Fair Lakes Series Box Set - Kaylee Ryan Page 0,131

be cut to a third. In fact, he’s only spending about three hours at the location, instead of all day. The rest of the week is much the same. His schedule is completely wrong.

“What the hell?” I whisper aloud, clicking through the entire week.

“What?” Harrison asks, stopping his conversation with Chase.

“Something’s wrong with the schedule.”

I can sense the tension that sweeps through my boss at the mention of the schedule. Last fall, his assistant, Gina, fucked with his schedule, moving meetings and overlapping appointments. It caused a huge problem, not only for him and the company, but also for him and my sister. He missed doctor appointments, which is something he never would have done without the scheduling errors.

“No, not yours,” I reassure my brother-in-law. I glance up from my computer to his manager. “Yours.”

Only Chase doesn’t seem concerned. Not at all.

“Oh, yeah, I adjusted a few things this morning,” he replies with a shrug.

“A few things? Your entire week is upside down.” I sit back, gaping up at the gorgeous man in front of me. This messes everything up. Everything. The only way I logically agreed to room with Chase was because he was rarely there. His schedule kept him busy, especially in the evenings, between site visits from each of the locations and his client schedule. Now, he’s made adjustments, ensuring he’s home by a reasonable time every evening. He’ll still be out of this office a lot during the day, but not nearly as long as before. In fact, his last appointments of the day are… mine.

“Everything okay?” Harrison asks, pulling my attention back to the matter at hand.

“Fine,” he replies with another shrug. “Everything has been going great at the other locations, so instead of spending most of the days there, micromanaging them, I’m cutting back on the length of my visits and allowing the assistants to do their jobs. I’ll still be off-site a lot, just not as long.”

“And you can still get in your clients there too?” Harrison asks, referring to the fact that Chase sees appointments at all four locations.

Chase nods. “Sure can. Most of them were more than willing to come in earlier in the day. The only one I’ll still need to be available for the later appointments is Liza at Lakeview. She still needs an evening appointment two times a week, but even those are done by seven.”

Harrison continues to watch his friend. “You’re sure the assistants can handle not having you on-site as much?”

“Definitely. We’ve trained them well. Plus, I’m just a phone call away if something comes up,” Chase adds.

I sit here, dumbfounded, by this new revelation. Chase is going to be home more? Chase is going to be home more. Like earlier in the evenings. Most days. Shit.

“I’m good with it if you are,” Harrison says, slapping his friend on the back. “Come on, let’s get this meeting started.” Together, they head into Harrison’s office, closing the door behind them as they go. I’m left shocked and a little uneasy by this piece of information. Sure, living with Chase was going to be difficult, especially in light of the sexual tension that surrounds us, but now? With him home evenings instead of working?

This brings our living arrangement to a whole new level of difficult.

By lunchtime, I’m completely engrossed in payroll. Our new system is completely efficient and saves a lot more time than using timecards. Each employee signs into the computer system and does the same when they leave. It jives with the schedules that Chase and the assistant managers create, and shows discrepancies easily, like if an employee stays over their scheduled timeframe, one of the assistants has to sign off on it and state why. The program itself was costly, but it was something Harrison insisted on. It makes my job a lot easier, that’s for sure.

“Lunchtime!” my sister hollers as she breezes into the office, my niece seated securely on her hip.

“Hey,” I reply, saving all my progress and logging out of the system. “What brings you here? I thought Harrison had a client over the lunch hour today.”

“He does. I came to steal you away for a little bit. Miss Crabby Pants and I were desperate to get out of the house for a bit, so we thought we’d surprise her favorite aunt and take her to lunch,” Gwen says, a wide, yet very tired smile on her face.

“Awww,” I coo, getting up and taking my niece. “I was working on payroll, but