Page 116 of Timeless

He laughed. “As stubborn as his mother.”

My eyes bounced off the pie toward Jax. “Trust me, he is exactly like his father.” I then took my eyes off Jax and reached across the kitchen island, hanging up the phone call.

The room was quiet. I stared down at my pie and cursed. “I fucking added white sugar and not brown!” I knew I had done something wrong. I let out a frustrated groan and looked up. My team’s eyes were on me.

I slowly exhaled. “Okay. You all heard what the plan is. I want spreadsheets, data sheets. I need their accounts entered and filed. Lisa, ring Zed’s office and confirm the transfer. I need the accounts, negatives and positives in the system, added to the company revenue. And I need all this done,” I looked up at the clock, “within an hour. So that hundred-thousand-dollar bonus you all know you are getting now, it’s time to earn it. You all have an hour. Then I need you out of my house and I can’t take one phone call for the rest of the day.” I sighed. “In order for me to take calls tomorrow, I am going to need a phone. So, add that to your list, Beau.”

And just like that, they snapped back into work mode. Nothing like the wordbonusto get your team working.

Now my attention was back on the pie. I had to scrap it and start again. I picked it up.

“Amber, I know you are taking a risk here because of me mismanaging the Myers’ account to begin with.” Chelsea was following me to the trash can.

My foot hit the lever and the lid popped to the side. “Chels, you’re human. It was one error. It was just an account. We now have two higher earners. So, stop saying sorry for problems that aren’t yours to begin with. I’m in charge of you, which means your mistakes become mine.” I emptied the pie into the trash. Great, I had just wasted half an hour.

“Amber?”

“Umm?” My eyes were on the wasted pie.

“I remember the scale, and for you to meet Jack’s expectations, you need to add chocolate chips.”

My eyes bounced off the trashed pie and on to her. “One bag or two?”

She grinned. “Two.”

“God, I love you, Chels. Only you would remember his scale.” I gave her a full smile. Okay. I needed chocolate chips.

“Well, only you would give me a hundred-thousand-bonus when I deserve to be fired.” She winked. Her attention was then off me and onto Beau, who needed her help.

Okay, the team were set now. They had a deadline to work to. And I had a pie to make.

I looked down at my pie dish and it occurred to me. I groaned.

“Chelsea?” I called and spun around, showing my terror. “On the scale, do you remember what a level nine is?”

She frowned. “You can’t be seriously that far up his chart?” She laughed at my expression. “It’s an apple pie and a raspberry one. With chocolate chips.”

I wanted so badly to kill Will and Tae for this. I gritted my teeth and headed back into kitchen. Right, now I had to make two stupid pies. All because of Will and Tae. I swear I wanted to strangle them.

My brothers were watching in awe as my team did what they were best at, recovering quickly.

I pulled out my second pie dish and while everyone else was busy buzzing around, high from a pay increase, I was staring down the tunnel of making two pies from scratch.

* * *

“Okay.”Adam chewed on a mint. “Am I the only one questioning this afternoon’s events?”

The boys all grunted in agreement. And I could feel all their eyes on me as I placed the second pie down.

I turned off the oven and sighed. Done. I had done it.

I turned back around and took my eyes off my pies for only the second time after restarting making them. I frowned at my brothers. They all looked to be questioning my insanity.

“Okay? What’s with the expressions?” I asked them openly.

Cole scoffed and moved forward on the couch. “Is it typical for you to have the amount of people who were in your house today?”

“No.”

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