Millionaire Hero (Freeman Brothers 4)

Oh, well. There was no reason to be embarrassed about it. Nick was sexy and successful. I was going to go ahead and consider him a good score.

Trish and I laughed and chatted throughout dinner. By the time I got home, I was in a pretty good mood. I took a shower and checked my email one last time for the day. I went to bed feeling fantastic. Not just because of the amazing sex, though that definitely didn’t hurt. But also because one of my best clients had come through and sent me a good bit of extra work. It would really boost my income for the month and move me closer to the investment seed money goal.20Nick“Is there anybody promising in the pool of applicants?” I asked, walking into Gabe’s office.

The work week had suddenly taken off like a shot. As much as I thought having Gabe back in the office on a more regular basis would cut down on the workload and make things seem less busy, it actually somehow had the opposite effect. Almost like him walking back in signaled to everybody in the area who had interest in investment that we were open for business, our phones were ringing off the hook, our email inboxes were overflowing, and there were so many people trying to get an appointment with us we had booked weeks out. We were definitely going to need that junior investor we were talking about.

By Tuesday, we had finalized the job listing and posted it on a local job site, and by Wednesday morning, we had more respondents than I expected.

“A couple,” he said optimistically. “None that immediately jumped out at me as being who we have to hire. But definitely some that I’d like to call in for an interview.”

“Hey, that’s something,” I said. “Definitely the beginning of the battle done. Go ahead and narrow down the options to the ones you find most likely to fit the position, then get in touch with them and start setting up interviews. I know we’re really busy over the next couple of weeks, but we need to carve out some time to find the right person so we aren’t completely crushed.”

“Sounds good to me,” Gabe said. “Especially with all the new clients who’ve been getting in touch with us, having a junior investor around will make it a lot easier. They’ll be able to take on the initial work and even help with some minor investments.”

“Exactly,” I said. “We can focus on our existing clients and more aggressive new clients.”

That settled, I went back to my office to take on the challenging day ahead of me. With everything going on, I managed to make it all the way until Thursday afternoon before the constant thoughts of Bryn made it back into my mind. But when they did, they came on with a vengeance. I wasn’t just thinking about her or musing about our time together.

I desperately wanted back in her bed.

The thoughts were particularly inconvenient when one of my longest-standing clients came in for his appointment looking drawn and exhausted. I’d been working with Jeffrey Adams since even before I opened my own firm. He was one of the clients who jumped ship with me.

Fortunately, my former boss had been very understanding about me wanting my own firm. He didn’t throw a fit when the clients I had been working with agreed to come along with me. He said I was the one who had put all the work into building their portfolios, so they deserved to maintain me as their investor, and I deserved to keep gaining the benefits.

Jeffrey was one of the clients I’d started working with at the very beginning of his interest in investing. Unlike some of the people who came to me just starting out and wanting to dip their toes into the idea of investment, Jeffrey was ready to dive in headfirst.

I was able to keep Bryn out of my mind for the rest of the workday.

She ended up right back in it when I went to my favorite rock-climbing spot after leaving the office. With as much stress and pressure as had been on me all week, I needed something to let off steam and help me relax. Rock climbing was always that activity for me. I was away from everybody, surrounded by the beauty of the cliffs, having to push my body hard let my mind clear so it seemed to be able to work through things more easily.

That was definitely what was happening as I pushed myself up one of the more difficult areas of the cliff. I hadn’t really had the time to dwell on Bryn, but now I couldn’t stop thinking about her and what was going on between us. If anything was going on between us. And that was the real sticking point with me. The morning after our spontaneous night together, I hadn’t wanted to talk about anything. I didn’t want that uncomfortable, stilted conversation people tried to have when they unexpectedly found themselves tumbling into each other.