Page 76 of The Forever Rule

She froze, her fry halfway to her mouth. “I don’t need charity.”

I shook my head. “It’s not charity. It’s work.”

“I’m a forensic accountant, Aston.”

“And are you really performing the job that you want right now?”

Isabella stared at me for long enough I was afraid I’d overstepped once again, bug eventually she shook her head. “No. I’m doing other types of accounting because that’s what they put on my table, but I’m trained as a forensic accountant. Do you really need one?”

“Of course we do. We buy other businesses and buy into other businesses. Blakely’s job is to help organize those businesses, underneath James’s purview. But we need another forensic accountant on the team.”

“So I would work for you or James or Flynn?”

I shook my head. “With us.”

“I’m not quite sure that is how it works.”

“It’s how we’ll make it work. I don’t work for mybrothers. Yes, Blakely works for James, but she’s not family.” I cringe. “I’m not doing this right.”

“No you’re right. I’m just surprised.”

“You shouldn’t be. One day the will’s going to be split twelve ways evenly. Beyond the holdings we already have. My brothers and I, at least everyone but Kyler all made our own income outside of what Dad left us. And Kyler is doing damn well. We aren’t billionaires, we’re not even truly multimillionaires.”

She raised a brow.

“We’re not. The company does well, but we don’t take huge salaries. We aren’t the megalomaniacs with the monocle laughing over our heaps of money.”

“And here I thought you were Scrooge McDuck, diving into his vault of money.”

“Diving into coins does not seem sanitary, and honestly it’s just asking for a broken bone.”

She laughed at that, and I finished my sandwich, knowing I wouldn’t have much time to eat later.

“Take the job. Do something you want to do. Or hell, work with us for a little bit, get something else on your CV, and then find another place. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. But we have the space, the needs, and why do something you hate?”

She sighed and shook her head. “You really are the eldest, aren’t you?”

“So says the other eldest.”

She grimaced. “I’m no longer even close to being the oldest sibling anymore. Most of you guys are older than me by a couple of years.”

“You know, I think you and James are the same age. Like a couple of days apart.”

Isabella grimaced. “Don’t remind me of that. Because that means well, Dad was, well, I don’t want to think about it.”

I shudder. “No, we’re not going to think about that.”

As we finished our lunch, she raised a brow at me. “Okay, let’s say I take this job. Who would I be working with?”

“All three of us. And if you need to worry about the hierarchy, it would be a vote with all three of us.”

“I’m okay with that. I don’t need to come in and be the CEO of the company or anything. I’m not that insane.”

“There’s a lot of places to work, and you don’t even have to work in the same building.”

“Because you guys own so many buildings. And a town?”

I sighed. “Yes, I mean I only personally own a house that I rent out most of the time. Hudson lives there.”

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