My Brother’s Bossy Best Friend

My Brother's Bossy Best Friend An Age Gap Romance Harley Burke Copyright Copyright © 2023 by HARLEY BURKE - All rights reserved. In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. The story and characters are fictitious. Certain long-standing institutions, agencies, and public offices may be mentioned, but the characters involved are wholly imaginary. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental. All rights reserved. Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher. Contents 1. Chapter 1: Anna 2. Chapter 2: Zeek 3. Chapter 3: Anna 4. Chapter 4: Zeek 5. Chapter 5: Anna 6. Chapter 6: Zeek 7. Chapter 7: Anna 8. Chapter 8: Zeek 9. Chapter 9: Anna 10. Chapter 10: Zeek 11. Chapter 11: Anna 12. Chapter 12: Zeek 13. Chapter 13: Anna 14. Chapter 14: Zeek 15. Chapter 15: Anna 16. Chapter 16: Zeek 17. Chapter 17: Anna 18. Chapter 18: Zeek 19. Chapter 19: Anna 20. Chapter 20: Zeek 21. Chapter 21: Anna 22. Chapter 22: Zeek 23. Chapter 23: Anna 24. Chapter 24: Zeek 25. Chapter 25: Anna 26. Chapter 26: Zeek 27. Chapter 27: Anna 28. Chapter 28: Zeek 29. Chapter 29: Anna Also By Chapter 1: Anna Hank parked the moving van in front of what I thought was a five-star hotel. He climbed out of the driver's seat and ran around to open my door. My brother waved at a uniformed man as he closed the car door behind me. "It's not much, but it's home. That’s Randy." Hank nodded toward the man who was unloading my bags from the car. "He is our doorman. We are on the second floor." "Hank, this place is amazing!" The awe-struck expression on my face elicited a laugh from my big brother."You haven't even seen the inside yet, Anna Banana," he teased, calling me by his childhood nickname for me. "You better not call me that in the office!" Hank threw his arm around me and pulled me into a sideways hug. "Don't worry, sis; one condition of you working for the firm is I must keep it professional during office hours. Zeek is a pretty serious guy." Hanks's best friend, law school roommate, and business partner, Zeek, was a complete mystery to me. From what Hank had mentioned about him, I assumed he was a stick in the mud. It didn't matter; I would be the poster child of professionalism if that's what it took to get to Paris.Moving in with my brother and working as a secretary at his law firm was not what I had planned for my life at 23. In reality, I wanted to move to Paris and become an artist, but my bartending job in Portland wasn't getting me any closer to the Mona Lisa. There wasn't much else I could do; my only job experience was bartending, babysitting, and selling my art.My heart swelled with appreciation when I thought of how Hank always came through for me when I needed help. This time, he had outdone himself. When I called him, crying about how I hated my life and despised my job, he told me he would take care of it. Hank showed up three days later with a bottle of bourbon and a plan. He convinced me to move in with him and take the secretary position at his law firm. I was ready for a fresh start and needed very little convincing. Hank was offering me an opportunity I couldn't pass up. Hank rented a moving van, packed up the few belongings I owned, and drove me from my studio apartment in Portland, Oregon, to Tulsa, Oklahoma. The road trip lifted my spirits, breathing new life into my dreams and goals. Now that I was here, standing outside my new home in a city I didn't know, my resolve wavered. For a split second, I thought about getting back in the van and driving home to my shitty little apartment.It was much too late to change my mind and turn back. Life in Paris was waiting for me, and this was how I would get there. The inside of the apartment building was just as beautiful as the outside. Everyone in the lobby seemed like they were off to change the world in their thousand-dollar suits. I felt entirely out of place in my hoodie and jeans as Hank and Randy helped me carry my bags to the elevator. Between the three of us, we managed to get most of my belongings into Hank's apartment. Randy left us after Hank handed him a fifty-dollar bill and thanked him. "I am going to run down and get the rest of it. Don't worry about helping me; all that's left are the plants." Hank yelled from a room down the hallway, "You sure you won't get lost? It's a huge building, you know." "Hank, I'm not five years old. I can handle it." I closed the door behind me and filled the long walk to the elevator with deep breaths, trying to calm the panic I felt. When the elevator doors opened, I looked up to find piercing blue eyes gazing back at me. Like an idiot, I stood there for I don't even know how long when the man broke the silence by asking, "You going down?"I stepped onto the elevator, heat rising in my cheeks, nodding to him in confirmation. We stood on opposite sides of the elevator in deafening silence. Between the stranger’s tied-back golden hair, his well-trimmed beard, and the suit hugging his body in all the right places, he looked like something out of a men's fashion magazine. I could feel his eyes on me as I fidgeted with the rings on my left hand.I stole a glance at him, his