“Because I work for him,” Rose argued, shifting in her seat as a sudden surge of heat shot through her.
“Uh-huh, and one has nothing to do with the other,” Dee insisted. “Live a little, sweetie. Have a fling. Enjoy. Don’t you deserve some fun?”
Rose laughed. “Lucas? Fun? He’s not an amusement park, Dee. He’s…dangerous.”
“Even better.”
“You’re hopeless.”
“Thank you.”
Rose heard the smile in her friend’s voice and knew that Dee meant well, but… “I don’t think so. I gave him the stay-away speech, remember?”
“Take it back.”
“Hah! Just like that?”
“Why not? You said it was a great kiss.”
“Practically a world record,” Rose admitted, reliving that memory of his mouth locked with hers for what had to be the millionth time.
“One word from you, and I guarantee he’ll forget all about your little hands-off speech.”
“Then what?”
“Sweetie, if you have to ask that, it has been too long,” Dee told her with a sigh. A second later, she said, “Oops, gotta run. My date’s here.”
“Right. Talk to you tomorrow.”
“Okay, and Rose…live a little. Will you at least think about it?”
Once she hung up, Rose could acknowledge, at least to herself, that she would probably think of nothing else.
Five
“So we’re agreed,” Lucas said, glancing from Rafe to Sean. “We fire Warren.”
“Hell yes,” Sean muttered.
“Agreed,” Rafe chimed in. “The man’s used up his last chance with me. The mess he made out of the Johnson job is going to put us back at least two weeks. Not to mention we’ll have to eat the cost of repairs to the water pipe and putting the yard back to rights.”
“And there was water damage to the patio—redwood deck,” Lucas reminded them.
“Perfect.” Rafe sighed. “You know, we should fire him and send him over to work for Clancy’s outfit. Serve ’em right.”
Sean looked to Lucas, who shook his head firmly. He knew his youngest brother was about to tell Rafe all about Lucas’s plan with Rose and, frankly, Lucas didn’t want to hear it.
Naturally, that didn’t stop Sean.
“Speaking of the Clancys,” he said, shifting his gaze from Lucas to Rafe, “have you heard the latest? Big brother Lucas is taking cooking lessons from Rose Clancy, sainted sister of Devious Dave.”
“Cooking lessons?” Rafe asked, confused. “Why the hell are you doing that? Hire somebody to cook for you if you can’t figure it out yourself.”
Lucas opened his mouth to speak, but Sean beat him to it. Really, now that he thought about it, he should have dropped Sean in the lake when they were kids.
“Oh, it’s not just cooking Lucas is up to,” Sean said quietly. “He’s setting something up. Looking to use Rose as payback for what Dave did to us.”
Rafe stared at him. “You’re doing what?”
Lucas sighed and took a sip of his beer as Rafe went on a long-winded rant. He knew trying to interrupt would be pointless. Lucas didn’t know how Katie, sweet woman that she was, could stand being married to the know-it-all. As the oldest of the three of them, Lucas was also the most patient of the three. He simply kept quiet and let Rafe go, knowing he’d eventually wind down and they could talk about this.
Once a week, the three King brothers who owned King Construction held a meeting to keep each other up-to-date on what was going on in the company. They rotated the meetings between each other’s houses and this week, they were at Sean’s place.
Great views, Lucas acknowledged, but then why wouldn’t there be? Sean lived in a former water tower, which had been completely rehabbed and remodeled, of course. The water-tower home stood on a giant steel skeleton and the only way to the front door was a private elevator at street level. There was a wide, wraparound balcony surrounding the place, offering 360-degree views, and the living room where they sat boasted a wall of tinted windows that overlooked the ocean.
Out on the slate-gray waves beyond the glass, sailboats skimmed the surface and a few hardy surfers, outfitted in wetsuits, rode their boards into shore. From Lucas’s perspective, the ocean scene looked peaceful and serene.
The direct opposite of the atmosphere here in Sean’s coolly casual home. Everything had been going fine a few minutes ago. They’d wrapped up their business talk and after hearing yet another blissful take on the newlywed life from Rafe, Sean had mentioned what Lucas was up to with Rose.
That alone had been enough to throw a wrench into the conversation. Now, Rafe stared at Lucas from across the room and demanded again, “You’re doing what with who?”
“Isn’t that whom?” Sean said with a grin.
Rafe glared him into silence then turned his gaze back to Lucas. “Are you crazy?”
“Not the last time I checked, no.” Lucas stood up, walked to the wet bar and poured a splash of single malt scotch into a crystal glass. He took a sip and turned to face his younger brother. “Dave Clancy cheated us. Used a spy in the company to steal contracts right out from under us. Why wouldn’t I want to pay him back for that?”
“For God’s sake, that was two years ago. Let it go already,” Rafe said.
“Not a chance.” Lucas bit the words out and felt the swell of indignation filling him.
Rafe was feeling magnanimous now, due to his happily married lifestyle. Two years ago, it had been a different story. Back then, all three of them had been furious and frustrated by the fact that they couldn’t go after Dave legally because there was no evidence against him. Time passed and Rafe and Sean had both moved on, putting it behind them.
But for Lucas, the sting was still there. Maybe it was because he had been the one to introduce Dave to his brothers. He had been Dave’s introduction to King Construction. Small wonder then that Lucas was taking this more personally than his brothers were.
“I tried to talk him out of it,” Sean said. “But his head’s as hard as Dad’s.”
“Nobody’s head is that hard,” Rafe said automatically, but kept his gaze fixed on Lucas. “If you’re pissed at Dave, go after Dave. Using his sister is just sleazy.”
“Exactly,” Sean agreed.
A quick flicker of irritation spiked inside him because truthfully, it felt like that to Lucas sometimes, too. But the feeling wasn’t strong enough to get him to back off.