Come Work For Me

by Weston Parker

  “I’ll do that.” We left the guest room and headed to the front door. Grant popped his head into the living room to say goodbye, then wished me luck and left.

  After he was gone, I realized it was almost dinner time. I didn’t have anything in the house that I thought a three-year-old might like to eat, so I grabbed a stack of takeout menus and took them to the living room.

  “What do you guys say we order in some dinner?” I asked, doing my best to smile and look welcoming. While they were welcome to stay with me, I had a feeling that we were all in for a very long, very weird night.

  Chapter 20

  Lilac

  The first thing I noticed when I woke up was the familiar sound of my alarm blaring. Groaning, I rolled over to silence it before it could wake Lincoln up too. That was when I started noticing other things.

  I hadn’t quite opened my eyes yet and I felt like I could easily sleep for two more days, but when I reached out my nightstand wasn’t there. The mattress I rolled over on was firmer than mine and there was a Lincoln-sized warmth pressing into my back.

  Slowly opening my eyes, an unfamiliar room came into focus. The events of the day before came rushing back then, the realization that Lincoln and I had stayed over at my boss’s house because our own was no longer safe hitting me in the chest like a runaway freight train.

  Crap. We were at Joseph’s place, sleeping in his guest room. He’d apologized before we’d gone to bed about the fact that I’d have to share with Lincoln, but I honestly didn’t mind.

  Joseph’s guest bedroom was bigger than Lincoln’s and my rooms combined at home. If we put in a bed for him with a privacy screen between the beds, we’d both have more than enough room even if we kept sharing. Which we won’t, because we’re not staying here forever. It was one night, jeez.

  A heavy lump formed in my throat. Alisha wouldn’t be back for a couple of days, which meant that Lincoln and I were going to have to find somewhere else to stay for the meantime. We could get a hotel, but that wasn’t a long-term solution. Since Alisha was our neighbor and as such, lived in our building, staying with her also wasn’t really a realistic option.

  At least I could afford a hotel now. A few weeks ago, that wouldn’t have been an option for us at all. As much as I’d been planning on saving every cent I could, a place to stay was kind of essential.

  I’d also have to figure out what to do about the apartment. I didn’t want to have to move out because of Kurt, but I also didn’t want to go back there yet. If I knew him well, and I did, he’d spend at least a few days hanging around there waiting for us to come back before he started doubting whatever information he had about that being our address.

  No, we would have to lie low for a while. Somehow, I would have to get into the apartment to grab what we needed and then I’d stay away. Of course, Kurt wasn’t above paying a neighbor or someone to let him know when we got back, but I was counting on his fear of having people think badly of him to hold him back from doing that from the get-go.

  In the meanwhile, I couldn’t lie around in bed all day trying to figure out what to do. I had to get to work and before that, I had to face my boss. Awkward.

  Glancing over to his side of the bed, I saw that Lincoln was still sleeping soundly. I decided to leave him until after I’d talked to Joseph and maybe had some coffee. Lincoln hated waking up earlier than he had to, and I usually got breakfast and myself ready before waking him up anyway.

  Carefully rolling out of bed, I headed into the ensuite bathroom and nearly fell over when I saw myself in the mirror. Motherfucker.

  I winced and averted my eyes, shedding my clothes and walking into the shower without another glance. I looked as messed up and disoriented as I felt this morning.

  My eyes were big and glassy, slightly wild and puffier than usual. The ponytail I’d thrown my hair into before dinner last night and kept in until I’d walked into the bathroom had left a greasy looking bump.

  Under the best of circumstances, my complexion couldn’t be described as glowing or beautiful, but this morning I was downright pale. I even looked drawn, which was weird.

  I’d slept in a soft pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt Joseph had lent me, which I appreciated. But I couldn’t exactly go walking around his house in his clothes the morning after like we were together or something, so I was going to have to put my own dirty clothes back on. Sexy, sexy, sexy.

  On my way to the office, I’d either have to stop at a store to buy something or Lincoln and I were going to have to risk stopping by the apartment. I’ll decide later.

  I scrubbed my hair and body with toiletries I found in the shower. The soap and the bottle of shampoo didn’t look like they’d ever been used before, but I got the distinct impression from the feel of the plastic and the way the labels crinkled that they’d been on display in here for a long time without being used.

  After my shower, I dressed quietly, used some toothpaste I kept in my purse to brush my teeth and then brushed my hair with a small travel brush I’d bought but had never taken out of my purse.

  Finally daring another look in the mirror when I was done, I made a face at myself and added some lip gloss before leaving the room. It was the only thing vaguely resembling makeup that I carried around with me.

  Hell, the toothpaste and the travel brush were a total fluke. I’d bought both before my interview with Joseph, hadn’t used either then and had promptly forgotten they were even in there. Until this morning, luckily.

  Making my way to the kitchen once I had decided that I looked as good as I was going to get, I found Joseph standing at the counter in a pair of shorts and a tank top. His black hair was damp, as if he’d also just had a shower, but I hardly even noticed that.

  My jaw had a really hard time not dropping at everything that I did notice, though. I’d had sex with the man, but he’d been in his tux and I hadn’t gotten to see his body. It was on display now, sort of, as much as I’d ever seen of it anyway, and holy freaking Inked Muscleman.

  Tattoos covered his chest and shoulders. Dark lines and symbols and even a few words were inked into his skin. I couldn’t make out much detail from across the room, but combined with the rippling muscles everywhere, the image he cut was as sexy as anything.

  Something else I hadn’t noticed before was that his left leg was some kind of metal prosthetic. I remembered feeling his thigh against mine in the limo, so I knew the prosthetic had to start somewhere around his knee.

  I very nearly squeaked, but Joseph must have sensed my presence behind him then, thankfully interrupting whatever embarrassing noise I’d been about to make. He turned around to face me and then motioned toward his fancy coffee maker. “Help yourself. I just brewed that ten minutes ago.”

  Mutely nodding before I blurted out any of the approximately one million and one questions in my head, I helped myself to some caffeine. With that in hand, I sat down across from him at the island.

  I took a sip of my coffee while trying to formulate the best thing to say in this situation, but once I had one sip, I moaned and drank the whole cup without saying a damn word. “This is amazing.”

  Joseph watched me with his arms crossed over his chest. The expression in his eyes was guarded, dark. “It’s a special mix I get from a deli nearby.”

  “It’s great.” I got up to fill another cup of the nectar of the gods, then remembered it wasn’t the weekend and he wasn’t a friend whose house we could hang around in for as long as we wanted. “Do you think I could get some to go? We should probably get to the office.”

  He grunted, flicking his wrist at the machine. “Have some more here. I’ve already called Ollie. We’re working from my home office today. He’s bringing us what we need. I also asked him to pick up some clothes for you and Lincoln on the way over.”

  What? I just stared at him, unable to think of anything to say. Damn words, I still don’t understand why you have to be so hard sometimes.

  “I’ve also called the cops,” he went on.
“I’ve set up a meeting for you here with them later. Grant has some friends on the force. He offered to ask them to look into Kurt for us too, if you’re interested.”

  My brows lifted, my jaw fighting against the force of gravity once more. I was really having a hard time accepting that he was doing so many nice things for me. I hadn’t even thought that he liked me—aside from the sex, that was. I’d been able to tell how much he’d liked that.

  I considered arguing with him about all of this, telling him I could take care of myself and my son without his help. Can you, though?

  Just before I could get righteous, indignant or sheepish, Lincoln came padding into the kitchen. His hair was mussed, his clothing rumbled and his eyes sleepy. He rubbed them as he walked, clutching Dinky the dinosaur.

  “Can we watch cartoons on that big TV again today, Mommy?”

  I glanced at Joseph, who shrugged and inclined his head. Crap. Guess it doesn’t matter if you can take care of you. You’ve been beaten in popularity by a giant TV.

  I couldn’t feel too sorry for myself, though. It was a pretty awesome TV, and not having to leave the safety of Joseph’s apartment quite yet was a bigger relief than I liked to admit to. Just let it happen.

  “You go get the TV started,” I said to Joseph, then turned toward the fridge. “I’ll make us some eggs for breakfast. That way, we’ll be able to start working when Ollie gets here.”

  Joseph raised a single dark eyebrow, and I realized I’d just told him what to do in his own home. I winked, really hoping that I wasn’t pushing him too far.

  He held my gaze for a beat, sighed and then nodded. “Come on, little man. Let’s see if we can find a breakfast-worthy cartoon.”

  Lincoln followed Joseph out, and I couldn’t help but smile as I watched them leave. Lincoln was tiny, but compared to Joseph he was minuscule. The big man reached a tatted arm out to nudge Lincoln’s shoulder and I heard them laugh over whatever he had said.

  Shaking my head, I tried to figure out how the hell we’d gotten to this point. One day, he’d been Joseph Matthews: the legend. What felt like the next, I was making breakfast in his apartment and he was watching cartoons in his casual wear with my toddler. Life, huh?

  Ollie showed up as Lincoln was eating his last bite of eggs. He grinned when he saw me, but I noticed the worry in his eyes. “Well, well, well. What do we have here? You getting comfortable in the boss man’s house?”

  I rolled my eyes, stepping into his arms to give him a tight hug. “It’s not what it looks like, I swear.”

  He squeezed me and held on to me for a moment too long before letting me go and putting his big hands on my shoulders. “It’s none of my business what it is. Just tell me that you’re okay.”

  “I’m okay,” I whispered, my eyes darting to the side to find Joseph watching us closely from the couch. “He’s helping me with something.”

  “I know. He wouldn’t tell me what, though. I won’t ask, but if you ever need to talk, I’m here.” He kept his eyes on mine, studying me as though he was trying to check that I really was okay before he stepped away. “Right, well. I have your laptop. Groceries and clothes will be delivered any minute and—”

  He was cut off by the doorbell ringing. Smoothing out his impeccably cut jacket, he grinned at me and winked at Joseph. “That will be the delivery person with your food. Joseph mostly eats out, so I thought buying some food that one could actually make was a good idea.”

  “Thanks, Ollie,” I said, trailing behind him to the door.

  Joseph disappeared while Ollie and I collected the food from the delivery person and put it all away. Ollie had gotten enough food that Lincoln and I could stay for a month, but I didn’t mention to him that we’d probably be leaving soon.

  I couldn’t imagine Joseph letting us stay for longer than one, maybe two more nights. After that Alisha would be home and we’d probably end up staying with her, though I didn’t really want to drag her into this thing with Kurt. Or stay in the building he was hanging around in front of.

  Sighing as we finished packing away the food, I noticed Ollie watching me. “What?”

  “I’m glad you’re here,” he said, checking the doorway to make sure we were still alone before continuing. “I mean, I’m not glad about whatever is going on that forced you to move in here. It’s just nice to see some life in this house for once.”

  He picked up a fancy-looking bag from the floor, the last remaining one, and held it out to me. “I picked up two changes of clothes for you and two for Lincoln. If the sizes aren’t right, just let me know and I’ll send more clothes over.”

  “You’re not staying?” My brows went up. I’d just assumed that if we were working from Joseph’s home office, so was Ollie.

  He shook his head, reaching out to pat me on the arm. “How sweet, but no. Someone’s gotta go hold down the fort or people will think we’re all off having an orgy somewhere.”

  I cringed, punching him in the arm. “Ew. They wouldn’t think that.”

  Ollie chuckled, stepping out of reach before wagging his brows. “Office gossip takes strange turns sometimes and rumors spread faster than wildfire in winter. Best one of us is there to go to bat for the team against any rumors if necessary.”

  “Okay.” I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply. “Thank you. I mean it. For everything.”

  He smiled. “No thanks necessary. I’ll speak to you both later.”

  With a wave and a little bow, he left the kitchen. I heard the front door shut a few seconds later.

  Great. Alone with my boss and my son. This isn’t going to be weird at all.

  Joseph’s home office was a room off the living room. He was already sitting in it, seated behind yet another big desk with two computer screens on it.

  When I walked past with my laptop, he looked up. “There’s space for you to join me in here. We’ll just have to grab a chair from the dining room and move some stuff out of the way.”

  I smiled, but shook my head. “That’s okay. I’m going to sit with Lincoln and see if I can get some work done out here.”

  “Ollie will have set up the Wi-Fi for you with my password already, but if you need anything, you just let me know.”

  “Thanks.” My eyes didn’t want to leave the intense hazel depths of his, but if I stared at him any longer, things really were going to become awkward.

  I went to sit down next to Lincoln, crossing my legs on the couch and parking my laptop on them. I’d heard it wasn’t good for computers to sit like that, but once couldn’t be the end of the world. Or of my laptop.

  Joseph had been right. My computer was already connected to his home Wi-Fi when I fired it up and before long, I was actually managing to do some work.

  I was constantly aware of Joseph watching me though. I was trying really hard not to think about why that might be.

  It wasn’t too long after Ollie had left and I had begun finding my groove working from Joseph’s home when the doorbell rang again. He rose from his seat, catching my eyes and mouthing, “Police.”

  My heart started thundering in my chest. Speaking to the police about my ex really wasn’t how I thought this week would start out, but I was kind of looking forward to it. Finally, it felt like I was doing something to take charge of the situation with Kurt. It’s about damn time.

  Chapter 21

  Joseph

  It was odd to have this many people in and out of my personal space. For the last few years, the only people who had been in my condo were Ollie, Grant and the maid who came in once a week. That’s it.

  As I sat back down in my home office after opening the door for the officer, I thought about how this all felt. Reflection was a useful technique I’d learned and one I used whenever I felt uncertain about any aspect of my life.

  Lilac was sitting at my dining room table with the cop, talking in quiet tones so Lincoln wouldn’t hear her. I’d offered to sit in on the meeting, but she said she’d be fine. Her chair was faced towards Lincoln, so s
he could watch him even if she wasn’t with him.

  The boy himself was staring at my TV with adoration plastered all over his features. It was kind of cute, actually. In fact, I wasn’t even that annoyed with either of them by the time Grant called to check-in.

  “How’s it going there?” he asked.

  “Better than you’d have thought it would.” It was the truth. I had no doubt that Grant would be as surprised about my uncharacteristic calmness and acceptance of this course of events as I was. “It’s really not so bad having them here.”

  He hesitated for a beat. “I just had to double-check if I’d called the right Joseph Matthews. Did you just say it’s not so bad having people in your home?”

  “Har-dee-har-har. Who’s a comedian now?” I said drily, about to make another quip when I saw Lilac stand up and rush the cop out of my house. What the...?

  He hadn’t even been here for ten minutes. Surely, their meeting couldn’t be over.

  The door slammed and the next minute, Lilac was back in the living room telling Lincoln that she’d be right back. “Hey, buddy? I’m going to have to call you back. The cop just left and Lilac is not okay.”

  “Sure. Good luck,” he said, but I was already reaching for my screen to end the call.

  Lilac stormed into my guest room and was poised to slam the door when I caught up to her. “I’m assuming that didn’t go well?”

  “Hell no,” she huffed, walking over to the windows and pacing up and down. I was about to tell her to calm down when she added, “There’s nothing the cops can do.”

  My eyebrows lifted and I frowned, walking into the room and sitting at the foot of the unmade bed. “What do you mean there’s nothing they can do?”

  Lilac kept pacing. “I can do a restraining order, but that’s it. It’s not stalking yet and even if it was, they couldn’t do anything unless he physically hurts me.”