Page 2 of Happily Ever Maybe

When it came to interdepartmental relationships, I didn’treally care. It was fine as long as everyone kepttheir shit together and didn’t let it interfere with work. Ford and Noahdidn’t. They loved each other, fought with each other, fought for eachother, and kept the ship running.

Noah’s cousins—Daisy, Kane, and Kingston—were also ourbosses.

We had a few other part-time and contract workers who helpedwith installations and when we needed larger teams, but they liked beingcontractors because they could work for a few people and control their schedules.Jennifer and I were the only two full-time employees who weren’t at the head ofthe company. It might seem awkward for some to be working with the Montgomerys so closely like that, but it worked for us. Wegot paid well, had decent benefits, and my dumbasscould be near Jennifer more often.

I pulled my gaze from her and looked back at the crowd.Something tingled, and it wasn’t just that I couldn’t keep my eyes offJennifer. While that was a problem, it wasn’t the only one.

My client laughed at something on stage, and so did thecrowd, but I was missing someone. I’d seen something, missed something.

“You okay, Gus?” Jennifer asked, her voice low, slightlysmoky in a way that only happened when she was on duty.

I wondered what it would sound like in bed. But just becausewe had chemistry and constantly flirted with each other didn’t mean I wasallowed to think about that.

There were rules and guidelines about that. That had to besome form of sexual harassment. There was something fuckingwrong with me.

“Just getting an itch,” I whispered into the receiver.

Of course, that itch only partially had to do with somethingI sensed in the crowd. But I wouldn’t put that out into the universe.

“I have a disturbance in section four. I’m going to check itout.” Daisy’s voice was low as she moved forward, and I was grateful that shewas on it. She was still recovering from the incident that’d nearly killed herand scared all of us. But she was fine now, or so she said. I knew that Kanewould be keeping an eye on her. They were cousins, just like most of ourworkforce, and he would ensure she was good. They were partners here, whileJennifer was mine.

“Are you sure everything is good?” she asked, her voicestill low.

“Yeah. We’re good.”

She moved closer to me so we weren’ttalking on the mics. “I don’t see anything on my end. What about you?”

I could feel her heat, just like always. I was in fucking trouble. But it was my problem. We had beenflirting off and on since we met. We enjoyed it, the chemistry and heat betweenus. And we ignored it. We checked each other out and joked about going out, butwe never did anything. Everybody gave us shit aboutit, too. It didn’t matter because we all made it work, and we never let it getin the way.

And yet, it felt like something was off. Like something wasdifferent about this. Or maybe that was just me. Perhaps she didn’t wantanything more than joking, and that was why I was so distracted.

“False alarm,” Daisy said over the earpiece, and I nodded,though she couldn’t see me.

“Understood,” Jennifer and I said at the same time as wekept our eyes on the audience.

“What’s wrong?” Jennifer asked softly, and I turned to her.

“Nothing’s wrong. I’m just trying to focus.”

“I know. Same here. Did you see something? You seem off.”

I was off because of her, but it wasn’t as if I was going totell her that.

We both turned back to the audience, though I wanted to saysomething. Only it seemed I had been distracted, after all.

“Dylan! I love you. Won’t you think of our future children?”

We were off in an instant, moving before the woman evenfinished her statement. I went toward our client, Dylan, and Jennifer was onthe woman as she screamed about her long-lost love as the crowd startedscreaming and yelling.

She threw a water bottle—just a water bottle—and it splashedall over the podium. I didn’t know what was in it, if it was acid, somethingcombustible, or worse, but I got the client away, all the while knowing I’d fucked up.

I had once again been distracted by Jennifer, talking to herwhen I should have been paying attention. When I saw the glint in thatwoman’s eyes and ignored it because I wanted to look at a person I shouldn’t.

Everything moved fast after that. Kane spoke over theintercom, telling the people to remain calm as we escorted the woman out. Theauthorities would be called, and we would deal, but I had fuckedup.

“Let me go back out, it’s fine. It’s happened before.” Dylanran his hands through his hair and looked at me. “Don’t kick yourself aboutthis. It’s not your fault.”

I raised a brow. “I’m going to have to disagree, sir. Butwe’ll handle it.”