Page 24 of Picture Perfect Love

“You only live once, sweetheart. And that one life is too short to beat around the bush or worry about moderation.”

“A short life gets better eventually if you work hard for the things you want from the get-go,” she argued.

“So are you moving in with me or what?”

She blew out a sharp breath and started to walk away. “You’re insufferable.”

“I’m determined,” I corrected her, pulling her back to my side. “Fine, maybe moving in together is moving too fast. I can be reasonable, believe it or not. But why don’t you come work at Heartstring?”

“Doing what?” She gaped.

“You could work on the legal team,” I replied. “You can learn on the job while you finish school, and either get promoted once you’ve passed the bar or you can get a shining recommendation to secure you any job you want.”

“My god, you’re serious,” she said with wide eyes.

“Dead serious. I can probably have you in a position there by the end of the week, if not sooner. Just one call from me and it’s done. What do you say?”

“I don’t know what to say,” she murmured, looking a little faint. A wave of shock, flattery, and fear washed over her face all within a few seconds.

Her boss started yelling at us again while she let it sink in. At least if he fired her, she’d be more likely to take me up on one of my offers. But I really didn’t want to cause her any trouble.

“I’ll get out of here,” I decided. “Before this guy has a heart attack or an aneurism or something. But think about what I said, okay?”

“I’m not making any promises about anything,” she said sternly. “But yes, please go. Before you get me fired.”

I turned to leave but retreated back to her one last time, pulling her in for a kiss while her boss blew a gasket, storming over to us. I was starting to think he might drag me out of there himself if I hung around any longer.

“I’ll call you after work,” she whispered against my lips.

I backed up slowly, finding it hard to take my eyes off of her and the blushing smile she finally let spread across her face. Reluctantly, I turned for the door and headed out into the busy lunch rush on the sidewalks.

Abby had done wonders for my work life already. I had to do something to keep myself busy in between seeing her or talking to her, or I’d go crazy. She was proving to be a great motivator.

I headed for the office that afternoon and was eager to do something to make myself useful. But it wasn’t just about keeping busy. I felt the need to make myself better for her… to become the kind of man she deserved. It wasn’t enough to just have an obligatory pay check and job title from my siblings. I wanted to earn it all. To work hard, the way Abby did.

Which is exactly what sent me strolling into Lucas’s office that day to ask where he could use my help. He was taken back, but that was becoming normal for all of my siblings those days. He was hesitant to trust me with much of anything, but Camille happened to walk in and catch part of our conversation. He asked me to leave so they could talk, assuring me he’d think about what I asked.

Camille appeared in my doorway a short while later. “You’re really sticking with this new way about you, huh? Coming in every day. Even on time some days! And asking for all this extra work.”

“It’s easy to take on more work when I wasn’t doing much to begin with,” I told her. “But I don’t think Lucas is too happy about any of it.”

“He likes being the golden child,” she shrugged. “You know that. Jada and I are the same way. One sibling always has to shine a little brighter than the other. The two of us are just less competitive about it is all.”

“You? Less competitive?” I laughed.

“I’m not as bad as Lucas. Surely you can admit that much. He likes it when you’re screwing up because it makes him look good.”

“Great,” I groaned.

“I have some work for you to do though,” she said, sitting across from my desk. “There’s some guy who’s been complaining about getting kicked off the site and blocked from certain profiles for no reason. It’s strange. The tech department is handling it in a really weird way, not according to protocol. I can’t very well just fire all of them at once, but this guy’s calls keep getting escalated to the executive level and it’s really starting to push Lucas over the edge. If you can get to the bottom of it, it’d probably get you pretty far with him. Put you back in his good graces. And mine for that matter.”

My heart started pounding as I realized the guy she was talking about was probably Abby’s dickhead doctor from before. The last thing I needed was him popping up again and ruining everything. The only reason I stood a chance with her was because he was out of the picture for good, and it needed to stay that way.

But I couldn’t very well beg my siblings for more to do and then turn down their offers either.

“I’ll look into it,” I told her. “But really… what does one guy matter? We have millions of customers.”

“One person can cause a lot of trouble. Just look at all the trouble Mark Silver caused.”

“Before you swept him off his feet,” I winked. “Thanks sis. I’ll see what I can do.”

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