appreciated technology and the efficiency it offered in many of my tasks, I was still a paper-and-pen type of girl.
“Thank you,” he said. “This all looks fantastic. I have no idea how you’re able to accomplish this much at this time of day.”
“Coffee and the sleep routine mentality of a giraffe,” I quipped.
I could feel him looking at me strangely as I walked toward the door to his office. I looked over my shoulder at him. “They only sleep for about twenty-three minutes a day.”
“Oh,” he said. “Fun fact of the day.”
I smiled at him and headed back to my desk. Putting the tablet and a planner aside, I opened a document on my computer and took out my notepad. It was time for me to create my own to-do list. I generally made a couple of these lists for myself a day.
As soon as I finished the list, I buried myself in work. There was so much to do I barely came up for a breath until Landon showed up beside my desk.
“Hey, Amanda,” he said. “Do you know if he’s busy?”
I laughed. “Is he ever not busy?”
“Fair point,” he said. “I guess my question is do you know how busy he is?”
“He’s right in the middle of a conference call. He’ll be taking his lunch at his desk.”
“Ah,” Landon said. “That answers my next question.”
“Which was?” I asked.
“Whether he had eaten lunch yet.”
I laughed. “Yes, he has.”
I knew that the two men had been close friends for a long time. They worked extremely well together, but also still talked to each other like guys just hanging out. This was good for Tom. It helped to keep him from getting too serious and bogged down with his work. Not that that didn’t happen occasionally anyway.
“Have you had lunch?” Landon asked.
“Not yet,” I said. “It’s been a really busy day.”
“Well, then you deserve a break. Come on. I don’t want to eat by myself.”
As much as I would have just kept right on working, I probably did need at least a little bit of a break. I finished up the last bit of the tasks I was working on, then grabbed my purse, and we headed out.
Landon took us to a little deli right up the road where we often had lunch. It had some of the best boxed lunches in the city.
On my way up to the counter, I ordered a boxed lunch for Tom. He had eaten his little microwave cup of soup, but that wasn’t enough. I wanted to make sure he had enough food to get him through the day. I ordered what I knew was his favorite because I had ordered it for him to be delivered to the office multiple times before.
Landon and I headed back to work, and I went into Tom’s office. He was still on the phone, so I crept over to his desk quietly and set the little white box down on it.
“Roast beef and swiss,” I mouthed. “Chocolate cupcake.”
He gave a little swoon and mouthed a thank-you, then gave me that endearing smile that made my heart melt. I pushed the feeling away, not wanting to even indulge it for a second, and headed for my desk again. There was still a lot to be done before the afternoon was over.
3
Tom
I snapped awake to the vibration of my phone on the nightstand beside me. It was set to not use the ringer before 5:00 a.m., but the vibration rattling on the wood was nearly as alarming. It took a second to orient myself and reach over to grab the phone off the charger and pull it toward me. The sun was still not up yet, so the room was pitch-dark, and my eyes nearly clenched shut at the brightness of the screen as I read both the time and the name on the display.
Three forty-three.
Mason.
“Yeah,” I said, not knowing an actual greeting.
“There’s been a fire Tom. The bar burned down,” Mason said, his voice shaking.
I blinked in the darkness for a moment. What the hell did he just say?
“Tom?” Mason asked. He sounded panicked and distraught. Suddenly, the cobwebs of sleepiness were gone and replaced by my own panic.
“Christ, yes, sorry. What happened? Is everyone okay?” I asked.
There was a heavy sigh on the other end of the line. I knew that sound. My brother was trying to control his emotions. He always tried to keep his head cool, especially when he spoke to me. I knew how much