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I walk over and knock on Mackenzie’s office door, her eyes widening as she recognizes me. Gabriel looks over too, sobering when he sees me.
Mackenzie stands from behind her desk and calmly walks over, as put together as she always is, and gives me a wide smile as she opens the door for me. “Serena, what a surprise. How can I help you?”
Is no one going to address why Gabriel’s here? The wedding was last week.
“That fundraiser I talked to you about a couple weeks ago. The one for my nonprofit. I, um… I’m sorry, am I interrupting something here?”
“No,” she assures me, indicating for me to take a seat. “Gabriel works with me now.”
My brows raise despite myself. He works here? At her event planning business?
“My dad disowned me,” he explains. “And Mackenzie was nice enough to offer me a job.”
She gives a small smile, rolling her eyes at him. “We’re business partners now.”
“Oh, wow. Archer never said anything about that.”
Gabriel sticks his hands in his pockets, going over to stand by the window. “He doesn’t know.” He glances over at me wryly. “But don’t worry about keeping it a secret. You can tell him.”
Good. There’s no way I could lie to Archer about something like that if it came up.
He rubs at the back of his neck, a sheepish expression crossing his face. “And, uh, I should apologize about what happened last week-”
“No, no. It’s fine.”
He arches a brow, clearly conveying his skepticism.
“I mean, the end result was fine.” Better, actually. “And that op-ed you wrote helped too. Thank you.”
He nods, studying me. What’s with everyone doing that today?
“So things are going good between you and my brother? I haven’t heard from him since Sunday.”
“We’re great.” Well, as much as we can be.
Mackenzie watches us silently from her desk, thankfully keeping quiet about the confession I made to her weeks ago. She didn’t tell Gabriel I wanted to marry his brother instead of him, did she?
“So you’re happy?” His eyes, so similar to Archer’s, narrow on me, like he’s waiting for the least little sign to confirm or deny whatever he suspects. “Happier than you’d be with me at least?”
“Um, that’s a loaded question.”
“You don’t have to spare my feelings,” he grins.
“Yes. I’m happier.” And if I can get Archer on the same page as me, I’ll be ecstatic.
“Good.” He relaxes, his shoulders dropping. “You realize we’re in-laws now, right? I have to make sure my big brother is behaving.”
Oh God, I somehow didn’t make the connection he’s my brother-in-law. Talk about weird family reunions.
“So you wanted to discuss a fundraiser you’re hosting?” Mackenzie asks, steering us back to the reason I came here.
“Yes.” I gladly jump on the topic change and spend the next thirty minutes with them discussing a range of options for how the event can go, the atmosphere between the three of us infinitely easier than it was a month ago planning the wedding.
I leave with a plan to present to Wendy tomorrow after those interviews and focus my attention on what’s to come for tonight.
I holdthe heavy glass tumbler in my hands as carefully as I can, trying not to let any of the alcohol slosh over the sides as I make my way to Archer’s home office. He closed himself off in here yet again, but I’m no longer letting that be a deterrent.
I was too nervous last time to study whether my skimpy outfit actually affected him, but I’m confident in his reception to my massages at least. The last two nights he turned to putty in my hands as soon as I started. It’s not exactly sexual, but I’ll take what I can get. And to be honest, it’s a bit of a power trip knowing I affect him like that.