Page 17 of Mr. Wrong (Hollywood Knights #1)

Seventeen

Ellenore

First, I thought Lex was a bartender at his brother’s bar and he was fired for sleeping with that bitchy cocktail waitress. Then, I thought maybe he was Landon’s personal assistant and had been fired for being lazy or something more serious, like embezzling or wrecking his brother’s Lamborghini.

Now I know the truth.

Lex wasn’t a bartender.

He wasn’t Landon’s PA.

Lex was Cassie’s caregiver and Landon didn’t fire him for being lazy or wrecking his car.

He fired him because of me.

I’m his replacement.

No wonder he won’t even look at me.

While Cassie and I sit at the table and leaf through one of the catalogs and Lex makes breakfast, Landon makes a phone call on the landline to someone named Killian, telling him that the new hire has arrived and needs to have her codes and prints set up —whatever that means.

“Elle, will you walk me to my car?” Landon says, his tone casual but the way he’s looking at me lets me know it’s an order, not a request. “I’d like to go over Cassie’s schedule before I head out.”

This pulls a scoff from Lex, who is pouring maple syrup on Cassie’s pancakes. They smell delicious. I haven’t eaten since the few pieces of sushi Dani forced on me last night. My stomach is not pleased.

Still, I push myself off the stool. “Of course,” I say, watching while he drops a hasty kiss on top of his daughter’s head.

“I might be late getting home but Greta will be here, okay?” he says to her. Cassie doesn’t even look up from her pancakes.

“Okay.” She shrugs, like the fact that she’s not going to see her dad for the rest of the day is nothing out of the ordinary and of little consequence.

Landon stands there for a few moments, looking at her, and I get the feeling that he’s stuck. Like he can’t move toward or away from her. Like he knows he should stay with her but he can’t or maybe doesn’t want to. Finally he clears his throat and nods. “Love you, Cass.”

“Love you too, Dad.” She says it to her pancakes again, like he’s a ghost. Like he’s already gone.

Moving toward the back door, he motions for me to follow him. “I just wanted to reassure you that despite what you said, you won’t have to share living quarters with my brother,” he says leading me under the arbor and through the garden gate. “I have a house in Malibu. Lex can—”

“He can’t leave.” It’s out of my mouth before I can catch it, my tone stopping him in his tracks.

Landon cocks his head at me and narrows his eyes. He’s obviously not used to being interrupted by subordinates. “Oh? And why is that?”

“Because he’s obviously Cassie’s primary caregiver.” I shake my head at him. “You can’t just take him away from her.”

“Lex isn’t Cassie’s caregiver .” He starts walking again, like getting away from me will put distance between him and the mess he’s leaving behind. “He’s her uncle.”

“He’s more than that,” I blurt out while some far distant part of my brain yells at me to shut up. “I’ve been here all of thirty minutes and even I can see that.”

He makes a sound in the back of his throat without so much as sparing me a glance. “Regardless of what my brother is or isn’t , he no longer meets my daughter’s needs, Ms. Pierce.”

Something hot and ugly flares in my chest, anger on Lex’s behalf, and I have to swallow the words that surge up in his defense. “ Regardless of how you categorize him, your brother is obviously an important part of your daughter’s life, Mr. Trask .”

Stepping onto the cobblestone drive, I see a shiny red sports car that wasn’t parked there before and it hits me—how strange and surreal my life has suddenly become.

In less than 24-hours, I’ve had sex with a total stranger who turned out to be my new boss’s brother and I am now arguing with that boss—who just happens to be the hottest star in Hollywood.

“I fail to see your point,” he says in a flippant, slightly condescending tone that would make my eye twitch if not for the fact that his jaw snapped tight when I mentioned Lex’s close relationship with his daughter. It bothers him that Cassie loves her uncle. Trusts him. Prefers him.

“My point is that it would’ve been nice to know that I was walking into a potentially adversarial situation,” I say, careful to keep my tone as neutral as possible. “If I’d known, I could’ve—”

“Would it have mattered?”

“Excuse me?” I stand here, watching while he opens the drivers’ side door and slides into the deep leather seat.

“If I’d told you about Lex and the potential conflict that your being here might start, would you still have taken the job?”

I think about where I was a few months ago. Everything in my life belonged to Derek. His apartment. His money. His friends. His plans for the future.

I’m twenty-five and everything I own, I was able to pack into the trunk of my beat-up Honda. Nothing about where I was headed in life had anything to do with where I really wanted to be.

I told myself that I took this job because I needed a plan.

A soft place to land, but looking at Landon, I realize that while those things are true, I said yes to his job offer because I needed to prove that I don’t need Derek or his plans.

That I can make a future of my own, even if I’m making it one day at a time.

“Yes.” I nod my head, stepping back when he swings the door closed. “I still would’ve accepted the job.”

“Then why are we talking about it?” He aims an exasperated smile at me through the open car window while he starts the engine.

Because I slept with your brother before I even knew he was your brother and that takes things from uncomfortable and unpleasant to downright weird.

“I’ll speak with Lex,” he says, shifting into drive. “We’ll figure something out about the living arrangements.”

Before I can say another word, he rolls up his window and drives away.