Page 4 of An Engagement for Erica

“Nope.” She covered her mouth with her hands and let out another muffled shout before she said, “And now I’ve got to work for him for at least a month with an option for more.”

Harmony giggled. “You could have said no.”

“No,” she said. “I can’t. Because the rate I threw out there would have turned away many and all he said was he’d pay double if I could start next week.”

“Sounds like he doesn’t take no for an answer,” Harmony said, smirking.

Erica looked at the humor in her sister’s eyes and pushed herself off the dock fully clothed, dunked her head, and screamed as loud as she could underwater.

2

JUMPED INTO ACTION

One Week Later.

“When are the contractors coming?”Tucker Nelay asked his father’s old assistant. His assistant now.

“They said next week.”

“They said that last week,” he said. He wanted every bit of this office done over so there was no remainder of TC Nelay Jr. left. He couldn’t make the changes he needed to the company if he couldn’t even stand walking in here and thinking of his father.

“Do you want me to put a threat in with it?” Alice asked. “Tell them if they don’t start next week then we’ll find someone else?”

He ground his teeth. “That might take even longer,” he said. “But I’m sick of being dicked around because my father was a prick.”

“When I called I reminded them that TC was no longer around, bless his soul, and that you were in charge.”

Bless his soul? What the fuck? No one said that about his father.

“You can drop the act,” he said. “My father is probably in hell now that the jellyfish and shark are done with him.”

Alice smirked and winked at him. “It’s not nice to speak ill of the dead.”

“Not in your book, but no one else seems to have a problem with it around here.”

“I’m not like everyone else,” Alice said. “About the contractors. Do you want me to make a few more calls and see if I can line anyone else up just in case?”

“Sure,” he said. “If they can’t start next week, I’m moving on regardless.”

“Will do,” Alice said. “And Erica James called when you were on the phone.”

“What did she want?” he asked, his head snapping up. “Don’t tell me she’s canceling.”

He couldn’t take another blow right now.

He needed Erica here to help him fix every problem he had with his family business, but he couldn’t fix those problems if no one would give him the truth as to what the problems even were.

“No,” Alice said. “She just wanted to know how long you’d be meeting today. Your email hadn’t been specific and she was trying to tie up some loose ends on other projects.”

“Oh,” he said. “I can work around her schedule.”

“I told her that you’d say that. She’ll still be here in ten minutes.”

He nodded his head and sat down at his desk. His father’s desk.

The old cherry wood with a high gloss finish still had water stains on it from his father’s whiskey glasses. Or whatever alcohol was handy at the moment, because TC Jr. had never been fussy when he wanted a shot of something.

He was lucky there weren’t powdery substances sticking to it from the other shit his father was doing in this office.

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