The Screwup: A Billionaire Fake Fiancée Romance (The Holbrook Cousins Saga Book 2)

by Alina Jacobs

  Be careful, Allie wanted to call after Liz, but she wondered if that might give away the secret she was hiding about Bryce.

  He phone buzzed. She knew it was probably a text message from Bryce. She looked at the message and frowned.

  "What's wrong?" Carter asked.

  "Nothing," she said and pushed him back on the bed, kissing him.

  A few weeks after the crash, she finally worked up the nerve to look through the messages from Bryce.

  Saw you on the news

  I am going to end you

  You destroyed me

  She slammed the laptop closed. She knew he had stalker behavior, but what else could she do? Restraining orders didn't work against people like Bryce. Allie decided to put it out of her mind. Bryce isn't a killer, she thought. Is he?

  54

  Carter

  After the boat crash, Carter tried to spend as much time with Allie as he could. He wasn't sure what he was waiting for—maybe something more than gratitude. He had saved her, after all! Wasn't that the grand gesture girls wanted?

  "Have you recovered from your ordeal?" Grant asked him one evening over drinks.

  Carter usually tried to wait around to escort Allie to her apartment, but she always seemed very uncomfortable on the walk to her building, as if she was nervous someone would see them.

  "I guess."

  "You're a hero!"

  "Not really. I just saved Allie," Carter said, swirling the last sip of his cocktail around in the glass.

  "That's still something," Grant said, handing the waiter his credit card.

  "She doesn't seem to think so."

  "She doesn't strike me as the type to dwell," Grant said, finishing the rest of his drink and leaning back in his chair. "I'm sure she's grateful, but I think you probably need more than gratitude to base a longstanding relationship on. It's probably one more thing on her list of insecurities. Sometimes a near-death experience will shake someone's very foundation. If she did start throwing herself at you, I would say be very concerned."

  "I just want—"

  "You want her to want you. I understand. It was rough with Kate; neither of us had the best communication skills."

  That night as he curled around Allie in her stuffy apartment, he wondered what he should do. He wanted to win her, but he remembered what Grant had said in the Hamptons about staying in a holding pattern until Allie was offered a job and felt more secure. He just couldn't shake the feeling that there was something more than worry about her job. It felt as if she was hiding something from him.

  He gritted his teeth; he needed to talk to Stacy.

  "Oh, what a surprise!" Stacy shrieked when Carter went to his grandfather's condo the next morning. She hugged him and kissed him on the mouth.

  Carter tensed up and pushed her away. "I’m here about Allie."

  Stacy pouted. "You didn't come to see lil' ol' me?"

  Carter didn't say anything.

  "Fine. Come inside!" Stacy said, batting her eyelashes.

  "I would prefer to stay here in the hallway," he said firmly.

  She sulked.

  "What can you tell me about Allie? Why is she being so cold with me? What's her deal? I need everything you know about her."

  Stacy puckered her lips and widened her eyes. Carter wondered if she thought that was a sexy thinking face or something.

  "Well," she said slowly. "Her old boyfriend is back in the picture. Bryce. She and him were so in love!"

  "Didn't he stalk her and she stuck a gun in his face?" Carter said in disbelief.

  "It was passion!" Stacy said, clasping her hand to her chest. "You don't understand how much they loved each other, how much they still love each other. He was injured in Iraq and had a mental breakdown, but now he's healthy and back in her life. He's trying to win her, and she'll let him. She is a very emotional person."

  "Allie?" Carter said, feeling sick.

  "She's not showing you her true self, Carter. Not like me," Stacy purred, reaching out to run a hand down his chest.

  She grabbed for his hand, and he yanked it away. Stacy made a sexy face and pulled her phone out from her bra and showed him a picture.

  "This is Bryce." The man in the picture was handsome and blond with a strong jaw and a blue-collar, country vibe around him. He was the exact opposite of Carter. If that was Allie's type, he was sorely lacking.

  "He's gorgeous, isn't he?" Stacy said with a laugh.

  Carter stewed over Stacy's comments on the way back to the office. Could it be true that Allie was getting back together with her old flame? He wished he could find better confirmation besides Stacy. Carter didn't exactly trust Allie's old roommate.

  But then again, maybe that was why Allie was so insistent that they be friends and not in a romantic relationship.

  He brooded over the conversation with Stacy the rest of the week. As he spent time with Allie, he started to notice little things that confirmed what Stacy had said. The way Allie seemed guilty when she went through her emails, the way she kept her phone flat on the table or close to her chest as if she were playing a hand of poker.

  By that Friday when the Holbrook Enterprises internship program officially ended, Carter had worked himself up into a frenzy.

  In the auditorium, Monique stood before them. "The internship program is at an end. Thank you all for your hard work. As far as the project competition, Carter, Allie, and Liz win. They not only created a template, but they also discovered embezzling going on in one of our subsidiaries. Great job, you all!"

  "So is that it?" Carter asked as they went back to their desks.

  "We're going to hear about job offers Monday," Liz said.

  "I wonder if they'll hire me," Carter mused.

  "Carter, your family owns the company. They're probably going to give you some management position that you aren't even qualified for," Liz retorted.

  Carter felt slightly ashamed.

  "What about you?" Liz asked Allie.

  "This is not the only iron I have in the fire," she told them, packing up her stuff. "I have to finish submitting paperwork for my degree program."

  "What's going to happen?" Carter asked Grant when he saw him at dinner that night with their family.

  Grant gave him a blank look. "What do you mean? You're working at the company, starting Monday."

  "Doing what?"

  "I have to figure that out before I can give you a definitive answer."

  Nancy raised her glass. "A toast to Carter! You finished the program!"

  "And you won the project competition," Kate said as they all clinked glasses.

  "I didn't do a lot. It was Allie and Liz. Mainly Allie—it was her idea."

  "I hope we aren't losing her," Walter said, pointedly looking at Grant.

  "I know she had interviews at other places," Carter said.

  Grant smiled. "I have a very generous offer. I'm meeting with her tomorrow about it."

  55

  Allie

  At the interviews at the other companies Allie had applied with, the hiring managers were impressed with her work at Holbrook.

  "I'm officially graduating in a couple of weeks with a double major," she informed them.

  Allie used her work on the Halcion Drone project as her capstone paper.

  "That should do it," she said, double-checking her paper and hitting send. That was that—she was officially done.

  She had received a calendar invite to meet with Grant that evening. She wondered if it was about Carter or a job offer. As she dressed in a sleek black cocktail dress she had borrowed from Liz, she thought about what she wanted for her future. For the first time, her horizon seemed bright and exciting. It was also a little bit scary.

  Allie didn't know if she wanted to stay at Holbrook Enterprises. She assumed the company would offer her a position doing what she had been doing, and that sounded fine, she supposed.

  But as Liz had said, Carter would be offered a big promotion. What if he was her boss? No, it wo
uld be too complicated; she would have to take a job at another company. But she was still waiting to hear back from some of the places she had applied. If Holbrook made her a halfway decent offer, could she really afford to turn it down?

  Grant was waiting at the bar of the fancy Japanese restaurant when she walked in.

  "Good evening, Allie," he said, buttoning his suit jacket as he stood up.

  "May I ask what this is about?" she said after they had been seated at a table near a window.

  "I'm going to be a bit blunt, if you don't mind. What's going on between you and Carter? Tell me honestly."

  She smiled bitterly. Of course this was what this meeting was about.

  "No, you misunderstand me," Grant said when he saw her expression. "I’m asking if you can work with him or if he's going to drive you crazy and I'm going to have a sexual harassment suit on my hands."

  "Well," she said, leaning over the table. "You should be talking to Carter. I'm not the one who can't control myself. You want my professional opinion? Carter should not be my boss. He will probably want to continue sleeping with me. I will probably sleep with him. To avoid sexual harassment, accusations of favoritism, or what have you, Carter should not be my manager."

  Grant help up a hand. She glared at him. She despised Holbrooks.

  "I'm not asking him to be your boss. I'm asking if you can run a team that Carter is on."

  She sat back, confused.

  Grant smiled at her and pulled out a packet of papers.

  "We would like for you to work as a director of a new division, targeting operations and quality control in these new companies that we're buying. I want you to build off the work you started during the internship. Ideally, I would like for you to lead a team that consists of Carter, Liz, and whatever other personnel you need."

  "I… well… I… yes, I think that could work," she said after a moment and a generous sip of wine.

  Grant opened the folder and pointed to the top sheet. "This is what we are prepared to offer you." The six-figure number swam before her eyes.

  She almost opened her mouth to immediately accept but then recalled a book she read about negotiating.

  "I'll do it—"

  "Great!" Grant smiled, holding out a hand for her to shake.

  "For twenty percent more," she concluded.

  He gave her an odd look. Had she pressed too hard? Then Grant smiled.

  "I really like you. Done," he said, and they shook hands. Grant wrote the new number on the sheet and signed it.

  "I'll have a revised offer for you Monday. You can come in early and sign."

  The waiter brought the first course.

  Suddenly feeling lightheaded, she took a bite of the sushi and said, "Tell me what you're envisioning."

  "I like the way the three of you worked together," Grant said. "It's efficient and effective. Maybe you and Liz can create small teams to seek out problem spots guerilla style. You've seen that our risk-management department is lacking."

  "You've been growing quickly, and we need to make sure that with that growth, our quality of product and service isn't affected," she replied.

  Grant took a bite of his food and chewed thoughtfully. Then he said, "Don't sue me, but I also wanted you around because I think you're a good influence on Carter. He can be flakey in the best of times."

  "Don't sell him too short," she said.

  That earned her a warm smile.

  "Won't your family be upset with me doing this?" she asked since they were getting personal.

  "Honestly? I don't care. My father wants effective employees, which you clearly are. You're like a machine."

  She felt a rush of pride.

  "One more thing," Grant said. "You need to quit that bartending job. I'm giving you a huge raise. There's no need for you to be tending bar—it makes us look bad."

  She nodded.

  "Take a little break tomorrow," he said at the end of the meal. "It gets real on Monday."

  She shook his hand again as they stood up from the table.

  "Thank you," she told him, sincerely meaning it.

  "Thank you!" he replied. "Also, don't be so hard on Carter. He really likes you, and I think you're good for him."

  When she was safely alone in her apartment, she slumped down on the floor, not knowing how to feel. She looked at her offer letter. It was a bigger salary than anything she'd ever had, by several orders of magnitude.

  She could rent a bigger apartment. Maybe she could actually buy something of her very own!

  "Calm down," she told herself. "Don't go crazy. You haven’t even received the first paycheck. Maybe they don’t even want you."

  There was just one thing. She wasn't sure if she could stay in the relationship or whatever it was she had with Carter, especially not with the promotion. People in the firm probably already knew something was up. Grant Holbrook clearly knew. But she didn't want people to think that she'd slept her way to a fat paycheck and a fancy title. Even if she hurt Carter, she couldn't afford to hurt her career.

  But Grant had said not to ruin her working relationship with Carter. Instead of a devastating breakup, she should just quietly let it fizzle out.

  Monday was a whirlwind. She signed the paperwork, and then she, Liz, and Carter moved their things to their new work area.

  "I can't believe this!" Liz said and flopped on the couch in their area. "This is so awesome!"

  "Too bad there's still the couple's shower and the rest of the wedding planning," Allie said.

  Liz groaned. "Don’t remind me. You're ruining my good mood."

  "Did I hear someone say wedding?" Grant said as he and Kate walked into the room.

  "Do I really have to go to this couple's shower party?" he asked Kate.

  "It's Southern themed!" Liz piped up. "It's actually going to be a lot of fun, I think."

  "Now remember," Grant told them, "this is not a cushy job where you just lounge around and spend money. We need results."

  "Yes, of course," Allie said firmly.

  "I'm not really talking to you. This is more for—well, really only for Carter."

  "Hey!" Carter protested. "I can do stuff."

  "You'd better!"

  56

  Carter

  When Grant returned from his dinner with Allie, he sat Carter down.

  "We're giving you a position in operations," Grant said.

  "What about Allie?"

  Grant smirked. "She's going to be your boss."

  Carter was taken aback.

  Grant explained, "She's going to be running a new division, and you and Liz will be a part of it. Do you think you can handle that?"

  Carter nodded.

  "So," Grant said, standing up to pour them celebratory drinks, "what are you going to do about Allie?"

  "I, uh… nothing?"

  "You need to make it work with her somehow. You two are all over the news. People in the company know about your relationship."

  "So?"

  "So it needs to be legitimate, or at least look that way," Grant replied, handing Carter a glass with a sip of whisky in it.

  How ironic, Carter thought as he and Grant clinked glasses. His fake relationship now had to be fake again.

  This was it, though, the moment he had been waiting for. Wasn't it? To pursue her for real?

  He stewed over it the next few days. Allie maintained a professional relationship and gave no hint that she wanted something more with Carter.

  On the Friday before Brandy and Fernando's couple shower, Carter ran into Vance in the hall.

  "Congratulations on the promotion," he said.

  "So you're staying at the company too?"

  "Of course. Sales, you know," Vance replied.

  "So no hard feelings?" Carter asked after a too-long pause.

  "None at all," Vance said, gripping Carter's hand tightly, and walked off.

  People were acting really strangely, Carter thought. Maybe it was because summer was almost over. It almost felt
like fall as he and Allie drove to New Cardiff.

  "I’m so tired of Brandy and her wedding," Carter said.

  "No kidding," Allie replied.

  Her phone beeped.

  "Have a suitor I don't know about?" Carter asked.

  She gave him a strange look. "When would I have time for that?"

  "Never mind," Carter said.

  He took them both to the Holbrook estate.

  "I'm meeting with your mom about the engagement party," she told him as he turned off the car.

  While he waited for Allie to finish with her meeting, he took Margot on a walk. Setup for the couple's shower had already begun, he saw.

  "Are you ready to go to Liz's?" he asked when Allie and Nancy came out of the study.

  "Why would she go over to Liz's?" Nancy said. "We're having a celebratory dinner tonight, since you and Allie are now gainfully employed."

  "Oh, I don't want to intrude," Allie said.

  "Nonsense. You're Carter's girlfriend. You're staying for dinner."

  Carter grimaced. It seemed Grant was taking it upon himself to push Carter and Allie together.

  "Sorry," he said to Allie after his mother went to take a phone call. "Not that I don't want you to be my girlfriend for real—"

  "Let's talk about this later," Allie said and walked off to help Stefan with the dinner.

  Carter sulked through dinner. Harris was there and had brought Stacy, which didn't improve his mood.

  What had she meant, 'we'll talk about this later'? She had a well-paying job. She could probably rent a better apartment. Why was she still rebuffing him?

  In the middle of the dinner conversation, Stacy looked at him then looked meaningfully at Allie. Could it be true? Could her indecisiveness not be because of finances but because of her old boyfriend? Carter didn't want to trust Stacy, but maybe she was telling the truth about Allie.

  57

  Allie

  Allie woke up bright and early the next morning to sounds of trucks pulling up in front of the estate. Carter, lying next to her, pulled the covers up over his head.