Page 15 of The Work Wife

“The lines across the top are softer. You need the columns to match. Like this.” She held it up, showing her swoopy columns. “Can you do this?”

“Of course I can do it.” He snapped at the offense. She knew better than to question him. With a smirk she handed him back the tablet and went to her desk.

As expected, her design was amazing.

It should have been the biggest reason why he enjoyed working with her. They complemented one another between a design’s aesthetics and strength. She could take anything he made and somehow tweak it to be exceptional. And he gave her designs substance. But that wasn’t the only thing he liked about working with Jamie Witmer.

It was the way she brought him half of her casserole or the way she stayed late to help him finish when she was done, but he wasn’t. The way she laughed at his stupid jokes, and hung out with him after work when he was bored.

She was his partner. The other half of him. The part that made him better than he was when he was alone.

She was his very best friend in the entire world. He was even closer to her than to his brother, Ben; or Zane, who had taken second place when Wes started working with Jamie.

“What did you do last night?” he asked casually as she continued to peel off layers of clothing.

She stopped moving and looked away. “Nothing, really. Why?”

She was lying to him. He could tell. It was the reason she didn’t like lying to her father. She was horrible at it. While he normally wouldn’t have pressed the issue, he was curious as to what she’d done that was turning her winter-pink cheeks a rosy panic.

“Nothing? Did you go out?” He assumed she’d met someone from the dating site and it hadn’t gone well. He leaned back and crossed his arms, waiting to hear the story.

She bit her bottom lip for a second and then shrugged defiantly.

“Duane and I went to dinner. He wanted to talk about the library project. I offered my thoughts.”

Wes was not prepared for the bad date to have been with Duane. And she hadn’t said anything to indicate it had been bad.

“Duane? Wow. He’s really going all out trying to get you on his team.” Wes released the fist resting on his thigh.

“No. He just . . .” She shrugged again, but wouldn’t look at him. “He wanted to talk some things out. No big deal.”

He wanted to push for more information. Was she going to go? Before he got the chance to ask, his phone buzzed and Cindy’s voice filled the room.

“Mr. Archer, there is a Benjamin Archer here to see you.”

* * * *

Ben stood when his big brother walked into the lobby to meet him. Wes was smiling, and Ben realized he was too. They didn’t hug, despite the fact they hadn’t seen each other in person since last September. Their family didn’t hug.

“I was hoping you’d be able to squeeze in a visit when you said you were coming to Boston,” Wes said, and Ben could see he was genuinely glad to see him.

Growing up the way they had, with cardboard parents, it was difficult to interpret what someone was really thinking. He and Wes were generally pretty honest with one another. They had been a safe place for each other while surrounded with fake emotions.

“I have a few hours until my next appointment. I hope you don’t mind that I stopped in.” Though they didn’t have the opportunity to hang out often, they did speak on the phone frequently. Mostly about the family business.

“No. It’s great. Come up to my office. I’ll show you where I work.” Wes started off and Ben followed.

“So I’ll know how to make my offer more enticing?” Ben asked.

Wes shook his head. “You sound like Mother.”

“I do not. If I wanted to sound like Mother, I would have heaped on a bunch of guilt and mentioned the words family legacy nine million times in one sentence.” Ben mock-shivered as they approached an empty desk and a door.

“Cindy’s out. She’s our assistant. I’ll introduce you when she gets back.”

“Is she hot?” he teased.

“Cindy is a forty-five-year-old mother of three, who makes killer chocolate chip cookies.”