NFH 02 Perfection (6 page)

"I'm sorry, Jared. I had no idea what
he was up to until he dragged me from my office."

"It's fine, Brad," Jared said, leaning
back in his chair.

"Bullshit! You hired a woman who can't
keep her dirty little hands off of me! You need to fire
her!"

Zoe's brows arched as she spotted the
man's wedding band. Well, it was nice to see a man who was
committed to his wife, she thought. Most guys would enjoy the
attention.

"Tell him what you saw yesterday," the
large man demanded.

Brad sighed. "You mean when you had
her pinned against the back of the coffee truck yesterday while
devouring her mouth?"

Okay.......so apparently he enjoyed
the attention, Zoe thought, feeling oddly disappointed that there
really were no happily married men out there. It didn't leave much
hope for someone like her.

The large man gasped. "You betraying
bastard! You saw what she wanted you to see!"

"Uh huh," Brad said, taking the chair
next to her. "Hi, I'm Brad and I'm really sorry about my friend.
We're all pretty sure that he's gone insane," he said with an easy
smile.

"Zoe," she said, wondering if she
should just leave.

"Can't you see that I'm in the middle
of something?" Jared asked the larger man while he gestured to
her.

"What is more important than making
sure that your secretary keeps her dirty little hands off your
precious son?" the man demanded, earning sighs of exasperation from
both man and a muttered curse.

"Zoe O'Shea," Jared said, gesturing to
the large man, "this is my son Jason, Jason, this is the nice young
woman I was trying to interview for the secretary job before you
came in here acting like an ass."

Jason folded his large arms over his
chest as he glared down at her. "Will you be able to keep your
hands off of me?"

"I'm pretty sure I can manage that,"
she said, wondering if the man truly was insane.

"That's really all I can ask," he
said, sighing, sounding completely serious.

"Don't worry, Zoe, he only works for
me during the summer and one weekend a month during the rest of the
year," Jared said, picking up the paper Jason slammed on his desk
moments earlier and rolling his eyes.

"And the rest of the time he spends
shaping the minds of our youth," Brad said dryly, earning a chuckle
from Jared and a glare from Jason.

"You know I'm going to show your
mother this one," Jared said, giving his son a stern
look.

"Shit!" Jason said, reaching out and
snatching the piece of paper away. "I should have known you'd take
her side!"

"Are you done interrupting my meeting
with Miss. O'Shea?"

Jason narrowed his eyes on her.
"You're taking the job, right?"

"I guess I-"

"Good," he said, turning his attention
back to his father. "Then fire the other one."

"I can't fire her. She needs to train
Zoe," Jared patiently pointed out even though she couldn't quite
remember agreeing to take the job. She didn't know how she felt
about working with insane people. Then again she did just spend the
last three years working for the soulless.

"Have mom do it." He gestured lazily
to the large Mickey Mouse wall clock. "It's almost twelve o'clock
and she's not even here. You should fire her lazy ass."

"She had a doctor's appointment this
morning, you jackass," Jared snapped. "Now stop being such a baby.
I'm not firing your wife."

Zoe felt her eyebrows climb to her
hairline. The man was trying to get his wife fired? The man really
was insane. Thankfully Brad took pity on her and explained the
situation before she tried to come up with an excuse to get the
hell out of there.

"She's seven months pregnant and he
doesn't want her working. So everyday he writes her up for sexual
harassment or some other bullshit and we all laugh behind his
back."

Oh.......

That was kind of sweet in a psychotic
sort of way.

"She shouldn't be working," Jason
said, glaring at his friend.

"She likes to keep busy," Jared
pointed out.

Zoe stood up. "Maybe I should step
outside," she said, feeling a little awkward.

"No, that's-"

"Dad?" a woman called out from the
other room, cutting him off. "Could I get a hand? I'm about to drop
the plate of brownies I made!"

The word "brownies" was barely out of
the woman's mouth when Jared jumped up from his chair and rushed
towards the door the same time Jason turned to leave. Jason was
almost at the door when Jared grabbed him by the back of the shirt
and yanked him backwards, causing him to stumble. Just before he
crashed into her she found herself yanked back and out of the way.
As soon as Jason was able to catch his footing he was off and out
the door.

"The most important rule you need to
learn if you work here is never come between a Bradford and his
food," Brad said, sounding completely serious.

"Those are my brownies, you bastard!"
she heard Jason yell.

Zoe swallowed. "I guess so," she
mumbled, allowing him to steer her out of the office even though
part of her thought that maybe it would be safer to hide under the
desk until the brownies were gone.

She received another shock when she
walked back into the reception area. When she realized Jason was
married she'd automatically assumed he married a tall voluptuous
blonde to go along with his ego. What she didn't expect was the
short cute chestnut haired woman with glasses and one of the
sweetest smiles she'd ever seen. If there was any doubt in her mind
that this woman was his wife the look of total adoration he was
sending her squashed it. Jason placed a hand on the woman's round
stomach as he leaned down and gave her the sweetest kiss Zoe had
ever seen.

"These are so good," Jared practically
moaned, drawing her attention.

She looked over to find Jared standing
next to the counter with an adorable baby boy cradled in his arm as
he stood protectively in front of a large plate of brownies as he
devoured one.

"Haley, this is Zoe. She was thinking
of taking the job until the dumb bastard you married scared the
hell out of her," Brad announced, chuckling.

Haley pushed her glasses up her nose
as she glared up at her husband. "What did you do?"

"Me?" Jason demanded in an innocent
tone as he pressed a hand to his chest.

She glared up at Jason for another
minute before turning an expectant look on Brad who was only too
happy to tell her.

"He wrote you up again," Brad said
cheerfully.

"Betraying bastard," Jason mumbled,
throwing a glare at Brad that only seemed to make his grin
widen.

She sighed heavily. "The things I put
up with," Haley said, walking over to Zoe.

"Put up with? You adore me, my little
grasshopper, and we both know it."

"Hello, my name is Haley and that
little guy is Cole," she said, smiling as she gestured to the baby
who was now trying to wrestle a brownie away from Jared. "I would
apologize for my husband, but then that's all I'd be doing all day
and I really just don't have the time."

Zoe bit back a smile.

"Hey!"

"Zoe, are you interested in the job?"
Jared asked around a mouthful of brownie.

Was she? Despite all the craziness and
the frightening revelation that all Bradford's were psycho about
their food, at least the males were, she was interested in the job.
Whether that was out of desperation or amusement she wasn't
sure.

Chapter 6

"Let's call it a night, gentlemen!"
Carl called out through a bullhorn.

Trevor shot one last bolt into the
metal frame before he wiped the sweat off his forehead with the
back of his arm. He looked at his watch and nearly groaned. It
figured that the first time they got out on time in weeks and he
had a ton of shit to do. He started to make a mental list of all
the shit he had to do as he grabbed his tools and headed for the
ladder. There was no food in his house, he still had a shit load of
laundry to do, and the sink was overflowing with dishes. Looked
like he was putting off his haircut for another night, he thought
with disgust as he shoved the hair out of his face.

Maybe he should call his aunt and
grovel so that.........

A huge shit eating grin suddenly
tipped his lips when he remembered the deal he'd made with his
little tenant this morning. Oh this was fucking perfect, he
thought. He had no doubt that she'd take the job he offered her
even if his uncle hired her this morning. There was no way he could
have missed the excited expression on her face when he pointed out
that it would give her extra money, but just in
case.....

He quickly handed over the tools he'd
used to one of the supervisors and waited to be signed out. A few
minutes later he headed for his truck as he took his phone out.
Just when he thought voice mail was about to pick up Zoe answered,
sounding out of breath.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Zoe. It's me," Trevor said,
unlocking his door and tossing his tool belt inside the
truck.

"Me who?" Zoe asked, sounding
confused.

That caught him off guard. He couldn't
remember having a woman not know it was him when he called. Granted
that was probably because they all waited by the phone for his call
and expected him, he reassured himself. He was memorable damn
it!

"It's Trevor," he bit out.

"Oh," she mumbled, sounding even more
confused. "How did you get this number?"

"It was on your rental application,"
he said, pausing by his door when he spotted his cousin walking
towards him. "I just wanted to find out how things with my uncle
went today." And of course he wanted to know if she'd done all his
grunt work so he could get a haircut, hit the bar and maybe get
laid for the first time in a long time, but she didn't need to know
all the little details.

"Hey, Trevor!" Hank, an obnoxious
asshole his uncle hired a few years ago, yelled from across the
yard as he waved Trevor over. Like most days he simply ignored the
jerk. If Trevor was an asshole, and he'd admit that he was, then
that prick was the biggest douche bag on earth.

At least once a week he had to put up
with the jerk trying, hell, more like begging him to go hang out
with him and pick up women. It was never going to happen. The man
looked and acted like a sleazebag and went for anything with a pair
of tits and thought that made him king shit and he wanted Trevor
along for the ride so that he could get his hands on the type of
women that Trevor normally dated, fucking hot and nearly
perfect.

"I got the job!" she said excitedly,
grabbing his attention. "I start tomorrow!"

"That's great," he said, wondering if
she used fabric softener in his laundry or if she even did it. Did
the woman forget about him and his needs now that she had a job?
Kind of inconsiderate of her, he thought, arching a brow when his
clearly pissed off cousin walked around his truck and climbed into
the passenger side without a word.

"Is there something you needed? I'm
kind of in the middle of putting your groceries away before the ice
cream melts," she said absently, he could hear the sounds of
plastic bags rustling in the background.

She got him ice cream? He fucking
loved ice cream.

"What flavor?" he asked, licking his
lips in anticipation of the sweet treat.

"I don't remember right now. I bought
you several half gallons because I wasn't sure what you liked, but
I really have to get off the phone so I can put the stuff away. The
checkout line was really long and then I got held up in traffic
so-"

"No, that's fine. I just wanted to see
if you got the job," he lied. He could have just as easily asked
his uncle if he'd really wanted to know. As far as he was concerned
his guilt was washed away when he hired her this morning. Anything
else was just a plus.

"Oh, that was nice of you. Thank you,"
she said, sounding truly surprised, which kind of pissed him off
since he was fucking nice. Didn't he just find her two jobs out of
the goodness of his heart? "I really have to go now. Bye," she
said, hanging up before he could respond. Damn infuriating tenant,
he thought as he turned his scowl on his cousin.

"What the hell do you
want?"

"What the hell does it look like?"
Jason snapped. "I need a ride home."

"So? Go find your wife and have her
drive your ass home. I have plans," he said, getting in and
starting the truck. He threw his cousin an expectant look that
clearly told the other man to get his ass out.

Jason simply crossed his arms over his
wide chest and leaned back. "She already left for the
day."

"Call her and tell her to come pick
your ass up," Trevor said, giving the door a pointed
look.

"She's sleeping," Jason said as if
that should mean something to him. It didn't. Sure he liked Haley
and if his cousin hadn't managed to trick her into marrying him he
would have made an exception for her height and taken a go at her,
but that didn't mean he gave a rat's ass that she'd have to cut her
nap short and come get her pain in the ass husband.