Page 19 of Breaking All The Rules

“Thankfully, I’m feeling better than I was when this first started. The first few days were pretty rough.” I shivered as a flashback of how terrible I had felt crossed my mind.

“Why didn’t you call one of us? We would have come over to take care of you.” Gabi leaned back against the couch and took a bite out of her bagel.

“Honestly, I was so sick that I couldn’t even see straight. I was so delirious that I thought I had dreamt that my boss was here taking care of me,” I said as I snorted, taking a bite.

“Could you imagine? That would be totally insane!” Gabi laughed as if it was the most absurd thing she had ever heard.

I swallowed hard, trying to force my bite down and keep the blush off my face. So far, Brittany was the only person I had told that Ethan was the same guy I had hooked up with at the club. Iwas planning to tell my sisters at brunch this morning, but then everything else happened.

Lucy narrowed her eyes and studied me.

“You’re not telling us something,” she accused, pointing a finger in my direction and shaking it.

“There’s nothing to tell,” I rushed the words out, hoping to change the subject back to her. “What we need to talk about is what happened with you and Lance.”

I wasthisclose to shifting the attention away from me when Gabi decided to pipe up.

“Lucy is right. Something is going on. Not only do you look guilty, but you’re blushing.” She stared intently at me, waiting.

“Nothing is going on,” I insisted, feeling the heat spread even further across my chest and up my neck. “All you’re doing is trying to make something up so we don’t have to talk about the real reason why you guys are here. I know that none of us want to talk about that asshole, but we need to. We need to come up with a plan to get Lucy and Jackson out of the house and somewhere safe until the divorce and custody agreements are in place.”

“Maybe we should call Brit?” Lucy offered, totally ignoring me as she looked at Gabi. “I bet she knows what’s going on.”

“You’re right,” Gabi agreed. “Brit always knows everything, sometimes before it even happens. It’s like her special psychic ability or something.”

Gabi pulled her phone out of her pocket, swiped her fingers across the screen a few times, and then held it in the air, facing me. Her fingers were right over thesendbutton as she raised her eyebrows and challenged me.

“Fine. I was planning to tell you at brunch anyway,” I muttered and rolled my eyes.

Gabi set her phone on the couch in between us as I pulled in a deep breath and instantly regretted it as I burst into a coughingfit. I took a drink of water and waited to make sure it was done before I started talking.

“Do you guys remember the guy from the nightclub?” I asked. It hadn’t taken long that night for them to figure out I had hooked up with someone when I returned to the table with a slit in my skirt that hadn’t been there before. While they knew I had hooked up with someone, they didn’t know who he actually was.

“Mr. Tall, Dark, and a double shot of tequila?” Gabi teased and wiggled her eyebrows. “Yeah, I remember him.”

Lucy laughed and nodded her head for me to continue.

“Well, it turns out that the guy from the club...” I paused and took another deep breath, more carefully this time. “Is also my new boss. Ethan Roberts.”

“NO. FUCKING. WAY.” Gabi clasped a hand over her mouth and stared at me in disbelief.

“Language!” Lucy scolded.

“What?!” Gabi exclaimed. “Jackson isn’t even here.”

Lucy’s face fell as she looked around and realized that Gabi was right.

“Oops. My bad.” She giggled and took another bite of her bagel.

I laughed and shook my head, enjoying the playful banter between them. Even though they were thirty-two and thirty-five, they still fought with each other like they did when they were teenagers.

“So how weird is it to work with him after you guys fucked?” Gabi asked, glancing over to Lucy, who rolled her eyes in response to the foul language.

“When I first saw him, I prayed that he wouldn’t recognize me, but of course, he did. We briefly talked about it, but at the end of the day, we’re both professionals, so we need to act like it. It’s not like we’re sitting there acting on the attraction we feel for each other. Or at least we’re trying our bestnotto. Sometimesit’s a little hard to avoid it.” I felt the heat spread over my face again as my sisters’ eyes widened.

“You had sex at work?!” they both shrieked at the same time.

I nodded, rubbing my lips together to keep from shrieking with them.

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