Brothers of Paradise Series

“I’m glad you had the time to talk to me. Always so busy, Henri. It can’t be good for you.”

“I always have time for you.”

She laughs at the empty flattery. “Now I know you’re lying.”

“Is everything all right at home? Dad is good?”

“Yes, yes. He just closed on some big deal in the Midwest, I forget where.” I can almost see her waving her hand in dismissal. In Detroit, I want to say. He finally closed the Rhett project. But it’s no use. “He’ll be there for a week, hammering out the details. Always working, always working… So like you.”

“Yes.”

“You haven’t been home for a while now. You know we all miss you.”

Paradise Shores is only a few hours’ drive to New York, I feel like saying. Everyone is welcome to visit.

“I’ll come home soon. I’ll be home for the wedding, you know.”

“Yes, but that won’t be just us, just family.” Mom sighs. “That’s what I was calling about, you know. Your sister is a mess of nerves, trying to organize all this. I told her-how many times did I tell her?-to hire my party coordinator, but no, this had to be her show… Small, she kept saying, intimate… We have too many guests for that!”

“Lily wants it her way,” I say. “Let her and Hayden plan their day however they want it. If they want it small, that’s okay.”ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“Yes, but there are expectations on the family. Oh, I thought you’d understand, Henri…”

“I do, but we both know that you can’t change Lily’s mind about anything.”

She sighs again, ever the dramatic. I’m reaching the end of my patience.

“Who are you bringing? I’ve been asking and asking, but you don’t seem to have an answer. We have you down for a plus-one, of course. Your brothers are both bringing dates.”

Yes, my little brothers had both found dates-as pressured by Mom as I was.

“I’ll bring someone. Stop worrying.”

“Fine, fine. You know your grandmother will worry otherwise. You’re nearly thirty-six, Henri.”

Thanks for enlightening me.

“I’m aware. Mom, I have to go. I have a meeting in five.”

“Oh, do you really?” No. “Take care then, Henri. Tell me as soon as you have a name. Lily needs them for place cards, you know.”

“I know.”

“Bye, chéri.”

“Bye. I’ll call soon.”

I lean back in my chair. A headache is coming on-not surprising. There is no way my little sister is concerned about who I’m bringing. This was all Eloise Marchand, our mother, and her perfectionist, scheming ways.

She might mean well, but that didn’t make it any more pleasant to bear.

The worst part is that she wasn’t wrong, either. I don’t have a date for the wedding and haven’t taken a woman out in months. My last relationship, if you can call it that, had ended poorly. Avery wanted more than I was willing to give, even if I had been clear with her from the beginning.

You love your work more than me!

Yes, I’d had to tell her, because I didn’t love her at all. And I needed to finish my build and the architectural model before the deadline, which was now only a few weeks away. I hadn’t spent nearly two years on a design only to give up at the finish line. Which was exactly why I didn’t have time for women. It was never just simple-and my attempts to simplify things just left them hurt, instead of enlightened, which was my aim.

My mind drifts to the dark-haired woman sitting outside my office. At the fire in in her eyes when she challenged me last night to give her a fair chance. To her obvious ambition and competitiveness. Her quick tongue and the way her body curved beneath the office-appropriate dresses.

I halt that train of thought. It has clearly been far too long if I’m finding myself drawn to my own assistant. Not once have I lusted after my own assistant, and I refuse to start now.

Faye

“One week done,” Jessie says and raises her glass to mine. “Only five more to go.”

“Before I’m fully employed, yes. Can you picture it? A full-time contract… I think I’ll frame it. Hang it on my wall at home.”

Rey grins at me. “Get it tattooed.”

“Forever the property of Henry Marchand.” I roll my eyes. “No thank you. I’ll gladly take the salary and the workload-but I don’t need more of the man.”

“Is he really that bad?”

I look over at my friend, who handles creeps regularly in her job as a bartender. “No,” I say honestly. “It’s not that he’s bad, exactly. He’s more… unnerving. He has high standards, and they’re difficult to live up to. Plus, the man never smiles.”

Rey nods. “So he’s like the male version of you.”

“What!”

“Come on, Faye,” she laughs. “You’re the most ambitious person I know.”

“Well, sure, we have that in common. But that’s the only thing. I smile.”

“You both love architecture, and you both have high standards.”

“But I don’t have unreasonably high standards for people around me. Don’t look at me like that, Jess. I don’t.”

“Remember the last guy you went on a date with? You complained about his table manners. Not to mention your last boyfriend.”

I don’t want to be reminded of Aiden. “Yes, well, I guess we’re similar in some ways. But Henry’s scary, and I’m not. I can tell that others at work are afraid of him.”

“Afraid?”

“Well, maybe I’m exaggerating. They’re not cowering in the corners or anything. But I’ve noticed that they push themselves very hard to meet his deadlines. And no one shows up to a meeting with him without being very prepared.”

“But you’re scared of him?”

I think of the staring contest we had in his office, or when he called and introduced himself as the old stooge. “No. He’s intimidating sometimes, but never scary.”