Page 33 of Wright Together

The words were there, but the sincerity was lacking. What had I thought would happen anyway? He’d been sent here, likely against his will, for the shit he’d pulled back in New York. So, I wasn’t just saddled with the boss’s kid, but a surly, unrepentant one. Well, I could work with that.

“Great. I like my coffee with one cream and two sugars. It’s down the hall, to the left.”

“Coffee,” Colton repeated.

“At least he’s not sending you to Monomyth for the good stuff,” Jordan said with a smirk.

“They have good coffee in this town?” Colton asked with a quirk of his lips. “Doubtful.”

“Unfortunately, no coffee runs. He won’t have his license until February,” Jensen said.

Colton mumbled under his breath, “I won’t need a license in the city.”

“If you go back,” Jensen said through his teeth. He reached his hand out again. “Thanks again.”

“No problem. I can handle this.”

Jordan clapped Jensen on the shoulder and gestured for him to leave. The worried father looked back once at his troubled son and then disappeared from my office with Jordan. Colton waited for him to get on the elevator before sinking into a chair and kicking his feet up.

“Glad that’s over. Can you tell them I’m doing a good job and, like, let me out of prison?”

I brushed his feet off of my desk. “Listen here. I don’t give two shits who you were in New York City, but here, you’re nobody. A nobody who is now my responsibility. You can drop the poor little rich-boy act. It isn’t going to work on me.” I watched his cool expression morph into dismay. “I have a lot of work to do, and I’m not babysitting. You’re here to work.”

“But—”

“Coffee, one cream, two sugars.”

Colton slowly came to his feet again. His jaw was clenched, and he looked ready to argue. Thankfully, he was smarter than that. “Fine.”

“My assistant can get you up to speed while I finish this, and then we can sit down later and figure out what exactly I’m going to use you for in this office. Understood?”

“Sure,” he said and then sulked from the office.

I watched him leave with a sigh. That was going to be a work in progress. And probably not a fun one.

The rest of the week was much the same with Colton. I shouldn’t have been surprised that he wasn’t going to suddenly and miraculously turn into a good worker. He was ahardworkerat least. He did everything that was asked of him, but not a single thing beyond the scope. Half the time, I found him dicking around on his phone. I’d realized quickly that Jensen had put some kind of block on it and he was trying to circumnavigate it. So, he could be clever when he wanted to be. Maybe, one day, I’d figure out how to get him to use that for something other than moping about his circumstances.

By the time Friday afternoon rolled around, I was exhausted from him. I’d said I wasn’t babysitting, but fuck if it hadn’t slowed me down considerably. Especially since it turned out that he terrified my assistant. No wonder he’d been given to me. A fifteen-year-old shouldn’t be this much work.

“Is your dad coming to pick you up?” I asked as we headed downstairs.

“Emery,” he said, typing on his phone.

“Do they know you hacked your phone?”

Colton jerked the phone to his chest. His eyes narrowed. “Who said I hacked my phone?”

“I did.”

He assessed me. “Are you going to tell them?”

“Do I look like your parent?”

“No?” he asked cautiously.

“Correct.”

He looked suspicious. His brow furrowing as if he were waiting for the punch line. When none came, he said, “Thanks.”