Page 59 of Falling for my Brother's Best Friend

Eighteen

Liam

We’re in the middle of week one of this experiment, and we’ve meditated every night. Three nights of hearing her light breathing across from me. Three nights of watching her breasts squeeze into that tight T-shirt. Three nights of having her help me put everything away before she heads back upstairs. I have no idea if she’s enjoying it or is just in it to see what’s in the barn. It’ll be a let-down if it comes to that because I’m really hoping she gets something out of all this and isn’t using it as a means to an end.

I approach the security desk at Bailey Timber, and Carrie eyes me and slides over my name tag. “They’re expecting you in the conference room. Fourth floor.”

“Thanks.”

I pin on my badge and head to the elevator. The doors ding open on the fourth floor, and Phoenix stands there with a half-eaten burrito in her hand. A microwave burrito I’m thinking she got down at the 7-Eleven.

“Hey, Liam,” she says, turning on her heels to head toward the conference room. It’s the giant room in the middle of all the offices on the north side of the building. I would’ve found it without Phoenix’s stellar handholding.

“What kind of burrito you got there?”

“Red hot beef.” She holds it out, offering me a bite.

I put my hand in the air. “I’m good, thanks. Where’s it from?”

She takes a bite and swallows. “7-Eleven. Don’t knock it. It was my splurge in LA.”

I give Phoenix props for trying so hard to make her dream come true. But I think she and Denver might be cut from the same cloth.

“They had Wok For U catered in. I think Savannah purposely told me after my burrito finished in the microwave, which I’m supposed to think is a privilege to use. The other day I accidentally put the popcorn in for twelve minutes instead of a minute and twenty.”

I cringe.

“Yeah. There was talk about banning me from the microwave, but come on. It was an honest mistake.”

I sniff. “I think I can still smell it.”

She laughs and punches me in the upper arm. “Funny.”

I’m not joking. That scent lingers for eternity.

I hear Savannah talking to someone, and Phoenix detours us another way.

“I know you work here, but I think we’re supposed to go that way.” I point in the opposite direction.

She crunches up the burrito wrapper as her eyes follow my finger. “Oh, Savannah is in a meeting that way, and if I take you past the office, you’re sure to distract her.”

Distract her in a good way, I hope.

“Phoenix Bailey having consideration for others? Has hell frozen over?”

She punches me in the arm again, and we arrive in the conference room a moment later. I can still overhear Savannah. She’s telling the other person that Bailey Timber can’t afford to pay more, but she’ll see what she can do on the benefits.

Grandma Dori’s sounds out next. “We just upped their benefits last year. I understand the tough spot they’re in, but we’re not in a better one.”

What? Is Bailey Timber having problems? They’re a staple of this community.

Phoenix shuts the door of the conference room. “Orange chicken and fried rice. Li said he made special fortunes.”

“I don’t even wanna know.”

She snags a cookie and sits at the head of the conference table, pointing toward an empty chair. “So tell me, Liam Kelly, what are your intentions with my sister?”

I quirk my eyebrow, and she laughs. We both know I’m not answering, and she probably doesn’t really care unless I hurt Savannah. Then I’d see the wrath of Phoenix Bailey. She might seem like she doesn’t care about her family, but she does. She’s just a self-absorbed twenty-year-old like all twenty-year-olds.

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