Page 8 of Xactly What She Needs

Except right now, they’re both trying to communicate telepathically, my guess coming up with a reason for them not having any sort of organizational skills.

Xander looks back at me and scratches his cheek. “I mean, we have bins and stuff that we toss certain things into.”

I look from him to Jax, who has a blank look on his face and back again. “You have bins that you toss stuff into?” I need more coffee, or maybe alcohol. I’ve never really liked the taste of alcohol before, but I have a feeling that working here is going to cause me to develop a taste for it.

Xander has his arms at his sides, though I can see his hands twitch like he wants to cross them. I have a feeling he isn’t doing so for my benefit, to make himself look less threatening. “Yeah, it works pretty well.” He nods his head like he really believes this is a good idea.

I look over at Jax who is side-eyeing his brother as if he’s a moron. When his eyes land on me he purses his lips and just shrugs.

Lord, help me.

I stare at the two of them without blinking. I would laugh at how uncomfortable it seems to make them if I didn’t understand how much work I truly have ahead of me.

“What’s wrong?” Xander asks as his fingers tap against his muscular thigh. And it is extremely muscular. Even inloosefitting coveralls, I can still see the definition of his muscles. All of his muscles since he has the top part pulled down and wrapped around his tapered waist. The white tank top he’s wearing leaves very little to the imagination. I can almost count all of his abdominal muscles. They remind me of a washboard. One that I wouldn’t mind scrub…..and I need to stop those thoughts right there. He’s my boss and I’ve been down this road before. I have the mental road rash to remind me how bad of an idea it is to even look at him as anything other than my employer.

“You’re both an absolute mess,” I squeak out thanks to my hormones having gone off the rails a bit. Hopefully, they just chalk it up to me being overwhelmed.

In unison they look down at their clothes and I want to bang my head against the desk. “Not literally,” I grit out. I wave a hand around the general vicinity of the office. “Figuratively, you both are an absolute mess. I don’t understand how you keep this place running. How does your accountant not go screaming into the hills when you get your taxes done?” I utter that last part mainly to myself but they both hear me.

“One of the brothers at the club handles all of that. We just print out the list from the computer program and hand it to him,” Jax states calmly.

I blink, and then blink some more. “How many pages is this list?”

Xander shrugs,“I dunno. Just usually a page or two, why?”

“Why?” I scoff. Right now, I’mnolonger afraid of them. Right now, I want to smack them upside their heads with a large book. I obviously won’t since I’m not suicidal, but good grief.

They’re both looking at me like I’m the crazy one.

“Because there should be multiple pages!” I screech slightly. “You guys are probably getting taken to the cleaners by the IRS. You have to give a list of all of your supplies, write offs…things like that. There is no way that all of that fits on one sheet of paper,” I huff.

In unison, they both scratch the side of their faces. Jax shrugs while Xander gives me a sheepish look. “We just figured that all they needed were our profit reports.”

I blink, andstare at them.. My mouth is wide open and I can’t find it in myself to close it. I bite down on my lip and rub my temple that has started pounding. “You guys are a disaster. No one in their right minds would want to help you at this point.” They give me large frowns, that would be slightly terrifying if they weren’t the cause of what I know will turn out to be a freaking migraine.

“We can’t be that bad,” Xander scoffs, and crosses his arms over his chest. “We do really well and have never had a problem making any sort of payments.”

Jax nods his head slowly. “He has a point. We’ve been open for years with no problem.”

“You mean besides the fact that you have probably lost out on tens of thousands of dollars in money owed to you?” I drawl, lettingthe realizationhit them.

Their eyes go comically wide. “It can’t be that much,” Xander practically stutters.

I rub my eyes and give them a wary look, I’m suddenly exhausted. “It’s been years of you guys doing this all wrong, so yes, I would venture to guess that’s about how much you’ve lost out on,” I give them a slightly sour look, “maybe more.”

They stand in front of me in dumbfounded silence. Not that I blame them. These two have lost out on a ton of money and deserve to have it hit them like a freight train. Okay, maybe not, but I’m pissy with how half-assed their whole system is. A girl has a right to be grouchy when she’s the one who is going to have to fix all of this.

My mind switches fully to boss mode while they stare at me almost helplessly. Ashelplessas two gigantic men who could break someone in half could possibly look. “Okay,” Ibreatheout slowly, “here’s how it’s going to go.” They each quirk an eyebrow but remain silent. “First things first, we need an updated accounting program. No more of all of this paper nonsense, all invoices and such need to be digital.” I ignore their grimace for their own safety. “Second, even work orders willnolonger just be written down on sticky notes.” The amount of little scraps of paper that I have found with orders on it is absolutely insane. “And third, you will be buying tablets so that every mechanic has one.”

“Why would everyone need one?” Xander asks, though not in a harsh way.

“Because,” I say through slightly gritted teeth, “every single part, paint color and anything else in the shop will be updated withitsown barcode. Each mechanic will scan everything that they use while also typing in what exactly was done each day. That way there is a detailed list of everything that comes in and out of this garage.” I give them a stern look. “Every single nut and bolt will be accounted for properly. Lord only knows how much money you two have lost out on when it comes to supplies over the years.”

“Is that all really necessary?” Jax questions.

I can feel that my face has gone into resting bitch face territory but I can’t be bothered to care right now. I huff out a snort and stand from my chair. Later on, I’ll probably chuckle at how skittish both of them looked at that moment, like I could possibly be any sort of threat toThe Hulk’sdistant cousins.

I walk over to one of the large plastic bins. And I don’t mean a small bin, oh no, this a ten gallon one filled to the brim with random papers. I pick it up and dump all of the contents at their feet, making papers scatter everywhere while they stare at me in confusion. “If you would like to go through every item listed on every single piece of paper, be my guest,” I smile sweetly. “But there is no amount of money in this world that would have me doing it.”

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