"My girlfriend, Chloe, made breakfast muffins," he explained. "It's not sugary. They can have that, right?"
Nate and Billy clasped their hands together, silently pleading.
"I guess so," I relented. "Though I can't believe you all don't want vegan nut bread."
Jack laughed as my little brothers clamored for a muffin.
"Line up!" Hunter ordered, looking over his newspaper. "Act civilized, and say thank you to Jack."
After the kids were sitting nicely at the table, Jack offered me a muffin. "It's a steak and potato soup muffin. Chloe is developing a new line of breakfast muffins."
I shouldn't. It wasn't health food. "Come on," Jack cajoled. "Take it from a reformed Grinch whose soul was saved by the wonders of baking. This will change your life."
"It does smell good," I said, relenting.
"It's all protein. There's so much cheese and steak in it it's basically keto."
I peeled back the paper and took a bite. It was like eating a big plate of steak, eggs, and hash browns at a small-town diner. "That's really good," I mumbled around the food.
Remy picked one up and took a huge bite. My hand twitched. Crumbs were in his beard. "She should open a franchise in Harrogate," he said.
"She's still swamped with the one in my tower," Jack said, smiling.
I walked into the office at exactly seven thirty a.m. Yesterday had been a bust, but today was going to go exactly as planned. I dropped Henry off at the in-office daycare.
Adrian, who had been acting as my assistant, said, "Jack and Liam, as well as several executives, are here for the Platinum Provisions meeting at eight thirty."
"Perfect," I said. "Liam's actually early."
"Bro!" someone shouted down the hallway.
It was Archer, my identical twin. I could see the tattoos on his collarbone and on his forearms as he wrapped me in a hug, half climbing on me.
"You're messing up my suit," I complained, pushing him off. "Why are you here?"
"Harrogate is the hot spot," he replied. "Besides, I came to see you. Hunter said you were wigging out."
I resisted the urge to find a comb and tamp down his hair.
"You should come to the meeting," my older brother Greg said, pausing before he went into the conference room. "It might benefit you to learn something."
"I can't believe he's even up," I remarked.
"I never went to sleep!" Archer said proudly. "Though if Mace is giving a presentation, I'll doze right off."
"I don't know," my CFO and brother Garrett said, walking up, laptop under his arm. "He's been experimenting with PowerPoint effects. It's going to be very entertaining."
"Presentations aren't supposed to be entertaining. They're supposed to be informative," I retorted.
"Cramming a paragraph of twelve-point font on one slide is not helpful," Liam said. He threw an arm around my shoulder. "You need a girlfriend. Look at Jack! He used to be as uptight as you. Now he has a baker."
The Platinum Provisions executives and some of their marketing team were already in the room. Adrian had put out the nut bread I had brought as a snack.
"Throw that in the trash," Liam hissed to him. "That stuff is disgusting."
"I think it tastes great!" Adrian said, picking up a piece and chewing it.
"Adrian's a sycophant and a liar!" Liam announced. "You should have come to work with me. Mace is a bad influence."
