Page 66 of Overtime

“Your tip? Your tip is coming later when I do that thing with—”

I’m silenced by Colt’s hand over my mouth which he follows with a kiss to my temple. “Do you want cream and sugar in your coffee?”

I nod my yes and he grins in response, making his way over to the coffee machine. Violet looks over at me, raising a brow and then giving me a knowing grin before she returns to her emails.

THIRTY-FOUR

Colt

“I need your help,”I say as Ben and I pack up in the locker room at the end of the day later that week.

“What’s that?” Ben asks, glancing up at me before he continues to toss things in his bag.

“I bought a place for Joss. It’s a studio with a couple of offices and an apartment upstairs. It’s for her to have a place to stay when she’s here, give her and Harper a home base, and somewhere she can work without having to rent studio space. My realtor found it.”

“Okay…” He looks up at me with a furrowed brow.

“I need you and Violet to gift it to her.”

His lips go flat, and he gives me a skeptical look.

“If I try to give it to her, she won’t take it. But she won’t say no to you two. You know she could use the boost right now.”

“I don’t know if Violet will want to do that.”

“You can convince her.”

“Are you sure it won’t be better coming from you? The two of you have been getting along really well lately.”

“That’s exactly the reason I don’t want to rock the boat with her. And an expensive gift like that? Her mind will run wild about what it means and why I did it. I just want to help her without stressing her out.”

“And you already bought it?”

“Yes.”

“Fuck… I guess I’ll ask Violet tonight. I can’t make any promises though. She’s not going to be keen on any kind of deceit where Joss is involved, even if it is for her own good.”

“I know… I mean we could make it legit. I could sell it to you.” I smirk.

“How much was it?”

“A couple million.”

“Yeah, no. I think I’m good with the deceit at that point.”

I laugh and toss my bag over my shoulder. “Okay just… let me know what Violet says? Tell her she can call me if she wants to talk about it.”

“I will. You and Joss… is that headed somewhere?”

The smile on my face fades, and I shrug. “She leaves in a couple of weeks, and I have no idea when she plans to come back through town.”

“But you’re buying her a place…”

I can’t look Ben in the eye because I know what he’s asking.

“So she has somewhere when she’s in town. They need the HQ for their nonprofit. A place for their board meetings. The apartment upstairs is just a bonus that’s there if she needs it. Fuck, maybe Harper would want it now that she’s selling her house.”

Ben laughs, “Like Xander would ever let her out of his sight. You know how fast he picked her up from our place?”