The Secret (23 page)

“How is it my fault?” she says, sitting up in the seat next to me. “You’re the one who told me to keep my pants off and take a freaking nap!”

I’m about to argue my case with her stretching teasingly as exhibit A when my cell rings loudly, interrupting us.

“This isn’t over,” I tell her, causing her to flash me her dimples as I put the phone to my ear. “Hello?”

“Hey man,” Drake says into the phone. “Where you at?”

“
About twenty minutes away,” I tell him. “Why what’s up?”

“
I need you to come straight to the office,” he starts with a sigh. “Marcy’s husband just called and she’s in early labor, so I have no secretary. I’m trying to get all the billing shit she was working on caught up, but some changes were made so I need you to come straight over. We need to go over the blueprints so you’re up to speed before the meeting tomorrow.”

“Okay,” I sigh, already exhausted. “Well, how long are we
gonna be? I’ve got Sophie with me. If we’re gonna be a while, I’ll drop her off at the hotel so she doesn’t have to sit up there.”

“No, bring her with you,” he says. “
We gotta get it done and it shouldn’t take too long. Maybe an hour or so tops.”

Once we end the call, I let out a long groan and run my hand over my face. Glancing down at her
now jean covered legs in the seat, I shake my head regretfully.

“What’s wrong, Baby?” she asks.

“I gotta go to the office tonight,” I tell her, relaying the rest of what Drake had said.

“Well, if it’s only an hour or two, that’s not so bad,” she offers, squeezing my thigh.

“I know,” I admit as we pull into the lot behind the temporary office, turning to kiss her before burying my lips into her neck. “I’ve just been fighting the urge to pull over and fuck you again for the past two hours.”

“Sorry Baby,” she groans in my ear. “Just a little while longer and we’ll be at the hotel.”

“Yeah,” I sigh, holding her eyes and kissing her softly before helping her out of the truck.

We make our way up the steps and open the door, finding Drake sitting at his desk with his head in his hands.

“Dude, I have no idea what the fuck Marcy did and they just called with more changes,” he says with a long sigh. “We’re gonna be here all fucking night.”

Son of a bitch.

Sophie

“
Are you fucking kidding me?” Chase asks, letting out a long groan.

“I wish I was,” Drake starts, shaking his head and rubbing his
palms over his eyes. “Between getting the projections and the blueprints ready for the meeting, I don’t see us leaving for a few hours.”

“Sorry, Babe,” he whispers, looking at me regretfully before kissing me on the temple and making his way over to his cousin. “Alright man, have you eaten?”

“No,” Drake admits.

“Okay,” Chase sighs, pulling his jacket off. “Let’s order some pizza and work for an hour or so and then I’ll take Sophie to the hotel and come back up.”

“Thanks,” Drake offers as the door behind me creaks open.

“Hey,”
Ana says quietly, pulling our attention. “You made it.”

“Hey,” I answer
nervously, returning her small smile. “Yeah, we just got here.”

Surprising me, she makes her way over to me, giving m
e a hug and squeezing me.

“Sorry,” she says in my hair.

“Me, too,” I answer her, ignoring the eyes I can feel watching our exchange as my own begin to tear up. “Missed you.”

“Me, too,” she says, squeezing me harder.

“Hey, Soph,” Jack says from the doorway, causing my heart to lurch.

“Hi,” I whisper.

This is the first time I’ve seen any of them since our secret was revealed. Between my emotions and being sick, I’ve kept to myself and surprisingly, the world has let me. With the exception of a quick text letting Heather know we’d made it back to Rockport, I’ve spoken to no one but Chase.

As Ana pulls away from me, Jack surprises me by pulling me close and hugging me tightly.

“I’m so sorry, Sophie,” he whispers into my hair. “I shouldn’t have…”

“It’s okay,” I manage, choking on the painful memory. “Let’s not dwell on it, alright? I’ll be fine.”

Squeezing me once more, he kisses me quickly on the side of the head and releases me. When he does, he quickly turns his head to hide the fact he’s tearing up. Clearing his throat, he takes another quick look at me, his eyes doing nothing to hide his regret.

“We’re good,” I tell him quietly, watching him nod his relief.

He makes his way over to Chase and Drake who have been watching the three of us.

“
Analise?” Drake calls, causing Ana to squeeze my arm gently and turn away. “Come here, Baby.” As she reaches him, she leans up to return his kiss. “We have to get started, but we all need to eat,” he says, handing her his credit card. “Can you take care of dinner for me?”

“Yes, s-” she starts, stopping her words and causing Drake to look at her in amusement as he takes in
the uncharacteristic blush of her cheeks. “Yes, of course, three pizzas and a Mercedes coming right up.”

“Thank you,”
he chuckles at her joke, taking his seat before turning back to Chase and Jack, who are standing next to each other awkwardly.

“Baby, there are drinks in the fridge over there if you want something,” Chase offers, breaking my thoughts.

After visiting the mini fridge, I look around in vain for a seat. Drake, noticing my dilemma, offers me his and stands to make his way to the draft table.

“Hey Sophie,”
he smiles in apology. “Get comfortable and please ignore this mess. My secretary managed to create a huge clusterfuck before she went into labor.”

“It’s okay,” I chuckle, glancing down at the myriad paperwork in front of me.

Sitting alone while the others work and Jack and Ana leave to grab supper, I quickly become bored. After checking my email, playing a quick game of Tetris and shooting a text to Lucy to check on JT, I find myself doodling on a piece of paper in front of me.

I’m halfway through a small sketch of a deformed chicken when the office phone on Drake’s desk begins ringing. Raising my head, I find the guys still
looking over the blueprints, deep in concentration. Assuming they don’t need another distraction, I remove an ear bud, cutting Bon Jovi short, and lift the phone from the receiver.

“
Mitchell Construction,” I answer, putting the phone to my ear.

“Oh, you’re open,” the caller says in surprise. “
I was going to leave a message, but this is even better! I’m calling to see what your company’s availability is. My boss is interested in setting up an appointment to get a bid on a new project.”

“Sure,” I say, moving the papers out of the way to get a better
look at the calendar that’s buried beneath. “When were you interested in scheduling the appointment?”

“Are you available for three weeks from Tuesday?”

“No,” I reply slowly, seeing that they’re booked solid for the next month. “I’m sorry, we don’t have anyone available for that day, but how does the tenth of next month sound?”

“Um,” she says, obviously scouring her boss’s agenda.
While I wait, I perfect my chicken doodle, moving my eyes to the mathematical disaster in front of me. I’m attempting to make sense of it when she answers me. “Yes, that would work just fine.”

“Okay let me get your information. We’re out of town on a project right now, but I’ll go over your appointment with Mr. Mitchell and confirm,” I explain.

Once we’re done, I say goodbye and hang up, turning my attention back to the paper in front of me.

“Drake,” I start, not looking up from the numbers. “When you put this bid together, did you outsource on your blueprints and design concepts or did you do those in house?”

“We outsourced,” he starts, question in his voice.

“Well, that’s your problem,” I start. “Marcy didn’t factor any of that into the initial bid, so your numb
ers are all off substantially. However, if you add that to your material, labor, all that? It’s closer to your initial projection. Of course, you’ll have to add in the new stuff, but it’s all right here,” I shrug, glancing up to find the two of them staring back at me in amazement.

“Holy shit,” Drake mutters as he takes in the quick work I made of his secretary’s
rookie mistake. “How did we miss that?”

“I do
n’t know, dude. It’s all right here,” I shrug with a smirk, replacing the ear bud and returning my attention to my music.

I’m
halfway through another game of Tetris and humming along quietly to ‘Beat It’ by Michael Jackson when I feel their eyes still on me. Looking up, I find Drake’s mouth still gaping slightly.

“
What’s up?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.

“How the fuck did you know that?” Drake asks.

“My dad,” I shrug. “He ran a construction company so I know all this shit. This file is also missing some of your OSHA paperwork. You might wanna take care of that.”

“What?” he says, taking the file I absentmindedly hand him while I sink the Tetris cube in place
with a fist pump. “Sophie Ryan…” he mutters. “Wait… What was your dad’s name?”

“Fran
k Ryan,” I say, the distraction causing me to drop one of those ‘L’ shaped beams into the wrong spot. “Shit,” I curse under my breath as I wait for their reactions.

“You’re Fran
k Ryan’s
daughter
?” Drake asks, surprise filling his voice.

It doesn’t surprise me at all that he’s heard of my dad. Truth is
, I’m surprised it took nearly a year for him to figure out that his cousin is engaged to the daughter of the man who, up until his death, owned one of the biggest construction companies in central Texas.

“In the flesh,” I confirm, causing Chase to chuckle.

“How did we not know that?”

“You didn’t ask,” I shrug, setting my phone down and facing them.
“By the way, you have an appointment on the tenth. It’s in the book. Is there a bathroom in here?”

“Yeah,” Chase grin
s, kissing me on the side of the head as I pass him.

When I come out
a few minutes later, they’re still talking quietly but stop abruptly when they hear me. Drake stares at me for a moment, causing me to cut my eyes at him.

“Will you please stop? You’re freaking me out
!” I tell him, causing Chase to beam as I walk past them.

“Sophie, you’re a Godsend,” he says, smirking at my words. “
You just cut tonight’s workload in half. If you’re interested, I would love to give you a job.”

As my laughter leaves me, I look up to see him with a serious expression on his face.

“Are you serious?” I ask.

“Completely,” he starts. “Marcy, efficient as she was,” he rolls his eyes. “Isn’t going to be able to come back to work and I desperately need help in the office. I was going to hire a t
emp, but I’d much rather have Frank Ryan’s daughter on my payroll.”

Cutting my eyes at him again, I shake my head.

“No,” I tell him bluntly.

“Real
ly?” he says, obviously surprised I’d turned him down. “You’d be perfect, Sophie.”

“
Yeah, I really would. I’m great at this stuff and could both make and save you a ton of money, Drake,” I agree, causing more laughter from Chase as I help Ana make room for the food she and Jack have just returned with. “But you didn’t ask me because of my competence, you asked because of my dad’s name, so my answer is no.”

“I’m sorry,” he says in a genuine tone. “I didn’t mean it that way at all.
I just meant that you clearly were taught by one of the best in the business. I’d pay you well.”

“I don’t need your money, Drake,” I counter, t
aking a seat on Chase’s lap, I thank Ana for the plates she’s handing us.

“Oh,” Ana smirks. “Did you finally figure out who Sophie’s dad was?”

“You knew?” Drake asks, surprised. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You never asked, Baby,” she tells him, causing him to shake his head.

“Well, will you at least agree to think about it?” he asks in a final attempt. “Even if we hire a temp, we’d have to train them and it would seriously suck. Having someone who already knew the ropes would help all of us out a lot, Sophie.”

Shaking the parmesan onto my slice
and handing it to Jack, I chew on my lip in thought. I hate the idea of spending the entire day in an office, but knowing it would help everyone makes it hard to say no. I have every intention of agreeing, but the truth is I like giving Drake shit.

“It would help everyone out, huh?” I ask, my eyes darting to Chase’s behind me.

I already know the answer to the question and the twinkle in my favorite blue eyes confirms that he knows this.

“Yes,” they answer simultaneously.

“Okay, I will agree to help you,” I relent with a dramatic sigh, secretly laughing inside at his relieved expression. “But I have terms.”

“Hit me.”

“No holidays or weekends, I wear what I want to the office until I’m feeling better, you pay for my food and this is my rate, which I’d like directly deposited into my account.”

Sliding the outrageous number across the table toward him, he gapes.

“What happened to
I don’t need your money, Drake
?”

“Just because I don’t need it doesn’t mean I won’t take it,” I shrug, causing everyone around us to laugh.

“This is twice what I paid Marcy,” he smirks, raising his eyebrow.

“And how di
d that work out for you?”

“Fine,” he chuckles. “I’ll agree to it, but
we have a meeting that I’ll need you at tomorrow, so you’ll need to dress appropriately for that. I’m also adding payroll to your list of duties if you’re seriously charging me this much.”

“
Oh I never joke about money, Drake,” I tell him. “But don’t worry, I’m worth every penny.”

And just like that, eating pizza at ten o’clock on my fiancés lap with my ex, I’m the newest
overpaid employee at Mitchell Construction.

Chase

“If Sophie’s going to be working in the office, I’ve got my own terms,” I tell my cousin.

“Like what?” Sophie says, cutting him off and twisting in my lap.

The motion does crazy things to my
thoughts, especially since I’m still fighting a raging hard on.

“Jesus, Baby,
would you sit still?” I stammer so only she can hear, making her smirk as I clear my throat. “I don’t want all the guys coming in here every five minutes to gawk at her like they did with Stacey.”

“Who is Stacey?” she asks me, cutting her eyes at me.

“Drake’s old secretary with the bad boob job,” Ana answers, rolling her eyes.

“She comes in with me, leaves with me,” I continue.

“Kinda like Stacey, from what I’ve heard,” Ana says quietly, smirking when Sophie turns around in my lap again, causing another breakdown.

“Seriously?” she says, ignoring the muffled cursing coming from my lips. “
You’re such a freaking whore!”