Page 92 of Making Over Maris

Was she going to be fired?

Or worse, were they going to tell her to break it off with Jack?

She glanced at the coffee bar, wishing she’d grabbed a cup. She needed something to bolster her composure as Adam and Tristan took their seats across from her at the suddenly ominous mahogany table.

Tristan scrubbed his face with his palm.

Her heart hitched. If this was good news, he wouldn’t have to scrub anything with his palm.

“Sara…”

“What?” She didn’t intend for the word to come out so sharply but panic was starting to rise. She couldn’t help it.

Tristan and Adam exchanged a look. Adam cleared his throat. “Sara…”

“You said that already.”

“Sara…”

Seriously?

Tristan steepled his fingers. “We’re worried about you.”

A gush of relief flooded her. “Worried? About me?”

Adam nodded. “You’ve been so…distracted lately.”

“Not that your work isn’t top-notch.”

“No. Oh, no. Your work is always top-notch. But…”

“We’re worried about you. You know. Your mom and everything. We wanted to have a chat and see if there’s anything we can do to help.”

Oh. Lovely. Now she felt like crap.

She was distracted because she’d been obsessed—like, totally obsessed—with her newfound sex toy and they thought she’d been pining over her mother’s illness.

Guilt coiled in her belly.

“We want you to know that we value you as an employee. We’re delighted with your work.”

Adam nodded. “We have been ever since Jack insisted we hire you.”

Sara stilled. Confusion and shock rippled up and down her spine. “Excuse me?”

Tristan jabbed Adam with an elbow. “He meant we’ve been delighted with your work since we hired you.”

“I heard what he said. Jack insisted you hire me?”

Again. Tristan. Scrubbing his face. With a palm. “We weren’t supposed to say anything.”

“We didn’t like the idea at first. Didn’t think we even needed a marketing director but, Sara, you’ve quadrupled our business. And we know it.” Adam scrambled to cover his faux pas but the cat was out of the bag. Sara knew. Knew the truth. She had this job because of Jack. Warmth suffused her. Her heart swelled. Jack…

“At any rate…” Tristan huffed a sigh. “If you need anything—time off, help with plane fare or to talk about it—we want you to know you can always come to us.”

Oh. Damn.

Tears pricked her lashes.