She followed his gaze and watched as Devin realized that Lucifer was looking his way. A moment later that smile was gone as he watched Lucifer head for the office door. She watched as Devin mouthed, “Oh, shit,” as Lucifer headed towards the shop, shaking his head in disgust as he went.
With that done, Charlie headed back to her desk and sat down with a satisfied sigh as she looked up to find Rebecca watching her as she popped another Hershey Kiss in her mouth. Clearing her throat, Charlie said, “He had it coming.”
“He really did,” Rebecca murmured in agreement as Charlie pulled up Fire & Brimstone’s website and decided to get to work.
*-*-*-*
2:00 P.M.
“Where the hell did I go wrong with you?” Jared, or rather Uncle Jared as she was told to call him, asked, slowly shaking his head in disgust as he looked at the man who’d decided to join them a few minutes ago.
Ignoring his father, Jason said, “So, where were we?”
“You were trying to interrogate me?” Charlie absently reminded him as she focused on Bradford Construction’s website.
“Was I doing a good job?” he asked, making her lips twitch as she made another note.
“Not really,” she said, chuckling as she focused her attention back on Uncle Jared and-
“I’m going to need another shelf,” Lucifer said, drawing their attention to find him looking down at the stack of children’s books that he’d placed on the floor.
“So, let’s get back to you telling us your deepest and darkest secrets,” Jason said, drawing her attention back to find him smiling hugely as he waited.
“Did we already talk about the time that I spent in prison?” Charlie asked, pursing her lips up thoughtfully.
“We did and it was fascinating,” Jason murmured, nodding his head even as he gestured for her to continue.
“How about my aspirations to be a high-class escort?” she asked, watching as his lips twitched.
“You have to live your dream,” Jason said, nodding solemnly.
“You really do,” Charlie murmured in agreement even as she glanced back at Bradford Construction’s website and made another note.
“I’ve dreamed of smothering you in your sleep,” his father said, narrowing his eyes on his son.
With a long-suffering sigh, Jason reached over and absently patted his father’s head with a murmured, “Your dream makes me sad,” before shifting his attention back to her. “What else?”
“I’m going to beat you,” his father said, slapping his hand away.
“I’m telling Haley you said that,” Jason said as Jared’s eyes narrowed on him.
“Who handles your social media accounts?” Charlie asked, hoping to get the men glaring at each other to focus.
“You do,” Uncle Jared bit out as he glared at his son.
“I see,” Charlie murmured as she opened Facebook and googled Bradford Construction only to find a link for the website and realized that she had her work cut out for her.
Nodding, Charlie made a few more notes before reaching for her phone and opening her calendar, trying to figure out the best day to go out and get some pictures of Bradford Construction’s latest project when an unsettling quiet had her frowning as she looked up and-
“Now, back to your deep dark secrets,” Jason said, making her sigh.
*-*-*-*
3:00 P.M.
“Do you have any more Slytherin figures?” the large man that had moved onto organizing her Harry Potter memorabilia asked as Charlie sat there, slowly exhaling as she rubbed her temples, trying to will away the headache that had started ten minutes ago when her three o’clock appointment showed up.
“I’m not going to hurt her. I promise,” Matt said, only to follow that up with, “I just want to spank her ass until my hand falls off,” as his brother was forced to take him down with a headlock while the reason that the owners of Bradford Furniture were currently beating the shit out of each other calmly continued to swipe through the website themes that Charlie had suggested.
“I like these,” Jenn, the teenager that had driven a Bradford to violence with a few absently murmured words, said as Charlie’s attention shifted to Reed’s wife Joey, who was quietly sitting on the beanbag in the back, reading on her Kindle as she absently ran her hand over the large swell of her belly.
“I don’t know how you were able to get anything done with your paperclips and notepads in the same drawer,” came the heavily sighed words to her left that let her know that Lucifer had moved on and was now organizing the cabinet that he’d helped himself to from storage.
Nodding, because she honestly wasn’t sure what else she was supposed to do, Charlie reached into her bottom drawer to grab the Advil only to remember that Lucifer had moved it into the bathroom where he’d decided it belonged. Sighing, she pushed her chair back, walked over to the mini-fridge, grabbed a Coke, took a sip and found herself once again glancing to her left to find Devin standing there, watching her with the sexiest grin that she’d ever seen.
That alone was going to get him killed, Charlie decided as she stepped out of the way when Reed was forced to take his brother down with a tackle that had his younger brother muttering, “I’m dying,” and Charlie heading to the bathroom to get the Advil.
*-*-*-*
4:00 P.M.
“God, that’s so good,” Mr. Dixon whispered, unable to help but groan as he took a big bite out of one of the large cupcakes that his heavily pregnant granddaughter had brought for their meeting while she slept in the chair next to him.
She looked exhausted, Charlie thought as she took a bite of the delicious chocolate cupcake with buttercream frosting that she’d helped herself to and couldn’t help but nod in agreement because these were really good. As she savored the perfect combination of chocolate and buttercream frosting, Charlie found herself glancing at Necie’s large belly and-
No, she wasn’t going there.
At least, not right now.
She was going to worry about that tomorrow, Charlie told herself firmly as she shifted her attention back to Dixon’s Bakery website and-
“You need coasters,” came the heavily sighed complaint as she found her cupcake plucked out of her hand by the man that she thought left an hour ago. Blinking, she watched as Lucifer devoured her cupcake in one bite before heading back to the kids’ play area to organize their Legos.
Forcing her mind back on the topic at hand, Charlie cleared her throat and-
“That better not be a cupcake in your hand,” came the coldly spoken words from the doorway that had Mr. Dixon going still as Duncan, who looked really pissed, walked into the room and-
Firefighters were definitely hot, Charlie couldn’t help but notice even as she found herself wondering what Devin looked like in his uniform when he was a police officer.
Probably hotter.
“This isn’t what it looks like,” Mr. Dixon said, swallowing nervously as he hastily placed the cupcake down on her desk and then followed that up by pushing it towards her.
“No? Because it looks like someone is going back on a bland diet,” Duncan said as he walked over to his wife and placed his hand on her belly as he glared at his grandfather-in-law.
“You wouldn’t dare!” Mr. Dixon bit out, visibly seething while Charlie found herself once again rubbing her temples.
“Oh, but I fucking would,” Duncan said evenly as Mr. Dixon nodded slowly as he said, “I never should have let my granddaughter lower her standards,” which was followed by a gasp of outrage that had Charlie wondering if it was too late to reschedule the rest of her appointments.
*-*-*-*
5:00
“I want a divorce,” Trevor bit out as he glared at his wife while Charlie sat there, debating who she should start with first.
Zoe ran a small accounting business that focused on bookkeeping, which was pretty straight forward while Trevor flipped houses and wouldn’t stop glaring at his wife, who really didn’t seem all that concerned while she swip
ed through the marketing packages that Charlie had created.
When Trevor realized that his wife was still ignoring him, he shifted his glare to her and-
“I’m going to kill your friend,” he said, making Charlie frown until he sent a pointed look at Ben, who’d stopped by a few minutes ago to check on her, to find him running an appreciative eye over Zoe, taking in every generous curve as he ate a cupcake.
Biting back a sigh, Charlie pushed her chair back, stood up, and walked over to her best friend who was apparently oblivious to how close he was to getting his ass kicked. She grabbed Ben by the arm and dragged him towards the door.
“Wait. What are you doing?” Ben asked as he shoved the rest of the cupcake in his mouth as he glanced past her to throw Zoe one last appreciative look and-
“Oh, shit…”
-let her know that he’d finally realized that he had a very large Bradford glaring at him. Sighing, she shoved Ben out of her office and found herself quickly moving out of the way when Trevor decided that he should help Ben find his way back to his car.
For a moment, Charlie stood there, contemplating helping her best friend, but…