CHAPTER8
He really was a stubborn man, Andi thought as she nibbled on the delicious breakfast sandwich with extra bacon that was quickly making up for the fact that she was exhausted while she watched the man that was making her life harder than it needed to be as he absently scrolled through his emails.
“I’m fine,” Devyn murmured absently, not bothering to look up from his phone as she stood there considering him.
She ran her gaze from the small bandage covering the cut on his temple that was probably going to leave a small scar down to the dark bruise that ran from his temple to his jaw, absently noting that it was beginning to fade. He was still incredibly handsome, Andi thought as she debated pointing out that he should be back in bed. Since he showed up at her door with a bacon sandwich and gave her a ride to work this morning, she wasn’t going to argue with him. What she was going to do was continue staring at him until he took the hint and-
“God, you’re a pain in my ass,” Devyn said with a mock glare as he put his phone away and pulled the bottle of over-the-counter pain medication that she’d left on his nightstand out of his pocket.
“Today’s the big day,” Andi said, handing him her juice as he popped two pills in his mouth. “Are you nervous?”
“I’m cautiously optimistic,” he hedged, taking a sip of apple juice as he pulled his phone back out of his pocket.
“It’s a good deal,” she said, kind of wishing that they’d found something wrong.
Not that she wanted anything to be wrong with this deal, but she’d actually enjoyed working with Devyn over the past week. Not the glaring, although she actually liked it when he glared, but she really enjoyed reading through the files and learning the ins and outs of working on a deal this big. It had been a long time since she found anything that caught her attention, but after an hour of going through those files, she was hooked.
When she was little, everyone assumed that she had her whole life planned out and knew exactly what she wanted, but the truth was, she had no idea what she wanted. Still didn’t. But she knew what she didn’t want. She didn’t want to end up doing something that she hated just because it came easy to her. She just wanted to find something that she loved doing.
That’s honestly all she’d ever wanted.
“You look exhausted,” Devyn said, not bothering to look up from his phone.
That’s because she was.
She hadn’t slept much over the past week. Between going through the Hillshire Hotels’ files and taking care of him, she was exhausted. It didn’t help that she’d been afraid to close her eyes, terrified that if she closed them for even a minute that something would happen to him. She’d planned on going to bed as soon as she got home last night, but instead, she’d ended up going over Hillshire Hotels’ financial reports. She didn’t know everything that went into a deal this size, but she knew that their finances were in great shape. It actually made her wonder why Hillshire Hotels was even considering this deal.
“I’m fine,” Andi said, forcing a smile as she finished off the last bite of the delicious sandwich that made everything better.
“Liar,” Devyn murmured absently as he continued scrolling. “Why didn’t you take the day off?”
“I just took a week off,” Andi pointed out, biting back a yawn even as she had to admit that she’d been tempted, more than a little tempted, to take the day off, but…
She didn’t want to miss this.
Granted, she wouldn’t be in the boardroom when the papers were signed, but she wanted to be here for him, which was incredibly stupid. He was her boss and…
She just wanted to be here.
“You really are a pain in the ass,” Devyn said, sighing heavily as he slid his phone back into his pocket as he leaned against the elevator wall and considered her. “Take the day off, Andi.”
“Can’t. I have too much to do,” she said, which sadly wasn’t a lie. She still had to finish the list that he gave her last week on top of the list that he’d sent her this morning. He had back-to-back meetings all morning before the big meeting and she was hoping to use that time to get everything done, but…
She was definitely in over her head on this one.
“It can wait,” Devyn said as they reached their floor and the elevator doors slid open.
“It really can’t,” she said, stealing her juice back as she made her way off the elevator, only to pause and look back to find Devyn watching her. “Good luck today, Devyn,” she said, watching as Devyn’s lips curled up into one of the sexiest smiles that she’d ever seen, momentarily making her mind go blank.
“Thank you, Miss Dawson,” Devyn drawled, shooting her a wink as the elevator doors slid shut, leaving her standing there, staring helplessly at the elevator doors until she realized what she was doing and forced herself to turn around and head to her desk, knowing that she had too much to do to stand around thinking about just how much she liked it when he smiled.
Besides, she had more pressing issues to deal with at the moment, like figuring out how she was going to get through two daily lists in one day. She was going to need a miracle, Andi realized as she dropped her bag on the floor by her desk, only to frown when she spotted the boxes stacked against the wall. Curious, she opened the first box and realized that they were the files that Hillshire Hotels promised to send.
Not that it mattered now, Andi thought, moving to close the box only to find herself picking up the folder on top and opening it. By the time she read the first paragraph, she realized that something was off. By the second paragraph, she’d settled on the floor and pulled the box closer, and by the time she came to the first spreadsheet, she felt sick to her stomach.
Telling herself that she was wrong, Andi grabbed her iPad out of her bag, pulled up the files that Lucas’s team sent last week and started comparing them. When she realized that the numbers didn’t add up, she grabbed a legal pad, a handful of the pens that she’d helped herself to from the supply closet and set to work, quickly running the numbers from each file in her head and writing them down and-
Oh, God…
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