Page 41 of Jake

The only real problem was that despite the fact that she felt like she belonged with this group of people, and Jake, she couldn’t shake the fact that everyone in this group had a massive amount of money, while she was paycheck to paycheck. Well, she had been before staying with Catherine, but that wasn’t a long-term housing solution either.

It was the one thing that Catherine wouldn’t talk about and she talked about everything all the time. She couldn’t understand why Lauren was thinking so far ahead, that or she didn’t want to rationalize it, likely the latter. Catherine had grown up wealthy but she didn’t act spoiled and was mostly reserved with her spending.

“Hey,” Jake said as he opened the door.

“Hey,” Lauren answered and inwardly groaned. Apparently, she’d become an idiot the moment he walked in the door.

“You close to ready for lunch?” he asked, slipping into a chair facing her.

“Just about, I have another email to get to if that’s okay?” She tried to refocus on the email she’d been putting off working on.

“Of course it’s okay. I can wait.” Jake settled back in the chair.

She gestured toward the open office door. “Cade isn’t with anyone at the moment if you want to go on back.”

“Maybe I want to sit and watch you?” Jake teased.

“Do not come in my office with that lovey-dovey shit,” Cade told him, standing in his office doorway. “Come back here and let her get her stuff done.”

Cade didn’t wait for him and went back in his office.

Jake laughed but followed Cade in, sending Lauren a wink as he walked by before closing the door.

Lauren smiled to herself as she tried to focus on replying to the last email she had before going to lunch.

“Well, someone looks entirely too pleased with themselves. Find a way to get something over on Cade?” Mr. Hawkins’s gruff voice interrupted her peace.

“Sorry, he’s in a meeting at the moment. If you’ll have a seat, I will let him know you are here.” Lauren skipped the pleasantries since, clearly, he had already decided they weren’t necessary.

“I can let myself in. I’m sure whatever it is will need my input.” Mr. Hawkins made for the office door behind her.

“Sir, you can’t just walk in there.” Lauren was used to him trying to get around her, but she still gave it her best effort, jumping up to follow him in.

“Go sit down and get back to whatever it is you were doing. You aren’t needed,” Mr. Hawkins said as he opened the door, letting himself into Cade’s office and attempting to close it in her face.

Luckily, she was prepared and got her hand up in time to stop the door from hitting her.

“Excuse me.” Cade stood from his desk so quickly that his chair flew backwards.

“I keep telling you, you need better help.” His father glared at him.

“Actually—” Jake began.

“Don’t.” Cade sent a warning look to Jake. “Father, I am in the middle of something, and you need to wait or schedule a meeting.”

“I don’t need to schedule a meeting for my own company.” His voice, which was always loud to begin with, only got louder.

“This is not your company and has not been since you handed it off. That’s literally what it means.” Cade was calm, a level of calm that only meant that his rage was only barely being held back. He turned to Jake. “We can finish this later.” He then turned to Lauren. “Whatever it is can wait. Please take the rest of the day off, with pay, in exchange for all of this.”

Cade walked a few steps to get his chair, righting it and pulling it back to where it should be before taking a seat. “Have a seat, Father, we need to discuss some things.”

“You can’t just pay her for doing nothing.” He didn’t move.

“I can and will, especially when you have come in here and effectively accused her of not doing her job. She is my assistant, not security. It is expected that anyone that walks into this building behaves with respect toward the other people in it.” The look Cade sent his father was clear that it implied an or else. “Sit,” Cade said firmly.

As Mr. Hawkins moved out of the way, Jake slipped around him, with Lauren backing out of the office as Jake pulled the door closed before him.

“Did you finish the email?” he asked when they were alone and away from the door.

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