Page 127 of Sunshine

Luca raked his hand through his curly black hair and I resisted the urge to touch his hair myself. “Most people don’t have to properly motivate themselves to fill out forms. It feels like death to me.”

“I would rather claw my eyes out.” I gestured at my laptop. “Or I completely space out on something and now I’m in a panic.”

My eyes burned with tears. What a horrible mess. This was such a good look for me, trying to impress these wonderful guys but instead I had a mini nervous breakdown.

“Why not hire an assistant?” Logan’s voice was gruff from sleep. “Logan has like four paralegals right now doing the stupid boring stuff for him.”

I loved how the three of them accepted that I had stupid and boring work tasks. Rob would have lectured me by now on how real adults get their work done, no matter how stupid and boring I thought it was.

Instead, they were trying to help me solve the problem.

“I wouldn’t be able to do half the cases I’m doing if I didn’t have paralegals,” Luca added. “I would be bogged down in research and filing. This way I can focus on the things that I am really good.”

I stared at the neon brightness of my laptop. “I don’t really have enough work for a whole assistant.”

Shame filled me. I didn’t want to think about hiring an assistant. “No one else needs an assistant to make appointments for them.”

Julian pulled a blanket off the back of the couch and wrapped us in it. I loved his instinct to always be snuggling. “Is that true though? Who does all the intake forms?”

“Ember and Stella do most of it, but we all help.”

“And the matching?” Logan asked.

“Raina. She’s got the psychology degree. But she’s so organized.”

“More like a control freak,” Julian said. “Your sister is great, but she’s also got issues with letting go. That doesn’t mean she’s more organized than you.”

“But she is. And she reminds me to do stuff, and I try to do it, but something comes up.” I gestured at the laptop. “I have to order yellow roses from Estelle’s. But I have to call on Tuesday mornings because that’s when they take orders. The last two Tuesdays there was either an emergency, or I forgot until it was two and past the cutoff date. When I did remember, I needed the number of flowers, the pickup time, and other info I hadn’t gotten from the pack yet because they didn’t decide.”

I flopped back into Julian in a huff. “There’s times I do remember things, but there’s this stupid series of steps that have to happen first, so I’m always in a state of checking on where we’re at and trying to keep up my end of things.”

“Which is why being an event planner is hard,” Julian said. “No thank you. I’d rather put out literal fires.”

I laughed. “It’s not dangerous.”

“I love dangerous.” He kissed the side of my face.

“How many more events could you work if you weren’t spending your time chasing these essential, yet small impact tasks?” Logan asked, grabbing a notepad off the side table.

“I don’t know.” I set my head on Julian’s shoulder. Luca and Logan took up positions on either side of us. It was becoming routine, but each time we cuddled together it felt as exciting as the first time.

“First step.” Logan held up a pen. “Tell us all the things you have to do that’re stressing you out.”

“Yes, that’s a great idea.” Luca rubbed my back in slow circles.

I frowned. “Don’t we have to sleep?”

“Are you going to be able to sleep like this?” Luca cocked his head. “I never could when I was really worried about work.”

“That doesn’t mean you guys need to lose sleep.” I grumbled. “Julian, you have to work in the morning.”

“I can nap if I need it.” Julian squeezed me. He was contented, and no matter how hard I looked for annoyance and resentment, none of the pack showed it.

Logan was perky with a notepad, and Luca was looking thoughtful, but relaxed.

They were all looking delightfully rumpled and sexy in their sweatpants and messy hair. I resisted the urge to start kissing them and picked up my laptop. I scrolled through the lists of stuff to do. Shame ate a hole inside me at all of the items left unfinished.

I cleared my throat when I was done. “I’m normally more on the ball.”

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