The thought didn’t get especially far—I was on the edge of consciousness when Patrick tucked me against his chest.
Chapter Fifteen
PATRICK
Iused tothink working alongside Andy was torture, and I spent the greater portion of those days obsessing about the ways she drove me crazy and wanting to get her naked.
As with most things, I didn’t have a fucking clue what I was talking about.
Torture was sharing an office with a woman who seemed oblivious to the fact that, for the past three weekends, we had hot, wild sex for hours straight. It was wanting to throw her on the conference table and fuck her because her hair was everywhere and she smelled like flowers and her lips did terrible things to my imagination, all coupled with the newly acquired knowledge of precisely how good it was with her.
Torture was falling asleep with Andy in my arms only to wake up and discover her on the opposite side of the bed. It was spending the whole day in her company without seeing a single flicker of recognition in her eyes.
It was fucking agonizing.
Drumming my fingers against the edge of my laptop, I invented ploys to steal time with Andy. She wanted to try tons of restaurants, and I still owed her Peking duck. I kept my grandfather’s designs in my apartment, and if Andy was anything, she was fanatical about old architecture. We could always get a drink and see to that fantasy of hers, the one with the talking points. Or I could stop being a giant pussy and just ask to see her, even if it was a weeknight and she always created reasons to wait until the weekend.
“Dude, I know. This afternoon has been like ten years. I’m tired too, but let’s get this done,” Shannon said.
“Sorry.” I inclined my head toward Shannon’s list. “What’s next?”
“One big item and some smallerish-slash-personalish items.” She hoisted a folder. “We need to redraft our strategy and partnership structures because we’re no longer a sole proprietorship. Angus changed things when he and Uncle Seamus went their separate ways, and while it isn’t a huge deal, I think we need to clarify our partnership structure. I can totally handle that, but there are some big questions.”
I glanced at the clock on my screen and figured Andy was still elbow-deep in the next round of Wellesley plans, and wasn’t leaving until she solved whichever problem was vexing her. That’s how she was; it wasn’t done until it was done, and she never walked away from a challenge.
That’s probably why she tolerated my brand of impatient bastard so well.
“Okay. Let’s knock them out.”
“I think you need to acknowledge that you’re the managing partner or CEO or principal.”
A huge sigh burst from my chest and I leaned back. “Only if you’re a managing partner, too.”
She threw her pen across the table in frustration. “If it’s you and me, why not Matt? Why not Sam, too? We’ll leave out Riley for the time being, but the four of us for sure, right?”
“Shannon,” I groaned. There was no right answer to this question, and more wrong answers than I could shake a T-square at. “We need to be a small firm with a small table of partners, and that’s it.”
“You’re wrong. You’re wrong.” She pushed out of her chair to pace. “Just sit there, stewing in your wrongness.” Shannon dropped her hands to the windowsill and stared down at the alley below. “I’m going to draft a few org structures and we’ll decide on them as a team,” she hissed. “You’ll spend a lot time being wrong then.”
“Outstanding.” I held up my hands in surrender. “What else?”
She plopped into her chair with an exaggerated sigh, and flipped through her dark purple notebook while her bracelets jangled. “The leases end on our Range Rovers next month, and I decided to upgrade to hybrid models. We can’t exactly roll with this sustainability thing and drive around in gas-guzzlers. Is it time to add a car to our fleet for Riley?”
“No. I told you that in October. He shouldn’t be allowed out of Matt’s sight.”
Shannon nodded and consulted her notes. “Andy’s managing Wellesley?”
“Yep.” I checked my project spreadsheet for notes on her progress. “She’s working through some inconsistent plans from the original build to the work Angus did on the house when he and Mom moved in. Once she nails that down, I think we’ll be ready to move forward. Already replaced the water heaters and solar panels are going in next week.”
“You’re good with her managing such a big project?”
“Yeah.” I shrugged, frowning in confusion. Didn’t I tell Shannon about Andy managing most of my projects, solving every random problem I threw her way plus making my life equal parts magnificent and excruciating?
“Totally fine,” she replied quickly. She sounded placating and that was tremendously weird for Shan. “I’m delighted to hear it. Do we need to have a crew empty the house?”
“Depends on what you want to do with that furniture,” I said. “A lot of what’s left was built for that house. But other than that, anything that might have been there before is gone now. As far as I can tell. There’s his room, but that’s it.”
“We have to tell everyone else at some point.” We stared at each other for a beat, waiting for the other to take on that task. It wasn’t going to be me.
