“Yeah, that’s what happens when you’re the favorite,” she chuckled. “You don’t get to have fun things, like a sense of humor.”
“Give me a break.” I picked up a little twig and tossed it at her, but I couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of me.
We both knew there were no favorites in our family. But she definitely was the easy daughter.
“I don’t think you’re making a mistake, for the record,” Katy said, looking at me with such levity my heart nearly stopped. Some days, I forgot that she was a fully functioning adult and not my baby sister anymore.
“Oh, yeah?” I laughed. “I’m glad someone’s in my corner.”
“We’re all in your corner, Sarah.” She reminded me. “Mom and Dad just have slightly different definitions of what that means.”
“It’s totally unfortunate,” I sighed, flipping back over and draping a hand dramatically across my forehead.
“What’s unfortunate are those bags under your eyes,” Katy joked. “Are you turning into an insomniac?”
“A workaholic, more like,” I grimaced. “Two days in and I’m already doing more than I ever have. Because I’m trying to keep busy so that he can’t—”
I had to stop myself from finishing the sentence and explaining to Katy that I’d had to keep myself busy, so Rhett didn’t try to kiss me again.
But it was too late. She already knew.
“I knew he had a thing for you!” She gasped. “No one offers an assistant three hundred grand a year for nothing!”
“Gee, thanks,” I interjected sarcastically.
“So, have you slept together?”
“Katy!” I gasped. “You little slut! He’s my boss.”
“So?” She leaped up and crashed into the hammock, cuddling up against my side like we used to do when we were children. “I did my boss once, in college. It was great. I got days off whenever I wanted. Paid ones, too.”
“I am not going to do that!” I laughed. “I thought you were supposed to be the responsible one here.”
“I still got paid, right?” She shrugged. “Who cares. You’re supposed to do that stuff in college. Get it out of your system.”
“Well, then, I guess I missed my chance,” I pointed out. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not in college anymore.”
“Oh, so what?” She poked me in the side, grinning like a maniac. “So, what did happen? Something happened, I can tell.”
I knew there was no getting out of this one. I was going to have to tell her the truth, or suffer through her poking and prodding for hours on end.
“Fine.” I gave in, telling her all about the mud fiasco and the kiss, and then about how I’d so terrifically avoided running into him for the entirety of my second day at work.
By the time I was finished, Katy was caught between absolute astonishment at my stupidity, which I couldn’t blame her for in the least, and total shock that I hadn’t yet quit.
“It’s a lot of money,” I sighed. “And… he’s kind of cute. Is that wrong to say?”
I glanced over to her, pleading for some sort of help. What I needed right now was my levelheaded little sister to slap me silly and tell me I was being an absolute idiot, and I needed to quit that job yesterday.
But, as often seemed to happen whenever I got my hopes up, I was disappointed.
“No,” she shrugged. “I don’t think you’re an idiot. I think you’re…”
She trailed off, biting her lip as she chose her words very carefully. I just waited patiently, knowing that Katy liked to make sure she was saying exactly what she meant whenever she spoke.
“Katy, what?” I demanded, narrowing my eyes at her. My sister was the world’s worst secret keeper. Whenever there was something that she didn’t want to say, it was always written all over her face.
“You look happy,” she finally said. “I don’t know if it’s the job, or if it’s Rhett, but I haven’t seen you look like this in a long time. Your skin doesn’t look like it should belong to some weird vampire anymore, either.”
“Thanks,” I rolled my eyes. “I’ll choose to take that as a compliment.”
Of course, the comment about my skin wasn’t at all what my mind wanted to focus on. Instead, it wanted to think about the fact that Katy had just said I looked happy.
With Rhett. At a job for him. Which anyone else might have attributed to the money, but Katie and I both knew it had to do with so much more.
“Oh my God!” I gasped when I realized that I’d completely forgotten something I had to do for my job.
Call Rhett. I’d been so caught up in attempting to defend my life choices to my family that I’d forgotten he had instructed me to call him at eight o’clock sharp. Of course, he hadn’t seemed to think that was anywhere outside the realm of normal work requests, but a guy like Rhett didn’t strike me as the type to think very much about those things, anyway.
“What?” Katy demanded as I sprang from the hammock, not so gracefully knocking her down in the process. “Ow! You know, you have been abusing me an awful lot today.”
“Get over it,” I called over my shoulder as I hurriedly yanked out my cell phone.
One minute past eight. So much for calling him on the dot.
I frantically opened my contacts and found his name, not pausing for a moment to think about the fact that I was acting far too desperate for someone who was just trying to convince her little sister that this man was just her boss.
“You’re late.”
“That’s really not the best way to answer the phone,” I quipped. “I hope you don’t do that to your clients.”
“Of course not,” he replied. “Just you.”
“So, I’m special?”
The words slipped out of my mouth before I could snatch them and stuff them back in, and I heard Katy snicker behind me. I turned to glare at her, waving my hand to try and silently shoo her away. But she just shook her head and sank back into the hammock, making it quite clear that she didn’t have any intentions of moving.
The little eavesdropping brat.
“Uh, yeah, okay,” Rhett replied, thankfully acting just as awkward as I was. “So, listen, I have something very important I wanted to speak with you about.”
“I figured,” I replied. “Have I been restocking the bathrooms with the wrong sort of toilet paper?”
“Toilet paper? That’s not your job.”
Francesca. Again.
“Noted,” I said, drawing out the “o” like the total loser I was. “What is it, then?”
I was so thankful this was a phone call and not a Facetime so that I could wince in private.
“I need you to do some research,” he replied. “I get the feeling you’re really great at it, you know, and it falls within your job description.”
“Which you have still yet to explain to me,” I reminded him.
“Right. Anyways, it would appear I am being sued.” I could tell from the fact that he wasn’t returning any of my snide little remarks that this was something big, but the last thing I expected was for him to tell me he was being sued.