The Fix (Carolina Connections #1) by Sylvie Stewart

me.”
    ***
    A
second dessert, one supervised round with the toothbrush, and three books later,
Rocco was finally in bed and Fiona and I were relaxed on the couch with wine
and girl talk.
    “So,
what happened to his dad?” Nate was still the topic at hand.
    “Gavin
said he had a heart attack a few weeks ago and Nate moved back to take over the
family business until he recovers,” I told her. “I heard Nate talking on the
phone about trying to find relaxing things for his dad to do with his time.
Sounds like a fairly long recovery.”
    “Oh
my God,” Fiona gushed and put a hand to her face as though I’d just handed her
a puppy with a giant pink bow. “That is so sweet. He said he just moved
back but I didn’t know all of that. See? He’s hot and he loves his
family.”
    “Yeah,
just what I’ve always wanted – a sexy man who loves his family and hates women,”
I sniped. I was trying desperately to hold onto my mad but my resolve was
fading. Evidently I was holding a puppy too, but mine had taken a roll in a
pile of poo and still needed some work before it was as adorable as Fiona’s.
    Fiona
swiped at my arm. “He doesn’t hate women. So he was totally sexist yesterday –
a real pig – but listen to us . We’ve been reducing him to a cut of
brainless man meat for the last ten minutes! Face it - we all suck. But
he apologized, didn’t he? And he did seem genuinely interested in helping you.”
Her eyes sparked with a familiar shine. “And besides, did you see that ass? Like
I said, ‘ Boom! ’” She did the fist-explosion thing.
    “Stop.
The last thing my ovaries need is encouragement to start sending out party
invitations. Do I need to remind you what happened six years ago? And besides, you’re
missing an important point. We kept our sexist talk private – he broadcast his to all and sundry!”
    “‘ All
and sundry?’ Are we in a Jane Austen novel now?” She set down her wine
glass and sat upright on the couch. “I say, that gentleman’s posterior looked
positively fetching in those britches, don’t you concur?”
    I
threw a couch pillow at her.
    “Anyway,”
she continued. “It doesn’t matter now because he’s coming over tomorrow and
there’s nothing you can do about it. Can I come over and watch? I’ll bring
popcorn.”
    “Give
me that pillow back. I need something to smother you with.”
    “Aww,
I love you too, Laney.”
    A
voice came from the kitchen. “There is a God. I think they’re gonna kiss.”
    Fabulous,
Gavin and his trusty side-kick were home.
    “You
know that’s my sister, right?”
    “She’s
not my sister,” came the response from Brett, Gavin’s best friend since
high school. They both stood at the half wall watching us on the couch.
    “Hi
Brett,” Fiona and I chimed in unison. It’s fun to play with dumb animals.
    He
may have whimpered a little while Gavin continued moving into the living room.
“Who’s coming over tomorrow?”
    I
arranged my face into what I hoped was an innocent look.
    “Your
hot new boss.” Fiona threw my ass under the bus.
    “No
no no No NO,” Gavin’s voice escalated as he moved closer to me. “You promised
me you were going to stay out of this! Jesus, Laney! You’ve spent the last two
years nagging me to ‘get over it’ and I finally do exactly what you wanted and
you start fucking it all up!”
    “Be
quiet! Rocco is sleeping!” I respond in only a slightly lower tone.
    “You
be quiet! I can’t believe you! Call him back and tell him you made a terrible
mistake and you and the mom squad are backing down for good. I actually like
this job and I don’t want to get fired before my first paycheck!”
    “Get
your damn feathers out of a twist, Donald Duck. Nobody’s getting fired. I
didn’t even invite him over tomorrow. He invited himself.”
    “Well,
technically I invited him.” Fiona meekly raised her hand. We both ignored her.
    “When
exactly did this happen? How was it that you and Nate were even talking to