Page 12 of Grant’s Heat

“Do you know another Sean?”

“Actually, I do. Several others, as a matter of fact. It’s a pretty common name.”

“Rio.”

“What?”

“Text me his number, please.”

“Dare I ask why?”

“A foreman spot is available at the Edge. The day shift. We want to make him an offer.”

“Are you fucking serious?”

“One hundred percent serious.”

“Oh my God.” She finally released a giddy laugh that likely resonated out to the ocean. “Do you know what this could mean for us? What this could totally do for us?”

Now I was just grinning into my device. “I have a general idea, yeah.”

I prepared my senses for the sunshine of her next laugh. Instead, I could practically feel her dead quiet. “Wait,” she demanded. “What do you want in return? You have to want—” She blew out a rough breath. “Or maybe this is some sort of trick. Are you fucking with me, Grant Twombley? Because this would be one of the cruelest things you could possibly do.”

I was the one whooshing out air now—in relief. “No, Blaze,” I assured. “It’s not a trick. The other guy walked off the job last night. We—Bas and I—both thought Sean would be a good fit, so we want to call him and talk to him. Preferably sooner than later.”

“Got it. Okay. Okay. I’ll absolutely text you as soon as we hang up.”

“Thanks.”

“Grant. Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And please, thank Sebastian too. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you for this.”

Oh, I could think of a lot of ways, Blaze.

I kept that part to myself. Deep, deep inside. My outward disguise was a roll of my eyes. “Rio…”

“I mean it.”

I dragged in another long breath to relieve the pressure off my crotch as my mind’s eye filled with all my fantasies of her “repayment.” Visions that were definitely going to ensure my place in hell. They were stamping my permanent parking space this very moment.

Worth it.

A ride I’d willingly take at the end of my days…as long as fate promised me that the rest of them would be filled with the surety of Rio Gibson’s happiness.

“Sean will be here at noon for a meeting,” Bas announced after ending his call to the guy. “But at this point, I think the face-to-face is merely a formality. He seems eager to get started.”

I nodded, tacking on a smug smirk. “Admit it, Shark. Even when you haul my ass out of bed in the middle of the night, I have the best ideas in the room.”

The man honored my statement with half an eye roll before replying, “I’ll have HR draw up a standard package, on par with the other foreman. It’ll have healthcare, 401K, life insurance, all the usuals. I don’t see how he could refuse.”

“Agreed.”

“Has Rio conveyed his biggest complaint with his current job?”

I hesitated to answer. For a long, long beat. For some reason, I felt like I was betraying her confidence, divulging information she’d shared in private conversations. Trying to play it off as though I were just digging through my memory and not struggling with my morality, I offered a pensive expression. “Well, I know the health insurance they have isn’t covering the infertility treatment she wants to start.”

“Yeah, Abbi’s talked about that too. But our plan is top of the line, so that should be an easy sell. Anything else that you know of? Where is he physically working? Is the commute far?”

“I’m not sure. I do know that he pretty much has dinner and goes to bed because he has to get up early to get on the road. So yeah, he must be commuting at least a bit—though Rio’s up early too, to get into the Abstract prep kitchen. It’s a pretty shitty existence for a couple when you think about it.”