I could tell by his tone alone that it was Destiny, his wife, on the other end of the phone.
“Brutus is in love,” he blurted into the phone, then laughed. “Yes, I’m serious.”
I grunted and shook my head. All of the women in the family would know my damn business by the end of the day. These assholes didn’t keep secrets from their wives. Not that I wanted Mia to be a secret.
It was that talking about her while she was so far away started to make me resent my job in a way that I never had before.
“That’s an excellent idea.” Tyler’s eyes widened with excitement. He looked around the room before his gaze landed on me. “Destiny says you should bring her to the gala.”
I damn near choked on my own spit. “I’m working the gala.”
“You don’t have to.”
My eyebrows almost touched the top of my head to hear Aaron make such a statement.
He merely shrugged when I glared at him. “We have most of the details finalized. You have all of your staff in place.”
“Right?” Joshua added. “This is like the hundred thousandth gala you’ve worked for us. We all know how it goes, and so does the rest of your staff. You can just supervise if there’s an issue, but otherwise you might as well be there as a guest.”
He looked between his two brothers as if the final decision was theirs.
“That doesn’t make any damn sense,” I pushed back.
“Makes total sense,” Tyler said. “No, don’t worry, baby. We’ll convince him to bring her,” he said to Destiny. “Love you.”
He hung up and looked at me expectedly. “You can’t let my wife down.”
“She doesn’t even know I work for you all,” I told them.
“She’ll find out soon enough.” Joshua slapped me on the shoulder. “I’m looking forward to meeting the woman who captured your heart.”
I started to wonder what Mia would look like in a gown. She would be back home a few weeks before the gala.
“Make it happen already,” Tyler insisted.
I looked between the three of them. All of them wore welcoming expressions. Well, Aaron’s was as close to welcoming as I’d ever seen.
“I need to make sure she’s free that night,” I hedged. Truthfully, it didn’t feel like a horrible idea at all. I could easily picture Mia on my arm at any event. I wanted her on my arm. But I didn’t know how the hell I would balance being as attentive to her as I wanted—as she deserved—and keeping an eye on all of the security details.
“I’ll figure it out,” I mumbled.
Joshua and Tyler chuckled and patted me on the back.
“I’ll be in my office for another hour if you need anything,” I told them before heading out.
When I exited Aaron’s outer office, my phone buzzed. I pulled it out to see a text from Jameson.
Jameson:Mia just checked out of her AirBnb.
She checked out three weeks earlier than she was scheduled to. As I took the elevator down to my office, I wondered what that was about. Jameson had done a great job of staying out of sight, while also keeping tabs on Mia. It was the next best thing to me being there, I supposed. Though, I worried about her all the same.
I planned to call her as soon as I was back in my office.
But when I stepped off of the elevator, I already had a text message from Mia.
Mia:I decided to return home early.
A smile I hadn’t smiled in weeks touched my lips.
