Page 13 of One Little Mistake
“Doesn’t anyone fucking knock around here?” Easton growls while holding eye contact with me.
I fight the urge to fidget and focus on Preston instead. “How’s your girlfriend?”
Preston stumbles, but catches himself quickly.
“Emory’s great. Living together is the best thing I’ve ever done.” His words sound truthful, but he seems surprised by them, too.
I glance back and forth between the two brothers, and I’m surprised when the ribbing I’m expecting from Easton doesn’t come.
“Lexi, we have to leave soon. How long will it take you to pack?”
“Where are you going?” Preston volleys between the two of us.
“New York,” Easton answers while both men stare at me. They have this uncanny ability to see through me, and it’s unnerving.
“It’ll only take me a few minutes to pack a bag. Preston, did you need something?”
Preston stares at me with kindness and pity, and it makes me want to throat punch him.
“I was just coming to tell you that Ash said we could ease up on your security detail. He doesn’t believe you’ll need it, but if you’re going to New England, then—”
“She’ll be fine,” Easton interrupts. “Lexi will be with me the entire time.”
The testosterone in the room is overwhelming. “Well, if the two of you are done planning out my life, I’ll just go home to pack.” I storm off, but not before hearing the beginning of their hushed conversation.
“What are you doing, East?”
“I’m trying to work.”
“That’s not what I mean, and you know it. Why did Mason tell me you’ve moved Lexi into your office instead of giving her one of her own?”
Preston may drive me fucking nuts, but his protective streak is admirable, even if I don’t deserve to be on the receiving end of it. Pausing just outside of the door, I wait for Easton’s answer.
“Fucking Mason is a gossip. I don’t come to your office and micromanage how you run things, so don’t come in here and do it to me.”
“East, listen, Lexi’s struggling,” Preston says under his breath. “For once, can you not be an asshole?”
“She’s stronger than you give her credit for, Pres. You asked me to hire her, so I did, but I’m not going to hold her hand while she figures out her shit. We all have shit. Either she does the job I need, or you can find somewhere else for her to work.”
And here I thought Preston was the asshole. Easton just took the top spot for the King Prick award.
I’ve heard enough. Hastily, I turn to go and run right into a smiling Mason.
“You’re getting under his skin, gorgeous. It’s about time someone did. Keep it up. You might just find the real Easton we’ve been missing all these years.”
I have so many questions I want to ask, but a noise from the office has me shuffling past him in an attempt to escape.
Chapter 7
Easton
“Why the hell are you tattling on me to Preston?”
Mason doesn’t even pretend to be offended.
“I wasn’t tattling, you toddler. I was informing—there’s a difference. He asked how Lexi was doing. Honestly, if he hadn’t told me he had a live-in girlfriend suddenly, I would have thought Preston had a thing for our Lexi girl.”
“Don’t call her that,” I growl with enough venom to knock him back a step or two.
