Page 28 of The Boss I Can't Stand

“It looks like?—”

“You’re proposing,” Jillian finished for me. “That’s exactly what it looks like.”

Christ.

“Milli’s started digging into the history of your secret relationship.”

My stomach dropped. History? There was no history, because there was no relationship. But there hadn’t been any actual relationship with Violet either—no teary love confessions, no tempestuous fights, no jealous rages—and that hadn’t stopped Milli from making all of that up.

The gossip rags had ridden high on her cooked-up nonsense for months. What the hell was this going to do to my reputation? Andhow was Sierra going to react to being thrown to the media wolves by this story?

“I’ll be right there,” I said. We needed to talk about PR crisis strategy. Now.

“See you in a bit.”

I hung up, glancing at my brothers. “Gotta go.”

“Hey,” Liam said, frowning. “Everywhere else, work takes precedence, but not here. You know that.”

“It’s about to storm,” I said, climbing out of the booth.

Liam’s face clouded over. That was the phrase we’d used as kids when things were about to go fubar. It could mean Mom had taken a turn for the worse, getting caught up in one of her depressive episodes. Or that a neighbor had gotten too nosy and called CPS on us. Or that something crucial had been left undone or unsigned or unhandled because we were fuckingkidsand things slipped through the cracks.

It didn’t mean anything specific. It just meant something bad had happened. Something urgent. And that to deal with it, I needed my brothers to have my back. Liam immediately gave in.

“Call us later?” he asked.

I nodded, turning and rushing out the door without any more objections from them.

11

FINN

Iwas in my car and back at the office before Jillian had time to brief Sierra. I walked into the conference room mid-explanation.

Confusion clouded Sierra’s face as she scrolled through the photos on Jillian’s tablet. I could see them as I moved in closer, and I couldn’t help wincing. The images were even more damning blown up like that.

“Oh my God!” Sierra said as she realized what was going on. “That’s not what it looks…” She pointed at me. “He’s not…I don’t know what…He was not proposing?—”

“Definitely not,” I said.

She glared at me, setting the tablet down. “You didn’t have to say it likethat.”

“Like what?”

“Like I’m the lowliest commoner in your kingdom.”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s not what I said. I meant I’d never be proposing in a place like that. It’s filthy and smells like mothballs.” Ipointed at the tablet. “You’re telling me that’sactuallywhere you’d want to be proposed to?”

She crossed her arms and shrugged. “Idolove costumes. With the right person, it would be kind of romantic.”

I scoffed. “I’d be aiming higher than ‘kind of’ with a proposal.”

“What itisdoesn’t matter,” Jillian said, interrupting us. “All that matters is what it looks like to the public. And reactions have been big?—”

I blew a breath out between my teeth. How had I ended up in this situation? Again!

“—and really positive.”