“Evan,” Jack’s face turned grim and his tone was stern. “Knowing Paige was with you would be the biggest relief and a huge fucking weight off my shoulders. There’s going to come a time when I won’t be able to watch out for her, like I’ve done our entire fucking lives.”
Jack put his face in his hands and rubbed his eyes. I felt awful for him. He tried his hardest to hide it, but it killed him to know what—and who—he might have to leave behind.
“My cousin is a headstrong woman, but so damn vulnerable it drives me up the wall. She’s always worried the shit out of me. Not to sound like my sappy wife, but I think you guys would be good together. I’m all for it, so don’t use me as an excuse to stay a chicken.” He smirked at me, but even though he tried to lighten the mood, I knew what he was saying. I was probably the only one who knew the whole truth about Jack’s prognosis. It was something no one liked to bring up, not even Jack himself. Since I’d become his partner, I’d been hearing the “make sure you remember to . . .” requests that weren’t meant solely for the short term.
Jack had just asked me to take care of Paige, too.This was all becoming way too much, too fast.
The doorbell rang exactly at noon, and instead of looking forward to seeing if it was Paige, I was nervous as hell. The pressure of maybe approaching her today doubled. I tapped the pen on my desk faster as I worked up the nerve to rise from my seat.
“Stay there, Woody Woodpecker. I’ll answer it.” Jack chuckled as he sauntered over to the door. Was it bad to call someone with a possible terminal illness an asshole?
Jack walked back into the office with Paige trailing him. She was so fucking gorgeous—all the damn time—and her presence made me as lovesick stupid now as it had when I was a kid. The tight blue dress she wore highlighted every mouth-watering curve. I hoped she didn’t notice me adjusting my jeans behind the desk as I blinked away the thought of those tan knee high boots wrapped around my waist. How much advertising would it take to have her in here looking like that on a daily basis?
“Hi Evan, good to see you.” She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes, and seemed more polite than friendly. What could have happened between the diner and now to make her so cold?
“You too,Daisy.” I winked at her to see if I could melt away some of the ice coming from her direction. She smirked for a moment, but was all business as she pulled her laptop out of her bag and set it on Jack’s desk.
“I brought some mock ups for you to look at today. I’ll show you guys on screen for right now. If you like the options, I can come by with some printouts to narrow down the colors.” I stepped behind Jack and Paige to take a look. I didn’t have too much input as this was only my second week with a stake in the company. I didn’t know much about design, but at a quick glance it was obvious that Paige did nice work.
“I like number two and number three. What do you think, Ev?” Jack turned his head to face me. Paige huffed and shook her head. Jack cocked an eyebrow in her direction as though he didn’t know what Paige’s problem was, either.
“That’s fine. They’re all pretty nice, Paige.” I glanced over to her and she nodded in response, folding her arms without looking back at me. Today didn’t look like the day I could talk to Paige about anything.
“Mind telling me who pissed in your Cheerios, little cousin?” Jack glared at Paige and she narrowed her eyes at him in response.
“Maybe it would be nice to hear what’s going on from you, not other people. Why did I have to hear from Evan that you made him a partner? When did you stop telling me everything?” Her face was beet red and she held on to the edge of the desk so tightly her knuckles were turning white.
This wasn’t the first time they’d fought in front of me like I wasn’t there. Throughout high school it was an almost daily occurrence. Paige kept her arms folded and bit her lip, probably to hide the trembling in her jaw I couldn’t help but notice. Jack had mentioned to me before I moved back that Paige wasn’t taking his illness very well. If she was upset about Jack making me a partner, it was most likely because she knew what it meant.
Jack let out a long sigh and rubbed her shoulder. “When you stopped wanting to hear it. Evan is the only one I’d trust to be here. I have a kid on the way, and all those weeks when I couldn’t move or get my head out of the toilet I lost a shit ton of money. I feel better, but I’m not dumb enough to think I can do this alone anymore. It’s all a good thing, really. Evan just got us a huge job so we’re already getting back on track.”
“I’m glad.” Paige’s voice was shaky and she brushed away a tear with the back of her hand. Jack snuck a look over at me and grimaced. He was on the money about her being headstrong but vulnerable.
Jack took a step toward the door. “Well, I promised Ellie I’d meet her for lunch. Make printouts of two and three and we’ll take a look. I wouldn’t mind redoing the website if you had time for that.”
“I’d love to redesign your site. I don’t do much coding, but I know another freelancer who can help with that. If that’s okay with you, Evan.” Both of them were ignoring the big elephant in the room, but I wasn’t about to get involved in a family squabble.
“Sounds great to me, Paige. I can’t wait to see what you come up with.” I gave her a big smile that she genuinely returned. She was still obviously rattled, and I resisted the urge to wrap my arms around her to comfort her. Something about Paige made me want to be her knight in shining armor and come to her rescue.
“Okay, if that’s all settled, I’m starving.” Jack raised his eyebrows at Paige. “We good?”
“Fine.”Uh oh.Usually, when a woman used ‘fine’, it was anything but.
“Good.” Jack gave Paige a kiss on the forehead and turned back to me. “Be back in a couple of hours. Man the fort while I’m gone.” He gave me a pretend salute.
“Yes, sir!” I saluted back. Paige chuckled softly as she packed her stuff.
“Heading back to the office?”
I stood up to walk her out. “Nah, I’m done for the day, so I’m headed to Starbucks to work on a couple of projects. I like working from home, but too much time in my apartment makes me a little batty.”
“I can keep you company. I’m not very hungry and just wanted some coffee. Would you mind? It would be nice to catch up.” She furrowed her brow at me, but shrugged and nodded.
“Sure, that would be nice.” Now,thatwas a real smile.
I’ll show you who’s a chicken, Jack.
Four
