Changing the bad boy

Chapter 8

VALERIE POV

I was late this morning because of my brother. He'd forgotten it was his turn to drop us off,so I had to call and wake him up. When he finally showed up, his hair was a mess, and he'd clearly gotten dressed in a hurry because his clothes didn't match at all, not that his fashion sense was on point normally.

Rory had squealed at the sight of his favorite uncle and fussed until my brother got out of the car and hugged him. It had turned into a whole big to-do with Paul having to be the one to strap Rory into his car seat.

I don't mind being second best to my brother. Rory needs male role models,but it frustrates me when it comes at times when we're in a hurry. And truthfully, that's most of the time.

It feels like it's all I do, hurrying from one place to another.

It took us ten minutes to get into the car, thanks to Rory,and then he acted up again at the daycare. And it was not because he wanted me to stay. He wanted my brother.Again, I don't mind that he loves and wants my brother.I want it that way, just not when I'm super late for a new job I desperately need.

By the time I rushed in to work, both Alana and Lydia were already there, and the lights were on in both Preston and Easton's offices.

I threw out a quick "good morning" and hurried over to my desk. I powered on the computer and headed towards the closet to dump my bag and my coat before I went to the kitchen for a cup of coffee.

Thank God it's Friday. Maybe if I go to sleep when the kids do, I'll feel rested in the morning, although I doubt it. I have a good few years of sleep to catch up on.

"Good morning, Valerie."Easton steps up next to me,looking to refill his coffee cup.

"Good morning, Easton."

My latte is finished, so I remove it, and Easton takes my place. I'm happy he doesn't say anything about me being late, and I don't offer an excuse There is a possibility he didn't notice.

"Do you know the status of the advertising documents for the 34th Street lofts?" he asks.

"I finished that yesterday."

He nods but does not seem convinced.

"I'll resend it to you," I offer.

Easton looks over at me."Alright. If you could do it this morning, that'd be great."

I realize he doesn't believe that I already did it, but I knew I sent him all that information yesterday. I also notice that he asks me nicely to redo it while his youngest brother would have demanded I do it. probably while stomping his foot.

"Sure, yeah, of course, I'll do it right now," I say and turn to walk back to my desk.

Easton squints his eyes and tilts his head, watching me walk out of the kitchen, and it makes me nervous.

I find out why when I get to my desk and Lydia looks at my shoulder and says, "Oh god, what happened to your blouse?"

"What?"

I look down on my left shoulder, which is where Lydia is staring, and sure as hell, there is a large stain there. And even worse, I realize what it is.I never changed after Rory puked on me this morning TJs woII and got distracted by Bella.

It doesn't come out either.No matter how hard I scrub at it in the bathroom. I only seem to make it worse.I close my eyes and groan because what the actual hell? Why does this s**t have to happen to me? I have a job to do and it's hard enough without this kind of stuff added to it.

Since it's not going away,I do the only thing I can.I take off the blouse.At least I wore something underneath it. Granted, it's a plain white tank top that is very form fitting and not work-appropriate, but at least it's clean and it covers my bra. But it also draws the attention to my chest,which is something I'm not

comfortable with, especially not at work. My solution for that is to remove the clip from my hair so that my long tresses at least cover some of it.

When I'm as satisfied with the result as I can be, I hurry back to my desk.

"Your hair looks pretty down," Alana says, and I think she might be sincere,but I'm not sure. I can't tell yet, but I thank her anyway.

Lydia studies my outfit with unimpressed eyes, and I get it. I'm not very impressed with it either.

I sit down and open up my email. The first thing I do is to make sure I sent the information to Easton, just to find out I did send him an email yesterday but without the attachment he'd asked for.Awesome.How the hell did I manage to mess that up? I redo it and add an apology to the email.

The next thing I have to do is make Easton's travel arrangements. He's heading to Nashville for a conference. I pull up the search engine to check availability at his favorite high-end hotels and almost faint at the prices.

"I ran into that Hanna girl yesterday," Alana whispers to Lydia, and it's the fact that she's whispering that gets my attention. These two have no problem talking loudly about everything from underwear to prison sentences, so the murmuring voices have me straining my ears.

"The one who slept with Preston?" Lydia asks.

"Yeah. She said she's been calling him, but he's not answering."

Lydia snorts. "That's not unusual."

"I know," Alana responds. "I told her we get calls for him all the time, but he never takes them."

That was true. I'd only been there for four days,but I'd already handled a couple of calls like that. Preston had told me to tell them he was "too busy."

"Did she say what it was about?"

"Just that it was important,and she needed to speak with him."

I rolled my eyes. They all said that.

"Are you gonna tell him?"

"NO," Alana whisper shouts,and then lowers her voice again and I miss most of her response other than "probably just trying to get with him again."

And that is probably the truth. I think back to mine and Fiona's discussion about the Cartwright brothers and BDE.With all the girls coming back wanting more from Preston,I assume he's good. I mean,he looks like he would be.His body dressed in a suit is something else. Enough to make girls want to fan themselves behind his back,and I wonder what it must look like underneath all that expensive material.

Just from what I've seen when he removes his tie,unbuttons his shirt and rolls up his sleeves, he has beautiful, tanned skin, with just enough hair to make him manly. But not enough to make him look like he needs to man scape all the time because he's a hairy beast.

I'm getting myself somewhat worked up thinking about my young boss naked as I sit there in my stiff office chair, and that pisses me off.Not only is he an arrogant,demanding boss, he's also a player, and he's young. I almost feel like a dirtv old woman thinking about him like that.

What the hell is wrong with me? Why can't I have dirty thoughts about Andrew or Easton? They're also good looking, and players from what Fiona has said, but at least they're around my age.

Alana and Lydia giggle about something, and I sigh.I really need to find a man.It might need to become a priority. Like a mission.I should call it "mission cobwebs-be-gone."

My cell phone rings, and I groan loudly when I see it's the auto body shop. It has the potential to make or ruin my day. Either one is equally a possibility. I'm somewhat cautious when I answer,honing thev will tell me

the car is ready, just to get disappointed when Tommy,my brother's friend, tells me they need to order another part, but that the car should be ready on Tuesday.

That means I have no car for the entire weekend,and I desperately need to go food shopping.And I need Fiona or my brother to take me and the kids to daycare and work on Monday and on Tuesday morning. But what option do I have? I need them to fix my car.

But my inconvenience is not the only blow.

"The part is $125 and then the extra labor will bring the total to $875," Tommy announces.

"$875." I repeat and try to pusn aown my rapialy building panic.

"Yeah." Tommy sounds happy about it. "It's actually over a thousand, but we're giving you the 20% off family discount."

That makes me feel even worse. I don't even know Tommy. I just know he's friends with my brother.

"Thank you," I say. "I really appreciate that." And I do.Very, very much, because I need that car more than I need food. We'll be able to survive on ramen and bread for a few days, right?

"You're welcome," Tommy says. "I'll call you with an update on Monday."

"Okay, thank you again."

I hang up and try to swallow the lump in my throat.

Lydia and Alana are still having their whisper discussion about Preston's old hook ups and about how lucky those girls are,but I no longer care.I hear a door closing somewhere,and maybe I should pay attention to if someone is coming, but all I can focus on is that phone call. My stomach is tight as a fist and I'm trying to keep the panic at bay.

How the hell am I going to come up with $875 by Tuesday?