Page 4 of Bourbon Wishes
Haven blinks like she just realized I'm standing there. "Oh. Hey." She tilts her head to the side, then glances at Jax, a calculating gleam in her eyes. "Maybe you're onto something."
"I know I am," he mutters.
"How much do you love us?" Haven bats her lashes at me.
"Enough to agree that your printer is evil. Not enough to take one for the team and have that argument with your cousin. I'm new here. You're family." I shrug. "He can only fire one of us, and that would be me."
"He better not fucking fire you," Jax growls.
"What he said." Haven points at her cousin. "He isn't allowed to fire you. We like you. Majority rules."
I beam at her. I swear, Bastian's crabby attitude aside, I love it here. His whole family is amazing. Coming to work every day feels a little like coming home. I feel like I fit right in here. There's no way I'm letting Bastian run me out of here.
"Do you like me enough to let me record you arguing about the printer?" I ask hopefully.
They share a look before glancing at me again. It's spooky how well every single one of Bastian's cousins has perfected the same "explain now" look. They furrow their brows and kind of squint the same way. They're all completely different people, but in moments like this, there's no denying that they're related. They look too alike.
"It's for social media. Bastian wants fresh and provocative. You guys are it." I grin at the two of them. "And I can definitely use the printer saga for something. It's relatable. Everyone who has ever worked in an office setting has a personal vendetta against at least one workplace printer."
"Does this saga end with a new printer arriving at the end of it? If so, I'm in," Jax says.
I narrow my eyes at him. "Are you trying to blackmail me into asking Bastian to buy a new printer?"
"Maybe. Is it working?"
"Maybe," I grumble. Will he bite? Absolutely not. But if asking gets me the content I need? Well, a social media team has gotta do what a social media team has gotta do. And since my team consists of me, well, I guess I'm asking for a new printer.
"Come on," Haven pleads, poking her bottom lip out at me. "He always tells us no. But he never tells you no."
"Uh, he tells me no all the time. Telling me no is basically his happy place."
"No, he doesn't," she insists. "Name one thing you've asked for since you started that you haven't gotten."
"I haven't even been here for three full months!"
"Yeah, and he's been a total dick since you waltzed through the doors. And you know why he's been a total dick?" Jax asks, giving up on the printer to smirk at me. "Because he's sexually frustrated."
"Take it from Jax. He knows all about sexual frustration," Haven says with a sly grin.
Jax shoots her a dirty glare before turning back to me. "The point is, if you ask, he won't say no."
I stare at both of them like they've lost it. I'm pretty sure they have if they think their cousin's sexual frustration has anything to do with me. "Maybe you two should stop day-drinking," I suggest, my heels clicking on the cobblestone floor as I move closer to Haven's desk. "The wine is making you delusional."
"We don't day-drink."
"Drugs?"
"I tried to smoke pot once. Do not recommend," Haven says. "Bastian's dad found out." A laugh burbles from her lips. "I was grounded forever."
"You should have been grounded longer," Jax mutters.
"As if you never tried it!"
"Uh, no, I didn't." He shoots her a hard look. "I'm not a fucking rebel like some people."
"I'm not a rebel. I was a curious teenager." Haven rolls her eyes at him. "Clearly, it didn't work out. I got busted by the one cop in this family, and then I wasn't allowed to go to a party without a chaperon again until I was nineteen."
"Serves your ass right."
