Page 14 of The Relationship Clause

Oh, right. Almost forgot.

His gaze rakes over me. “Thanks to your untimely delivery, my mother thinks that you are, for all intents and purposes, my secretary.”

“I know, and I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what to do. I should have—”

He silences me with a hand slicing through the air. “As awkward as this situation seems, I can see it working out to both of our benefits.”

…Excusé moi?

CHAPTER 5

OWEN

What I’m about to propose is ridiculous.

And dangerous.

And crazy.

But it might work.

“I’d like to hire you to pretend to be my secretary for three months.”

Junie’s jaw drops, and she starts looking around the room as if half-expecting to find a hidden camera. Who knows, maybe she really is expecting something like that. I can’t blame her. My proposal sounds that preposterous.

Kiera’s the one who came up with the idea though. Kind of.

“I’m sorry, what?” she asks.

I take a deep breath. This is going to take some convincing. “I’d like you to be my fake secretary for three months.”

She shakes her head, mouth slightly agape. “Okay, um, is this because of your mom? Doesn’t she live in New York or something? How would she even know I’m not actually your secretary after today?”

The fact that she knows this about my mom isn’t surprising. Apparently, she is the best friend of Kiera’s who I’ve heard about. The one who got my sister through a rough time in college when they were roommates. I had no idea she was also working at Pete’s Perk Up for the last few months, or that I’d been kinda sorta making eyes at my sister’s best friend all that time. Honestly, if someone had walked up to me today to quiz me on my sister’s best friend’s name, I would have been pulling guesses out of thin air. Katie? Sierra? Kylie? I’d never heard it enough to commit it to memory.

One thing’s for sure, if Junie accepts this proposal of mine, the “making eyes” will need to stop immediately.

“Yes, she does live in New York,” I say, folding my arms. “But Kiera and I were informed that Mother will be leasing out a suite in Charlotte, North Carolina for the foreseeable future thanks to some business she’s involved in. That means she’ll be checking in on me more often, which, in turn, means she’ll expect to see you.”

This new, unfortunate information from Mother was a shock to both Kiera and me. There’s a reason we decided to stay in the south when we were college-aged and Mom and Dad moved back to New York.

Kiera and I realized a long time ago that the more physical distance we put between ourselves and our parents, the better off we’d be. Both Mom and Dad are high-powered business people. I don’t remember sitting down to a single family meal with all four of us. There was almost never peace in the house growing up. I don’t even know why they stayed together as long as they did.

When Kiera moved out of the house for college, they quit living together but still didn’t get divorced. It wasn’t until about two years ago that the pressure between them grew so great that it finally exploded. Each one determined they would divorce and take the other for all they were worth, and that’s when the claws came out. They surrounded themselves with high-powered lawyers and have been in an awful legal battle ever since. Often, it’s Kiera and me who get caught in the crosshairs.

I know I could just be a man about it and tell my mom she made a mistake, but doing so would also mean a rejuvenation of Cynthia’s efforts to choose a secretary for me. This may seem like a small thing, but I don’t want to give her a single finger-hold in my company. I have no doubt that anyone she recommends would ultimately be reporting back to her.

This is why I started Em3rge with Shane completely on our own and without any help from my parents, particularly from Mother. Give her an inch, and soon, she’ll be thinking she can give me orders, tell me how to run my company, and buy so much stock, she’ll eventually own it.

Sounds too harsh to be true? You don’t know Cynthia Burton.

After hearing Junie’s qualifications, I knew she’d be able to do the job, but also, seeing the way Mother reacted to Junie made me all the more set in keeping her. She’ll drive my mom crazy. And that in and of itself is immensely appealing.

“I’d expect you to be doing actual secretarial work,” I continue, “so it’s not like you’ll be sitting around doing nothing. Those are details we can quibble over if and when you decide to accept my offer though.”

Her blue eyes peer up at me like maybe I’ve lost my mind. “A fake secretary who does real secretary work? What does that even mean?”

I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose. Glancing over, I can tell more than a few curious employees have started watching us from the windows of the conference room, most notably Kiera, who looks as if she might bolt in here at any moment to take over for me in convincing Junie to stay. This is not going as swiftly as I’d hoped.

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