Carson West being on the design team was a stressor I did not need, but I couldn’t figure out how to get rid of him without a truckload of office drama. The pleaser in me didn’t like making waves, but I didn’t trust him not to sabotage the project intentionally and make it look like my fault. Add in my suspicion that he was also the one tampering with my corporate card, and tracking his every move at the office was becoming an obsession.

I was still unsettled by his questions about how I’d met Lexi and managed to bring her in as a client. The man gave me bad vibes, and they were creeping into my off time, too, which I mightily resented.

“All right, what’s going on?” Nick asked.

He caught my raft as it came alongside his, keeping me from floating by.

“What do you mean?” I asked. I sipped my margarita, playing it cool.

“You keep making these exasperated little noises while you’re staring off into space so it seems something is bugging you,” he said. He closed the paperback book he had in his hand and gently tossed it onto one of the lounge chairs beside the pool. “I thought you’d consider it a victory to have the tenant ban from the pool lifted.”

I grinned at him and made a V for victory with the index and middle fingers of my free hand. I had been quite stoked when he told me the pool and hot tub were at my disposal whenever I wanted.

“Which is much appreciated,” I said. “I’m just having a hard time leaving work at the office.”

“Can I help?”

I considered him. “That depends. Do you have any experience with disgruntled narcissists?”

“Carson West?” he asked.

I was impressed that he remembered the name from our conversation on my patio the night he’d turned up in his wheelchair with Sir.

“Yeah,” I said. “I don’t trust him and he’s maneuvered himself onto Lexi’s project and my instincts are telling me he’s going to do something to sabotage it. He’s already started questioning how I, a new resident to Phoenix, managed to bag such a big client. I suspect he’s talking about me behind my back to other staff members, because there were just a few instances where I felt like something was off with colleagues that I normally get along with just fine. He’s trying to undermine me, and I genuinely don’t know what to do about it.”

I didn’t mention the corporate card because I didn’t have proof, but also I suspected Nick would be mad enough to talk to Miguel and I didn’t want anyone to know we were a thing. If we were going to last only a few months, then there wasn’t much point in going public.