"Do you need anything for your meeting?" Josie asked.
"You can bring Hunter some balls," Garrett snapped. Josie dutifully took out her notepad.
"Don't write that down," Hunter huffed. "I swear, Greg, I thought Mace was exaggerating with how useless this girl is."
Josie looked shocked. Adrian froze midbite of his sandwich.
"Apologize," I told Hunter. My voice sounded flat and cold. My older brother glowered at me but didn't say a word.
"You aren't allowed to insult my employees," I continued. "Josie has been very valuable."
Garrett sniffed. "I see, Hunter, you still haven't learned your lesson about not screwing over women."
"My apologies," Hunter said to Josie after a moment.
"Sure," she replied. Her voice sounded a little faint. I hoped she was okay. "Breakfast sandwich?"
"See, Hunter," Garrett said, his voice laced with venom. "An apology isn't that difficult. Just go to Meg, tell her truthfully that you're a big fat idiot, and ask if she would please have the cell phone law repealed."
"Wait, that law is because of you?" Josie blurted out. "The police pulled me over and wrote me a ticket. I can't pay that fine!"
"Expense it," Garrett said. "And I'll have the company bill Hunter."
"Seriously?" Josie asked.
"Yes. Give me some paper; I'll write down the code you need. I made a special one just for this situation." He glared at Hunter as Josie handed him her notebook. Garrett stopped for a moment, cocked his head, and looked at the notepad.
"Her writing is pretty bad, isn't it?" I joked. "I don't know how she reads it."
Garrett turned his head to look at me, his expression dripping with distain. "I know you're not all that smart, Mace, but Lord help us, you really don't knowanything, do you." I looked to Greg. His expression was blank.
Garrett waved the notepad in my face. "This is shorthand. She's writing inshorthand. It's a lost art that was ubiquitous in the early twentieth century but has since become a dying skill. Tell me, where did you learn this?" my brother asked Josie.
Josie shrugged. "From YouTube. Seemed like a useful skill to know, and it wasn't that hard to learn."
I peered over Garrett's shoulder at the notepad. "Huh. Well, how about that?"
"I told you she came highly recommended," Greg remarked.
15
Josie
Tara came into the office as I was cleaning up. The Svensson brothers had gone off to a meeting, and I was looking forward to napping at my desk.
"Do you need something for your super-duper secret marketing meeting?" I asked Tara.
"I wanted to see if Mace was around," she replied.
"He keeps a very tight schedule," I told her. "You should probably make an appointment if it's urgent." I took out my phone and scrolled through the calendar. "He has some availability next week."
"Stop acting like you're not trying to steal him," Tara spat.
I laughed. "As if."
"I see how you're flirting with him," Tara demanded. "Pretending to be a klutz so he thinks you're some wounded little bird that needs his protection."
"Uh, no, I don't do stuff like that," I countered, suddenly angry. I couldn't believe she was accusing me of going after Mace. I wasn't my mother. My standards were low, but they weren'tthatlow.
