Except when I’m alone with Campbell in a tack room.
“Nah, I don’t mind,” Lane says easily. “We share the same last name, so if people learn we’re half brothers, they assume we have the same dad. But we’re brothers from the same mother. Our mess of a mom had a tough life after Myles’s dad died. She kept his name and refused to marry our dad. Never did give us his last name, which was one of the few things she could hold over his head.”
My phone starts buzzing. Campbell’s name flashes on the screen.
Lane pushes up and cocks a brow when his gaze dips to the screen. “I’ll let you get that.”
“Wedding stuff.”
He smirks. “It’s kinda like you said earlier—none of my business.”
I scowl at his back as he leaves, then answer. “Yeah?”
“Oh.” Campbell’s husky voice starts a trickle of heat in my veins. “Bad time?”
“No.” Never for her. “Why?”
“That’s right. You always sound cranky.”
“Do not.”
“Mm. Sure.” That hum of hers goes right to my dick. “Anyway, since it’s a rainy day, the Baldwins just want to chill.”
“Good. You need a day off.”
“You’d be the only one who thinks so.”
Who the hell’s giving her a hard time now? “Why?”
“The Baldwins want me to earn their money, and I don’t need them talking crap about me around town. I do need a successful wedding before anyone else will schedule theirs. I’m hoping to get some smaller things going and do some cross-promoting.”
“Do you just go from event to event like that?” The wedding is exhausting her enough, and she’s out hustling for more?
“It’s like a rolling schedule. I might be working on four or five big events and several smaller ones, but they’re all at various stages. And after this, I’ll have zero, so I’ve still gotta get planning, and I finally got a meeting with Bryce.”
“You didn’t have to agree to go out with him, did you?” I growl. I don’t dislike Bryce, but I don’t trust him. He’s too desperate around women, and he makes stupid decisions because of it.
“No, thankfully, and he didn’t ask me out this time.”
Doesn’t mean he won’t try to get with her. “Are you meeting at the downtown office?”
“No, he’s at the middle river site today, getting equipment ready.”
My warning bells get louder. “And you’re going there?”
“Yeah. If I’m whoring for clients, I’ve gotta go where they are.”
“You’re not whoring for any goddamn client?—”
“Whoa, take a joke, grumpy.”
“—and you’re not going to the middle river site alone. Why the hell is he even there?” Bryce might be legitimately working riverside, or he could be luring Campbell away, where her rejection won’t matter.
“Well, now that you brought it up... Can you come with me?”
Astonished, I stare out the glass wall of my office at the pipes crossing over the stills. She’s not brushing off my concerns, and she’s asking me to go along. She trusts me.
“Durban?”
