eat in peace.
“Who?”
She peeks over her shoulder. “Blaire. Actually, she’s not just cute. She’s pretty hot.”
I jab a finger at her. “Don’t go there.”
She holds up her hands in mock surrender, her jaw dropped open. “I’m just saying is all.”
Just saying.
“Just saying things like that is what gets people sued for sexual harassment.” Besides, I don’t need any reminders of how attractive she is. That’s like telling someone the sky is blue. I glance out the glass wall of my office at the woman who’s going to help me pick my wife. “Even if—for the sake of argument only—I did think Blaire were attractive, it’s not like I can date her.”
“Why the hell not?” Athena’s question comes out more mumble around a mouthful of food, but I still manage to decipher it.
“Number one—because she’s my employee.”
She rolls her eyes.
“And number two—I’m getting married in five weeks.”
Athena swallows. “You don’t have to get married.”
“You don’t have to butt into other people’s business, yet you can’t seem to help yourself.”
She shrugs. “You could always just marry her.”
I bark out a laugh and shake my head. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
There are so many things wrong with that statement that I don’t even think I could count them all if I tried.
Athena leans back in her chair with her arms crossed over her chest. “Is it?”
“Of course, it is.” I rest my elbows on the desk and lean forward so I can lower my voice and ensure Blaire won’t hear us. “First, and foremost, Blaire would have no interest in that, in me, and second, even if she did, I would never put an employee in that position.”
“What position?”
I scoff. “You don’t think your boss asking you to marry him poses a problem?”
Athena’s nose scrunches up as she thinks, then her eyes brighten. “You could always fire her so you’re not her boss anymore.”
“Jesus,” I chuckle and scrub my hands over my face, “that’s even worse. Then I ask and she says no and nails me for both sexual harassment and wrongful termination.”
Athena points at me. “I see your point, but I feel like there’s a way to make it work.”
I shake my head. “Drop it.”
“Or what?”
“Or I tell Mom and Dad what your real major is.”
Managing to hide what she’s been up to on the other side of the country has been an impressive feat for Athena. Frankly, I’m proud she’s standing up to them and their expectations and making her own plan, but the moment they find out, they’ll stop paying her tuition and for her condo, and she’ll end up out on her ass with nothing. Artemis and I would help her, of course, but she’s still young enough to crave the love of the people who are so unwilling to give it freely. It would kill her to get cut off.
She gasps, and her jaw drops. “You wouldn’t.”
I grin at her across the desk. “Wouldn’t I?”
Deep down, we both know I would never do that and am only joking, but it’s still fun to mess with her.
“You play dirty, Archimedes Warren.”
She says it like it’s an insult.
“That’s why I always win.”
BLAIRE
“Hey, Blaire!”
I jerk around in time to see Athena slide onto the edge of my desk, balancing herself precariously next to my snow globes. I didn’t even hear her approach over the sound of the never-ending printer.
The constant noise in the background all morning has started to turn my brain into mush. Or maybe that’s just from looking at these applications and Archie’s options for a wife.
She grins at me and swishes her dangling legs back and forth. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“It’s okay.” I twist my necklace around and glance at Archie’s office. With his phone pressed to his ear and head buried in a stack of contracts, he seems oblivious to the fact that Athena didn’t leave and is instead interrupting my work.
“We really didn’t get a chance to chat when I came in.” She smiles at me, and something twinkles in her blue eyes that I never see in her brother’s—a lightness, almost playfulness. I might even call it mischief if I didn’t know better. Given that she’s only a few years younger than me, it doesn’t surprise me that she’s the most laid back and unencumbered of the Warren children. She has to be to survive them and not get eaten alive.
Athena nods toward the printer. “Are those the applications?”
I narrow my eyes on her. “Archie told you?”
She stills for a