His Temporary Assistant

“You going to unhand me first?”

I did, reluctantly. I took my seat again as she sat in hers, and then let out a long breath. “I appreciate the gesture. Truly. But he’s your boss too.”

“Temporarily. And if he’s a sea cretin, maybe I don’t want to work for him. That ever occur to you?”

“No, because I didn’t know you had an aversion to sea cretins.”

“I do. They give me hives.” She shuddered. “Easy enough to tell someone you’re not feeling it anymore and you need to go.”

I picked up the napkin that had fallen off my lap and spread it over my trousers. “Yes, when there isn’t a million-dollar fortune at risk. That makes it harder.”

She didn’t even blink. “Are you excusing what he’s doing? You didn’t look like you were cool with it when you sat down. Or is that the bro code kicking in?”

“Bro code? He’s my father. The woman he’s hurting is my mother.”

“Then?” She snapped out her napkin over her lap.

“He’s a divorce lawyer. I’m not going to say we become immune to endings, but we definitely see how transient relationships can be.” I jerked a shoulder. “People aren’t forever, but money lasts a good long while.”

“Nothing is forever. Especially not money. You can’t take it with you. Unless someone forgot to tell you that.”

“No, but you can’t take supposed love with you either.”

“Supposed, huh?” She shook her head, but not as if she disapproved of what I was saying. More like she was disappointed in me.

Hot on the heels of my father’s deception, that stung.

“Let’s just say I’m not a believer in Valentine’s Day. This is not helping my outlook.”

“You sound jaded as hell.”

I had been privy to far too many broken relationships, many of which ended due to tawdry extramarital affairs, frequently with staff. No wonder I took work boundaries so seriously.

I smoothed my hand over my napkin. “Yeah, well, do my job for as long as I have and see how you feel.”

“So don’t do it anymore. If it doesn’t feed your soul, let it go.”

The laugh that cracked out of my chest was loud enough to make the couple beside us look our way. For all I knew, my father had heard me too.

I didn’t care. I wasn’t the one who should be hiding, even if I’d traveled to the other side of Crescent Cove in case anyone saw me lunching with my brand new assistant and assumed things they shouldn’t.

Guess the joke was on me.

“If you’re able to construct your life that way, you’re lucky. I’m not. A role was waiting for me when I was born, and I stepped into it.”

The compassion that softened her expression made my shoulder blades itch. “Your brother must have too. But he enjoys his work.”

“Oh, you know that much about him already, hmm?”

She gave a dainty shrug, and her spaghetti straps slipped a fraction lower on her shoulders. “We chatted for a few minutes.”

“Before he asked you out.”

“Actually, you asked me out before he did.” She smiled serenely as our server rolled a covered cart to our table. “To lunch,” she added while I stared at her.

I waited to speak until the server set down our lunches and left. “This isn’t a date. It’s a working lunch.”

“Right.”