Annie started studying at my house almost every evening.
She didn’t stay the night every night. Sometimes, she actually finished her work at a decent hour and went home to spend time with Jennifer. On rare occasions, she had study sessions with other fourth years, and I didn’t see or hear from her at all.
Which was fine.
We weren’t dating. No matter how Julian or Hollin joked when it was brought up. And if I was honest, this was much easier than any relationship I’d been in. Those relationships had always been as brittle as glass. Glossy and seemingly perfect on the outside, but one good hit to the surface, and the entire thing shattered.
“Okay,” Morgan said, clicking her pen against the notebook in front of her. “I think that’s a wrap. We all need lunch. We can come back in, say, an hour and a half to get back at this.”
Morgan was the CEO of Wright Construction. She’d been promoted before she was thirty, and a lot of people had been skeptical she could handle the job. Especially my asshole father, who had all but staged a coup to take the position from her. But Morgan had proven them all wrong. She was more than capable, if our stock numbers were any indication.
She was seated next to David, Sutton’s husband and CFO, and her brother, Austin Wright, a senior vice president. The other vice presidents and the executive directors were present, discussing the new soccer complex.
When I’d moved here from Vancouver, there hadn’t been a position for me available, but they’d added an executive director position, and I’d stepped right in. There had been a few grumbles about it until I’d proven myself with The Buddy Holly Hall, a new performing arts center that was going to bring Broadway to Lubbock.
“Excellent,” Austin said. He scraped his chair back and stretched. “I could use some Hank’s. Anyone else?”
“I’m in for Hank’s,” David agreed. It was everyone’s favorite local fried chicken place.
“Jordan?” Austin asked.
I shook my head. “Count me out.”
“You’re not just going to sit at your desk and forget to eat again, are you?” Austin joked.
“I’m heading to Thai Pepper.” I’d promised Annie that I’d bring her lunch since her rotation this week was intense and she had kept forgetting to break for lunch.
Morgan eyed me astutely. “Haven’t y’all noticed Jordan leaving all the time for lunch now? He used to only get up from his desk once a month, and now, it’s two or three times a week.”
“Huh,” Austin said. “Who’s the girl?”
“No one,” I said with a laugh as I stood and buttoned my suit jacket.
“No one,” Austin mimicked with an eye roll. “David, do you believe him?”
He grimaced. “I mean, I might have heard who the girl is from Sutton already. It’s not entirely fair.”
Austin’s eyes glimmered. “Spill.”
“It’s Annie,” I said as I pushed my chair in. “We’re just friends.”
“Just friends,” Morgan said with air quotes to punctuate the words.
“Is this like just friends, but you’re really dating?” Austin asked, slinging an arm around my shoulders. “Or like just friends, but you’re fucking?”
I shook my head, pushing him off of me.
“Leave him be,” David said, jostling Austin. “Imagine if everyone had treated you like this about Julia.”
“They did!” he insisted.
Morgan scoffed behind them. “They did not. I was the one who got shit about Patrick, you ass.”
“Well, yeah, you were dating my best friend. What did you expect?”
Morgan swatted him on the back of the head. “Why are you the worst?”
I laughed. It had been three years since I moved, and still, I wasn’t used to having this much family around. I had friends back in Vancouver who I’d always been close with but nothing like this. Nothing unconditional. It still baffled me.
We took the elevator to the bottom floor and spread out as we headed to our cars.
“Have fun,” Austin said with a wink.
Morgan laughed and squeezed my arm. “Don’t let him bother you. If you want to keep you and Annie a secret for longer, I don’t blame you one bit. Our family is pretty intense.”
She didn’t let me respond before hiking across the parking lot in her four-inch heels to her new black Tesla Model S. After driving mine, she’d immediately gone and purchased one. We were still in negotiations with Tesla to get a Supercharger in Lubbock now that it was becoming a hot commodity.
I tried to let everyone’s comments fall off of me. Maybe Morgan understood what was happening with Annie. But still, not quite. She and Patrick had been a secret. Annie and I weren’t a secret. We just weren’t…together either.
Thai Pepper was packed by the time I arrived. I was glad that I’d put in an order earlier this morning, so I just walked up to the counter and picked up our two pad thais. I drove them to the hospital and found her in the cafeteria, seated next to Cézanne, with her head buried in a book. She looked half-asleep.
“Superman!” Cézanne cheered. “Please tell me one of those is for me.”
“You can have mine,” I offered.
Annie’s head tipped up. She had dark circles under her eyes. Even though she’d claimed to be sleeping more since staying at my house, I wasn’t sure how she’d been functioning before. Still, she was beautiful. I couldn’t deny that I liked her just as much in scrubs, a messy bun, and no makeup as I did when she was all done up, snakeskin heels and all.
“Hey,” she said with a smile that lit up her face and dropped all of the exhaustion. “I hope you got it extra hot.”
“They thought I was crazy for asking for it, but I managed.” I pulled the food out of the plastic bag and passed one to her.
She opened it and shuddered just at the smell of the heat. “This is going to burn.”
“I don’t even know you,” Cézanne said, wrinkling her nose. “That looks like a powder keg.”
“Exactly. Just how I like it.”
I offered mine to Cézanne. “I still have time to find something else.”
She waved her hand at me. “Boy, sit down. You should eat lunch with your girl.”
Annie looked up at her with fire in her eyes. “Stop it.”
Cézanne grinned like she had no idea what Annie was talking about. I was about to make an excuse. I sometimes brought her lunch, but we didn’t eat together. She was too busy and usually only had a few minutes for lunch. I didn’t mind getting her something to eat, but I didn’t think that she wanted me to interrupt her day.
Then Annie looked up at me and smiled again. She patted the seat next to her. “Don’t let your lunch get cold.”
I decided not to second-guess her and sank onto the bench. Cézanne and Annie kept up a steady stream of conversation about their current rotations. I knew next to nothing about what they were going through. So I let the easy conversation drift over me. Even as out of place as I was in a business suit next to these doctors in white coats, they never let me feel left out.
“How’s the winery going?” Cézanne asked.
“Well, it’s not going anywhere yet,” I said with a shrug, pushing away my empty pad thai. “We put in an offer to purchase one. At first, the owners seemed excited, and then they asked for an extension while someone else looked at it. It’s frustrating since it didn’t seem like anyone else had even known about the property.”
“When is the extension up?” Annie asked.
“Tonight.”
“Oh good. Then it’ll all be over.”
For some reason, I didn’t think so.
Cézanne stood from her seat. “Duty calls. Are you still coming over for the study session tonight?”
“I’ll be there,” Annie agreed.
Cézanne left, and Annie stood, too, with a yawn.
“So, I won’t see you tonight?” I ventured, collecting her empty lunch.
She shot me a mischievous grin. “Maybe when I need to sleep.”
Fuck, I wanted to kiss her.
“Why do I think we’re not talking about sleep?”
“Because tomorrow is Saturday. So, no work tomorrow,” she said. “We can actually sleep in.”
“My little vampire wants me to keep her up all night.”
She twirled her claddagh ring around her finger. She did it all the time. Especially when she was trying to make a decision. Then she bit her lip and nodded.
“It’ll be late,” she warned me.
“I’ll be up.”
It took everything in me not to wrap my arm around her waist and pull her into me. But we weren’t dating. We were friends. And friends didn’t kiss in front of coworkers. The benefits were reserved for less public places.
“Then, deal.”
“Don’t forget to bring your workout clothes.”
She pouted. “I hate that I told you I wanted to work out more. Don’t you know I’d rather sleep?”
I laughed, and despite myself, I stepped forward and hooked my pinkie around hers. Her eyes shot up to mine. For a second, we just stood there. Questions in her emerald-green eyes. A heartbeat too long for friends. A breath too long for benefits.
She swallowed and then pulled back, breaking contact and running a shaky hand back through her hair. “Change of clothes. Got it. Let me know how it goes with the winery extension.”
I nodded. “I will. Good luck at the study session.”
Annie smiled again. It was only half as bright as when she’d first seen me, and then she disappeared back to work. Still, I couldn’t bring myself to regret that one bit of contact. Even though I knew she’d found it more forward than the hours lost in my sheets, where I fucked her brains out.
Did you hear from Larissa?
Julian texted me for the tenth time today. But no, in fact, I hadn’t heard from Larissa. And I was starting to get pissed off. It was nearly five o’clock, and I could hardly concentrate on my own work while waiting for her call about the winery.
I hadn’t even wanted this stupid winery, and now that I was invested, it seemed to be taking over my life. I was about to text Larissa for an update when her number flashed on my screen.
“Hey, Larissa,” I said.
“Jordan.”
“Cutting it a little close.”
She exhaled in frustration. “I’ve been trying to sort this mess out so that you don’t have to.”
I sat up straighter. “What mess?”
“The winery has had a second offer come in. It’s higher than yours. Though not significantly so. We could go over it easily.”
“Who is it?”
She sighed again. “That’s the tricky part. They won’t tell me. They said it was an anonymous offer. No matter how much I tried to find out, they stuck to their guns.”
“Frustrating. What do you suggest?”
“I think we need to go big or go home. If this is the property you want, we should show that we’re serious. Scare off the competition.”
“How much?”
She threw out a number, and I gritted my teeth. Of course. Some asshole had had to come in and mess up the plan that I’d set up. I’d have to rerun the numbers to make sure it was feasible. We had the money. That wasn’t really the problem. But I wanted it to still be a sound business decision.
“If you don’t want to go that high, we can always go lower,” Larissa said instantly. “The property has a history of problems, as you know. So, it could be that we skirt the issue and see if the anonymous person comes back with something else.”
“No,” I said at once. “Your idea makes sense. I run it by Julian and Hollin. How long do we have?”
She paused a little too long. “They want an answer today.”
“What?” I ground out. “They made us wait an extra week, and now, they’re riding us hard?”
“I did say the property has issues.”
Haunted. That was the word she wasn’t using. I’d heard that from multiple people since I’d looked into purchasing it. The property had had too many issues over the years for it not to get a reputation for being haunted despite the fact that no one had ever died at the place. Well, as far as I knew.
“Give me an hour,” I told her. “I’ll get back to you.”
“Sounds good. Thanks, Jordan.”
I hung up the phone and stood with such force that my chair smacked hard into the bookshelves behind me. This was all Julian’s and Hollin’s fault. They’d dragged me into it, and now, I had to deal with all the fallout. Story of my fucking life.
It wasn’t even really a decision. I knew what they’d say. That as long as I okayed the finances, they were in. Of course they would be. It was their pet project. It was my investment. Two different things.
I ran the numbers first before calling Julian and Hollin. We put the higher offer in an hour later. I still wasn’t happy about it even though they were. It was a risk. As a businessman, I accepted a certain level of risk in my life, but a haunted winery? That might be taking it too far.
I didn’t stay my irritation until Annie crawled into my bed just after midnight. Her hands tugging off my boxers, her mouth falling hot and needy on my cock. My hands threaded through her hair as she made me forget all about my abysmal afternoon.