by Mia Madison
I stood to greet her. Unlike the only other time she’d been in my office, she was smiling, her eyes sparkling. I still couldn’t believe she’d thought she was in trouble last time.
Kait flitted to my side, and for an absurd moment, I thought she was going to hug me. Instead, she handed me a silver tin that I hadn’t even noticed before… I’d only had eyes for her smile.
“For you,” she said before settling in the chair opposite my desk.
“What’s this?” I put the tin on my desk and pulled my chair up.
“It’s a thank you for fixing the leaks in the roof.”
“Temporarily fixing it,” I corrected. “Those patches won’t hold forever.”
“I know,” she said simply, but her eyes were still sparkling. “Aren’t you going to open it?”
“Of course.” I pried the lid off and a delicious aroma hit me before I even laid eyes on the contents. Brownies. Fudge brownies, by the look of it. They looked almost as incredible as she did. “Did you make these?”
“Yes, my roommates and I did. Well, Gabi and I did.”
“Not the other one? Is she some kind of low-carb disciple?”
Kait laughed, but her eyes no longer danced. “No, she just… she’s been having a hard time lately.”
“Well, my thanks to you and Gabi and I’m sorry that whatshername is having a hard time.”
“Sierra.”
“Right. Seriously… these look great. You didn’t have to do that.”
“Just like you didn’t have to spend your Saturday in a dusty old attic.”
“It was nothing.”
“I disagree. I doubt most bosses show up at their newest employee’s house for that kind of thing.” Her half smile was adorable.
“You know you’re not just an employee,” I said. Was it my imagination or did her breath just catch? “And I didn’t just do it for you.”
“I know. Gabi and Sierra are just as appreciative.”
“That’s not what I meant. It’s my best friend’s house as well.”
Kait nodded, looking thoughtful. “I guess, when you think about it, half of those leaks belonged to him.”
I chuckled. “Fair point, but I meant if he were here, he could have patched those leaks. But he’s not here, so I stepped in. Friends do that for each other.” There. That sounded plausible. It was even partially true. But it hadn’t been Alex I was thinking of when I drove over to her place on Saturday morning.
Unexpectedly, Kait blinked a few times. Was she tearing up? It must’ve been so hard on her losing her parents when she was still in college. And then a year later, her brother and sister-in-law moved to the other side of the world.
I should’ve been there for her, dammit. If I hadn’t been so goddamn weak, I would’ve been. Irritated with myself, I picked up a brownie and broke it in half. To distract myself, I took a huge bite… and instantly relaxed into bliss. Holy shit, those were good.
I had been planning to offer Kait the other half, but there was no way I was going to stop with just part of a brownie. Instead, I held the tin out to her. “Have one.”
“No thanks.”
“They’re delicious. Besides, you always loved chocolate.” In the summers, Alex and I would take her to the local ice cream parlor at least once a week, taking turns paying for hers. “These look as good as that chocolate ice cream you used to love.”
“They are. It’s Gabi’s recipe and she’s an amazing baker. But it’ll go straight to my hips.”
For a moment, I stared at her. Did this woman not own a mirror? Her curves were perfect. More than perfect. I wanted to trace every inch of them with my fingers, my lips, and my tongue.
Which was exactly the kind of thing I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about. To distract myself, I asked about how things were going down in the programming department.
She talked about some of the programs she was working on. It was pretty standard stuff, but Bill had reported that she was doing well with it. She was almost as far along as the last guy they’d hired before her.
As I listened, I held out the tin again, and this time she took a brownie. She also broke hers in half and unlike me, put the other half back.
Holy hell… the way her teeth sank into that chocolatey goodness… the way her pink lips curled up into a smile of delight… it felt like I was watching in slow motion. And it felt wrong. She was my best friend’s little sister, dammit. Why couldn’t I remember that?
Plus, I was her boss, I should start acting like it. “Do you like working here?”
“Yes,” she said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. She’d only said one syllable, but I heard two.
“But?”
Her eyes widened in surprise. Then she grinned. “You and Alex always knew when I was hiding something.”
“So what is it?” I prompted.
She sighed. “Nothing. I really do like it here. But… I feel like I could be doing more.”
“In other words, you’re bored.”
“No! Well, not most of the time. I get it… it’s entry-level work, and I’m an entry-level employee. But this is my field, and I want to go as far as I can with it.”
“Do you think you’re ready for more responsibility?” For a moment, she reminded me of how she’d insisted we take the training wheels off her bike when she was five. That had ended in tears and skinned knees.
“Yes.”
“Would it help to know that the tasks you’re doing are helping the company? And they need to be done. You know that.”
“Yes, I know.”
“So, you won’t be doing them forever, but it’s a gradual process. Everyone has to take baby steps in the beginning.”
Her nostrils flared at that, and I couldn’t quite understand why. It was true. But then she nodded.
She brushed a crumb off her shirt and straightened up in her chair, clearly preparing to leave. For a moment, I thought about keeping her here, asking her more questions, talking about the company, anything really. But then I realized that was selfish. Doing that would be for my benefit, not hers. She wanted to eventually move up in the company and she wouldn’t learn much by hanging around in the boss’s office.
So I thanked her again, offered her another brownie which she declined, and let her go.
Four years ago, at my best friend’s wedding, I’d almost done one of the most selfish things imaginable. I had to do a better job of making sure I didn’t risk doing anything to hurt her ever again.
9
Kait
“So, how’s work going?” Gabi asked.
We were sitting in the living room eating ice cream. I hadn’t been able to get the craving out of my head ever since Tyler mentioned it today. Besides, Sierra had spent half the day crying about Joe, so it seemed appropriate.
“It was good. Same old stuff, really.”
“She meant how is your hot boss,” Sierra explained, her eyes red.
“No, she didn’t—” I started to say, but then I took one look at Gabi’s impish face and realized otherwise. “Okay, I guess she did. He’s good. He loved the brownies.”
“The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” she said. “That’s what my mother always said. I’ve never found it to be true for me, but maybe it’ll be true for you.”
“Yeah, I don’t think it’s going to work for me either.”
“Don’t say that. Think about all that’s happened. Last week, you weren’t even sure if he knew you worked there. Now he’s been to the house and you’ve talked to him several times. By next week, you’ll probably be engaged.” Gabi’s words were light-hearted, and I couldn’t help smiling—until Sierra broke into fresh tears.
“I thought maybe J-Joe was going to propose soon.”
Good lord, I hoped not. But of course I didn’t say that. “I’m sorry, honey. We still don’t know if it’s true.”
“Yeah,” Gabi said. “That woman Sarah saw him with could’ve been a work friend or something.”
Sierra waved away the pint of rocky road Gabi offered her. “These last few weeks he’s just been so secretive. Not answering my calls. Not letting his phone out of sight for one damn minute. He’s probably got a bunch of nudes from whoever she is.”
“We’re so sorry,” I said, and Gabi nodded.
“And even before I got the text from Sarah, it was an awful day. Half the people I called hung up on me, and my supervisor was pissed. Then one guy yelled at me for at least five minutes for interrupting his lunch.”
“Honey, we have to get you out of that job. You don’t need that kind of abuse in your life. Everyone hates telemarketers.”
“We’re not selling things, we’re conducting surveys,” Sierra snapped, and then another tear slid down her cheek. “You’re right, it isn’t much different. I hate it there, but I’ve looked for other jobs. There’s just not much out there.”
“You’re preaching to the choir, sister,” Gabi said. “Maybe someday we’ll get lucky like Ms. Barnett here. A job in her field with a smokin’ hot boss.”
Sierra dabbed her eyes with a tissue. “I don’t care how bored you are with the tasks they give you—that sounds like a dream come true. Never give it up.”
“I won’t,” I said, reaching out and taking her hand. The watery smile Sierra gave me brought moisture to my eyes. She deserved so much better than this. And she was right, I was lucky. I had a good job, and even though my brother was far away, these two women were like sisters.
And I wanted all the best for my sisters—I just didn’t know how to go about helping them get it. Maybe this falling down house was determined to keep us lukewarm rather than red hot? It was as good an explanation as any.
On Thursday, I ran into Tyler as I was walking past the front entryway. He’d just come from outside and his dark hair was tousled and windswept. Damn, he looked hot. “Did you take a cigarette break?”
He grinned. “I had a meeting downtown. And I haven’t had a cigarette since your dad caught Alex and me smoking out back under the deck. Do you remember how pissed he was?”
I vividly recalled how much my normally mild-mannered father had screamed at the boys. I’d sat inside my bedroom, hugging my knees and crying, worried about Alex and Tyler. “I’m sorry my dad yelled at you so much.”
“Are you kidding? Your dad was great. If mine had caught me, he probably would’ve said: they’re your lungs, knock yourself out, kid. Your dad read us the riot act, but the next time I came around—a bit uncertain of my welcome—he acted like nothing had happened. It was over and done with, in his mind. And I never touched a cigarette again.”
“I don’t think Alex did either.” For some reason, it made me so pleased that Tyler remembered my dad so fondly. Nowadays, it seemed like most people except Alex and I had forgotten my parents.
Tyler looked at me with sympathy in his eyes, but then he changed the subject. “I had the last brownie today—shared it with my assistant. Got any more leaks I could patch and earn some more?”
“No, no new leaks in the roof…” I said, my voice trailing off. “Wish I could say the same for the kitchen faucet.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“It drips more than all the spots in the roof combined. But it’s no big deal. The water just drips down the drain, it’s not like it can cause structural damage.”
“Still, it’s not hard to fix,” Tyler said, and I could’ve kicked myself. He’d already wasted a chunk of his weekend working on my house. I didn’t want him to think I was hinting that he should help out again.
“It’s no biggie,” I said. We chatted for another moment or two and then headed off in opposite directions. Hopefully I’d convinced him it wasn’t an urgent problem.
Except, as it turned out, I hadn’t.
On Friday evening, after most of my coworkers had gone home, I emerged from the women’s room to find him leaning against the wall, waiting for me.
“Your colleague said you were in there,” he said by way of a greeting. “I just—whoa. You look… different.”
Self-consciously, I smoothed my hair back. “I just put on a little make-up.”
He was staring at me intently and I wondered if the mascara, eyeliner, and lipstick changed my look that much.
At last he spoke. “Do you have a date?”
“No,” I said. “This is for Gabi.”
He tilted his head to the side. “I thought you two were just good friends.”
It took me a moment to understand his meaning, and then I laughed. “We are. It’s just… well, this is going to sound a little silly, but a while ago, we made a pact that we were going to try a little harder to meet someone. And if I go home without make-up on, she’ll scold me for not making an effort.”
His face was inscrutable for a long moment, and then he straightened up. “If you’re not busy, I thought I’d come over and take a look at that leaky faucet.”
“Oh, you don’t have—”
“I know I don’t have to,” he interrupted. “But I’m willing to unless Gabi’s going to be pissed that you’re not off with some Tinder date.”
“That’s not really my style.”
“Good to know.” His voice was as unreadable as his face. “Get your stuff and let’s go.”
10
Kait
“The good news is, it looks like a pretty simple fix,” Tyler said, looking at the parts of the faucet he’d disassembled and laid out on a towel by the kitchen sink. I still couldn’t quite believe that he knew how to do all this stuff. He was so good with computers, codes, and programming. Yet he was more than competent at this kind of thing, too. As a kid, he and Alex used to enjoy taking things apart to see how they worked. They’d fixed more than one of my toys when they broke.
“Kait?”
“Sorry, I was just waiting to hear what the bad news is.”
“No bad news,” he said with a wink. “But I’m going to have to go to the hardware store to get some replacement parts.”
I helped him clean and dry some of the older, rusty parts so that he could take them with him to find new ones. Once he left, the house felt quieter. Emptier. Gabi’s car had been gone when Tyler and I pulled up, so I figured she and Sierra had gone off somewhere together.
But that theory proved to be untrue when Gabi came through the door alone about ten minutes after Tyler left.
“Hey, Gabi. Where’s Sierra?”
“I don’t know. The stupid job the temp agency set up for me is so far away, it’s practically in the next state. Isn’t she in her room?”
“The light’s off,” I said, but I went upstairs to check, Gabi right behind me.
There was still no light from under the door. I knocked, but there was no answer.
“Sierra? Honey, are you okay?” Gabi called.
Finally, a faint voice greeted us. “Go away.”
Gabi and I looked at each other and then I reached for the doorknob.
“We’re coming in,” Gabi said.
The light from the hallway revealed that Sierra was in bed, heaps of covers piled high on her. “Are you sick?”
Gabi sat on the edge of the bed and I knelt on the floor by Sierra’s head. I put my hand on her forehead, but she shook me off.
“I talked to Joe today,” she said, her voice small.
Crap, this didn’t sound good.
“I asked him about that woman, and he said she was just a friend and he accused me of spying on him and not trusting him. Then he said that I was too immature to understand adult relationships and that he was tired of my shit.”
Gabi rubbed Sierra’s shoulder. “Don’t listen to him, Sierra. He’s just trying to shift the blame to you, but this is not your fault.”
“But what if he never speaks to me again?” Sierra moaned.
Gabi and I knew better than t
o answer that one honestly. “He will,” she said. “Why don’t you give him a little space? You need it, too.”
“Yeah,” I said, smoothing her hair away from her forehead. “You could use some time, too, to think about what you want to do.”
“I want him,” Sierra sobbed.
Why? Why on earth would a bright woman like Sierra want that piece of garbage? I’d never understand it. But I knew I couldn’t say that. “Come on, why don’t you get up and drink some water? You’re going to burn up under all those blankets.”
Gabi had already gone to get a glass of water. Together, we got Sierra to sit up and take a sip. “It’s not healthy, crying in the dark. Let’s do something to get your mind off of him,” Gabi said.
“Like what?” Sierra asked.
Before anyone could answer, I heard my name from downstairs. Crap—I’d almost forgotten about Tyler.
“Who’s that?” Gabi asked.
“My boss. I’ll explain later,” I said, leaping to my feet to avoid the questions I could see Gabi was gearing up to ask. Even Sierra looked curious. “I’ll be back in a bit.”
By the time I got down to the kitchen, Tyler had the faucet reassembled and was screwing the final piece into place. Then he ducked under the sink to reopen the water shut-off valve.
For a moment, we both stared at the faucet. No water dripped out. Tyler turned it on, and water gushed out. Then he turned it off again and it stopped instantly. No drips. No splats.
“Thank you,” I said. “How much do I owe you for the parts?”
He rolled his eyes. “Nothing. And no brownies either. This one’s on me.”
“Well, thank you, kind sir.” I examined the labels on the empty plastic packages lying next to the sink. “Thank you for the brand-new cartridge and the aerator, and whatever that rusty thingy was.”
“You’re very welcome.” He leaned against the edge of the counter, looking around him. “This place brings back memories. Remember when you guys used to have that bright blue refrigerator?”