step brother rules

Chapter 13: working Late

Chapter 13: Working Late

Vanessa didn't disappear after that first visit, which Mara supposed shouldn't have surprised her but somehow did anyway.

"She's on the Pilsen project now," Jonah said, dropping his keys on the counter with more force than necessary, three weeks after the doorstep reunion. "Her firm partnered with ours for the community center bid. I found out an hour ago."

Mara looked up from her laptop. "You're joking."

"I wish." He raked a hand through his hair, exhaustion and frustration warring across his face. "It's not permanent — just through the design review phase, maybe six weeks. But six weeks of her in every meeting, reviewing my drawings, offering 'notes.'" He said the word like it tasted bad. "I can't exactly ask my firm to reassign her because my stepsister's girlfriend—my girlfriend, sorry, I still trip over that sometimes—has feelings about it."

"I don't have feelings about it," Mara said, too quickly, and Jonah gave her a look that said he wasn't buying it for a second. "Okay. I have some feelings about it. But I'm not going to ask you to sabotage your career over my jealousy. That's not fair to you."

"It's not jealousy if the concern is reasonable." He crossed the kitchen, resting his hands on the counter across from her, searching her face. "Do you trust me?"

"Completely." She meant it, no hesitation. "I trust you. I don't trust that she's not going to use six weeks of proximity to try something."

"Then we deal with that if it happens. Together." He reached across the counter for her hand. "I'm not going to hide the fact that I have to work with her. I'm also not going to pretend it doesn't complicate things. But I need you to know nothing about how I feel changes because she's back in my orbit for a few weeks."

Mara wanted to believe that would be enough. Mostly, it was.

The complications started small — a text from Jonah canceling dinner because a review ran late, a photo he'd forgotten to mention of the whole team, Vanessa included, celebrating a design milestone at a bar downtown. Nothing damning. Nothing that would have bothered her at all, probably, if it had been anyone else on that project.

It was the seventh week — the project had run long, past its original six-week estimate — when Mara made the mistake of stopping by his office unannounced, coffee in hand, wanting to surprise him during a late night.

She found him in a conference room, laughing at something on his laptop screen, Vanessa leaning over his shoulder close enough that her hand rested casually on his arm.

Mara stood in the doorway for a full three seconds before either of them noticed her.

"Mara." Jonah straightened immediately, guilt flashing across his face even though — she reminded herself firmly — he hadn't actually done anything wrong. "Hey. I didn't know you were coming by."

"Clearly." She held up the coffee, feeling suddenly foolish for the gesture. "I wanted to surprise you. Should've called first."

"I was just helping him troubleshoot a facade detail," Vanessa said smoothly, straightening up, though her hand lingered on the back of the chair a beat too long. "We've been at this render for hours. You have good timing, actually — we could use the break."

"I'll let you get back to it," Mara said, already backing toward the door, hating the tightness in her own voice. "I just wanted to drop this off."

"Mara, wait—"

She didn't wait. She was down the hallway and into the elevator before Jonah caught up, breathless, having clearly sprinted the length of the office to reach her.

"Hey. Hey, stop." He caught the elevator door before it closed, stepping in with her. "Talk to me. What just happened back there?"

"Nothing happened. That's the problem — nothing happened, and I still felt like I was intruding on something." The elevator doors closed, sealing them into a small, tense silence. "She had her hand on your arm, Jonah. She was leaning over your shoulder like it was the most natural thing in the world."

"Because we were looking at a screen. That's it. That's genuinely, boringly, all it was." He stepped closer, waiting for her to look at him. "I know it didn't look great from the doorway. I get why you reacted the way you did. But you have to believe me when I say there is nothing happening with her. Not now, not ever again."

"I want to believe you."

"Then believe me. Please." His hands came up to frame her face, gentle, insistent. "I chose you. I choose you every single day, in a house full of complications neither of us asked for, in a family that's still figuring out how to hold all of this. Vanessa is a coworker for six more weeks — five, now, thank God — and nothing more."

Mara searched his face, looking for the doubt that would tell her this was more complicated than he was letting on, and found none.

"Okay," she said finally, some of the tightness in her chest loosening. "I believe you."

"Good." He kissed her, slow and certain, right there in the elevator, like he needed her to feel the truth of it rather than just hear it. "For the record — I'm going to ask for someone else to run point on client communication with her firm. Not because you asked. Because I don't want there to be any more nights where you feel like you have to walk into a room and wonder."

Relief washed through her, warm and grounding. "You don't have to do that."

"I know I don't have to." The elevator doors opened onto the parking garage, and he laced their fingers together as they stepped out into the cool night air. "I want to. There's a difference."

Mara let herself lean into that — into him, into the quiet certainty in his voice — and told herself the ground beneath them was steadier than it had felt in that conference room doorway.

She should have known better than to relax so soon.

Because three days later, Vanessa showed up at the house again — this time, with news that would upend everything.