Page 13 of Flirting With Forever
“Shouldn’t we talk about this?” Gage asked Cole in a low voice.
“She’s working here, not in any of the other businesses. I think we can decide this.”
“And if we have differing opinions on the topic? No offense,” he felt compelled to say to Sloane.
She snorted softly. “Of course.”
“Gage, you signed off on me hiring someone before we strangled you,” Cole said. “I think that gives me the deciding vote.”
“We can’t pay her in cash long-term.”
“It’s a temp job,” Sloane said again. “I’ll…get things straightened out with the schedule and computer system and…stay while Cole finds and hires someone else.”
“And what about her sleeping in her car,” Gage said.
“I’m fine in my car. Pretend it’s a van, and I’m camping. Besides, you said yourself I could park in back so I’m on the security cameras,” she said with a defiant tilt of her chin.
Gage was aware of Cole’s surprise at that news and shrugged. “I didn’t know she was the new hire at the time. I told her she could stay a night or two but not long because the city would be after us.”
“They will be, too, so that’s not a solution,” Cole said with a shake of his head. “She’ll have to stay with you.”
Gage and Sloane both whipped their heads toward Cole.
“What?” they asked simultaneously.
“It’s that, or we put her up in a hotel and foot the bill. And why bother doing that when you’ve got three spare bedrooms sitting empty? Let her use the one downstairs. It was meant to be used as an efficiency rental anyway. That way, we know she has a safe place to stay until she earns enough to get her own place or move on.”
Gage felt like he’d been sucker punched. How had they gone from her situation to him suddenly having a house guest? “Do I get any say in this?”
He was all for her being safe, but that didn’t mean he wanted to take her home with him. She was a stranger. She was a cute stranger but still. She could be anybody. And there was a lot of crazy in this world. For all the questions Sloane had answered, she’d created ten more.
Why was she no contact with her family? Why did they try to keep tabs on her? What was she avoiding? Running from? Who was she?
Cole picked up a sheet of paper and handed it to Gage. “Take a look at that and tell me if you want to screw this up.”
Gage glanced down at tomorrow’s schedule and noticed that this time she’d coordinated the appointments so that he wasn’t running all over town but handling jobs in a single area before moving on to the next. It would save him considerable time from not zigzagging back and forth, battling traffic, and he wondered why he hadn’t considered doing things this way sooner. He usually slotted people in first come, first served. But this made more sense, and he felt like an idiot for not doing it before now.
“That’s what I thought,” Cole said. “Let her use the downstairs bedroom until she can make other arrangements.”
“That’s my storage room. And I’m her boss. Having an employee live with me looks bad,” Gage argued.
Cole ran a hand over his head and neck in frustration. “Fine. I’ll call Hudson and see if he’d mind letting her crash on his couch. He’ll be less uptight about it either way.”
Gage felt like a jerk. He had two unused bedrooms upstairs and a wholly separate space downstairs that would allow them both privacy and security. They wouldn’t even cross paths but on rare occasions since the downstairs suite had a minifridge and microwave. But how wise was it to bring a stranger into his home? A beautiful stranger with a penchant for lying at that?
“Do I get a say in this?” Sloane asked, splitting her attention between them. “Because maybe I don’t want to stay with him? My car is fine. If you’re too embarrassed about me parking behind the building, I’ll find somewhere else. Easy fix.”
“No,” Cole and Gage said simultaneously, drawing a blink from her.
“Sloane, that’s not safe. If you haven’t had an issue yet, you’ve been lucky, but that luck is going to run out eventually,” Cole told her.
“So unless I agree to your plan, I don’t get to keep the job?”
Yeah, there were all kinds of laws tangled up in that one, Gage mused.
“No, that’s not— Sloane,” Cole said, softening his tone. “The job is yours temporarily, but your living situation is an issue.”
“Why? Why does it matter to you where I stay as long as I show up in the morning?” she argued.
