Page 10 of Forged in Peril

She paused for effect, raising a single eyebrow.

Before Bristol could hear more of what she was about to say, however, she noticed Cameron striding toward their table, holding a tray stacked with several pizza slices.

So much for keeping her distance.

CAMERON

Cameron ignored the open seat next to Bristol and slid in beside Grace instead.

The last thing he wanted was rumors about him and his former girlfriend to start swirling around the office, though if Grace already knew the story, it was probably too late. He considered asking Bristol how her first day was going, but decided against it.

He was her boss. If it had been awful, it wasn’t like she was going to tell him the truth, anyway.

“Already gossiping to the new girl, Hinton?” he joked, picking up the topmost slice of pizza and taking a huge bite. Lunch hour was nearly over, and he had a meeting directly afterward with a potential new client. His late mother would have scolded him for eating like a barbarian in front of the ladies, but for the time being, it was all he had time for.

Fortunately, Bristol seemed to be paying him minimal attention, her body turned toward Bobby Ramos, the basement duty guard, who was getting up from the table to head back to work.

“Actually, yes,” Grace said, giving the older man a wave as he headed off toward the hallway, dropping his empty tray off as he went by the counter. “I was just about to tell her all about how thrilled Gabriel Sr. is with the raging success of Forge Brothers Security.”

Cameron laughed, hoping that Bristol and the others picked up on Grace’s obvious sarcastic tone. “Just make sure that Gabriel Jr. doesn’t hear anything about it, or we’ll all have to listen to him complain for the next week.”

Grace leaned toward Bristol.

“Gabe has daddy issues,” she said in a stage whisper.

Cameron shook his head. “Pretty much. He doesn’t think our father can forgive him for starting his own company and pulling everyone back from focusing on Forge & Sons, and it’s caused some conflict.”

“Haven’t there also been some other issues going on?” Grace chimed in innocently as Cameron chewed another several bites of pizza.

There was a pause as two more people got up from the table and said their goodbyes. Lunch would be over in a few minutes, and if he made Grace or Bristol late, Gabe wouldn’t be pleased, to say nothing of Jaclyn.

“I’m sure you already know as much as I do,” Cameron deflected with a wink, beginning work on his final slice.

Truth was, he knew a little more. His cousin Reilly–who was, ironically, the closest to his father despite not being his actual son–had told him that there had indeed been problems at the company lately. But he’d also made him promise not to bring it up until Gabe Sr. had a chance to figure out what was going on, and he was going to let his old man handle things in his own way until he was ready to ask for help.

“I’m just glad that Mr. Forge is still able to run things like he wants to,” Bristol added. “He’s always been so passionate about what the company does. I admire that.”

Cameron gave her a grateful smile, and just as she finally allowed her eyes to meet his own, he watched her cheeks going pink as a glob of bright-red pizza sauce slid down onto her sweatpants.

“Your skirt will be dry by now, anyway,” Grace said quickly, getting up from her chair. “I’ll go get it. I left it in the coffee lounge upstairs.”

“I can get it,” Bristol objected. She was trying to dab away the sauce with a napkin to no avail.

“Seriously, it’s fine. I could use a coffee anyway. Want anything? Cam?”

Cameron shook his head. After the chaos of the morning, he figured that he’d better delay his next infusion of caffeine in case he ended up having to work late. Which he probably would, if the past month of post-Christmas chaos had been any indication of the workload that lay ahead.

“ A green tea would be amazing, actually,” Bristol said. “With milk, if you don’t mind.”

“Some things never change, huh?” Cameron said, giving her what he hoped came off as a not-too-flirtatious, but still teasing, smile.

“Nope,” Bristol said. “Coffee is still disgusting, by the way.”

Despite her cheerful tone and the smile that accompanied her words, he couldn’t help but to notice that something had certainly changed about her, something subtle that he found difficult to place.

She leaned back in her chair, tossing the torn napkin onto her tray, and closed her eyes for several long seconds, giving him a chance to examine her face further without making her uncomfortable.

She looked more tired than he remembered, but then again, she was getting older. He couldn’t survive on four hours of sleep anymore, either, and if Bristol’s work ethic was as strong as it had always been, he doubted that she’d taken the time for much more than that the night before.

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