His First Choice

JEM HAD NEVER been more energized giving a quote in his life. Nor had he cut his costs quite so much. He had one goal in mind—to make damned sure he got the bid. And he couldn’t even explain that.

He hardly knew the woman, had spent less than one full working day with her all told.

But she had a hold of him.

And he wasn’t fighting it.

It felt too damned good.

So good that

his mood didn’t sour when Tressa called to tell him that she really wanted to quit her job. Even after he’d stuck his neck out for her. She didn’t think it was right that she’d had to apologize when she was the one who’d been slandered.

It also wasn’t right, according to the thirty-minute tirade he listened to, that she had to smile and be gracious when people were rude to her. It wasn’t fair. She’d been hired to make the bank money while keeping customer interests in mind. She was doing that. Brilliantly.

She felt underappreciated and that was no way for a person to have to feel every single day.

Plus Mick was watching over her too much now. She felt like she was on trial and the stress was getting to her.

He asked her what Amelia had to say about it all.

She said Amelia was her rock.

And then told him, again, that she wanted to quit her job.

He told her she needed to stick it out, reminded her that he’d put his reputation on the line at her request and added that her alimony was ending. It had to end, he told her.

At which point she surmised that he was having financial difficulties and rang off before he could tell her about them.

Or tell her she was wrong. Which he wouldn’t have done, even though she was wrong. The defensive tongue-lashing that would ensue wasn’t worth the satisfaction of pointing out the obvious.

Good news was, she no longer had the right to view any of his financial data.

Tressa could drain blood from a turnip.

But not from him. Not anymore.

* * *

FOR THE FIRST time in...ever...Lacey had to fight an urge to leave work right on time that next week. She did her job as well as always. She took time for casual conversation with her coworkers—keeping connected to what mattered most—and volunteered for extra duties.

But while she gave her all to these activities, as usual, she struggled with the idea that she had a sister at home who had to be kept under control. Now that Jem was in the picture.

He was there three nights that week when she got home, as she’d known he was going to be—Kacey’s arrangements, not hers.

Her sister was paying for the job Jem had been hired to do. Technically he was working for her, and she wanted things well under way before she had to get back to Beverly Hills and the taping of the next season of The Rich and Loyal. Hard to believe that they were already well into Kacey’s second week in Santa Raquel.

Lacey’s driving need to be home had nothing to do with keeping her sister from being alone with Jem. She swore that fact to herself every single day as she refused to give in to the drive to get home before Jem arrived. She only wanted to make certain that she was a part of the choices being made for the home she owned and would be living in.

A couple of times she acknowledged to herself that while Jem’s guaranteed eventual response to Kacey didn’t matter to her, she didn’t trust Kacey not to tell Jem more about her than Lacey wanted him to know.

That her sister was on a mission to get Lacey hooked up with a man she was truly hot for went without question. Kacey openly admitted to the plan to Lacey.

That didn’t mean she was going to be successful. She wasn’t. Kacey had no control over men’s reactions to her. Or to Lacey.

Which was why there was no need for Lacey to try to minimize Jem’s alone time with her dazzling sister. Nothing was going to change the fact that Lacey just didn’t measure up in the exuding department.

At least not practically speaking.