"What?"

Chase's smile remains on his face, unfazed by the shock in my voice. "Would you be interested in going on a date with me Friday night?" I mean Chase is extremely cute, don't get me wrong. I just never considered the idea of us going out.

I'm sure I look like a fish right now with my jaw hanging open. Lacey you need to say something. Seriously, you need to say literally anything.

"You don't have to give me an answer right now if you need time to think about it," Chase says continuing the conversation after my speechlessness.

Chase is a nice guy. He's the kind of guy that you always picture ending up with. He's got the whole tall sexy carefree thing going on and his eyes are so kind.

"No." I blurt out finally making my voice work and his face falls and I backtrack, realizing how it sounded. "I meant no, I don't need to think about it. Yes, I'd love to go out with you."

And then his smile has grown even bigger than before. "Really?"

I nod, biting my lip to keep him from seeing how big my smile is. This is exciting.

"So dinner Friday?"

I don't think I have anything going on Friday? Except- "Actually, how would you feel about going to an art exhibit? My boss gave me tickets and I have one for a plus one."

"That sounds perfect; I'll pick you up at seven." Chase seems really calm and nonchalant about this whereas my heart is beating a thousand miles a second. I hadn't planned on running into Chase on the apparatus floor when I was coming to find Dean on my lunch break. I found an account with some discrepancies and I wanted to ask Dean before I took it to Grayson.

I feel bad asking where Dean is, but I don't have a whole lot of time especially with how they get called away every time I come to the firehouse. "I can't wait! I'm so sorry to ask this right now, but do you know where Dean is?" I hold up the file I snuck out of the office so he hopefully understands this is important.

To my relief, he laughs. "He's working out in the weight room. For your sake, I really hope that isn't anything relating to his family's company."

"It's not... it's someone else's company." I admit sheepishly, "I promise I'll give you more details before I go back to work, but I really have to find him."

"I'm not stopping you, just come find me before you leave and we'll sort out the rest of the details. Good luck."

I flash him a quick smile as I turn away to walk towards where I think the weight room is. Not entirely sure, but I get a chorus of hellos when I walk in from the guys on shift. By now they all treat me as if they haven't only known me for six weeks.

"Hey Lace, what's the big rush?" Vince asks from where he sits on the couch reading a book.

"Gotta ask Dean about some paperwork, can't talk!" I say buzzing past him. My heels can barely keep up with me and I guess there isn't a better place to twist my ankle in.

When I burst into the weight room, Dean is sweaty, shirtless, and his muscles are rippling with every move. Hot, sweaty, shirtless. Wait I think I already thought that. I think my brain is broken and my jaw is definitely on the floor.

Holy fuck.

I do my best to tear my eyes away from his stomach, but it's so hard to look away. And then Dean is laughing and I feel my face turn extremely red. More red than it was when I remembered I told him that riding a mechanical bull can't be any different than riding a man. My face was pretty damn red after I remembered I said that.

"Well it's nice to know that not even you are immune to my body; I was starting to worry that I'd lost my appeal." He teases, wiping his face off with a towel. His curls are slicked back from the sweat and oh my fucking god. Pull yourself together Lacey. "Did you plan on spending your lunch break ogling at me because if so then I'm going to finish my workout."

"Shut up and put a shirt on," I grumble, averting my eyes to grab the file out of my purse. "I'm here because I need your help with this. I'm still new to all of this and you grew up around it."

I hold it out and wait for him to grab it which he does hesitantly to my surprise. "I don't know how much help I can be. I don't think I've even looked at so much as a spreadsheet since I left Dubai," Dean murmurs. He shakes his head, scanning the first page.

"Any help is something. The numbers weren't adding up earlier and I didn't want to take it to Grayson without knowing anything for sure."

I sit on the bench hesitantly while Dean starts to pace while flipping through, and I do my absolute best to not let my eyes drift lower than his shoulders. He's seen me without most of my clothes on, but this is the first time I've seen him without a shirt. It doesn't mean anything at all.

Ten minutes later, Dean still hasn't said anything and I'm nervous that the bells are going to go off before he has the chance to say something. I only have another thirty minutes left before I have to get back. Grayson wouldn't be angry if I were late, but I hate being late.

When he sits next to me, I can almost feel how hard he's thinking as he looks at the file. "There's discrepancies on pages two, three, and seven. Once could be played off as human error, but three is a pattern. This company is altering their numbers which means I would guess that someone is stealing and doing a shitty job of covering it up."

"So it's something illegal?"

Dean nods, focusing on another section. "What company is this again?"

I rub my temples trying to figure out how I'm supposed to bring this up to him. "Kaplan Insurance Group. They're one of Grayson's clients and they sent their end of quarter reports to be filed."

"Kaplan as in..."

I smile tightly at him, "As in Tessa's family's company? Yeah."

"If you want to come over tonight after I get off, I can go through more files with you because I highly doubt this is the first time something like this has happened. You'll need more before taking it to Gray," He says looking quite concerned about all this. "I'm off at six and Linc has a shift at the bar tonight so it'll just be me."

It's been three days since he woke me up in the middle of the night and I've been thinking about how comfortable I'm becoming with Dean. I keep trying to remind myself of Ruth's warning not to let him get too close. I'm not being careful at all. I thought I could be.

"I'm hoping to be able to leave by seven tonight so I'll just come straight from work. Thank you again for looking at this, I know how much you hate it but I had to."

Keep your eyes on his face. Don't let them drift lower. Not to where the ridges of his abdomen are clearly defined, to where his sweatpants hang low on the curve of his hip. Don't even let me get started on the glimpse I got of the v-

Nope. Face. Only.

"No, you did the right thing bringing it to me."

I nod and stand up, straightening my sweater so it sits correctly. "Well, I really appreciate it."

There's amusement on his face, "You seem flustered."

I give him a weird look, "I am not."

Dean's mouth twitches upwards into a smile, "You totally are. Why do you hide your scar?"

"I don't." I totally do.

He stands up and hands me the file back, "You do. Lacey Edwards the enigma. It has a nice ring to it don't you think?"

"You smell, take a shower and put a shirt on. I'm not an enigma so stop calling me one." I roll my eyes before putting the folder back in my bag.

Dean steps closer to me with a cocky smile, "Does it bother you that I'm not wearing a shirt?"

"No," I answer quickly. Probably a little to quickly. I wonder what Chase looks like without a shirt on. No doubt just as muscular because the demands of the job seem to require it. But then I think of Vince and I don't want to think about that. "It bothers me that you smell."

I still any movement as he leans into next to my ear, "Don't worry Lace, it bothers me when you don't wear a shirt either." The close proximity makes my heartbeat quicken which isn't always the best thing in my situation.

I push him away gently, "I will see you later, with a shirt on."

Dean's laugh is hearty as he moves aside. "Sure thing."

*********

I knock once before walking in since I knew Dean was expecting me. Except I thought it was just going to be him? Cassidy is sitting on the counter with food while Dean and Maddox are laughing about something. "Hey guys," I greet and Dean smiles as he turns to look at me.

"Long time no see," He jokes and I thank god that he's wearing a shirt this time. That was so extremely distracting and I don't exactly want to think of Dean in that way. Especially not when I'm going on a date with one of his coworkers this weekend.

"Not long enough," I retort and Cassidy smiles at me.

"Hi Lacey, want some food?"

My stomach rumbles before I can respond, eliciting a laugh from everyone while my cheeks flush, "I would love some food. I didn't get to eat on my lunch break today so I'm famished."

Maddox serves me a plate and I sit next to Cassidy, pulling more files out of my bag regarding the Kaplan account. "Dean said you found something involving Tessa's parents company?"

I nod, passing the stack over to him. "I grabbed the files from the last two years. I would have been here earlier, but I waited for Grayson to leave first. Let me tell you when I say he hardly ever leaves the office, I mean it. I thought I'd be there all night."

"Trying to pull Maddox out of his office for a night is a challenge. Must be a guy thing," Cassidy says from next to me. I guess I hadn't thought about how it would affect their personal relationships outside of work.

"I've gotten better, we've just been busier than normal since Hayes fired the last three members from his dad's board. I think it's finally going to start calming down." He tries to justify and I remember how big of a case it was for Grayson. I haven't known him for very long, but I don't think I've ever seen someone as stressed as he was the week everything was going down.

"Have you talked to Dad recently?" Dean asks changing the topic and Maddox shakes his head.

"Not since the takeover. I heard an earful from him about how deceitful it was and that there were better ways to do it, but it's nothing compared to what Uncle Charles said to Hayes."

Cassidy grimaces next to me and I get the sense that she isn't a fan of the uncle or the brothers' dad. I haven't met Dean's dad but he can't be all bad if he raised Dean by himself. I can't imagine not having both my parents while growing up.

I take a bite of the pasta on my plate deciding to try it and while I'm not usually a fan of red sauce, this is exceptionally delicious. "Holy shit Dean, did you make this?"

He smiles proudly, "Yes I did. I take it you like it?"

I nod taking another bite while Maddox grabs the files and heads to the kitchen table to go over the files. "So you didn't tell Grayson that you're looking into his wife's family company?"

"No, I didn't want to bring it up until there was something to bring up."

Dean moves over to join him, "If you look on the most recent file, there's a few discrepancies in the accounts. I didn't think Lace would bring two years of their accounts but it'll be good to find a pattern that way. I'll start at the very beginning if you want to work your way backwards?"

"Sounds good to me."

When I look over at Cassidy, she's smiling fondly at the two of them sitting together. "Did you know there used to be a time where they couldn't stand to be in the same room, let alone working together?" She says it quietly enough to where they can't hear what she said, but I can tell that she cares about both of them.

"Dean mentioned that their relationship was rocky for a few years. I didn't know the extent."

She turns away to look at her food, "I guess there were things said after Paige disappeared. It took Maddox a long time to get past it and Dean was content being the villain if that's what Maddox needed. Then she came back. Dean was really there for Maddox afterwards. It helped them repair their relationship."

If only Cassidy knew how off base she was when it came to Paige. I don't want to know what it's going to do to their relationship when Maddox finds out their together. Dean can't give a straight answer anytime I ask, but if he has to think about it then the answer isn't no.

"He's always putting other people first. Dean misses you a lot more than he'll admit." I say softly, knowing that if Dean knew I was telling her this he probably wouldn't be too happy with me.

She stills and sighs defeatedly. "I know I haven't been there for him the way I should be. Dean's my best friend and I figured that out from the way he lashed out at me a few weeks ago. I'm assuming you know about this already though?"

I smile sympathetically, "He didn't tell me everything. Just that he missed you."

"Thank you for being there for him when I'm not. You're good for him. Dean seems happy."

I can tell that Cassidy means what she's saying, and I know exactly what she's getting at. "We're just friends. Really. Dean's been there for me without even realizing it." The words slip out of my mouth, but I know that my slip of the tongue isn't what Cass is going to focus on. She thinks we're a couple. Me mentioning what Dean's friendship means to me is going to go unnoticed.

"Are you really just friends because I see the way he's been looking at you. I see the way you look at him too. When you got here, Dean lit up in a way that he never has with anyone else."

Her blue eyes are watching, analyzing, seeing straight through every part of me, waiting for my response.

The only thing I can think to say is my plans for Friday night. "I'm going on a date with his coworker on Friday." I should tell her the truth so she can be there for Dean if she's right. If there's any chance she's right, he's going to need her.

"Oh."

Oh is all there really is to say.

I look over my shoulder for a second to catch Dean looking at the same time. He winks, but the smile on my face isn't as wide as it should be. I need to tell him, but I can't. I'm being selfish.

I'm not Lacey Edwards the enigma.

I'm Lacey Edwards the fraud.