Page 16 of For Your Consideration

But Noah if you ruin this surprise, I will murder you.

Jaxson

I’m actually surprised you told him.

Knight

I almost left him out of the chat.

Noah

Rude. I won’t ruin it but what’s the plan? You might need our help.

Don’t want her to say no.

“The last thing we need to do today is look at the golf course layout.” Greg riffled through the papers in front of him, pulling out what he needed.

I didn’t care much for golf. Oli and Will tended to do the most golfing among the group so I tuned the designer out as they went through the plan.

Instead, I let my thoughts wander to Sutton.

How she felt in my arms when I stopped her from face-planting, how her guarded smiles only made me more curious. Quinn was still refusing to tell me anything about her. I didn’t like not knowing what she was hiding. I needed to know so I could determine she wasn’t a threat to my family and then I would push her out of my mind.

At least that’s what I was going to keep telling myself was the reason I was so fascinated with her.

Why my body gravitated toward her, how I could practically feel her energy in that fucking conference room as I watched her go through the presentation.

I’d gotten some answers. She was a little timid, not surprising with all of us in the room. But she was kind, friendly, and still smelled like fucking coconut.

Why the fuck did she always smell so fucking good?

“It all looks great, Greg. We’re excited to get started.”

I focused back on the room. Noah and Knight were standing, shaking Greg’s hand. I remained seated and instead just gave him a nod as he left the conference room, then looked back down at my phone.

I could feel Noah smiling at me as he sank back into his chair, swiveling to look at me. I tried ignoring him, but he was nothing if not persistent. After a few more seconds, I looked up at him, raising an eyebrow. His smile only grew, which had Knight letting out a sigh.

“Do we have to do this right now?” he grumbled as he leaned against the conference room table.

This wasn’t new for us. When I went to live with Noah, Knight, and Noah’s parents, I spoke very little, always guarding myself, and this was what Noah did. He would wait me out, sit there smiling with a goofy look on his face, and I usually broke just to get him to stop.

Jane claimed our longest standoff was thirty minutes.

“Have something to say?” I grunted out, only because I had other shit to do.

He let out a laugh, shaking his head as he grabbed a gummy worm from his pocket. The man was a sugar addict and always had something on him. “What do you think?” He waved his hand over the architectural designs on the table in front of us.

“Will and Oli should have been here.”

“They had meetings and we need it approved today to stay on time so you and Knight got tapped in.” Noah shot me a stern look. He ran the construction and real estate side of our business so this really was his project. Plus, with his enthusiasm, it was a good place to focus his attention.

“Like I’m a fucking backup,” Knight puffed out as he shook his head.

“Looks good to me.” And it did. If they thought it would make us money, that’s what I cared about.

Noah opened his eyes wide. “Rave review from Ash.”

I rolled my eyes and pushed back from my chair. “You know you’ve got this handled.”