“Read this.” He collected a file from his desk and slid it across the table to Riley. “Figure out where the collar ties are located, and which you think should be replaced. Determine how you’d do it without destroying the eaves. And in case you haven’t heard, there are three vacant conference rooms in this place. Camp out in one of them.”
Matthew motioned to the chairs and leaned against the edge of his desk while I sat. My foot grazed his trousers as I crossed my legs, and his gaze locked on my red patent leather platform stilettos. “Whose ass did you kick today? Other than mine, of course.”
“Perseverance and a few extra inches. And the help of a good architect. It’s all I need to rule the world,” I laughed. “It was hard to believe, actually. I couldn’t have imagined a smoother, more perfect sequence of events. Everything was approved, contingent upon all the usual—”
“Fucking hell,” he sighed.
The door opened and I immediately recognized Sam and Patrick from the magazines in the hallway. And when they pulled up chairs to join us, I noticed fine threads of family resemblance tying them together. Where Riley and Matthew were nearly identical, they shared only a sharp, defined jaw with Sam and Patrick.
Patrick’s short reddish-brown hair shone in the afternoon sunlight and his hard hazel eyes flashed with interest as he sat. His shirtsleeves were rolled up to his elbows, exposing a long stretch of freckled skin over rippling forearms. He came in around Matthew’s height but his presence seemed larger, definitely unapproachable and certainly intimidating, and I figured he preferred it that way.
Where Patrick was aloof, Sam oozed trend and charm. His auburn hair was strategically sculpted into the perfect tousled look, and I was positive I saw his entire outfit—light gray glen plaid trousers and matching vest, crisp white shirt with funky cufflinks, and hot pink tie—in a boutique window on Newbury Street. He adjusted his cuffs, exposing two silver medical alert bracelets. Sam’s frame was shorter and slimmer, a contrast to his brothers’ broad, sculpted bodies, and though he most resembled Patrick, his look was all his own.
Matthew’s expression turned impassive but I felt waves of tension radiating off him. “Sam. Patrick.” Eyes rolling, he absently waved at his brothers. “This is Miss Halsted.”
“Hello,” I said, offering my hand with a smile. “Call me Lauren.”
“She’s from the Trench Mills project,” said Riley.
“This meeting involves neither of you,” Matthew said. I was waiting for him to sit down, but he continued leaning against the desk, his arms crossed over his chest. “And we have a critical timeline today.”
“I’d like to hear more about that,” Patrick said. “It’s not every day we work on schools.”
“As would I,” Sam said.
His eyes traveled over my body in obvious appraisal and though it should have felt degrading when he studied my cleavage, it was clear he spent a few years smoothing it down to lightly obnoxious. But I was used to it. I stopped worrying about the boob ogling not long after my pair of hefty grapefruits came in, and my brothers taught me to execute a clean groin kick and broken nose combo around the same time. Sam—and anyone else who was interested—could look, he could appreciate, but he wasn’t getting on the short list of those approved to touch.
“I know incredible things are possible, and I know not every school is right for every kid, and that’s where it all starts.” I gave them my standard pitch—all kids deserve an excellent education, innovation in structured settings often leads to significant, breakthrough results, and growing this school in a green facility was essential to truly embracing a transformative approach to learning.
Patrick glanced to Sam and Matthew, and then back at me. “And you’re doing this by yourself?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I have some strategic support from my fellowship program, and they provide access to funding and researchers and people doing similar work in other parts of the country, but yeah…just me.”
“That’s extraordinary,” Patrick murmured. “Really extraordinary. Do you need any help?”
“I really need a building,” I said, laughing. “Preferably one that isn’t home to a colony of possums—”
“Raccoons,” Matthew said.
“Raccoons,” I repeated, sharing a smile with him over my shoulder. “Though I wouldn’t turn away prospective board members or donors.”
“We can handle that,” Sam said. He leaned forward, smiling. “I’d love to consult on this. Now that Matt’s worked out the structural elements, let’s talk about sustainability.”
Matthew shifted beside me, sliding his hand to rest on the edge of my chair. I heard the brush of his fingers as they moved against the leather, and then felt them just beneath my shoulder blade. Sam, Patrick, and Riley tracked the movement, and though it was far less intimate than the moment Riley witnessed earlier, that quiet, loaded statement screeched across the room.
“I’ve got it under control, Sam,” he said.
There was a decadence behind his softly possessive touch, a wonderful weight that brought a smile to my face and an unstoppable pack of gazelles—forget about the butterflies—charging across my chest.
But then my phone vibrated in my hand, signaling a new email, and I remembered this thing with Matthew wasn’t for me, not really. My mission was opening a school and hiring teachers and fielding board members, and indulging in any degree of coupledom wasn’t part of the operation. Not right now.
I caught Matthew’s eye and nodded. “But thank you, Sam. You should come and talk about sustainability when we have our first college and career days.”
“Sorry I’m late.” The elfin redhead—Shannon—strode into the office and slammed the door behind her. “This day has been a special kind of clusterfuck.”
“You know, Shannon, most professional adults don’t enter a room that way,” Patrick said. His teasing tone told me we were no longer in business territory, but firmly planted in family. I recognized it as a small victory, an acceptance into Matthew’s private world that I never anticipated wanting but found I was thrilled to achieve.
“And lucky for you, I’m not most professional adults,” she said.
