Made For Us (2 page)

He rested his head back on the pillow and let out a breath. If he allowed himself to stop being the big brother for a minute and just be a bystander, he could admit Darcy wasn’t asking for anything out of the ordinary. He thought she was probably itching to spread her wings. But there was no way in hell he or any of his brothers were going to let her go off to some faraway college on her own. She’d just have to learn to deal with it. But he supposed there were some things they could compromise on.

Looking at the clock on the wall, he saw it was after midnight. He should be tired.

Instead, he grabbed his cell phone and pulled up Hugh’s number. Although Aidan couldn’t remember where exactly his brother was this month, he knew it was somewhere on the West Coast, and three hours earlier.

“If you’re calling me this late on a Friday night, it can’t be good,” Hugh said as he answered the phone.

Aidan chuckled. “Maybe I just wanted to hear your cheery voice.”

“Yeah, right,” Hugh said with his own laugh. “Seriously, everything okay? This is late for you.”

The comment burned more than it should. He was responsible, so what? Why did everyone have to make it sound like there was something wrong with him? “It’s not that late,” Aidan grumbled. “I just…” He paused. “Something’s going on with Darcy.”

“Oh shit,” Hugh muttered. “That is all on you and Dad, Bro. There is no way I’m dealing with a teenage girl. She scares the hell out of me.”

This time Aidan’s laugh was hearty. “For crying out loud, Hugh, she’s a child. And she’s our sister!”

“What is it this time?”

“It’s mostly the same song and dance but she’s getting more…vocal about it. She kind of yelled at me and Dad tonight about the whole college thing.”

Hugh sighed loudly. “Listen, Darcy is going to be pissed because, well, she’s Darcy. She’s a female, and females like to argue. Aidan, look…it’s Friday night. I’ve got a resort filled to capacity—”

“I’m thinking of letting her work for me a couple of days a week after school.”

“That’s brave, man. Very brave. And she’s good with that? I would have thought she’d take issue with having to work with family.”

“I haven’t mentioned it to her yet. I just thought of it right before I called you. What do you think?”

“Like I said, you’re brave.”

“Bravery has nothing to do with it. It’s just that—”

“She doesn’t need to work,” Hugh interrupted. “Our sister doesn’t want for anything, Aidan. Dad takes care of everything for her. Why can’t she just be grateful and…go shopping or something?”

“I agree with you, but maybe she wants to feel like she’s contributing.”

“To what?”

“To her family,” Aidan said. “With all of us moved out, now it’s just her and Dad at home.”

“And you.”

Aidan sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t live at home. I have a place of my own and—”

“And you still spend a whole lot of time at home,” Hugh said carefully. “It’s not a bad thing, Aidan. I think it’s great you’re close by in case either of them need you, but don’t you ever want more?”

How had the subject suddenly turned to him? This wasn’t about him; this was about Darcy. Ignoring Hugh’s question, Aidan went back to his original train of thought. “If she has a job, maybe it’ll pacify her about the whole college thing, and I can still keep an eye on her.”

“And working for her brother is going to accomplish that?”

“It’s a start.”

“Fine. Go ahead and ask her, but do me a favor.”

“What?”

“Have someone record it. I want to see her reaction.” He laughed for too long before he realized Aidan wasn’t. “Look, man, do what you think is best. Let me know what you need from me and I’ll do it. You’re the responsible one in the family. You always seem to know exactly what to do and what to say to smooth things over. If you think offering Darcy a job with your company is the answer, then do it.”

“But…?” Aidan knew there was more.

“But…” Hugh began, “maybe it’s time for you to stop smoothing things over for everyone else and start doing something for yourself.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Dude, it’s midnight on a Friday freaking night and you’re on the phone with your
brother.
And that’s after you went and had dinner with your father and sister. For God’s sake, go out! Go on a date! When was the last time you were even with a woman?”

“None of your damn business,” Aidan snapped.

“That long, huh?” Hugh chuckled. “Okay, fine. Don’t tell me. I can pretty much guess.” He stopped and collected his thoughts. “Just…think about it, okay?”

“About what?”

“And you call me a dumbass,” Hugh said with exasperation. “Think about
yourself
, damn it! Think about doing something on a Friday night that isn’t family related. Think about going out with a beautiful woman and wining and dining her and spending the night with her nails raking down your damn back.”

Aidan hadn’t thought about it that way, but he had a feeling he’d be thinking about it a lot tonight. “Fine. I’ll think about it.”

“Hey, and Aidan?”

“What?” he said grumpily.

“You can call me any damn time you want. Seriously.”

A small smile broke on Aidan’s face. “Thanks, man. I appreciate it.”

“Keep me posted on the whole Darcy situation.”

Aidan agreed and they hung up. He was no closer to any decisions on anything. The only thing that had changed was that he suddenly had an itch that needed to be scratched.

“Reason number nine hundred and forty-seven why my life sucks: this job. At least this job today.” Zoe Dalton slouched down in her office chair and looked at the pile of messages in front of her. She’d been an interior designer for years, but she’d just moved to the East Coast the month before and working for well-known designer Martha Tate was quickly grating on her nerves.

A flurry of activity outside her door made her look up and her boss appeared, as if Zoe’d conjured her up by force of griping.

“Zoe,” Martha said breathlessly as she stepped into the office and sat down at her desk, “I’m going to need you to take over on the Shaughnessy job.”

From what Zoe had heard in the previous weeks, the Shaughnessy project was a huge undertaking. There were a lot of houses going up in a brand-new community, and at least half a dozen model homes needed to be decorated. “Why? What happened to Sarah?” Zoe asked.

Martha waved her off. “She went rogue and the client is majorly pissed.”

“Went rogue?”

“She ignored the design plans the client requested,” Martha said reproachfully. “This was a fairly straightforward job; everything was clearly specified per Mr. Shaughnessy’s directions.”

“So I have to go in and do damage control, is that it?”

Her boss nodded. “And…redo everything Sarah did. And make sure the next five houses are done
exactly
as requested.”

Seemed like a no-brainer. Zoe shrugged and smiled. “I’m on it.”

Martha looked visibly relieved. “Good…good. You have a meeting with Mr. Shaughnessy in an hour. Sarah’s collecting all her files, along with all her personal belongings, and you’ll have them to go through in a few minutes.”

“Her personal belongings?”

“No, just her files. She’s fired,” Martha said.

Maybe this job
wasn’t
a no-brainer. She was going to have to tread very carefully from this point forward.

She nodded and straightened in her seat. “Okay, I’ll meet with Mr. Shaughnessy at ten, and then I have an eleven with…”

“Oh, no, no, no, Zoe,” Martha interrupted. “You aren’t meeting with anyone else today. You’ll have to cancel.”

“But—”

“You have to give this project one hundred percent of your attention.”

“But—”

“You can’t expect someone like Aidan Shaughnessy to wait on you and your schedule. I know you haven’t been here very long, but the Shaughnessys are a very important family in the community, and this account is huge for us. Sarah can fill you in about them. You’re going to need to be available not only to fix Sarah’s mistakes but also to make sure absolutely nothing else goes wrong with the rest of the houses. You need to be on this 24-7.”

Zoe was not one to raise her voice, but right now it was the only way to get her boss to stop interrupting her. “Hold on!” she said. “I have at least six other active projects I’m working on. I’ve put a lot of time and effort into developing relationships with these clients. I can’t just toss them aside, Martha!”

“Already taken care of,” she said dismissively. “I’ve reassigned all of your projects. If you’ll just go through your messages, I’ll be sure to pass them on to the designers who are taking them over.”

Her head felt ready to explode. Back in Arizona, she’d had her own firm and had been her own boss. Zoe had known there was going to be some compromises when she moved and went to work for someone else, but this was above and beyond what she’d expected. The decision to move had been an emotional one, and she had hoped for a more positive transition than this. This was not something she was willing to take lying down.

“Look, Martha, I’m sure Mr. Shaughnessy is a reasonable businessman,” she began diplomatically and was surprised when Martha actually snorted with sarcasm. Zoe raised her eyebrows but continued. “Surely he can understand that while Sarah made a…mistake…we will do everything to rectify it without compromising our other clients.” There. That sounded sensible, didn’t it?

Leaning forward in her seat, Martha gave Zoe a pitying look. “Zoe, trust me. If it were any other client, I would let you keep your other projects. But this is a…special…case. This is going to demand much more of your time than you think. If, by some miracle, you get things going to the point where I’m not hearing from him several times a week, I’ll consider letting you take on other projects again. Until I can be sure of it though, he’s your one and only client.”

“What if I promise not to let my other projects interfere with the Shaughnessy job?”

Martha shook her head. “Trust me, you can’t keep that promise.”

Zoe sat back in resignation.

Martha chose her next words carefully. “I’m not trying to scare you or anything, but I want you to go into this meeting today thoroughly prepared.”

Zoe shrugged. “I still don’t think that—”

“You’ve had your own business, Zoe, so I know you’ve had your share of difficult clients, right?”

Zoe nodded.

“And that’s why I’m putting you on this job. Think of your most difficult client and multiply by say…ten.”

Music of doom began playing in Zoe’s head. “Well, I wasn’t scared before, but now—”

“We’ll talk about this after your meeting.” Standing, Martha put an end to the discussion and walked out of the room.

And her day couldn’t get any worse. Zoe immediately suspected she was going to hate Aidan Shaughnessy.

The next fifteen minutes were like an out-of-body experience for Zoe. People came and went from her office to get files and messages and collect what they could on her former clients. Zoe felt as if she were watching the whole thing happen in slow motion; it was like she wasn’t even there and people were picking over her belongings. And just when she thought the worst was over, Sarah walked in and dropped a massive box on the floor in front of Zoe’s desk.

“Good luck with
that
one,” she said snidely and walked right back out.

“Sarah! Wait!” Zoe cried, scrambling out from behind her desk to try to catch up. Luckily, Sarah halted in the hallway. “Can I talk to you for a minute? Please?” Zoe could see that her former coworker would as soon spit in her face as talk, but Sarah reluctantly walked back into Zoe’s office.

“Thank you,” Zoe said, quietly closing the door. She offered Sarah a seat, but the woman continued to stand with her arms crossed, ready to flee. “I know the last thing you want to do is help me with any of this, but could you please just let me know what I’m getting into?” Zoe was practically begging and hoped Sarah would take pity on her.

Sarah relaxed her stance. “I’ve known Aidan Shaughnessy all my life, and he is an arrogant, condescending jackass.
That’s
what you’re getting yourself into.”

Not quite what she was hoping for, but it was a start. “Okay, I got that part. But what about the job itself? I know there are five houses left and—”

“Six,” Sarah corrected. “He’s going to make you completely redo that entire first house. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s gotten the entire thing stripped down to bare walls already.”

Zoe’s stomach lurched. She swallowed hard and sat down in her chair. “Okay, six houses. What makes them difficult?”

Sarah finally took a seat. “It’s not the houses that make the job difficult, Zoe. It’s the man. Just…be careful.”

This was getting worse by the minute. “How so?”

“Look, you’re new to the area so you’re probably not aware of it but…the Shaughnessys are like the Kennedys around here. They’ve been here forever. There are a lot of them and they’re all successful.”

“Define successful.”

Sarah settled more comfortably in her seat and gave her words some thought. “Let’s see… Hugh, the second oldest, owns a bunch of luxury resorts pretty much all over the world. His newest one is in Napa—he bought a vineyard and built a five-star resort on it. It’s huge with the celebrity crowd right now. Most of his other resorts are on islands—his next one is going up in Australia, I think—and he does destination weddings and that sort of thing.”

“Wow.” Zoe was impressed but not to the point of a comparison to the Kennedys.

“Then there’s Quinn. I graduated with him. He was a star athlete in high school and we all thought he was going to go play major league baseball, but he took up race car driving. He doesn’t do it anymore—one crash too many, I think—and now he has a chain of custom auto body shops up and down the East Coast.”

“So they’re overachievers,” Zoe said conversationally. “So what?”

“It’s not just those two.” Sarah smirked. “Next we have Riley.”

“Wait a minute,” Zoe interrupted. “Are you talking about Riley Shaughnessy…
the
Riley Shaughnessy?”

“I am,” Sarah said.

“The rock star?” Zoe said, as if it needed clarification.

“Yes. Riley’s been singing since he was old enough to talk, but he’s very down-to-earth on top of being incredibly talented. No one makes that big a deal of it anymore when he comes home to visit—except the tourists. But to the locals, he’s just Riley, and they’re protective of him. When he comes home, they do what they can to make sure the tourist fans don’t get too out of hand.”

“I had no idea this was such a touristy place,” Zoe said. In actuality, the thought never occurred to her before she’d decided to relocate. All she knew was she wanted to live on the beach. Growing up in Arizona was all fine and good, but Zoe had dreamed of a time when she could wake up and walk out her back door and put her toes in the sand. Finding the job with Martha had seemed like a godsend.

Until now.

“Okay, so they’re a
really
overachieving family,” she finally said.

“Still not done,” Sarah said. “Did you know that Riley has a twin brother?”

Zoe shook her head, surprised. Everyone knew the rock star, but Zoe had never heard of a twin.

“Owen and Riley are fraternal but they still look a lot alike. I always thought Owen was the sweetest of the bunch by far, but he’s also the shyest.”

“And what does he do?” Zoe was almost afraid to ask.

“Owen is an astrophysicist. He’s absolutely brilliant.”

Of
course
he
is
, Zoe thought.

“He got picked on a bit because he was so nerdy and quiet compared to his brothers—especially his outgoing twin—but now he goes all over the world teaching at different universities about the sun, the moon, and the stars.”

“I’m sure it’s more complex than that,” Zoe said.

Sarah shrugged. “I have no idea. I hated science while I was in school.” She let out a sigh. “And then there’s Darcy.”

“Oh, you mean there’s actually a female in that bunch?” Zoe asked with a laugh.

“The one and only. She’s got it the hardest.”

“Why?”

“Are you kidding me?” Sarah said. “She’s got five older brothers and everyone in this town knows her family, along with everything about her life. She’s seventeen years old. How much do you think she gets away with?”

Zoe couldn’t relate. She was an only child so she couldn’t imagine what it was like having even one overachieving sibling, let alone five. “I hadn’t thought about it that way.”

“Plus, there are a lot of people who call her a spoiled brat behind her back. Must be hard on her.”

“Poor kid,” Zoe said. “What about Aidan? Where does he fall in the lineup?”

“He’s the oldest,” Sarah said, suddenly tense again. “Maybe that’s why he’s such a control freak and such a pain in the ass to work with.”

“I’m sure he’s just—”

Sarah cut her off. “He’s a perfectionist and he’s totally unreasonable. If you don’t follow his instructions to the letter, he goes right over your head. I substituted some perfectly fine paint colors—they were from last year’s palette, so they were thirty percent off, and they worked just fine. You’d think he’d be grateful I’d taken the initiative and found a way to save him some money. But no, it’s his way or the highway. And all Martha cares about is getting him off her back. And then there’s the stuff he won’t tell you—like where exactly he wants the sofa or what direction the TV should face—and when you try to figure it out on your own, it’ll be all wrong. But he won’t even tell you
that
either. Do yourself a favor, Zoe. Brush up on your ESP skills and plan on not getting any sleep. Good luck. You’re going to need it.”

“I’m so sorry, Sarah.” It was the only thing Zoe could think of to say. It was obvious this job had done a number on Sarah. “I really appreciate all of the background.”

Sarah nodded and stood. “I need to go. You have a meeting with him in less than half an hour. Do yourself a favor and be early. He hates it when people are late. And by late, I mean on time.”

Perfect
, Zoe thought apprehensively.

She watched Sarah walk out of her office and then looked at the box on the floor.

“Reason number nine hundred and forty-eight why my life sucks today? Aidan Shaughnessy.”

* * *

Okay, that was a lot of information
, Zoe kept saying to herself on the drive over. While it was good to have the background information, she wasn’t sure how helpful that would be in dealing with the man himself.

After perusing Sarah’s project files, Zoe could see what Sarah had done with the colors and finishes on the first model home. It didn’t sound so bad, but Zoe wasn’t foolish enough to believe it was going to be an easy fix. She had a feeling that paint color was only the tip of the iceberg.

As Zoe had left for her meeting, Martha had warned her that no matter what Mr. Shaughnessy wanted done to that house, she needed to make it right. Zoe wasn’t to argue.

Zoe frowned. It wasn’t like she argued with clients.

Much.

Her GPS signaled that she had arrived at her destination—ten minutes early, thank you very much—and the sight before her took her breath away. After parking the car, she slowly got out and removed her sunglasses.

“Stunning.” The word was a mere whisper from her lips. She’d done her fair share of work with architects, builders, and your everyday home owners, but never before had she seen a home that just drew you in like this one.