His face presses between my shoulder blades and I feel him nod. “Didn’t want to leave them in the car all night.”
“Thank you.”
“Welcome, hon.” He exhales hard through his nose. “Do you always have to make it so hard to get out of bed?”
I laugh. “The traveling is finally hitting you, isn’t it?” I knew he couldn’t be immune to it. Brent grumbles under his breath, which is enough of a yes for me. Rolling over to face him, I say, “You can always stay home today and go back in tomorrow.”
“You going to call in sick with me?”
“I already called in yesterday so I could go pack,” I remind him.
“They’ll just think you’re really sick if it’s two days in a row.”
“They’ll want a doctor’s note and it’ll say, ‘Not sick at all’ on it,” I reply back.
He frowns. “Honey, you’re no fun.”
“That’s what happens to adults; we turn into no fun people.”
He chuckles. “Speak for yourself. I’m calling in.” Brent reaches for his phone and texts his brothers. “And you should too.”
“They’ll fire me.”
He surprises the hell out of me when he shrugs.
“I do like my job, Brent!” I exclaim, sitting up. I can’t believe he would be fine with me getting fired just so I can stay home one more day with him. This doesn’t seem like Brent at all.
“We could find you another one,” he replies easily.
“It’s not always that easy.”
“It might be.” Now, he’s not looking at me.
“Brent, what are you getting at?”
He sits up, rearranges his pillow
against the headboard, and then leans against it. “What if I told you that you could quit and get another job today with better pay, semi-flexible hours, fantastic bosses, vacations whenever you want, and great training?”
“I’d hear you out.” And I would. Why would I turn down a job with better pay, great bosses, training, and good hours? Plus, apparently, all the vacation time I want. “But it sounds too good to be true. Where is this job? And just how many bosses are there?”
“Three bosses.” My eyes widen at this. “It’s with me and my brothers.”
“What? I don’t know anything about cars.”
Brent bursts out laughing. “Don’t really need to, Jamie. When I went in yesterday, Ronnie and Peter told me our receptionist, Christy, is pregnant and she gave us notice because she wants to be a stay-at-home mom. We’ll need to hire someone new in six months. You’d be perfect for the job, Jamie. And my brothers are wanting to unload some of the bookkeeping duties they’ve been doing, so you can learn to do that, too.”
It all makes sense now. How my hours would be semi-flexible, why he said the bosses were fantastic, and why he threw in how I could take vacations whenever I want. If Brent takes one, I automatically get to take off work without a problem. But that doesn’t sound so easy.
“Say I’m interested, what will y’all do without a receptionist for a week if we were to take another cruise?”
“The same thing we did when Christy was out; we did her job ourselves. It’s not fun to do that and work, but we can manage when she’s out.”
This can’t even be serious. I fall to the side and rest my head on Brent’s lap. “You’ve gone too far, Brent,” I manage to tease. “I’m speechless and I don’t know what to think.”
He runs his fingers through my hair. “I think you should take my job offer.”
“What if we don’t work well together? We’ll see each other all day and then have to come home to one another. Our relationship might not be cut out for that.” This is a big concern and a big reason to say no.