“Brody Oil and Gas, Kate speaking,” Kate Thornton said into the phone as she did about fifty times a day.
“Hey, Katie-girl, any fires I need to put out?” Lance Brody asked.
“Hi, Lance, how was DC?” she said while she sorted through the messages on her desk. Her boss was everything she’d ever wanted in a man and, embarrassingly for her, he never saw her as anything other than his ultra-efficient administrative assistant. Which was great—really it was. That’s what she was paid for.
She’d joined Brody Oil and Gas shortly after Lance and his brother, Mitch, had inherited the failing refineries. And over the last five years, Lance and Mitch had turned their fortunes around and were now members of the famed Texas Cattleman’s Club.
“DC was hot and the meetings were long. Messages?” Lance asked.
“You have two that aren’t urgent but that you might want to handle before you get back to the office. One is from Sebastian Huntington regarding TCC business. Do you need his number?”
“Nah, I got it. What’s the other one?”
“The other one is from Lexi Cavanaugh. I didn’t recognize her name but she asked for you to call her as soon as you landed.”
“She’s my fiancée,” Lance said.
Kate felt all the blood leave her body. She knew Lance was still talking because she could hear his voice beyond the buzzing in her ears. But all she could think was after years of secretly loving this man, he’d gone away and gotten engaged to someone she’d never even heard of.
“Katie-girl? You still there?”
“Yes,” she said. “Of course I am. That’s it on the messages. When do you think you’ll be in the office?”
“En route now. The traffic on highway 45 is heavy, though. I need one more thing from you,” he said.
Please don’t ask me to plan your engagement party, she thought.
“Double-check with the caterers for Thursday’s Fourth of July barbecue. I want to make sure this year’s party blows the top off of last year’s.”
“No problem,” she said, hearing her own voice break. She didn’t know how she was going to be able to work with Lance every day now that he was clearly another woman’s man.
“The other line is ringing,” she said, though it wasn’t. She just needed to get off the phone.
“I’ll see you soon,” he said, hanging up.
Kate hung up the phone and sat there staring at her computer screen. The wallpaper on her monitor was a photo of Lance, Mitch and her taken in February when Lance and Mitch had received word they were going to be accepted into the millionaire’s club. She’d bought a bottle of champagne and the three of them had toasted the brothers’ success.
Back then it had seemed fine that both Lance and Mitch thought of her as nothing more than an assistant. She had believed that one day Lance would see past her horn-rimmed glasses and cardigan sweaters to the woman beneath.
Clearly, that wasn’t the case.
She leaned forward, looking at the photo and realizing that part of the problem lay with her. Her thick dark hair was pulled back in a sloppy braid and her glasses were a little big for her face. She’d lost weight last year—almost eighty pounds—and hadn’t bothered to get new frames for her smaller face. In fact, all of her clothes were just the old ones. They were all faded and too big for her.