I raised a brow. "Is that what you really want?"
"It's familiar and safe. I don't have to take any risks or worry about whether I'm going to lose my job."
"I think you can handle whatever you set out to do. The only thing that's standing in your way is that brain of yours."
She tipped her head to the side. "What do you mean?"
"Your brain wants to keep you safe. It will keep you doing what you've always done before because that's predictable."
"I never thought about it like that." She sighed heavily. "We can't screw this up."
Now that she viewed me as a business associate and not another brother, we were getting along. But did she view me as a brother in other ways? We’d opened the door to seeing each other in a different way, and there was no going back. I certainly couldn't see her as a little sister anymore.
That made everything more complicated. The more I got to know her, the more I respected and admired her. She seemed comfortable confiding in me. Morgan had come to me for advice when he was dealing with Reina living with him, and he needed to get out of the friend zone. But that hadn't required me to share much besides the fact that Tess thought I was closed off. "I'll get the estimate to you."
"Eve wants the renovation done before the winter ball." She pulled out her phone to give me the date, which was in a few weeks.
"We'd need to start right away."
She glanced up at me. "But it's possible?"
I always tried to meet Natasha and Eve's expectations, and this was no different. "I'll see what I can do."
"I'll get started on plans for the winter ball. I'm in charge of everything, and it's a little scary."
"I'm sure you'll get it done." I was solely focused on my job. I didn't have a significant other to distract me, and I had no plans to get involved with anyone anytime soon. I'd learned my lesson. Most women didn't want to date a man who was closed off. And I had no intention of sharing my past with anyone, even Aspen.
This attraction to her was more than inconvenient. I was friends and business partners with her brothers. There was no way they'd be okay with me making a move on her. A relationship was out of the question.
It should be easy to put up boundaries and walls. I just had to remember why she annoyed me in the first place. The fact was, she had been antagonistic toward me the moment I had appeared in her family's home. That had set the tone for our interactions. Now that she was being nice, things were different.
I just hoped I could ignore the attraction and focus on the job.
Chapter 7
Aspen
After meeting with Cooper, I went back to my office in town hall. It was quiet now that Eve was working from home. But I was having trouble focusing on the schedule for the upcoming holiday season.
There was something about Cooper. He was quiet and unassuming, and when I wasn't yelling at him, he was surprisingly easy to talk to. The only problem was, I shouldn't be confiding in him.
I was proving my parents right. I was impulsive and reckless. I didn't know how to be professional. I'd only ever worked the kind of jobs where no one expected too much of me, so it was easy to exceed expectations. This was my first real challenge.
I had to step into a role I wasn't prepared for and work with a man that I couldn't stand a few short weeks ago. But he was different than I thought.
Did I know on a subconscious level that I was attracted to him? And the antagonistic exchanges were a necessary means of self-preservation? I was fighting this attraction before my conscious mind knew it existed.
Eve expected me to run the town for the holiday season, and I couldn't afford to be distracted. I'd just managed to refocus on the spreadsheet when there was a knock on my door.
"Come in," I said as Reina walked in.
I leaned back in my chair, grateful for a break. "What are you doing here?"
Reina glanced around the room with curiosity. "I thought you might want to grab lunch."
I closed my laptop. "That sounds great."
"I wasn't sure if you were busy now that you're taking over Eve's responsibilities."