I shake my head as my brother once again fails, or chooses to ignore the enormity of what he’s done.
“What part ofwe can’t work togetherare you missing?” I snap. “We can’t even be in the same room as one another.” Then I’m hit by a thought. “How the hell did you get Jaxson to agree to this fiasco?”
Caleb leans back and crosses his arms, his left ankle resting on his right thigh, the picture of calm.
“Elijah and I were having dinner with him…”
“Elijah’s in on this?” I say open-mouthed, my body temperature rising suddenly. “Does Pen know, April?”
“Er… they heard the conversation about Moorland, but not the rest.”
Caleb’s eyes shift away from mine, and I smirk.
Oh, you’re in so much shit when your wife finds out what you’ve done.
“That still doesn’t explain how you got Jaxson to agree?”
Caleb’s shoulders slump slightly, and he looks at me sheepishly.
He sighs, suddenly dejected.
“I lied,” he admits.
“You lied?” I raise an eyebrow. “So Jaxson hasn’t agreed?”
I almost sigh in relief.
“Oh no, he’s agreed to work on the project. That isn’t a lie.” His throat bobs, and he swallows. “The lie I told was that you were on board with the whole thing. You were desperate, and he wouldn’t be working with you directly, just your team.”
Well, that explains the whiter shade of pale he turned when I said I was running it.
I drop back hard in my chair, the back flexing underneath me, making my heart race.
“You told Jax I was desperate? I should—” I seethe.
“Look,” Caleb says, sitting forward, both feet now firmly on the ground, his elbows braced on his knees. “Jax is the best person for this job. I know it, you know it.” He raises an eyebrow, and I want to smack the smug look from his face. “If it wasn’t for that enormous Jaxson-sized stick you have wedged up your arse, you’d be thanking me.”
I freeze. “Thanking you?” My voice drops to a hiss. “Watch it, little brother, you’re very close to overstepping and really pissing me off.”
“Bullshit,” Caleb gets up and starts pacing the room. “If you weren’t so pig-headed.”
“Insults…nice. Keep digging,” I say, sitting back and folding my arms over my chest, watching him pace.
“As I was saying, if you weren’t so bloody pig-headed, you’d agree with me. You need to get over yourself and suck it up. If it were me sitting in the chair, you’d be telling me the exact same thing. Jax is perfect for this job.”
He sinks back down into his chair, panting as if he’s just run a marathon.
“Have you quite finished?”
Caleb’s eyes lock on mine, and I’m surprised when he refuses to drop his gaze.
He’s right, not that I’ll ever admit it.
Jaxson Lockwoodisthe perfect architect for this project. I do know this. His firm is world-renowned, having won an obscene amount of awards. His speciality is in line with what I’m trying to create with the new hotel complex. However, working with him… My visceral reaction to the man is not normal. He rubs me up the wrong way. Just looking at him has my body temperature rising, breathing the same air as him makes me want to up-sticks and leave.
I close my eyes and draw in a deep and steady breath.
My biggest problem. My family bloody adore him.
