Billionaire Blaze, page 25
To my surprise, the footsteps came toward the door, however, and I could hear muffled voices from outside. I barely dared to breathe as the handle turned, and Lukas came in. Henry followed, but he was carrying two boxes.
“Darlings!” Henry declared as he came in. He walked right over to my desk and popped one of the two boxes down in front of me. “I understand you two lovely ladies have been working particularly hard for the last two weeks.”
I lifted an eyebrow as he took the second box straight over to Sarai. It was white and looked like it would contain food, but I wasn’t sure if I should open it until Lukas winked at me. He had another one that he handed to Richard. He then took a cookie from the still-open jar and came over to me.
“I haven’t seen you enough lately,” he whispered as he bent to kiss my cheek. I flushed and focused on the box to keep from thinking about him enjoying me some more. We had not seen enough of each other lately. “You can open it; it’s safe.”
The words were comforting and whispered quietly enough that no one else could hear him over Sarai opening her gift and exclaiming, “Oh, you shouldn’t have! This is beautiful.”
More curious than scared now, I opened mine as well. Inside was a beautiful silk scarf in a deep purple color. It was a very generous gift, and I wasn’t sure what had warranted it.
“I figured you’d both earned it for the skill and talent that you’ve put into this project. It’s a dream to work on, even if we don’t all appreciate it all the time. That, and Lukas told me what he plans for this weekend,” said Henry.
“Plans for this weekend?” I asked. It was still Tuesday, and I had no idea what they might be talking about.
“It’s Labor Day. Everyone takes a long weekend.” Lukas looked over at me and winked again.
I was very unsure of what might be happening now, but I didn’t say anything, Sarai taking everyone’s attention back to her, even as she made tea.
“What were you thinking? I know you usually have grand plans.”
“I thought we could head out on a road trip for the weekend. I’ve got a villa in Boston that’s currently spare, and I can get us a box at the game on Sunday.” Lukas leaned against my desk, looking smug.
Although I liked the sound of spending more time with Lukas, I had no idea what a road trip would entail. I was more than confused. I had been working so hard, and Sarai had talked about going over details for the weekend. Something about meeting up with some other industry people.
“Perfect. Are you inviting certain guests?”
“If you want me to,” Lukas replied, although I thought I saw him look surprised as well for a brief moment before he reined it in.
“Of course. We should do what we can to make them happy. They’re going to have quite the influence.”
I wasn’t sure what any of them were talking about, but I got a sinking feeling in my stomach as Sarai brought me my tea and offered Lukas and Henry the same.
“You’ll come too, won’t you, Kit?” Sarai asked.
“Of course she will,” Lukas replied for me.
Although I tried to hide the frown, I was pretty sure Henry caught it before I could compose myself.
“What exactly will it be?” I asked, trying to sound as neutral as possible.
“A long weekend away. You can come with us and spare the time, right?”
“And we’ll have some of the investors there and other people interested in working with us for the next project. It will be the perfect place for you to pick up more work.” Sarai smiled as if this made it perfect and everything I could want.
She went back to the box with her scarf in and brought it over to compare to mine. “Oh, you did do well, Henry. You knew we’d need these, didn’t you?”
“Well, I wasn’t going to spoil the surprise, but if we have a weekend of road trips and spending time with the rich and famous, you ladies need some spoiling in your attire.”
I gulped as Henry tried to smile at both of us. There was no doubt in my mind that this was going to be yet another occasion where I would be expected to wear clothes way out of my budget and not what I was comfortable in at all. And yet again, there would be no time to go shopping, even if I had some money to get clothes now.
It sounded like my worst nightmare, but I nodded as if I agreed. Networking had always been something I didn’t like. And I had an enormous amount of work left. Could I use that as an excuse to not go? Did I want to go anyway and at least enjoy some time with Lukas?
The whole thing was impossible to know how to handle, but thankfully, Lukas got up, excusing himself to go around the huts with Henry, and Sarai volunteered to go as well.
“I could use being on my feet, too,” Richard said. “And I want to go check over the plans for the restaurant. They’ve been laying the foundations, and I want to make sure no one balls that up. We can’t have a site up and running without the catering and entertainment, even if the huts aren’t all ready right away.”
I was the only one who remained seated, and Lukas looked over at me to see if I wanted to go with him.
“I’m going to stay here. I need a moment, and you’ve got this one covered.” I wasn’t sure I sounded fully like me this time, but it was the best I could do. The whole plan to go away sounded crazy, and I needed a breather.
CHAPTER SIXTY
Lukas
It took all my self-control to walk out of the office without reacting to Kit’s lack of enthusiasm. I couldn’t tell what was wrong, but I was beginning to wonder if she had been blowing me off for the last two weeks when she had said that she was so busy.
I had been missing her, but she hadn’t looked pleased to see me. Or Henry. I’d expected the latter, but she hadn’t reacted to his apology gift at all. I’d expected something warmer after everything we had done together and been for each other. Was she avoiding me?
“You coming, boss?” Henry said, dragging me back into the present moment.
“On my way,” I replied. Even though I had only fallen a few steps behind, it was clear that I appeared reluctant. I wasn’t at all. Seeing more of Kit’s handiwork and the huts coming to life was the highlight of each week now, but normally, she showed it to me.
I quickened my pace to catch up as Sarai started talking about the huts. It was clear she had been to these recent ones already, and she had some snagging she wanted taken care of. I didn’t really need to be there by the sounds of things, Henry already noting down everything Sarai said.
There was no way I could excuse myself to go back to Kit, however, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to. If something was bothering her, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go back and interrupt her thinking process. I was stuck following along and trying not to think about what was going on.
I was sure that something was going on with her. Still, whatever it was, I couldn’t let anything personal get in the way of my business again. I made sure that I was engaged with Sarai and Henry as we reached the first hut.
“You’re good at this, Lukas, aren’t you?” Sarai said. “Somehow, you catch more than the rest of us do. You’re a good man to have along for all this.”
I smiled, not sure I agreed and unsure why Sarai felt the need to flatter me so much. Either way, I focused on the task in front of me and tried to push all thoughts of Kit from my head for now. As always, there were several issues to fix in snagging. I’d never been able to walk into a building and not find something.
The foreman had them fixed swiftly on this project. Often, within a week of me bringing it up, the problem was solved. I had noticed Kit had been picking up on some as well and making sure they were finished before she got too far into the interior work.
Both huts we were looking at this afternoon were fairly bare still, and I was surprised. She’d said she was working hard, and I’d expected to find these two much closer to ready. Still, Sarai didn’t seem like it was unexpected in any way. Once again, I had to push thoughts of Kit from my head.
Henry was eager to make up for his rudeness the last time he went around the site with me, jotting down everything and talking to Richard about their mutual love of golf.
It left me trailing behind with Sarai, both of us preferring to be a little more thorough.
“Please tell me that you and Kit are still sweet on each other,” Sarai said when we were in the master bedroom of the first hut and our companions were heading to the second. Despite being left behind, she kept her voice quiet and almost conspiratorial.
“I believe so,” I replied, too taken aback by the change in conversation to know what else to say.
“Oh, good. I had hoped the answer was a yes. She’s been here so much the last two weeks I was worried that you and her had fallen out or something.”
“Not that I’m aware of. She’s passionate about her work, and I’ve been busy with mine, too. Sometimes life is like that.” I shrugged, not sure where she was going with any of this or if she really had just been worried about us.
Sarai headed toward the exit of the hut and I followed her, hoping this was the end of it, but she stopped at the door and turned to me again. “You will encourage her to dress a little more…well, like us, won’t you? I don’t want her to feel like she stands out again. Or have the others pick on her the way they did at dinner the other day.”
At first, I didn’t know how to respond. I both appreciated the comment and didn’t. Kit had looked amazing that night, and the women would have been catty no matter what she was wearing, but Sarai also had a point.
Many times, Kit hadn’t dressed as well as the other women around her, and it made me wonder why. Did she not care? Or was there a bigger problem? If she had been working as hard as Sarai suggested, she wouldn’t have had much time for herself. Was she struggling to find time to shop or do her hair and makeup while also doing a good job?
I had a PA, and for the most part, Henry made my life easier, but Kit didn’t have one. Or if she did, she’d left her PA in the UK. It wasn’t something we’d ever talked about, but I made the mental note not to put this aside. Sarai had a point, and I needed to think about it some more before I decided what to do.
The second hut was in a worse state than the first and wasn’t really ready for us to be going around and doing snagging, a carpenter still in the kitchen adding some of the fittings.
“I should be done by tomorrow morning,” the man said, barely looking up from his work. “We had trouble getting the plumber to finish the pipes, and there was a leak, so I wanted to give it time to dry out before I boxed it all in.”
“That’s all right. We can come around quickly tomorrow morning again,” Richard replied. “Definitely better to do it well and make sure we don’t cause problems down the line. We appreciate the care and thought behind it.”
I nodded, although I didn’t like the idea of having to come back. It would cut some more time out of my day, but Richard was right. The job needed what the job needed, and I also wanted it done right.
We quickly checked the place anyway, and I had Henry make a provisional list of everything not attached to the kitchen to see how much had changed by the following day. There was a chance it would at least save us some time the following day.
Despite the extra snagging to check on and having more to note down, we all made our way back to the site office in record time. Richard quickly indicated that he was leaving, and even Henry went toward the cars instead of back to the office. I paused, not sure what I wanted to do, and worried about Kit.
I could see her in the site office, striding back and forth with a phone to her ear, and I heard her voice as Sarai went that way and opened the door. The two women talked to each other briefly, and then Kit hung up the phone.
Although I didn’t see what followed that, the door shutting on the scene, it made my mind up for me. I chucked the keys toward Henry again.
“I’ll come back later.”
“It’s okay,” Richard said. “I’ll drop Henry back at the office. I’m heading that way, and I don’t mind talking to this young man about sports. It will make the drive far less dull.”
Henry threw my keys back at me with a grin, letting me know that he didn’t mind either. Happy to keep my car for once and hoping this would mean I could take Kit home again tonight, I made my way toward the office as well.
If Sarai thought Kit had been working extra hard over the last few weeks, maybe she wouldn’t mind me spiriting the woman away for another evening of good food and debauchery because I was starting to want her, especially now that I knew she hadn’t been blowing me off.
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
Kit
As soon as everyone left the hut, and I was sure I was going to be alone, I burst into tears. I didn’t know what to do or say, but I was terrified that I would have to spend another weekend with people I wouldn’t like. And I wasn’t sure how I could get out of it.
When I thought about Lukas being there without me, however, I grew even more upset, knowing I wanted to be with him and not be apart from him and left alone all weekend. The conflict between the two desires made me feel a thousand times worse. How did I choose what to do?
I tried to tell myself to calm down and think it through carefully. Possibly figure out if I could make one seem better than the other or mitigate the downsides of one of them, but it took a while, and all I could think that might help was to go shopping for clothes. But I didn’t know where to start.
It was difficult to separate my emotions from my thoughts and figure out what actually mattered to me. I felt stuck, and there was no one here I could talk to about it.
Not knowing what else to do, I pulled out my phone and called Stacy. It was pretty late in the UK, but she picked up after only a few rings.
“What’s up, Kit? You doing okay?”
“No, not really,” I said, almost crying again as the words came out in a rush.
“All right. Give me two seconds to grab my tea and get comfy. Tell me what’s going on, and we’ll see what we can do about it once you’ve let it all out.”
I exhaled, trying to decide where to start.
“Everything has been going pretty well here, but it’s clear I’m not…good enough for some of the people here.”
“I’m pretty sure Juno said similar things. What’s happened to make you feel that way?”
I paused a moment to grab my tea as well and then paced with my mug in one hand and phone in the other while I told her everything that had happened at the dinner earlier in the month and the comments that Sarai and Henry had made earlier today about clothing and spending time with yet more rich people with whom I was supposed to get along.
The whole way through, my friend listened, and I slowly calmed as I got it all off my chest, including all my fears. I also told her how wonderful Lukas had been and why I was torn between not going and going to be with him.
“Oh, honey. Don’t let people being mean stop you from doing something you’ll find fun. Even if there are parts that aren’t so pleasant, think about it as part of the job and the clothes you need like a uniform, and just roll with it. At least, that’s what I’d do. It’s not really a holiday weekend. It’s a working weekend, and you need a uniform to do some parts of your job you don’t like as much.”
I exhaled, still pacing but feeling a lot better already. She had a point. All jobs had parts of them that people didn’t like. Having to talk politely to rich snobs and wear clothes I wouldn’t normally even spare a glance could just be considered part of that. It wouldn’t ruin the fun I could have with Lukas afterward.
“Has Lukas made you feel like you’re not good enough?” she asked, her tone gentle, but I could pick up on the concern in it.
“Oh, God, no. If anything, he makes me feel like a million dollars, but...” I trailed off, not sure how to put into words the feeling that sometimes that wasn’t enough.
“But he’s still more one of them than he isn’t?” she asked, trying to help me.
I put my empty mug down as I considered her words. “Something like that. He is definitely very kind, but it’s as if he instinctively knows the rules of this social community, and I don’t. And he doesn’t always notice that I’m clueless, and it’s not normal for a lot of people.”
Stacy didn’t respond at first, and it made me nervous. I paced faster again, but eventually, she spoke. “I think it’s hard because, to him, it probably is normal. Why don’t you talk to him about some of it? He might love to know that he can be less polished around you and not have to follow all these society-enforced rules.”
Although Stacy had a point, I was already picturing Lukas the last night we were together and how…not refined he had been. He’d devoured me and done things to me I was pretty sure gentlemen weren’t supposed to do.
I was trying to think of something else to say to Stacy when the door opened, and Sarai came in. I was glad I hadn’t been talking when she came in, but I knew it hadn’t been long since I had. Had she heard what I had been saying?
“Okay, I’ve got to go back to work now. Thanks, Stacy. I appreciate you letting me run that by you. I’m sure it will be a big help.” I hoped the change in my tone would give her a hint that I was no longer alone.
“Always happy to help. You take care of yourself, and let me know if it does help at all.” She hung up, and I put the phone back into my pocket before looking up at Sarai.
“Sorry,” I said. “Needed to talk to a friend about some home stuff.”
It was a small lie, but Sarai waved it off as if I was saying nothing much.
“Oh, don’t apologize for having a life and family outside of work. I hope they’re all okay.”
“They will be, given time,” I replied, taking my mug to the sink and washing it as a way to calm down a moment. “Are the huts okay?”
I wanted the subject changed, but before Sarai could respond, the door opened again, and Lukas strolled in. He didn’t have Henry with him, and I noticed Richard wasn’t back either.
