the witnesses I could get.
Chapter Three
~ Willow I-Wish-I-Had-A-Clue Tate ~
Well, this wasn’t how I’d envisioned my first day of work with the Malloys. I hadn’t even been to my desk, and I was already in a wedding chapel. Granted, it wasn’t with me in a big white dress with Jamie staring adoringly at me, but at the moment, his eyes were devouring me, and it was making me hotter than I wanted to be—ever. I’d sworn off this man. He couldn’t keep making me tingling and wet.
Shifting my gaze from the infuriating ass, I refocused on the couple at hand. Despite his no family dictate, I think Luke was glad to have Jamie and me there. Laura was thrilled to have one of her closest friends in attendance. I was super glad
