He shook his head and removed his hands from mine while refusing to look at me. Instead, he stared out the window while his fingers made a mess of his gelled hair. A deep sigh was all he emoted. He had no words for me.
“Listen,” I said. “Gage has a lot on his plate.”
Chase’s head swiveled toward me as his eyes went wide.
“Seriously, Mare?”
I went to his side at the windows.
“You didn’t let me finish. Gage has a lot on his plate, but it’s not fair for him to talk to you that way. I see that. You’re both equals, and I think the brother dynamic must be coming into play. You have every right to be upset with him.”
He dismissed my comment with a wave.
“Ya wanna know something? I’m not even that mad at him. He’s right, I didn’t do my job. I mean, yeah, he’s a dick. But he’s right. I’m mad at myself.”
His body relaxed slightly once he made that admission. I even got one of his sly grins that, no matter what, always came across as sexy.
“Shit, imagine if my big bro Gage heard his assistant trash-talking him.”
At least I gave him a laugh. Then my heart sank. He was right, yet for some reason, I felt relaxed and didn’t have a pit in my stomach.
“Hey,” I said. “This is between us, mister.”
His demeanor changed, turning serious, as he reached out and took my hand.
“My allegiance is to you, babe. No worries there.” He lifted my hand to his lips and placed a soft kiss on my knuckles. “I would never break your trust.”
“I know that.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t take my shitty mood out on you.”
His apology was sincere, but it didn’t make him feel any better.
“Do you want to get started on those reports so we can get them out of the way?”
We sat at his desk, working together as friendly co-workers. Eventually he was able to laugh and joke around, but we got his work done. And not once did his hands wander.
“See, that wasn’t so bad.” I gathered the papers that Gage would need to see into a folder. “Before I go, we should take a look at your calendar, make sure you know what you’re doing and where you need to be.”
Chase had returned to his guitar while I pulled up his schedule on my tablet. His idea the other day about me becoming his assistant hadn’t left my mind. Combined with how quickly we accomplished these reports, the notion sounded even better.
“What? That can’t be.” I mumbled to myself my disbelief. How did I let this happen?
I knew exactly how. I’d been combining work with pleasure.
“Chase,” I said.
My nervous tone got his attention. He came to my side and peered over my shoulder.
“What’s up?”
The empty feeling in my stomach had returned.
“We won’t be able to go out Thursday night,” I said. “You have a dinner meeting that I completely forgot about. I haven’t even confirmed it with the client and it’s tomorrow.”
He nonchalantly walked back to his guitar and continued playing it.
“That’s no big deal, just reschedule it.”
