Page 37 of Austin

“Long enough to know I’ve never seen you in here,” she says with an expressive grin.

“Would I ever do something that borders on sexual harassment?”

She lets out a quick, hardy laugh. “I’m staying out of this one.” With her coffee now made, she reaches out her hand to Jalynn. “I’m Rosie, by the way. You’re new here, right?”

Jalynn takes her hand. “Pleasure to meet you. I’m Jalynn, Bryce’s new assistant.”

“Ah …” She pauses, taking a sip of her coffee before glancing over to me with a knowing look. “In that case, Austin is the good brother. It’s Bryce you have to worry about.”

Jalynn’s eyes go big.

I sit back on my heels. “See? I’m the chivalrous one. Thank you, Rosie.”

“Now, I didn’t say that.” She hits my arm. “By the way, good work on securing the Sergeant Miller interview. I heard that’s going to happen.” She gives me a motherly pat on the cheek and opens the door. “Good luck, Jalynn. It was nice to meet you.”

“You, too,” she replies before tilting her head down and suspiciously eyeing me. “You’re the good brother?”

“Apparently. But don’t take my word for it,” I state with a grin, thumbing toward the door where Rosie just walked out of, but Jalynn’s not laughing as she runs her hand across her forehead. “Seriously. Is your head okay?”

“Yes. I’m fine.” She offers a small smile. “Just one of those mornings.”

I nod and watch as she walks over to the counter and grabs a coffee pod from the drawer. I rub my chest as a nagging thought hits me in the gut. “Can I ask something of you?”

She gives me a wary eye. “Depends.”

I lean my hip against the counter and sink my hands into my pockets. “Don’t sleep with Bryce.”

She nearly drops the mug she just took out of the cabinet. “Excuse me?”

“In the past, he’s had an assistant or two try to get him in bed. It must be the Sexton sex appeal. I mean, I get it. We’re pretty fucking good-looking.”

I’m making a joke, but she’s not laughing. She’s just looking at me like I’m the biggest asshole in the world for insinuating that she wants to sleep with my brother, who is also her boss.

I lean over and hit the button for the machine to make her coffee. “Say something.”

Her shoulders fall back, and her chin rises. “Austin Sexton, I have a million things to say, but while your comment was wildly inappropriate, I will respect the fact that you are my employer, so I will keep it to this. My sex life is none of your business.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She goes to turn but then thinks twice and points a finger at me. “I don’t know what you have against your brother, but he has been nothing but courteous to me. Standoffish and quite frankly stoic at times, but he is a good man. You, on the other hand, just can’t seem to keep your damn thoughts to yourself.”

“Well, I—”

Her cheeks redden. “And, if I did want to sleep with him or anyone in this company, it wouldn’t matter what you thought about it.”

“So, you do want to sleep with him?”

She stomps her foot. “No!”

“But you just said—”

“Don’t say it, or I will pour this hot coffee all over your thousand-dollar suit,” she threatens with her mug held high in her hand, and I believe her.

I sway to the side. “Actually, it’s a five-thousand-dollar suit.”

She lets out a harrumph. “You’re incorrigible.”

I watch her leave, and I kick the closest thing next to me, which happens to be the garbage pail. Trash falls all over the floor, and I curse out loud as I take a knee and clean it up. Yes, me, in the suit I just bragged about, picking up other people’s garbage.