Page 28 of Protecting Love

“I figured as much. London is worried and she doesn’t get worried often. Paris doesn’t do well with blame. At times she hates that what she does costs people jobs, but she understands it. Getting called out like this rattled her more than normal.”

“That’s understandable.”

“She’s going to be resistant to going any further,” Spencer warned.

“Because she doesn’t want to cause problems for Rick? That should be the last thing she should be worried about when he went there looking for a fight.”

“He’s looking to blame someone. I get it. But Paris isn’t to blame. She’s ready to just put it behind her. Chances are, it’s over with.”

“Better safe than sorry. Things like this prepare you for something worse that could happen down the line. You know that. West does too. That’s what this is about.”

Spencer nodded his head. “I was hoping you’d say that. If it’s explained to Paris that way, she might be more receptive.”

Fletcher leaned back in his chair. “Is it my job to make her receptive or just make them safe?”

Spencer grinned. “Well, that would be up to you and how easy you want this to be.”

Nothing he’d done since he was hired over a year ago here was hard.

And this wouldn’t be either.

He didn’t know what everyone was so worried about.

7

IMAGINING THINGS

“What?” Paris said into the phone, then pulled it back to look at it as if it’d reached out and bit her. “There is no reason for this, West.”

“It’s my building, my decision,” West said. “It’s going to be done and you and London can design it any way you want to make it warm and welcoming.”

“London isn’t touching it. She doesn’t know how to make anything warm. And do you know how hard it’s going to be to work during construction?”

Just the thought of that alone was making her shiver, her knee bouncing so hard that it was almost hitting her desk.

“It will be started and finished over the weekend. Come Monday all that will be left to do is paint. You can live through that, I’m sure.”

“Do you promise?” she asked.

“It’s not as much work as you think,” West said. “It’s getting done, end of story.”

“Guess that says it all.”

“Your sarcasm isn’t lost on me. But I don’t want to deal with my aunt and uncle if they find out and I didn’t do something about it.”

“Oh, West. That’s the lowest form of guilt. I thought you were better than that.”

Her cousin laughed. “I’m not afraid to use any weapon I can. I mean it, Paris. This is about safety and I should have done it to begin with.”

She blew a breath out. “Fine. I hope I get to help design it before it’s built. Or don’t I get any say in it?”

“You’ll get a say. I’ve got people working on getting a crew ready. With any luck, maybe this weekend we can get it thrown up, if not next weekend.”

“Fine. Is that all?”

“No. Fletcher will be down to meet with you this afternoon to get more information on what happened and all the people involved. Security cameras will also be installed tonight.”

Paris heard nothing else other than Fletcher would be down.