Emmett shakes his head. “I doubt that. She’s got more spine and gumption than you think.”
“Wanna make a little bet?”
Emmett cocks an eyebrow. “Sure. What are we betting?”
I think for a moment. Maybe the Spectre…? It’s a cool car.
“I don’t want the Spectre,” Emmett says before I can suggest it. “We have a kid.”
“Fine. I’ll get you a minivan,” I say, mostly to mess with him. “Okay, how about: whoever loses gives the winner a handwritten, letter-sized note. It will read,I’m wrong. You’re right. And it will be signed and framed.”
“You’re going to lose,” Emmett says with a laugh.
“Don’t cry when you have to give me the note. I’m going to hang it in my office so everyone can see it.”
“Fine. But you can’t do anything illegal.”
“I’m going to get her to quit, not sue me. Not that a lawsuit would be a bad thing. I could hire Huxley & Webber and drag her through the court system for a decade or two.”
Emmett squints at me. “What did she do to unleash your inner asshole?”
“I don’t have an inner asshole.”
“Yeah, you do. You’re laid-back and nice until somebody fucks you over. Then you turn into a giant, raging pucker monster.”
“Come on. Everyone does that, not just me.”
“Yeah, but you’re an extreme case. Scorched earth. Nuclear winter.” Emmett makes a bomb explosion noise, raising his hands into the air like a mushroom cloud. Then he grows serious. “Did Aspen fuck you over?”
If I tell him everything, he’ll side with me. My brothers and I… We’ve all got each other’s backs. But I don’t want to rehash my past. It happened fourteen years ago, damn it, and I’d rather drink a shot of Drano than tell him how stupid I was. “I just don’t like how she looks.”
He smirks. “Ohhh… You like her.”
“How the hell did you jump to that conclusion?”
“Because I had issues with the way Amy looked when I hired her.”
“What was wrong with the way she looked?” Amy has always looked the same—professional and pretty.
“Too sexy.”
I roll my eyes. “Out. I have things I have to do today. And send Aspen back in.”
“So the three months starts now?”
I smile grimly. “Yes. Three months from now, she’ll be gone.” I stand and return to my desk. “Have HR continue to look for a replacement for Renée.”
* * *
After Emmett leaves, Aspen walks back in and stands in front of my desk. I leave her on her feet and lean back in my chair.
She hasn’t changed much since college. She’s still beautiful—that long, fiery hair framing the heart-shaped face, the moss-green eyes and the small, straight nose. Her cheekbones are so perfectly sculpted that they look like something out of Greek antiquity. And her lips… They appear fuller and plumper now. I want to chalk it up to fillers, but I know how that looks, and she hasn’t had any work done on her face.
She’s just naturally gorgeous. And her body is, too. All those curves from the full breasts that slope down into the cinched waist and flaring hips. Her legs are long and still shapely. The practical black pumps she’s wearing should look boring. But on her, they’re actually hot.
I hate it that I notice. I squint and study her harder to look for flaws, anything that will turn me off. Her cream blouse and black skirt are drab and cheap-looking. Two pearls on her ears—again, modest but nothing special. No other jewelry. No rings, which brings an odd sense of relief—probably because I want to see her poor. Her nails are neatly trimmed, but without any polish.
Everything about her betrays financial hardship. Resentment bubbles inside me. If she ghosted me like that, she should’ve found herself a rich and stupid guy to leech off. She should’ve reappeared in my life covered in shiny silk and glittering jewelry. There should be a two-yard-radius cloud of priceless perfume, and…
