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Chapter One
~Thomas James~
“Look,” Bill Bard said, leaning his elbows on the desk and staring at me. “Your dad and I go way back. I know he’s making you take this job. In fact, he’s pretty much making me hire you. I just don’t know what to do with you.”
“Sir,” I said, relaxing for the first time since I walked into the man’s office. “I’m not looking for any favors or anything. No, if I’m honest, this isn’t how I would have chosen to spend my summer. But I promise that if you give me this job, I will work hard for you.”
“I don’t doubt that,” he said before blowing out a sigh. “You play sports?”
“Lacrosse,” I offered.
“I guess that’s like a sport,” he said, smirking softly. “You have no construction skills, but you look strong. Can you handle spending the next two months picking things up and putting them down?”
“Yes, sir,” I promised him.
“Well, okay then. There are only three rules here. One, show up on time. We’re a team and we rely on each other to be here. Two, go home on time. I don’t pay overtime. Do your work in the time you’re allotted. And three, stay the fuck away from Constance.”
I blinked at that.
“Who’s Constance?” I asked him.
“It doesn’t matter who Constance is. You’ll never talk to her. You’ll never even look at her. Understood?”
I nodded my agreement. He was making all of this way too easy for me. I could handle two months of grunt work in exchange for my dad continuing to put me through college.
It had been the stupidest arrangement I’d ever heard. But Dad insisted that I was too soft and needed to learn what the ‘real world’ was like. He thought I was just hiding at college. He felt like computer sciences was a weak major and that I was throwing my life away.
No matter how many times I’d tried to explain to him that the world was only going to get more digital as time went on, he still believed that all men needed to know how to make something with their bare hands.
I knew I should be grateful that he hadn’t made me come work for him. He owns an airplane repair company that specializes in private jets. Fixing engines on rich people’s toys was obviously out of my scope of capabilities, but he could have found me some kind of filthy work to do all day.
We both probably knew that I’d never be able to work for him. We loved each other, but our world views were so vastly different, we weren’t able to spend much time in the same room before an argument started.
“Okay,” Bill said firmly, getting to his feet and stretching his hand out to shake mine. “We’ll see you here at seven tomorrow morning.”
“Yes, sir,” I agreed.
I turned to leave just as the door to his office opened and the most drop-dead gorgeous woman I’d ever seen in my life poked her head through the opening.
“Daddy.” Her eyes widened when she saw me. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were with someone.”
“It’s okay,” Bill said. “He’s a new hire. And he’s leaving.”
The goddess stepped into the office and gave me a bright smile as she held the door open for me.
“Welcome aboard,” she said, holding her hand out to me. “I’m Coco.”
“Thomas,” I said, shaking her hand. “Nice to meet you.”
Bill cleared his throat loudly and when I turned back to look at him he was glaring daggers at me.
“Constance, did you need something?” he asked, putting emphasis on her name.
Constance.
Rule number three.
Oh, fuck.
