Page 7 of Stuck Together

“Oh, Logan.” Sadness filled her eyes. “What happened between you two? You guys used to be inseparable when you were kids. But after you left that girl never came back.”

“I don't ... I can’t ... Fuck.” I cursed through a long breath.

I couldn’t tell her what happened. She’d never understand why I did what I did, and she would never get how much Madison hurt me too. She’d blame me for everything that went wrong and wouldn’t see my side of the story. I should be used to that by now. Anytime something went wrong in one of my relationships, I was always the one blamed for the issues.

“I really don't want to work with another woman. It's nothing against Madison, but after what happened with Kate, you promised me you wouldn’t hire anymore female employees to work for me. I can’t go down that road again.”

“When are you gonna let what happened with Kate go? That was a onetime thing. Nobody is holding Kate against you.”

“I'm holding what happened with Kate against me. Do you even remember the gossip I had to endure after she quit?” God, that had been awful. I never meant to hurt Kate. It had all been a huge misunderstanding, but before I could fix it, Kate quit. It didn’t help that we had just started dating and everything went to shit right after we slept together. Before she quit, she told the female half of the office that I slept with her just to get to her clients. That couldn’t have been further from the truth.

“Yes, I remember the gossip. I was there. I believe the exact words wereyou fucked her, stole her clients, and forced her to quit.”

I glared at my grandmother. There were times I loved her vulgar mouth and others that I wished she were more prim and proper for a woman of her stature. This was one of those times I wished for prim and proper. “I didn't fuck her and steal her clients. That isnothow it happened.”

“Maybe not the client part, but you did fuck her.” She smirked.

“You make it sound so dirty. It wasn’t like that.”

“Logan, I don’t care what it was like. Your personal life is yours. But it was years ago. Let it go. It's in the past. Besides, you’re the only one still hanging onto it.”

Like hell I was. The women in the office still gave me dirty looks and whispered behind my back. There were a few that took what happened with Kate as an invitation to hit on me and try to get me in the sack. But I had no interest in another office romance. One office fuck-up was more than enough to last me a lifetime.

“You promise me, Grandmother. Please don't ask me to work with her. Not Madison. Anyone but Madison.”

“What's wrong with Madison?”

“Nothing is wrong with Madison. The problem is me. Assuming she's still the same girl she was when we were kids, then she's agood girl. She doesn't need to be working with someone like me. She deserves better.”

Grandmother reached out and squeezed my arm. “Someone like you? What's that supposed to mean? When are you going to stop acting like you’re a damaged man? You're a good man, Logan.”

“Try telling everybody else that.” I sighed. “I don’t want to work with her.”

There was a shimmer to her eyes and for a moment I thought she was going to give into my request. But then her expression hardened and any concern or care I saw vanished. “Well, too bad. I've hired her. She's working for you. And she will be going on this trip with you to Vermont.”

“Grandmother, please.” I pleaded.

“It’s done. I’m not going back on my word. I already told her she had the job.”

There was no use. Nothing I said would change Grandmother’s mind once it was made up. “Fine.”

Her hardened face lit up with a smile and I groaned. She’d just played me until she got the response she wanted from me. “Great. Now, I’m going to call Madison back over so we can finalize the details. I need you to be nice.”

I rubbed my eyes. A headache was threatening to settle behind my eyes and make this day even more miserable than it already was. “I can be nice.”

“Sure, you can.” She looked at me with doubt before she put her smile back on and turned toward Madison. “Madison, dear. Please join us, again.”

Madison walked over with a nervous smile on her face. I thought I saw her hands shake at her side, but I couldn’t be sure. God, I was such an ass. No doubt she saw the angry look on my face as I argued with Grandmother. She had to know exactly how I felt about her being here. If this were going to work, I’d have to do a better job at hiding my feelings. Revealing too much would make for a hostile work environment and that wasn’t fair to her, or anyone else.

She clenched her hands together and cracked her knuckles. If she wasn’t nervous, she was still angry.

I guess we can be angry together.

I put on my best smile before I spoke. “Sorry about that. I was surprised to see you and it threw me off.”

“It's no problem.” She didn’t bother with a smile. Her expression let me know exactly what she thought of me and it wasn’t good.

“I guess I should say welcome to the team. Grandmother said you're available to accompany me out of town for a meeting on Wednesday.”