Brother’s Best Friend

by Kaylee, Katy

  “Good morning,” one of the young women who answered phones for us on a part-time basis said with a flirty smile.

  “Good morning. It’s nice to see you,” I replied.

  I stopped to adjust one of the huge framed posters on the wall of the hallway. It was a picture of me, washed in red. The hall was lined with similar pictures of me in my own designs. It was part of the image. I needed people to see me wearing the clothes I had created. I had been modeling the latest fashion trends for years, and my goal was to shift the trend to my designs.

  “Ready to get to work,” Dakota Mills said, walking toward me.

  “I’m always working.”

  He smirked. “It looked like you were flirting with the help. Take it from me, you don’t want to do that,” he said.

  I nodded, understanding what he was referring to. His pale blue eyes had been one of the things that had catapulted him to the top in the world of modeling. Few guys with his dark skin tone had light eyes. It made him almost instantly famous until one day, a single rumor from a jilted woman ruined his career.

  “Not flirting. What’s on the agenda today?” I asked him, resuming my walk to my large office at the end of one of the curved halls.

  The space looked futuristic. It was a little weird, but it was certainly unforgettable. Glass walls, curves instead of straight boring hallways, and lots of pictures in bright colors. The white stone floors made it look a lot bigger than it was. It was an illusion—just like modeling. Beautiful people were rarely as beautiful as they appeared on the magazines and billboards. A little lighting, a little creative camerawork by a skilled photographer, and the glorious magic of Photoshop and everyone could be beautiful.

  “We need to figure out the situation with the manufacturer,” he said as I pushed open the wide door to my office.

  My office was the only one besides Dakota’s that had the luxury of privacy blinds. I liked the idea of an open concept, but I also didn’t like everyone looking at me all day.

  Dakota closed the door behind us. I moved to the vertical blinds, closing them to give us a little privacy as we discussed a situation that tended to piss me off. “Is it figured out?” I asked, taking my seat behind the metal and glass desk that went with the modern design theme.

  “No.”

  “Shit,” I groaned, running a hand through my short hair.

  “We’ll get it figured out,” he assured me in his calm voice like he always did when I started to get stressed out.

  “We better—”

  “I got one!” Carolina Mills, Dakota’s younger sister, exclaimed as she burst into my office.

  “You got what? An STD?” Dakota teased.

  She gave him a dirty look with eyes that were identical to his. “You’re such an asshole.”

  “What did you get, Carolina?” I asked, not really in the mood for games.

  “I found our new head of the marketing department,” she proclaimed with a great deal of pride.

  Dakota looked at me, then his little sister. “Marketing department? How can we have a head of marketing when we don’t even have a marketing department?”

  “Shut up. Why do you insist on raining on my parade?” She glared, flopping down on the red leather couch in my office. She crossed her long slender legs and folded her arms across her chest in the perfect pout.

  “I’m asking a valid question,” he retorted.

  The brother-and-sister duo had both been models. It was how we all knew each other. When I talked with them about my idea of getting into the industry as a designer, they fully supported me and were more than willing to come on board—even if it was a sinking ship.

  “I don’t care what you call the person. You can call the position ‘head of fucking selling Jax’s fucking shit’ or ‘marketing czar’—I don’t give a shit what title the guy has. Who is he?” I snapped.

  Carolina smiled at me. “Our new marketing head is a recent graduate of a prestigious program at the University of Wisconsin’s flagship school, top of the class,” she answered.

  That caught my attention. I had attended the same school. “And?” I asked, rolling my arm to get her to keep talking. She was being purposely coy, something she was somewhat known for. She loved a good entrance and the dramatic pause to heighten interest in a story she was telling.

  “And our new head of marketing had a flawless GPA, and the references for not one but three internships were glowing. Apparently, our newest addition spearheaded a capstone project that was actually adopted by the company. It increased their revenue by seventeen percent,” she said, her smile bright.

  “Really? That’s impressive,” I said, looking at Dakota, who also looked surprised by the long list of accolades.

  “Really.”

  “How are we affording someone with that kind of a resume? You do know we are kind of struggling to get on our feet here,” Dakota lectured. “We can’t offer to pay a newbie a big salary.”

  Carolina grinned. “Because this new hire has never actually held a job and is still wet behind the ears. She’s fresh out of school and looking for that first job. The marketing world is serious business. Just because she graduated at the top of her class in her small school doesn’t mean she competes with the graduates from the bigger, more prestigious schools. She hasn’t technically proven herself in the real world, and that is going to be a big deal for a lot of other companies out there,” she explained.

  “She?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

  Carolina nodded her head. “Yes, she.”

  “Isn’t it a little risky to hire someone with no experience?” Dakota questioned. “I mean, why are we the guinea pigs taking a chance on her?”

  “Yes and no. It means we get to train her the way we like things done. We already know she’s got some good ideas. We just need to capitalize on her talents and mold her into the marketing manager we need. We have a good shot at inspiring loyalty by giving her her first big break,” Carolina reasoned.

  I had to agree with her. We were a young company. I wanted fresh faces and new ideas. The fashion industry tended to get stale until someone came along and shook things up. I wanted to be the one shaking things up. A new, unproven team was one way to do that. We were the underdogs in the cutthroat world of fashion design, and people liked to root for the underdog.

  “All right, so when does this new person start?” I asked, eager to meet this wonder woman.

  “She should be here any minute,” Carolina answered. “I’ll bring her in when she arrives.”

  She got up and left the room, giving her brother one last snappy look, obviously proud of herself and wanting to rub it in his face a little. I just hoped she got that chance and her idea to take a chance on a newbie didn’t blow up in her face and ultimately mine.

  With Carolina out of the office, Dakota looked at me, shaking his head. “What do you think?”

  I shrugged. “I think Carolina knows what she’s doing.”

  “A young, wet-behind-the-ears young woman could be risky. I hope the salary Carolina offered isn’t too high. We can’t afford to go broke paying someone who doesn’t have a clue what she’s doing. You have to realize the risk involved,” he muttered.

  “We’ll keep an eye on things. Right now, we need to iron out the details with that manufacturer,” I told him, steering the conversation back to our original topic.

  We talked for a few minutes before I heard a soft knock on my office door. Dakota and I exchanged a look. “She’s knocking?” Dakota asked.

  “Obviously. Come in,” I shouted out.

  “Hi, guys. Our new hire is here,” Carolina announced in a sweet voice that was nothing like her usual tone.

  Dakota and I both got to our feet, knowing it was a woman and wanting to be respectful. I waited, my eyes dropping down to the tablet on my desk that had lit up with the announcement of a new email. I heard the footsteps on the floor and looked up. My eyes widened and my mouth dropped open. No fucking way.

  “Penny Lo
gan,” I breathed out the name.

  She was staring at me. The look on her face revealed her horror at seeing me stand before her. I hadn’t expected to see her again. I kind of hoped I wouldn’t see her again. The last time I had seen her, she’d been sound asleep in the bed in her dorm room. I had taken her virginity and escaped before I had to talk to her in one of those awkward morning-after conversations.

  She was more beautiful now than what I remembered. Her raven hair was thick and just past her shoulders. I distinctly remembered the way it had smelled and how silky it had felt between my fingers. Her dark blue eyes were wide, staring at me. Her features were the same, but her figure was more womanly with more defined curves on her petite frame. I took in her outfit, a smart pantsuit with modest heels and minimal makeup. I remembered she’d always been a little on the conservative side, rarely cussing and always had a kind word for anyone she met.

  Memories came flooding back from a time I worked very hard to try and forget. It had not been one of the best years of my life. I involuntarily reached up and touched a finger to my nose. It hadn’t healed after she broke it. The crooked nose had become my trademark, a lot like Owen Wilson’s crooked nose.

  That broken nose had changed my life and led me to where I was today. To see her standing in my office as the new head of marketing for my company was mind-blowing. I had no words. I was shocked. Speechless.

  Fate had a very funny way of messing with me.

  2

  Penny

  I stared at the man I had hated for more than a thousand days. I had quit counting after three years. There was a weird buzzing noise in my head, like I had grown a beehive in my brain at some point in the past ten seconds. I looked at Carolina, saw her lips moving, but struggled to hear what she was saying over the buzzing in my head.

  My eyes moved back to Jax, standing there, looking perfectly handsome, staring back at me with a dumbfounded look on his face. He was the boss. How did I not know that? It was clear he was the man in charge from where he stood near the desk and the way Carolina and the other man in the room, who bore a striking resemblance to Carolina, were looking to him. Jax freaking Michaels was my new boss!

  Cheese and rice! I had to be caught in a nightmare. That was the only explanation. Some people had nightmares about going to class naked, and I had nightmares about showing up to my first day at work only to find out my archenemy was the boss.

  Jax stepped forward, extending his hand. I looked down at it, recoiling as if it were a snake before I realized I needed the job. I had to play nice. I reached out, giving his hand a firm shake before yanking back my own. I hated that he was still so hot. How did a jerk like him get to be so sexy? It wasn’t fair.

  “It’s nice to meet you—or I suppose I should say it’s nice to see you again,” he said in that smooth voice that had once been the stuff of my fantasies before it had become the very thing that made my skin crawl.

  “You’ve met before?” Carolina exclaimed.

  I turned to look at her, those stunning blue eyes staring back at me, filled with excitement. “Yes.”

  “We grew up in the same small town back home in Wisconsin. Didn’t we, Penny?” Jax said with a smile on his face that made me want to slap it off him.

  “Yes,” I said, my brain struggling to access the rest of my vocabulary.

  My brain was busy filtering through the options. I couldn’t work for Jax Michaels. I couldn’t look at his face every day and not relive the humiliation, hurt, and anger he had caused. I had put out a lot of resumes and gone to some interviews, but the salaries being offered to someone fresh out of school were a little insulting. Carolina had offered me a salary ten thousand more than any of the others. I couldn’t turn it down. The opportunity to be the head of my own department was too good to walk away from.

  “So, have you been in Minneapolis for long?” the other man asked.

  I turned my head, looking at who I assumed had to be Carolina’s twin brother. “What?” I asked, trying to clear my head of the buzzing and focus on the conversation.

  He smiled, showing off a perfect set of white teeth. The man was gorgeous. I turned to look at Carolina and suddenly felt very not-gorgeous. I was in a room full of beautiful people and felt like an ogre. A short ogre. They were all at least six feet tall. Well, Carolina was probably just under that, but still, Amazons compared to my five-foot-five stature.

  “I’m Dakota, Carolina’s older brother,” the man said, reaching out to shake my hand.

  “Oh. Ah. I see the resemblance,” I replied, slowly returning to normal land where I had an actual vocabulary.

  “She gets her good looks from me,” he teased.

  Jax cleared his throat, drawing my attention back to him. I took in the sight of him, noticing the subtle changes in his appearance. He was still handsome with a Paul Walker kind of look but with that Owen Wilson nose. I still smiled whenever I thought about that little situation. He was tall and built, his hair much shorter than I remembered, and he looked more like a man in his business suit, minus the jacket. He looked like a grown-up. It had been less than four years since I had seen and touched his body, but I felt like an eternity had passed. I had been so young and naïve back then. He had been young as well, but in my mind, it didn’t excuse his behavior.

  “Have you been shown your work area?” Jax asked.

  “No,” I snapped, not meaning to sound rude, but he brought out the worst in me.

  “I was just about to give her the grand tour but thought we’d stop in here first. I know the two of you were anxious to meet the newest member of our team,” Carolina replied.

  “I’ll show her,” Jax said easily.

  I shot him a look, not thrilled to have to spend any time with him. “Thank you,” I said in a sweet voice, remembering my manners and reminding myself I liked to eat. Without a job, I didn’t eat. That was a pretty big motivator to tolerate my new boss.

  “Excuse us,” Jax said, moving forward.

  I stepped out of his way, not wanting any physical contact with the man. I turned to look at Carolina, almost begging her to save me from the big bad Jax. She only smiled in return. I resigned myself to walking the halls with him.

  “This space is unlike any other office environment,” Jax started, as if he were really giving me a tour.

  I nodded, scanning the walls on my left and the glass fishbowl to my right. That’s exactly what it looked like. A giant fishbowl with cubicles housing empty desks all positioned facing one another. “I can see that,” I muttered.

  My eyes moved back to the large poster on the wall, smeared in bright red and orange. It was Jax. I had completely missed the face when I had first walked into the office with Carolina. I had been so nervous about meeting the boss I had completely drowned out my surroundings. They were staring me in the face now—literally. The splashy photos washed in bright poppy colors reminded me of something I would see at an art museum. It was kind of cool. If only the subject matter were different.

  I looked at the somewhat silly images a little closer. Jax’s expression was serious, but the color made it almost cartoonish. Like it was a lighter, more fun version of Jax. It was his alter ego. I wished I had met that man instead of the one I was standing next to.

  “This will be your area. The modular furniture and the glass walls inspire collaboration while providing a quiet space if needed. See,” he demonstrated, sliding open a door that reminded me a lot of a shower stall door.

  “Why glass?” I asked.

  “We don’t want our people to feel isolated or restricted by cubicle walls,” he answered. “Or at least that’s what the designer tells us. The open concept is supposed to allow you to talk with your team without having to leave your desk. I like to think of it as a big think tank.”

  “You got the tank part right,” I mumbled under my breath.

  I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from asking where the pretty rocks were and what time would he sprinkle food over us. It was a fishbo
wl. An ugly fishbowl. An empty fishbowl, I realized, looking around at the empty desks.

  “We’re just getting on our feet. This will be your area where you’ll work with your marketing team,” he explained.

  “There’s no one else? I’m head of the department with no staff?” I asked incredulously.

  “As I said, we’re just getting started,” he said, his voice tight. “This is your desk,” he said, placing his hand on a cold metal desk with nothing on it except a tablet.

  I looked around the large office space with the desks all angled toward one another. I supposed it might not feel so cold and uninviting if there were people at those desks, but as it was, it was very stark. I began to rethink my decision to keep the job. Yes, it was good money, but was it really worth it?

  I reached for the sticky note on the tablet with my username and password neatly written on it. “This is my desk,” I said, trying to convince myself I was up for the challenge of working in a very unique environment with Jax as my boss. I wasn’t doing a great job at making myself believe I could do it.

  “Have you been home recently?” he asked, his tone shifting from all business to a little friendlier.

  I looked up at him, feeling he was too close. I took a small step back. I didn’t want to be alone with him. Despite the glass walls separating us from the rest of the office, we were alone. I could feel the heat from his body, sending me into flashbacks of that night. It was the last thing I wanted to think about.

  I shot him a glare. “Why do you care?” I snapped.

  He shrugged. “How’s Chance?”

  “You don’t get to ask that,” I retorted.

  “I was only asking.”

  “He’s none of your business. I’m none of your business.”

  He smirked. “Technically, you are my business. You work for me.”

  I shook my head. “I work for you. That does not mean we are friends. That does not mean you get to ask me about my personal life. Pretend we’ve never met.”