Page 8 of Kiss Me Forever

Chapter Three

Luke

As I prepared to leavethe office before lunch, my brothers Declan and Travis stopped by.

"Guys, you're losing your touch. I've been waiting for you to crash my office ever since Megan left this morning."

"I had an important phone call with a client," Declan said.

"Yeah, and I waited for him to come by to get me. We're better at cornering you if we’re together," Travis said.

Declan was a successful lawyer whose office was in this building, and Travis had sold his company for a lot of money and was between jobs. He technically didn’t have an office here anymore, but he’d come by this morning for a special occasion. Our grandmother and cousin had flown to London, and Gran insisted on bidding us all goodbye at the crack of dawn at the office.

We all indulged Gran. Tate had also been with us this morning for the send-off and then drove them to the airport.

I liked having the same office space as my brothers. It gave us time to catch up during the workday. We were all very close to each other: six brothers in total, and we also had two cousins, Reese and Kimberly, who were more like sisters to us. This morning, when I saw Megan was here, Travis, Declan, and his fiancée, Liz, had witnessed my shock. I promised to tell them the story. I had waited all morning for them to come so I could make good on that promise.

"From what I saw," Travis said, "she left after like five minutes. How did that happen? You're the fun one in the family. Running people off isn't in your repertoire. That’s Tate's specialty." After a brief pause, he added, "And Declan's.”

Declan frowned at him. "I'm right here, you know?"

"Oh, I do. I just thought you needed that pointed out in case no one else has reminded you lately."

"You remind me," Declan said. "Daily."

"We're getting off track here," Travis said, looking at me.

"I met her yesterday at the bar across the street. We had fun, uh, all night long. I had no idea who she was or that she was my employee."

"How, and I mean this in the most nonjudgmental way," Travis said, "did you not know who she was? You must have looked at her résumé at some point."

"Yeah, I did. But our résumés don’t have photos on them."

"And you didn’t look her up on LinkedIn or other career portals? I sometimes do that with future hires.”

“No.”

Travis groaned. "I can't believe this."

"Anyway, she was blindsided. But I'm meeting her for coffee tomorrow to discuss the job again."

Declan folded his arms, looking at me intently. "If she doesn't want the job, maybe it's best to leave it at that."

I smiled. "That, brother, is how you operate, not me."

Declan would always choose the path that would lead to the least trouble. But I was just the opposite, despite being the second oldest in the family. My grandma always said I was the yin to his yang, that I was such a troublemaker purposefully to make him work hard to keep us in check. I liked to think otherwise. He had to become the one to keep us all in check because I caused all that trouble. At thirty-five, I was still giving Declan headaches.

I rose from my chair. "I have a meeting across town, and I’m not coming back. I'll see you both tomorrow. Or will I see you, Travis?"

"Yeah, you will. I'm trying to focus on what I have in mind next, and I do that best here."

Declan turned to look at him. "Are you planning to let us in on what you're doing?"

"Not yet."

After selling his company, my brother spent a few good months partying like there was no tomorrow. Declan was worried he'd waste away. I didn't have any such worries. We all had a strong work ethic. It was the way our parents raised us. Even though we'd grown up in a wealthy family, we all had a desire to succeed on our own.

From the office, I went across town, meeting with a potential client, Jordan. I loved being an architect. I enjoyed creating things and, most of all, envisioning things no one else had before. I liked taking a mere idea a client had and turning it into a reality, into something solid. I put a lot of stock in 3D graphics that mimicked the outcome of the design as much as possible. I focused on residential and office projects mostly, but I wouldn’t say no to a commercial project if the right one came along.

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