All of Me (All Series Book 2) (4 page)

Congratulations

Separate my ass, Phil thought when Sophia responded back to Sean but looked at him just the same. Separate went out the window the night they stumbled into his hotel room and couldn’t get each other undressed fast enough.

That comment had been a week ago. Between his current workload and the development getting underway, Phil was lucky if he was walking in his door by eight each night. He grabbed whatever was fast and easy to make for dinner, usually leftover takeout, then went to his home office and worked on his side projects. He refused to give up his consulting work just because Harper Construction was growing.

After a few more hours of working at home, he would crawl into bed, slide into oblivion and then jump up when his alarm went off. Only to start the day all over again.

Except tonight he was dragging, and every time he closed his eyes he heard a squawking sound. No matter how hard he tried to ignore it, it continued. Until it sounded like whatever was making it was in distress.

Throwing clothes on, he went outside and toward the water, where the noise was sounding. There he saw a brown-and-green mallard duck with its leg caught in the rope holding his boat to the dock.

Rushing forward, he spoke calmly to the duck, all the while trying to untie the rope. When it wouldn’t come free, he apologized and cringed when the creature tilted its shiny green-feathered head and looked at him with pleading eyes—he’d fed the ducks from his dock almost daily, so they weren’t afraid of him. He ran back to the house, grabbed a utility knife and came back. “I won’t hurt you,” he repeated again and again, as he worked the knife through the rope until he was able to free the duck’s leg and put him back in the water. He smiled, watching the little guy swim away.

The next morning he heard a knock on his office door and turned to see Alec standing there. “What are you doing here? You avoid the office at all costs,” Phil said, amused at Alec’s disgruntled look.

“Keep it up and I’ll send Abby Clemson your way,” he said, walking in and sitting down across from Phil. “What’s wrong with you? You look like hell.”

Groaning, Phil asked, “What did she change this time?” He wasn’t going to tell Alec he was up saving a duck last night. When he was growing up his family always picked on him about saving all the animals around the lake. Every creature seemed to come to Phil for some reason. His mother often said it was because of his gentle nature. Phil thought that made him sound like a wuss, so he nicknamed himself the Lake Whisperer.

“This one is on you,” Alec said, smirking. “She wants her walk-in closet two feet longer.”

“Where the hell am I supposed to find two feet?”

“She said she is willing sacrifice the space from one of the guest bedrooms on the other side of the wall.”

“That’s simple enough, I guess.” Phil grabbed a piece of paper on his desk, jotted down the change and posted it on top of his to-do file. “You know this is only going to get worse.”

“What is?” Alec asked.

“Our workload.” Reaching up, Phil ran a hand through his black hair. All the Harper siblings had black hair and dark eyes. He looked over at his twin. Anyone would pin them as brothers, but not necessarily twins. There were enough little differences about them to tell them apart. Alec smiled more and had one dimple when he did. Phil smiled less often, even though he was as good-natured.

There was a faint scar above Alec’s right eye. One that Phil put there himself at one point when they were beating on each other growing up. He couldn’t even remember what caused them to roughhouse that day. They never had a reason. They were always throwing things at each other, picking and poking—typical things brothers do.

Alec was more solid than Phil. Not that Phil wasn’t toned. But all those years of construction padded the muscle on Alec’s six-foot-two-inch frame. Phil did put his fair share of time on the construction site, or on Alec’s personal flips, but not to the extent of Alec. In all honesty, Phil was just as happy to sit behind a desk. With the door shut. And locked.

Phil was far from soft though. All the Harpers were naturally tall and lean, with the exception of Kaitlin who was curvier. But it worked for her. Alec and Ben had more muscle on them. Of course no one had as much as Ben did.

“Yeah, I know,” Alec replied. “I’ve been thinking.”

“Don’t hurt yourself.”

Alec chuckled, grabbed a piece of paper, balled it up and threw it at Phil. They never outgrew that childhood tendency to rib on each other and throw things. “Seriously. We need help.”

“I’ve been telling Mom and Dad you did for years. But for some reason they keep falling for your crap.”

“Ha, ha. Office help. We need office help,” Alec clarified, laughing.

“How’s that going to help our workload?” Phil asked, frowning.

“Well, not really office help like you’re thinking. I was thinking that we should hire someone with a real estate background or license. Someone to deal with all the clients. Meet with them, find out what they’re looking for, give them the plans to choose from and sit down with them for the materials and specs. Then once all that is finished they would come to us and we would go from there. It leaves us out of the middle.”

“It’s a good idea. I’m surprised you thought of it.”

“Actually, Mary did. Well, she suggested that we contract with a local real estate office and see if we could work something out. I had Sean look into it and he said it would be more beneficial to hire someone full time. Then all these pesky changes can go through that person and free us up to do the actual work.”

“I like it. Who’s going to do the interviews?” Phil hated interviewing. Hating sitting with people and asking generic questions with all those awkward silences. Or people rambling on, trying to impress him.

“I’m going to have Sean vet out the people and narrow it down. Then you and I will have to meet with them and have the final say.” Alec stopped talking and sent him a glare. “Get over it, Phil. You want the right person, then you have to be part of it.”

“I know. Fine, let’s get moving on it. I’m ready to be done with all this stuff and focus on what I actually enjoy doing.”

“I agree. It’s my hope this position can take over all the miscellaneous things on the rental properties for us too. The new tenant walk-throughs and showing the properties and such. Maybe even taking all the rehab calls and the initial client meetings before I get on site.”

“Okay, it all sounds good to me.”

“Don’t forget about tonight,” Alec said, when he stood up to leave.

“What’s tonight?”

“The Chamber Dinner.” Phil groaned. “Yeah, I know. I don’t want to dress up anymore than you do. But it’s good business and free publicity with the award. Don’t worry, Mom and Dad will be there, along with Kaitlin and Ryan. You won’t have to sit in the corner by yourself while I socialize.”

Phil snorted. He never sat in the corner by himself. At least not since he was a kid.

***

“I’m so glad you could go tonight,” Kaitlin said to Sophia when she picked her up. “Ryan had every intention of attending, but something came up at work and he couldn’t make it. I could have gone alone, but it’s better to have a date.” She ended with a little chuckle.

“As long as no one thinks I knocked you up,” Sophia said. She very rarely let herself go like she did with Kaitlin. She would have never made a crass comment like that to anyone else. There was something about Kaitlin that allowed Sophia to be herself. To not put on the sophisticated act that she acquired growing up.

All those fancy dinners and affairs she’d had to attend with her parents, the high-priced vacations, and the occasional private school. In order to fit in, she’d had to act like those around her. Very rarely had she felt free to just be Sophia. At this point in her life, she wasn’t sure who the real Sophia was. A mixture of all those acts for sure, but never one by itself.

“I don’t think anyone is going to guess that,” Kaitlin replied, giggling.

Sophia grabbed her short suit jacket and slipped it on over her emerald green dress. Green was her favorite color. It made her eyes stand out even more than they already did.

She thought her eyes were her best feature—bright, rich, almost a perfect shade of kelly green. “Either way, I’m glad for the invite. It’s a good opportunity for me to mingle and make some contacts in the area.”

Twenty minutes later they were walking into the restaurant where the Chamber Dinner was being held when Sophia came to a standstill. The last person she’d expected to see tonight was Phil, let alone see him in a suit.

Her abrupt stop caused Kaitlin to bump into her and let out a little huff, drawing Phil’s attention to them. Sophia froze. Images of him in that suit brought back a surge of heat making her want to fan herself. Worse yet, he noticed her reaction and had one similar, if she were to guess by the look in his eyes.

Kaitlin, oblivious to the tension around her, reached up and gave Phil a hug. “Congratulations. I’m so proud of you guys. Where’s Alec?” she asked, looking around.

“He’s at the bar.”

“Congratulations?” Sophia inquired. What had she missed?

Kaitlin turned and excitedly said, “Harper Construction is getting the award for the Business of the Year. Isn’t that wonderful?”

Sophia’s eyes softened, pride springing into them. “That
is
wonderful news. Congratulations,” she said, reaching up and giving him a hug. When he held her longer and tighter than necessary, she felt her heart quicken and stepped back for some air.

“Where’s our table, Phil?”

Sophia had all she could do not to groan. Not only did she have no clue Phil would be here, but now she was going to have to sit with him. She could get through it, of course she could. She had gotten through worse situations before. All she had to do was reach within herself and put on a good front.

The dinner was going well. Better than she might have expected considering her surprise at finding herself seated right next to him. Especially after his leg brushed against hers on multiple occasions.

At first she thought it was an accident, but after the fourth time she was on to him. Sending him a warning signal only caused him to grin at her. Oh, how she had missed that sexy grin of his. The flirtatious one he’d always sent her before their night together months ago.

That dreaded night. If only she hadn’t had a few too many drinks, she and Phil could well be on their way to having an actual relationship. Instead, now she was fighting everything she had within herself to not give in.

He needed time, time to get Linda out of his system before he attempted another relationship. She ought to know, since she had seen what happened with the rebound girl enough in her life.

Nothing she could do about it now. Move on, that was it. Maybe in another year or so he would be ready. But she wasn’t taking the chance now. She could hold off longer. She hoped. If he was truly the person who could give her what she was looking for all these years, she wanted to make sure they started out on good ground. Or better ground then they were on now.

An hour later, she watched as Alec and Phil made their way to the stage to collect their award. Alec did most of the talking, just as she figured he would. He talked more about the business and the growth and what their plans for the future were. How more jobs were being added on with the development starting up in a few weeks.

Phil took over and thanked all those close to them for their support. Phil was always the one that wanted to make sure everyone got their due. He was all for family and making sure everyone was appreciated. It was a nice speech. He and Alec always made a good team. They flowed well together.

Both so handsome. But something about Phil always made her heart flutter. He was nothing like her normal type. Nothing like the men she grew up around, or the men she dated.

With those men, she had to figure out what they wanted or who they wanted to be with. Which one of the acts she had to play. Which mask worked the best. With Phil, she was herself. No act required. Maybe it was because he was safe in the beginning.

She’d felt safe to be herself. He’d been in a relationship, after all, so it didn’t matter one way or another what type of person he was looking for. He wasn’t looking at her, so she was free to be who she wanted and who came so naturally to her. That carefree girl that wasn’t afraid to speak her mind, who didn’t guard her tongue because it wasn’t appropriate or ladylike—fearful of being shunned as the new girl. Or the trouble-making stepchild.

There weren’t appearances to keep up with Phil. He knew her as Kaitlin’s best friend. But as time went by, she looked at him as more than Kaitlin’s brother. And by then, he knew her for who she was and he liked that person. Or so she’d always believed.

He’d made her feel things she never felt with another man before. Freedom, freedom to not have to pretend to be someone else, to not care that she was herself. And that freedom had turned to love somewhere along the line.

“Phil, I’m so happy for you.” Sophia was drawn out of her thoughts with the appearance of Phil’s ex-girlfriend, Linda, approaching the table smiling brightly, tears in her eyes. “I always knew you and Alec would be successful. How have you been?” She inched in and hugged him, never giving him a chance to stand up, then placed a kiss on his lips.