Page 23 of The Grump I Married
She snorted. “Sort of like someone else I know.”
“Oi! I’m not that bad.”
“Oi?” Lena propped her hand on her chin as she leaned against the counter, her smile soft as she regarded me. “If I leave youalone for too long, when I walk into your office it looks like Milo’s been in there sorting the files.”
“He has.”
She laughed out loud, tossing her head back in a way that had a lock of hair falling free of her clip. “Don’t blame this on your dog.”
I stared at her, wondering why I suddenly felt so breathless. I pressed my hands to the mug until my palms burned. “What else is on the agenda today?”
Lena’s cheek twitched, her face falling as she cleared her throat, the earlier playfulness gone as she straightened up. “We have that appointment at the funeral home this afternoon.”
That sobered me quickly. “Right, of course.”
How could I have forgotten?
Maybe it was because most of the time, it didn’t really feel like Grandad was gone at all. I kept expecting to look over and find him sitting at the counter with the paper and one of Agnes’s full fry-ups. But I was never going to see that again.
The door banged open suddenly, and Callum marched in with Milo.
The dog darted right for Lena. “No, Milo!” she said, rearing back from him. “You’re all muddy. Down!”
Milo halted obediently, wagging his tail and yipping excitedly before darting back out the door.
“Can I grab you a coffee?” Lena asked Callum.
“Not for me, thanks.” He gave her a polite nod, then he turned his gaze in my direction, wrinkling his nose. “You still sure you want to get those hands dirty?”
The corner of Lena’s mouth twitched, and I shot her a glare across the counter as my earlier frustration with the man flared to life. “Ready to get to work,” I grumbled, getting to my feet.
“Right, well. Let’s see how long you go without whining, bleeding, or quitting.” Callum stalked off out the door. I let out a heavy sigh as I watched him go.
Lena caught my eye, her lips pursed to keep from laughing.
“It’s not funny,” I muttered.
“Please don’t actually make yourself bleed,” she said. “Also, be nice. Flies and honey and all that.”
“Me?” I was not the problem. “I’m being perfectly reasonable. Callum’s the one acting like I’m giving off eau de spreadsheets and entitlement.”
Lena inhaled dramatically. “I think I’m actually getting a whiff of quarterly profits.”
“Hilarious,” I muttered as I grabbed my jacket and set off after the man, bracing myself for what was sure to be a bloody long morning.
7
LENA
“And what happens if Narissa’s posts don’t stop?” I asked, staring at the laptop screen that displayed a meeting room back in the Houston office.
“Then we’ll workshop with legal and probably escalate to a cease and desist,” Cynthia said. She was Kincaid Energy’s PR manager, and her bark truly was as bad as her bite. “But I want to hold off and give us a chance to spin the story to our advantage. Narissa hasn’t hesitated to employ her own legal counsel in the past, and that always makes things messier on our end.”
“She’s certainly…having fun with it, isn’t she?” Nancy, the secretary holding down the fort for me in Houston, said diplomatically.
“She usually does,” I agreed ruefully. I’d been Weston’s assistant through that whole ill-fated relationship…and all of the aftermath. As far as Narissa was concerned, there was no statute of limitations on living up to her role as a woman scorned, and I would bet money she celebrated when her pettiness impactedKincaid Energy’s bottom line. Luckily, it didn’t last longthattime.
I lifted my arms off Pete’s giant office desk and reclined into the stately chair behind me. It was giving throne vibes, which felt very on-brand for a castle. “But eventually, she’ll get bored and move on to someone else for a while.” Until Weston caught her attention once more, and then we’d be off to the races all over again.
