His bedroom door shut, and Maria pretended to faint with one hand against her chest and the other on her forehead. “Oh my god. He is so delicious.”
“Okay, if we are going to be friends, my brother is off-limits. Two, don’t call him delicious. It’s weird.”
“The only thing weird is that I’m not in that shower with him,” Maria sighed dreamily and stared at Logan’s closed bedroom door with hearts in her eyes. “I’m never giving him this shirt back.”
“Are you a crazy stalker? Do we need to worry about that?” I made sure it sounded like a joke, but I truly knew that one could never be too sure.
“Not yet,” she winked. “Where were we before we got interrupted?” Maria walked back to our drinks and plopped in the middle of the floor. My phone dinged, and when I pulled it out of my pocket, it was a job notification saying that Stoneridge was hiring a personal assistant, and my resume met the criteria. If I got that job, Logan and I could go to work together, and I’d feel safer with him around.
With one click of a button, my resume was off to the hands of the person that was about to determine my fate. Until then, I was going to drink this margarita with my new crazy friend. New York hadn’t disappointed. For the first time in a long time, I was excited to see where change would take me.
I hoped it didn’t lead me to a tattoo chair.
That, I was not ready for.
Chapter Two
Godrick
“Do you have the files for the job applicants yet?” I asked my secretary, Barbara. She reminded me of my mother. She had a cold demeanor, stone-cold blue eyes, and a silver bun pulled back so tight, it gave her a natural brow lift.
“I’m getting them together now.”
“Get them together quicker. I want to look them over before my meeting in an hour.”
“Yes, Mr. Stoneridge. Right away.” Her old bones typed furiously on the keyboard, and to my right, the printer started buzzing, printing the files I was waiting for. It was unlike me to look over resumes, but leaving the hiring to HR was out of the question in this case. The last personal assistant that Melody hired was completely incompetent. I had to do everything myself, which shouldn’t be a surprise, but sometimes, I didn’t want to have to pick up everyone else’s slack.
“Grab me a fresh cup of coffee, would you, Barbara? Two—”
“Creams and one sugar. I know, Mr. Stoneridge.”
“You know me too well, Barb.”
“Don’t I know it.” She slid her wrinkled judging gaze to me, peeked over her readers, and then laid them on the screen again.
“You love it,” I said with a large, million-dollar smile.
“So you say, but something in my gut tells me I don’t.” She was the only one allowed to be cheeky with me because Barbara had worked here longer than anyone, even me. She worked with my father, and when I started to work for the family company, my father cut back on the bus
iness and let her work with me. Best secretary in the universe if anyone asked me, and one of the few people I liked. I wanted her to be my personal assistant, but she was too old, and I needed someone who was able to be on their feet a lot.
By the time Barbara brought my coffee, I’d have to warm it up. I never said anything about it; I never reprimanded her for it. It would be like yelling at my grandmother. Everyone here loved Barbara. Every Christmas, she brought hand-knitted scarves, and every Wednesday, she brought homemade biscuits drizzled in honey.
She took care of everyone, and her determination to keep working made me admire her. She could retire and do whatever she wanted and relax, but she said Stoneridge was her life now that her husband died ten years ago.
Nothing in this life would ever make me get rid of Barbara except her death, and I hoped like hell it wasn’t for another twenty years.
“You wound me, Barbara.”
“Some women have to, Mr. Stoneridge, to keep a man like you knocked down a peg or two,” she teased.
I barked out a laugh and knocked on the trim of my doorway. “I’ll win you over one day, Barb. You just wait and see.”
“I’ll be long gone before then, Lord can only hope,” she muttered the last part under her breath, but the sassy older woman sent me a wink before I disappeared into my office with a shake of my head.
My desk phone rang with a high shrill, and I sat down, holding my tie down to keep it from swaying. “Rick here.”
“Mr. Stoneridge.”