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He rolled his eyes. Thomas didn’t trustanyone. “You’re not thinking of me flying there, are you?” he asked. He didn’t know the first thing about manufacturing and packaging. He knew the law.
“No,” Thomas said. “I need you here. We’ve got a team for that.” They had teams for everything it seemed.
“What do you need me to do?” he asked.
“We’ve got a call in four hours with the store. Go over the contract for any breaches. In two hours we’ll be talking to the plant to get more information and go from there.” Thomas was tapping his Rolex. “We are on the clock, so get to it.”
It didn’t matter he was the CEO’s brother; he still got bossed around and never said a word. He’d heard it more than once that he had to earn his place, even if he helped build his brother’s empire from the day he graduated law school almost ten years ago.
He got to work and put the interaction with Lilian from his mind. It was nothing more than trying to be the hero like his brother was with Abby months ago in Aruba.
Funny, now that he thought of it, he’d done the same thing West did, saving Abby from being hit on in a bar, only this was in a coffee shop. He wouldn’t get the girl though because she was already taken by a guy who was her real fiancé.
Damn it, why didn’t he think of that before he opened his big mouth? He probably just made it more complicated for her.
3
SAVING THE DAY
Two weeks later, Lilian was trying to open the door to the building with her arms full. She had two trays of drinks balanced on each other and the last thing she wanted was for them to go crashing to the ground and she’d have to be late to a meeting and submit double receipts while she filled another order.
“I’ve got it.”
She turned and there was Braylon grabbing the door for her. She hadn’t seen him for two weeks. It was probably a good thing because then it’d look odd to the regulars in the coffee shop who were staring at her when he’d saved her if they weren’t sitting together or talking.
“Thanks,” she said. “You’re good at saving the day.”
“I left my cape in my office,” he said, grinning. He hesitated as if he wanted to talk to her, but she didn’t have the time. “Let me take one of these for you. You’ll never make it up the stairs without some spillage and your shirt is too pretty for that to happen.”
She looked down at her light yellow silk top. He was right and she’d be ticked if she had to walk around with a stain on it all day.
“Well, thanks once again,” she said.
He lifted the top tray off and then they walked to the stairs together. Once they were on the second floor, he opened the door. “Just lead the way to your office. I’ll at least hold this until you get there.”
There was no reason to not let him know what office she was in. It wasn’t that big of a deal.
“I appreciate what you did a few weeks ago,” she said. “I’m in there every Monday. Well, today is Tuesday because we were closed for Labor Day yesterday. But I’m actually left alone now that they saw you talking to me.”
He nodded. “I tend to have that impact on people.”
She grinned at the wiggle of his eyebrows. If she’d been thinking of him for the past two weeks and almost looking for him at the same time hoping he didn’t show up and ruin her ruse, she’d never let anyone know.
His short brown hair and dark eyes flashing in her brain when her eyes shut at night. That had never happened before.
In the few months she’d lived here, Lilian hadn’t done much more than work or explore the city alone. She’d met a few women in the laundry room in the basement of her apartment. They’d even gone out for drinks twice, but nothing more.
Men, nada, and she wasn’t interested.
She was here to make it on her own. Not that she had all that much to be proud of. Fetching coffee and lunches wasn’t what she hoped to accomplish moving to Manhattan. She’d had more responsibilities and actual work when she lived in Lake Placid.
“It worked for me,” she said.
They reached the second floor, he opened the door and followed her to her office door. His eyes landed on the insurance company’s sign on the wall. “Here you go,” he said.
There was part of her that wished he’d help her carry them in and the other part that never needed or wanted help from anyone in the past.
It wouldn’t look right either. She’d get asked questions and since he worked in this building, the last thing she needed was someone thinking they were engaged when she didn’t even know where he worked other than higher than the second floor.
