“Dreams change,” she says, her smile a little sad. “The old ones don’t matter. What else do I need to know for this job?”
By the time Seth gets home, she’s up and running, making confirmation calls to the vendors on her list while I shop for bulk candles and lighters.
“Oh, hey, Sierra,” says Seth. “You’re still here?”
“Looks like it! We’ll have to work out our bathroom schedule if we’re going to be roomies though. One bathroom among three adults can be tricky. When do you shower? I’m usually more of a shower-at-night kind of girl.”
Seth’s eyes swing to me. “Roomies?”
I wince. “Can I talk to you for a second?”
“Uh, oh. You didn’t ask yet?” Sierra looks crestfallen. “I thought it was a done deal.”
“This is just a formality,” I assure her.
“A formality?” Seth repeats.
“Seth, please? Come on.” I gesture to my room. “Make yourself at home,” I say to Sierra, ignoring Seth’s outraged snort.
Seth closes the door behind us and crosses his arms. “She’s moving in with us?”
I rub the back of my neck. “She’s staying in the spare room. It’s as she said. We’ll be short-term roommates.”
Seth groans. “You implied we would find another place for her to stay, not here. You weren’t even going to ask me? This is my house too!”
“It’s not like we have another option lined up for her anyway. It was all hypothetical last night. She needs somewhere to stay today.”
He narrows his eyes at me. “And what did you say about the job?”
“Uh…”
“Because you haven’t talked to the others yet, either.”
“Yeah.” I grimace. “I already offered her a job. Working directly for me on the two events we have coming up.”
“Logan! Come on, man. The fam is not going to be happy. First the poetry reading event, thenthis?”
Okay, I do feel bad about that. We all own the company, but my siblings had other jobs that they quit when I asked them to return to help me expand the business at Compass Mountain Tours.
“I’ll keep it off the books then,” I say. “Pay her directly, out of my own pocket. I don’t need to get permission to hire a personal assistant, do I?”
Seth groans. “Again, that’s not thepoint.”
“What?” I say, deciding to go for obtuse so I can change the subject. “It’s the perfect solution! How is she supposed to open up unless we spend a lot of time together?”
“How is she supposed to open up with herboss and landlord?”
“Oh.” I grimace. “You may have a point there.”
Seth rolls his eyes. “Logan, what are you doing? I thought we discussed offering her something else. You know, a realjob at Compass Mountain Tours, like working at the front desk and taking care of the gear.”
“She doesn’t want to see any of the family except for us two. So if she works for me directly, then she won’t have to.”
A knock at the door interrupts us. “Hi, Logan? Sorry to interrupt, but you said we needed to pick up the flyers before the print shop closes.”
“Come on, Seth,” I mutter. “You agreed yesterday that I need closure.”
“Not really.” He sighs. “All right, all right. We’ll try it your way. But you have to take out the trash for the rest of the year. And clean the bathroom. Like, a real, deep clean this time. I want it to be nuclear-level bleached, because the way you clean it is terrible.”
