Page 55 of Hearts of Fairlake

"Oh, Chase always tries that, and he soundsa lotmore like he means it. He doesn't, and neither do you," Bennett said as he approached the desk.

"Chase also won't fire you if you annoy him while he's trying to do paperwork."

"True, he's more likely to set me on fire when he's had enough. But you won't fire me either."

"I won't?"

"No! You love my kids, and if you fired me, how would I feed, clothe, and house them?"

"Pretty sure you have a husband who can be your sugar daddy."

"Absolutely not," I grunted, making Trevor look up. "Hey Trevor, he's actually here to ask a favor that's going to benefit me...and the festival."

Trevor sighed. “Well, in that case, I suppose I should listen. The last thing I need is to be held responsible for screwing up the festival."

"See?" Bennett said brightly. "That wasn't so hard."

"Don't push it," Trevor said, pointing at him. "And if you try to sit on my desk, I'm going to stab you with my scissors."

A threat that wasn't idle because I'd seen Bennett come home with a hole in his pants from Trevor following through on that exact threat. Bennett thankfully seemed to remember that was one bluff he shouldn't call and frowned. “I need to head home for a few minutes."

"Why?"

"Well…" Bennett said, rolling his eyes before launching into the explanation.

While the explanation clarified things, I could see it added to Trevor's exasperation as he rubbed his face. "Why am I surrounded by people whose life's mission isto drive me crazy?"

"I feel obligated to point out that you're shacked up with one of those people," I said, arching a brow. "Someone you willingly put there."

"And I should point out that you're lucky this is for the city. Otherwise, I'd have to point out that irritating me is not a good way to get a favor," Trevor shot back at me, and I shrugged.

"He doesn't like when people point things like that out,"Bennett said in a loud whisper someone in the hallway would have heard.

Trevor groaned. “Get out of my office already. Go, get the damn headphones. I'd tell Ira to suck it up and try to read around the noise, but I'm not dealing with her being pissed at me on top of everything else."

"Right, I appreciate it, Trevor," I said.

"Sure, whatever gets this menace out of my hair as soon as possible," he said grumpily, waving us away with a flick of his wrist.

"C'mon," I said, grabbing Bennett's arm and dragging him toward the doorway. "Let's not push our luck."

"I'm coming," Bennett said with a laugh, waving at Trevor. "Sheesh, everyone's so stressed out."

"We've been occupied," I told him dryly, raising a brow as we passed his desk, and I saw what he'd been doing with his spare time. "And not with constructing a makeshift paper football field."

"Look, this week I've been given a lot more free time, no more of those doubles and overnights," he said with a shrug. "Plus, it's all hands on deck for the festival. The Chief already warned us we’d be working around the clock and should expect to be exhausted and grumpy for three days."

"Kinda like how I feel now," I said as we stepped outside. I wasn't upset that Bennett wasn't going through the demands and stress I was. I hated seeing him like that. I also knew I was pretty much free once the festival started. All I and a few others on the team had to do was linger during the festival in case something needed repairing, but otherwise, our job would be done in a few days. That was, until we had to come back and tear everything down,thenthe real break was happening.

"And that's not even covering the hours we'll have to work after," Bennett continued. "Because we're probablygoing to have tourists staying in town for a couple of extra days."

"At least the mayor will be happy with all that revenue and being able to show off."

"Uh huh, you really wanna talk revenue?"

"What?"

Bennett laughed. “I saw some of the invoices on your desk the other night. You've made more money this month than I could dream of making in five years...more, actually."

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