Page 31 of Sweet Twins For My Brother's Best Friend

“You’re one to talk,” he grunts, straining with effort.

“Hey, a guy gave me his number at the dog park just the other day!”

“What’s his name?” he asks, sitting up to take a sip of his water, which is an entire gallon jug.

I look around to see that several men have gallon jugs of water, which is weird, but I can’t exactly make fun of him for it as it appears to be some niche part of gym culture I don’t understand.

“Scott.”

“Is it serious? When do we get to meet Dog Park Scott that we’ve heard so much about?”

I roll my eyes. “Can we just move on already? I have something serious to talk to you about.” I make my tone grave to force him to drop the subject of my love life.

“Go for it. We’ll get to your love life later,” he tells me, spreading his legs apart and leaning his arms on his knees.

Not likely.I steel myself for the sentence I need to say next, breathing in deeply through my nose and closing my eyes. I lay my body forward against the workout machine.

“Well, you know how Chris hired me to help him grow his business, possibly outside of the United States?”

“Yeah, duh, I’m the one who sent him to you.”

“Well, I think someone is embezzling money from Chris' business."

His eyes widen in surprise, and I can see the gears turning in his head as he processes my words. "Embezzling? Are you sure?" he asks, his lip curled.

I nod, my heart pounding in my chest.

“That’s so…Ocean’s Eleven.”

I sigh. “You know I’ve never seen any of the Oceans.”

Tyler pinches the bridge of his nose before looking up at the ceiling as though begging God for help with me. "Just keep talking. How did you find out?”

“Well, obviously, I have to go over his finances as his CPA. Basically, his projected earnings are way lower than his actual earnings. Year over year, every quarter. And the discrepancies add up to about the same amount every quarter.”

“What do you want me to do about it?”

My voice shaking slightly with emotion, I explain, "Chris is too afraid to face it. I told him about it the other night and that I need to take a better look at the transactions of the business, and he just changed the subject. I'm worried that if we don't do something about it, Chris could lose everythingng."

Tyler's expression darkens with worry, and I can see the tension in his jaw as he absorbs the gravity of the situation. "Damn," he mutters under his breath, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "So, do you have any idea who it is?”

“Not really. I don’t know anything about his employees, do you?” I prompt him, eager to gather any information that might help us identify the culprit behind the embezzlement.

Tyler pauses mid-rep, his brow furrowing in thought.

"Well, I mean, this is heavy, Handy. I don’t want to, like,implicatesomeone, but if I had to place bets,” he begins his voice thoughtful, “well, Sarah’s been with Chris since the beginning. And, I mean, she is technically in charge of finances –- inventory, that kind of thing. But she's always been reliable. And Chris loves her. If anything, he wishes they were closer. He feels like she’s a little closed-off.”

My interest piques at his words, and I can feel a sense of suspicion beginning to creep in. "Closed off?" I echo, my voice tinged with curiosity. "Why do you think that is?"

Tyler shrugs, his expression thoughtful. "I'm not sure," he admits. "But it's definitely something worth looking into."

I grab the handles of the weight machine, checking the weight to make sure it’s nothing unmanageable, and pull with all my might. I mull over the information about Sarah. “Where is she?’

“Sarah?” Tyler clarifies. “She’s just in her office back there. That’s where she works.”

“Alone?”

“Yeah, Chris has been wanting to give her a bigger office, but that’s what they’re working with right now. It’s basically her and a desk.”

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