The Design(38)

And he knew it.

…



Grayson walked back in first, leaving me with one last kiss on the lips. I straightened my clothes, leaned against the wall, and caught my breath in that stairwell for what felt like hours before finally stepping back into the office.

“Morning, Cammie,” Peter offered with a small smile as I took my seat at my desk. I wondered if he could tell how shook up I was. Is there any redness from where Grayson’s hands gripped my neck a few minutes earlier?

“Hey,” I murmured, taking my seat and forcing myself to look down at my desk rather than peeking back at Grayson’s office.

“Did you hear about the office happy hour on Monday? I think we’re meeting at O’ Keefe’s right after work,” he said.

I blushed and nodded, keeping my head down so he couldn’t see my cheeks. “I’ll be there.”

…



“Do you have a sexy top I can wear for a work happy hour?” I asked as I scanned through Brooklyn’s clothing later that night.

“Why would you want a sexy top for a work happy hour? Have I raised you to get ahead by using your body? You aren’t secretly humping Alan are you?” Brooklyn asked, coming up to stand alongside me and help me hunt for a top.

“Ew. No. I just want something that makes me feel good. Like a nice blouse I could wear underneath a blazer.”

She didn’t need to know that the top was meant specifically for Grayson.

“Guys! The stir-fry is almost done,” Jason yelled from the kitchen.

“Sounds good, babe!” Brooklyn replied.

Oh, blech.

“Tell me again how you managed to land a cute rock star who also happens to cook?” I asked Brooklyn. Just then, I spotted a slinky cream top with crisscrossed spaghetti straps. The back was low cut, but the front was fairly conservative. It was perfect considering I’d have a blazer on in the office all day.

“You can thank LuAnne for the cooking part. She made sure to teach him a few recipes before he left Montana.”

LuAnne was Jason’s housekeeper back at his ranch in Middle of Nowhere, Montana. She kept everything in order for Jason while he was in LA with Brooklyn. Technically, LA was where Jason called home, but I knew he and Brooklyn both longed to go back to Montana. The ranch was where the two of them first fell in love. The ranch had served as a catalyst for their relationship and their collaboration as musicians.

“How about this top?” I asked, pulling out the one I’d spotted and letting it fall against me so that Brooklyn could see how it’d look when I put it on.

“It’s perfect,” she said with a clap. “Now, c’mon. Let’s go eat.”

I took the blouse out into the living room with me so that I wouldn’t forget it. Once it was draped along the back of the couch, I followed Brooklyn into the kitchen and cracked up when I spotted Jason. His apron was completely covered in what looked to be soy sauce, and there was definitely a small piece of broccoli stuck in his hair. Clearly, LuAnne was not finished teaching him the art of cooking.

Brooklyn knocked the piece of broccoli off before reaching on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.

“When do you think you’ll go back to Montana?” I asked them. “I’m sure LuLu misses you guys.”

Jason paused cooking and shot Brooklyn a sharp glance.

“You haven’t told her, Brooklyn?” he asked.

I turned in time to see my sister trying to mouth something to him.

“Told me what?” I asked, glancing between the two of them. “What are you guys keeping from me?”

Brooklyn sighed and shot me a “please don’t kill me” smile as she clasped her hands in front of her chest.

“We are actually heading back in two weeks.” Her puppy dog eyes weren’t enough to cover up that shocker.

“Are you serious? For how long?”

Jason left the stove to join Brooklyn. He wrapped his arm around her waist and brought her in close.

“Not for too long, Cammie. It’s just that Brooklyn goes on tour in a few months and we have to have the album finalized before she leaves. Montana is the best place for us to focus on our music.”

Jason. Beautiful rock star Jason with broccoli in his hair. I couldn’t be mad at him.

My sister? Now, she I could be mad at.

“How could you not have told me before now?”

She blanched. “We just finalized the details earlier this week. I know you have so much going on right now and I didn’t want to add anything to your plate before I knew what was happening.”

For a second I thought about arguing with her or maybe forcing her to stay with me in LA, but then I realized that I couldn’t truly be mad at her. I had this giant secret brewing behind the scenes. A secret that was MUCH worse than her going to write in Montana with her boyfriend.

Brooklyn had no clue that I wanted to go to Paris and if I had any hope of her continuing to speak to me after I hopped on that international flight, then I knew I needed to cut her some slack about heading to Montana. Y’know, lead by example and all that.

“You know what? Fine, you can go,” I said before pointing to where I’d set her blouse down. “But, I’m keeping that shirt.”





Chapter Fifteen