by Ann, Natalie
Phil tried not to grind his teeth over Sean’s assessment of Sophia. Or the reminder of how sexy her voice was. Especially when she was in the throws of ecstasy. “I’m assuming it’s all set then. She can get it done on time?”
“Yes. She said everything was in order and well-organized, and it shouldn’t take her too long. Then I mentioned what we talked about in terms of auditing and she said she would work up a proposal for us.”
“A proposal for what?”
“Phil, aside from the auditing, there are a lot of other services they can offer. It’s common practice to have a contract for services, and a proposal to negotiate,” Sean explained.
“Oh. Did you look it over already?” He hoped to hell he wasn’t going to have to read the whole thing and give an opinion.
“Of course,” Sean replied, amused. “That’s what you pay me for. It all looks good to me. If you and Alec agree, then you need to sign the contract. The fees are decent, but I think I can get her down some more.”
“No. No negotiating. She’s a family friend. She wouldn’t take advantage of that. If it looks good, then tell me the next step.” Not that Phil had any intention of not going with her firm, even if her costs were higher than anyone else around. Of course he never expected that to be the case.
“Either you or Alec needs to sign it and I’ll bring it back over to her.”
Phil pulled the pen out of his back pocket, scribbled his name down and handed it back. “All set then.”
He turned to leave when Sean stopped him. “So, is she single?”
“Who?”
“Sophia,” Sean said, laughing.
There goes the teeth-grinding again. Phil looked at Sean, dressed similar to him in khakis and a button-down shirt. No one really dressed up in the office. After all, it was a construction company. Sean was tall, but an inch or two shorter than Phil’s own six foot two. And handsome, he guessed, if he really looked at him. Polished was probably a good word to describe Sean. Someone that Sophia would most likely be drawn to.
It didn’t matter, because that wasn’t happening. Still, he couldn’t very well say that to Sean, or anyone for that matter. Not if he wanted a shot with Sophia, and he did. He would have to tread carefully, and letting anyone know his feelings or his pursuit of Sophia would only hurt his chances. At least for now. Besides, Sophia could handle herself. “I believe so.”
“Good to know,” Sean replied with a wide grin, forcing Phil to slam the door to Sean’s office louder than he meant to.
***
Five days later, Phil heard Sophia’s lusty laugh outside of his office. Pushing back from his desk, he walked out to hear Alec saying, “Well, hey there, shorty.” Then he gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“You wouldn’t think I was short if you weren’t so tall,” she said back, like she always did when he called her shorty.
Phil looked at Sophia in front of him, dressed in a fitted black suit and looking sexier than she should in his office, wearing four-inch heels—not making her seem so short at the moment. “Sophia,” he said, nodding his head. He held back the urge to lean in and hug and kiss her too. No one would think anything of it. He had done it before, but not as often as Alec.
And no matter how much he wanted to touch her, he kept his distance. It was too awkward knowing he had deeper feelings for her.
She smiled at him with a touch of amusement in her eyes, almost as if she could tell what he was thinking. “I finished your taxes this morning and figured you would want them filed right away. I even have two days to spare,” she said with a wink.
Phil looked away, embarrassed that she winked at him. He knew she was only being friendly, as she always was. Only everything she said and did had a different meaning to him now that he’d slept with her.
“I never doubted for a second that you could do it, shorty.”
“It’s nice to know you have so much confidence in me. I won’t tell you the late nights it cost me to get it done on time along with the rest of my work,” she replied, teasing him.
“We’re sorry about that,” Phil jumped in. He didn’t want her working anymore than she did to get it done by the deadline. He should have called her personally and told her not to worry about it, that the extension would have been fine.
“No worries, Phil,” she said warmly, then seemed to catch herself and turned to address Alec, a look of humor back in her eyes. “That’s what you pay me for. And in two days, my life can get back to normal. Well, somewhat normal.”
“We owe you big,” Sean said, walking into the room with a wide smile on his face. “Maybe you wouldn’t mind dinner one night? As a thank you for putting a rush on it for us.”
Phil didn’t miss how smoothly Sean slipped that in there and held his breath, waiting for Sophia’s response. She glanced at Phil, then turned back to Sean, saying, “Thank you. That sounds lovely, but I’m still swamped with the move and getting acclimated to the area.”
“I’d be glad to show you around.” Sean pushed a bit more.
Phil was ready to interrupt, but didn’t need to. Sophia responded politely, “I appreciate the offer, but I like to keep business and my personal life separate.” Then she turned her eyes back to Phil and held his stare a little longer than necessary.
Sean good-naturedly replied with, “Well, if you change your mind, you know where to reach me.”
Congratulations
Separate my ass, Phil thought when Sophia responded back to Sean but looked at him just the same. Separate went out the window the night they stumbled into his hotel room and couldn’t get each other undressed fast enough.
That comment had been a week ago. Between his current workload and the development getting underway, Phil was lucky if he was walking in his door by eight each night. He grabbed whatever was fast and easy to make for dinner, usually leftover takeout, then went to his home office and worked on his side projects. He refused to give up his consulting work just because Harper Construction was growing.
After a few more hours of working at home, he would crawl into bed, slide into oblivion and then jump up when his alarm went off. Only to start the day all over again.
Except tonight he was dragging, and every time he closed his eyes he heard a squawking sound. No matter how hard he tried to ignore it, it continued. Until it sounded like whatever was making it was in distress.
Throwing clothes on, he went outside and toward the water, where the noise was sounding. There he saw a brown-and-green mallard duck with its leg caught in the rope holding his boat to the dock.
Rushing forward, he spoke calmly to the duck, all the while trying to untie the rope. When it wouldn’t come free, he apologized and cringed when the creature tilted its shiny green-feathered head and looked at him with pleading eyes—he’d fed the ducks from his dock almost daily, so they weren’t afraid of him. He ran back to the house, grabbed a utility knife and came back. “I won’t hurt you,” he repeated again and again, as he worked the knife through the rope until he was able to free the duck’s leg and put him back in the water. He smiled, watching the little guy swim away.
The next morning he heard a knock on his office door and turned to see Alec standing there. “What are you doing here? You avoid the office at all costs,” Phil said, amused at Alec’s disgruntled look.
“Keep it up and I’ll send Abby Clemson your way,” he said, walking in and sitting down across from Phil. “What’s wrong with you? You look like hell.”
Groaning, Phil asked, “What did she change this time?” He wasn’t going to tell Alec he was up saving a duck last night. When he was growing up his family always picked on him about saving all the animals around the lake. Every creature seemed to come to Phil for some reason. His mother often said it was because of his gentle nature. Phil thought that made him sound like a wuss, so he nicknamed himself the Lake Whisperer.
“This one is on you,” Alec said, smirking. “She wants her walk-in closet two feet longer.”
“Where the hell am I supposed to find two feet?”
“She said she is willing sacrifice the space from one of the guest bedrooms on the other side of the wall.”
“That’s simple enough, I guess.” Phil grabbed a piece of paper on his desk, jotted down the change and posted it on top of his to-do file. “You know this is only going to get worse.”
“What is?” Alec asked.
“Our workload.” Reaching up, Phil ran a hand through his black hair. All the Harper siblings had black hair and dark eyes. He looked over at his twin. Anyone would pin them as brothers, but not necessarily twins. There were enough little differences about them to tell them apart. Alec smiled more and had one dimple when he did. Phil smiled less often, even though he was as good-natured.
There was a faint scar above Alec’s right eye. One that Phil put there himself at one point when they were beating on each other growing up. He couldn’t even remember what caused them to roughhouse that day. They never had a reason. They were always throwing things at each other, picking and poking—typical things brothers do.
Alec was more solid than Phil. Not that Phil wasn’t toned. But all those years of construction padded the muscle on Alec’s six-foot-two-inch frame. Phil did put his fair share of time on the construction site, or on Alec’s personal flips, but not to the extent of Alec. In all honesty, Phil was just as happy to sit behind a desk. With the door shut. And locked.
Phil was far from soft though. All the Harpers were naturally tall and lean, with the exception of Kaitlin who was curvier. But it worked for her. Alec and Ben had more muscle on them. Of course no one had as much as Ben did.
“Yeah, I know,” Alec replied. “I’ve been thinking.”
“Don’t hurt yourself.”
Alec chuckled, grabbed a piece of paper, balled it up and threw it at Phil. They never outgrew that childhood tendency to rib on each other and throw things. “Seriously. We need help.”
“I’ve been telling Mom and Dad you did for years. But for some reason they keep falling for your crap.”
“Ha, ha. Office help. We need office help,” Alec clarified, laughing.
“How’s that going to help our workload?” Phil asked, frowning.
“Well, not really office help like you’re thinking. I was thinking that we should hire someone with a real estate background or license. Someone to deal with all the clients. Meet with them, find out what they’re looking for, give them the plans to choose from and sit down with them for the materials and specs. Then once all that is finished they would come to us and we would go from there. It leaves us out of the middle.”
“It’s a good idea. I’m surprised you thought of it.”
“Actually, Mary did. Well, she suggested that we contract with a local real estate office and see if we could work something out. I had Sean look into it and he said it would be more beneficial to hire someone full time. Then all these pesky changes can go through that person and free us up to do the actual work.”
“I like it. Who’s going to do the interviews?” Phil hated interviewing. Hating sitting with people and asking generic questions with all those awkward silences. Or people rambling on, trying to impress him.
“I’m going to have Sean vet out the people and narrow it down. Then you and I will have to meet with them and have the final say.” Alec stopped talking and sent him a glare. “Get over it, Phil. You want the right person, then you have to be part of it.”
“I know. Fine, let’s get moving on it. I’m ready to be done with all this stuff and focus on what I actually enjoy doing.”
“I agree. It’s my hope this position can take over all the miscellaneous things on the rental properties for us too. The new tenant walk-throughs and showing the properties and such. Maybe even taking all the rehab calls and the initial client meetings before I get on site.”
“Okay, it all sounds good to me.”
“Don’t forget about tonight,” Alec said, when he stood up to leave.
“What’s tonight?”
“The Chamber Dinner.” Phil groaned. “Yeah, I know. I don’t want to dress up anymore than you do. But it’s good business and free publicity with the award. Don’t worry, Mom and Dad will be there, along with Kaitlin and Ryan. You won’t have to sit in the corner by yourself while I socialize.”
Phil snorted. He never sat in the corner by himself. At least not since he was a kid.
***
“I’m so glad you could go tonight,” Kaitlin said to Sophia when she picked her up. “Ryan had every intention of attending, but something came up at work and he couldn’t make it. I could have gone alone, but it’s better to have a date.” She ended with a little chuckle.
“As long as no one thinks I knocked you up,” Sophia said. She very rarely let herself go like she did with Kaitlin. She would have never made a crass comment like that to anyone else. There was something about Kaitlin that allowed Sophia to be herself. To not put on the sophisticated act that she acquired growing up.
All those fancy dinners and affairs she’d had to attend with her parents, the high-priced vacations, and the occasional private school. In order to fit in, she’d had to act like those around her. Very rarely had she felt free to just be Sophia. At this point in her life, she wasn’t sure who the real Sophia was. A mixture of all those acts for sure, but never one by itself.
“I don’t think anyone is going to guess that,” Kaitlin replied, giggling.
Sophia grabbed her short suit jacket and slipped it on over her emerald green dress. Green was her favorite color. It made her eyes stand out even more than they already did.
She thought her eyes were her best feature—bright, rich, almost a perfect shade of kelly green. “Either way, I’m glad for the invite. It’s a good opportunity for me to mingle and make some contacts in the area.”
Twenty minutes later they were walking into the restaurant where the Chamber Dinner was being held when Sophia came to a standstill. The last person she’d expected to see tonight was Phil, let alone see him in a suit.
Her abrupt stop caused Kaitlin to bump into her and let out a little huff, drawing Phil’s attention to them. Sophia froze. Images of him in that suit brought back a surge of heat making her want to fan herself. Worse yet, he noticed her reaction and had one similar, if she were to guess by the look in his eyes.
Kaitlin, oblivious to the tension around her, reached up and gave Phil a hug. “Congratulations. I’m so proud of you guys. Where’s Alec?” she asked, looking around.
“He’s at the bar.”
“Congratulations?” Sophia inquired. What had she missed?
Kaitlin turned and excitedly said, “Harper Construction is getting the award for the Business of the Year. Isn’t that wonderful?”
Sophia’s eyes softened, pride springing into them. “That is wonderful news. Congratulations,” she said, reaching up and giving him a hug. When he held her longer and tighter than necessary, she felt her heart quicken and stepped back for some air.
“Where’s our table, Phil?”
Sophia had all she could do not to groan. Not only did she have no clue Phil would be here, but now she was going to have to sit with him. She could get through it, of course she could. She had gotten through worse situations before. All she had to do was reach within herself and put on a good front.
The dinner was going well. Better than she might have expected considering her surprise at finding herself seated right next to him. Especially after his leg brushed against hers on multiple occasions.
At first she thought it was an accident, but after the fourth time she was on to him. Sending him a warning signal only caused him to grin at her. Oh, how she had missed that sexy grin of his. The flirtatious one he’d always sent her before their night together months ago.
That dreaded night. If only she hadn’t had a few too many drinks, she and Phil could well be on their way to having an actual relationship. Instead, now she was fighting everything she had within herself to not give in.<
br />
He needed time, time to get Linda out of his system before he attempted another relationship. She ought to know, since she had seen what happened with the rebound girl enough in her life.
Nothing she could do about it now. Move on, that was it. Maybe in another year or so he would be ready. But she wasn’t taking the chance now. She could hold off longer. She hoped. If he was truly the person who could give her what she was looking for all these years, she wanted to make sure they started out on good ground. Or better ground then they were on now.
An hour later, she watched as Alec and Phil made their way to the stage to collect their award. Alec did most of the talking, just as she figured he would. He talked more about the business and the growth and what their plans for the future were. How more jobs were being added on with the development starting up in a few weeks.
Phil took over and thanked all those close to them for their support. Phil was always the one that wanted to make sure everyone got their due. He was all for family and making sure everyone was appreciated. It was a nice speech. He and Alec always made a good team. They flowed well together.
Both so handsome. But something about Phil always made her heart flutter. He was nothing like her normal type. Nothing like the men she grew up around, or the men she dated.
With those men, she had to figure out what they wanted or who they wanted to be with. Which one of the acts she had to play. Which mask worked the best. With Phil, she was herself. No act required. Maybe it was because he was safe in the beginning.
She’d felt safe to be herself. He’d been in a relationship, after all, so it didn’t matter one way or another what type of person he was looking for. He wasn’t looking at her, so she was free to be who she wanted and who came so naturally to her. That carefree girl that wasn’t afraid to speak her mind, who didn’t guard her tongue because it wasn’t appropriate or ladylike—fearful of being shunned as the new girl. Or the trouble-making stepchild.
