Page 13 of Hired Husband

Without another word, he strode out of my office and let the door swing shut behind him, leaving me to wonder if I’d really just told Basel Saad I’d come work for him in Egypt, or if maybe I really had been dreaming.

Operating mostly on autopilot, I reached for my coffee, convinced that once I took a sip, it would still be piping hot and Basel’s visit would’ve been nothing but a daydream, but when the ice-cold liquid hit my lips, I jerked from how stunned I was.

“Fuck, it was real.”

I slammed back in my chair and scrubbed my hands over my face, but when I pulled them away, I found myself looking around my office, at my hardhat hanging on the coatrack gathering dust and the stacks of drawings on the bottom of bookshelves, plans I’d doodled that I’d long since given up on.

For the last few months, I’d been wondering whether I should branch out on my own someday, and while this wasn’t really branching out, it would be taking the first step toward doing my own thing. Without abandoning the family business for good.

GlobalStar and Thayer were working together, which meant I’d stay sort of under the Thayer umbrella if I took Basel up on his offer. Finally unable to keep sitting still, I stood up and wandered toward the window, looking out at Chicago for approximately seven seconds before I started laughing out loud.

This was crazy. Chicago was home and yet I was already mentally packing my bags. In my mind, there was only one thing left to do and that was survive telling my family. I spun around and headed to Jane’s office, finding Colin and Ryan already in there with her.

They were wrapping up a meeting, a whole table of executives listening to Colin and Ryan give rapid-fire updates about something having to do with our finances. I waited at the door until the execs filed out, then drew in a deep breath and walked inside, shutting her door firmly behind me.

Jane sank back in her seat, smiling with relief. Until she frowned after taking just one look at my face. “Isaac? Is everything okay?”

“I think so,” I said slowly, looking from her, to each of my brothers, and then back again. “Basel came to see me this morning.”

Colin blinked rapidly, checking his watch for some reason. “That’s weird. I’m not supposed to meet with him for another couple hours.”

“Yeah. No. He, uh, he wasn’t there looking for you,” I said, planting my hands on the back of one of the chairs at Jane’s conference table and tightening my grip. “He really did come to see me.”

“What did he want?” Jane asked, a slightly concerned furrow on her brow, but at this point, she seemed fairly used to being surprised by him. “Was it about the structural integrity of the facility we’re converting? Because I’ve told him a dozen times that⁠—”

“He wants me to come work for him in Egypt,” I blurted out.

Jane blinked hard, Colin froze with his hand halfway to a bottle of water, and Ryan’s eyebrows shot up, but not one of them said a single word. I let out a nervous chuckle, rubbing the back of my neck as I wondered if maybe this hadn’t been the right decision after all.

Colin shook his head. “Obviously, you said no.”

“I may have said yes.”

My sister stared at me for several more seconds, then very, very slowly leaned over and crossed her arms on the table. “Are you seriously telling me that you’re quitting Thayer Steelworks and moving to Egypt?”

CHAPTER 6

JASMINE

Sunlight spilled across my apartment through the open, floor-to-ceiling windows. The sheer linen drapes billowed in the warm breeze. Car horns drifted up from the streets below, blending with the familiar hum of millions of people starting their day. I padded barefoot across the cool marble floors.

With my coffee in one hand, I strode out onto my balcony and sat down on the lounger I’d dragged out here. Moving into my own apartment had been one of the best decisions I’d ever made.

While I adored my family, I’d never realized how desperately I needed a little space from them until Deja had gotten married. Once she’d moved to Chicago, I’d suddenly become the only daughter in a house full of brothers and it had been suffocating.

That was why I had escaped to Chicago for a few months. I had hoped to move their permanently but my father had shut down that idea quickly. It was a wonder I had been allowed the time I’d gotten. Being on my own had shown me how amazing it was to live alone, which was why I had gotten my own place when I flew home to Egypt.

Plus, living alone meant nobody questioned why I stayed up until two in the morning researching travel destinations I had never been to before and didn’t know if or when I would visit. Nobody burst into my room to reclaim a charger they were convinced belonged to them, and best of all, nobody was all up in my business.

It had only been a few months so far, but I already couldn’t imagine moving back home. Besides, I wasn’t that far away from my family.

A point that was proven once again when my phone buzzed on my lap and I glanced down to see my mom’s name on the screen. Smiling as I answered, I pressed the phone to my ear and leaned back against the chair.

“Good morning, Mom.”

“Are you on your way over to the estate for breakfast yet?” she asked, neglecting to care whether I’d agreed to go over there at all.

Even so, my smile widened as I rose from the lounger. “I’m on my way now.”