Rule of Three

Chapter Four

“Are you serious?” she asked, blinking rapidly at him.

He laughed. “Yes and no. I’d love to have you, but I’m nowhere near ready.”

“You don’t even know me,” she protested. “How do you know I’m any good at my job?”

“I know you’re good.” He winked at her and watched her cheeks bloom with color. Christ, she was gorgeous, all animated during their discussion. Once she’d gotten what he was talking about, her quick mind had thrown out things he hadn’t even thought of—good ideas, but also barriers he hadn’t anticipated. Problem solving with her was a rush.

“What made you go into training and development as a career?” he asked.

“Well, I actually thought of becoming a teacher. All through high school, that’s what I intended to do.”

“You like kids?”

She blinked at him, but smiled. “Yeah. I love kids.”

“Me too. Not that I’ll likely ever have any,” he added. “Anyway, go on.”

“I started working at my first part-time job in this office that had really horrible management, and I had all these ideas how they could improve the place. I got interested in how businesses work and making things better. So then I wanted to go into business, but since I like the aspect of teaching, I decided to specialize in training and development.”

“Cool.” He had a sense from those words “make things better” that she also liked to make people better. Maybe sometimes whether they wanted it or not. Which was admirable but could also be annoying. He smiled at her, liking her sense of purpose. “Anyway. You’re probably happy where you are. But you never know, one day if things work out…keep it in mind. Maybe in the meantime, though, you can be a sounding board for me. Hey, I know—I could pay you a consulting fee.”

She opened her mouth then closed it. Then opened it again. “Great,” she said, glancing at her watch. “You owe me…two hundred dollars for the last hour.”

Laughter burst from his lips and he shook his head. “Nice try.”

“You’re loaded,” she said. “Why not?”

He studied her, hearing the slight edge in her voice. “That bugs you, doesn’t it?”

“No, of course not.”

“Bullshit.” He rubbed his forehead. “That night at Vincent’s, I wasn’t showing off when I ordered that wine.”

Her mouth twisted. “Yeah,” she finally said. “I know.”

“You and Chris aren’t hurting,” he said. “I know what VPs at RBM make.”

“A lot more than I do,” she said ruefully. She laughed. “I’m sorry. I judged you and I shouldn’t have.”

“Thank you. But I’m still not paying you for the last hour. Although I will buy your lunch.”

“Thanks.”

They exchanged a smile that now held shared experience, a link between them that was more than just Chris.

“What are you up to this afternoon?” he asked as they walked back to his car.

“Shopping. Errands. Things for the condo. How about you?”

“Hmmm. Not much.”

“Meetings are all done?”

“Yeah. Now I’ve got a different path though, have to give it some thought. Hey. I’ll come shopping with you.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“Nah.” He shrugged and they paused beside his car, the bright midday sun glinting off the windshield. “I got nothing else to do.”

“Gee, thanks.”

He rolled his eyes but smiled. “Sorry. That didn’t come out right. What I meant was, take pity on me, Kassidy, I’m all alone in town with nothing to do this afternoon.”

“Oh, for—all right, come with me, but I’m going to Bed and Bath. Chris hates that store.”

“Well, I’m not Chris.” And he rounded the front of the car to jump in while she slid into the passenger seat.

What was he doing? Sure he was at a bit of a loose end, and yeah, he’d enjoyed the last hour talking to her about ideas and plans, in fact he was buzzing from the adrenaline of it. But spending time with Chris’s girlfriend without Chris shouldn’t be a problem. Really. Why would it?

Just that sexual tension underlying everything they said, every glance they shared, and never mind if he actually were to touch her. Then he wanted to, just to see if actual sparks would fly. Bad. Bad idea.

He followed Kassidy around the store. He’d lied to her. Well, actually no. It was true, he wasn’t Chris, but truthfully Bed and Bath wasn’t his favorite store to shop in. He was more into electronics and cars. But he had to admire how she shopped—with a purpose and organized efficiency. She had a list, and headed straight for the towel department. She knew what she wanted. She selected some other bathroom accessories, and then led the way to the curtains, where she took a little longer to make her selection.

She pulled out fabrics and studied them, nibbled her bottom lip as she looked at different rods and checked prices. When she finally made her decision, she tried to lift a long package into the shopping cart.

“Let me,” Dag said and easily shifted the carton into the cart.

“Two of those,” she said, and he grinned.

“What’s next?” he asked after they’d gone through the checkout.

“Well.” She glanced sideways at him as he pushed the cart through the parking lot. “I was going to just browse around some of the shops on Armitage Avenue. There are some funky little places. But really. You don’t have to come with me.”

“Why not?” He loaded her purchases into the trunk of the rental car, slammed the lid shut and dusted his hands together. “Like I said, take pity on me. And if we finish early, I’ll buy you a drink and we can talk more.”

“We’re going out tonight,” she reminded him.

“I know.”

They climbed into the car and he drove back toward the condo, the shopping district she wanted to look at not far from there. His memories of how to get around Chicago were coming back to him, despite having only lived there for the years he was in college. His mom was still in Springfield. Not that he ever saw her or ever wanted to.

They strolled the sunny sidewalks, wandering in and out of the little shops, and Kassidy bought a few things—cool things he actually liked. In one store, she stood there looking at chunky dark wood candle holders, each of them a little different in shape and size. She picked them up and set them down, until finally he said with amusement, “Tough decision?”

She smiled at him. “Yes. It is. I don’t know which three to get.”

“Then buy all of them.”

“There are six.”

“So?”

“It can’t be an even number,” she said patiently. “Don’t you know the rule of three?”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Rule of three?”

“Yes. It’s some kind of design rule. You have to have an odd number. Three is the best number for an arrangement.”

“And you know this how?”

She grinned. “I like to watch a lot of home decorating shows on TV.”

He laughed.

“Seriously. The rule of three applies to lots of things.”

“If you say so.” He reached out and picked up one candle holder, set it aside, picked another slightly shorter one, and another, grouping the three together. “There. There’s your three.”

She studied them and nodded. “Okay. Now I need candles.”

She chose three pillar candles to sit on top of the candle holders, some funky office accessories for the room that was to become Chris’s office, and a small rug for their bedroom.

“I’m done,” she said, surveying the shopping bags he was carrying for her out of the store. A warm smile curved her pretty mouth. “Thanks for helping.”

“No problem. Now how about that drink?”

“Sure. I guess.” She glanced at her watch. “Chris’ll be finished work soon. I’ll text him and tell him to meet us.”

After dropping her purchases into his car, they walked to another outdoor patio nearby. Kassidy thumbed a message into her cell phone as they waited for a table. It was early on Friday afternoon, but the weekend happy-hour crowd had already begun to arrive at the small bar.

The hostess showed them to a small table under a bright umbrella, potted palms dancing in the breeze next to them. “This is nice,” Dag said, looking around. “You know all the good places to go.”

She laughed. “Actually I don’t. Chris and I really don’t go out much. Now my sister, on the other hand, knows everywhere. And everybody.” Her phone buzzed and she flipped it open to read Chris’s message. “He says he’ll be here in an hour.”

Dag grinned. “He’s turned into a workaholic, hasn’t he?”

She made a face. “Oh yeah.”

Dag laughed.

“What’s so funny about that?”

“If you’d known him when I met him, you’d get it.”

A cute crease appeared between her eyebrows. “What does that mean?”

“Chris was a supreme slacker when we met,” Dag said, leaning back in his chair.

Her frown deepened. “Hey…”

He shook his head. “He thought the world owed him everything. Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but you gotta admit, he grew up in a pretty uh…privileged lifestyle.”

She still frowned at him. “I…I wouldn’t say that.”

“Well,” he lifted a shoulder. “Maybe not from where you’re coming. But compared to how I grew up, he did. Anyway, it’s good to know some of that stayed with him. A workaholic. Who’da thought.”

She lifted her chin. “There’s nothing wrong with working hard.”

He laughed out loud at that. “Nope. Nothing at all.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You seem like someone who doesn’t have to work very hard. Someone everything just comes to easily.”

His jaw almost hit the small table. What the fuck? “You gotta be kidding me,” he said slowly, staring at her.

She drew back a little. “No. Am I wrong?”

“You are so wrong.” He shook his head, forced a smile. “I’m not making a very good impression on you, am I?”

She blinked. “No…I mean, yes…”

He laughed again, shook his head. Wow.

“From what Chris told me, you didn’t like working for someone else so you started your company developing online games, things went crazy, you made a pile of money, sold the company for even more money and now you’re resting easy looking for something else fun to do.”

Well, it was true, on the surface, and he wasn’t someone who particularly liked defending himself. He never gave a shit what people thought of him. But Kassidy’s words burned a hole in his gut. He shrugged. “Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Never wanted to slave in a corporate box working for someone else.”

“There are benefits to working for someone else,” she said, a little quietly as if he’d annoyed her.

“Sure there are. I didn’t mean…”

“Chris loves his job.”

“I wasn’t insulting him, Kass.” His gut tightened even more.

She rolled her lips in briefly. “No?” Her defense of Chris made something inside him go soft, drew him to her. Dammit.

“No. I admire Chris. He has the logical mind that I don’t. He’s focused, I’m all over the place sometimes. He’s accomplished a lot.”

She nodded slowly.

“And you too,” Dag added. He looked up as the waitress approached, and ordered a beer. Kassidy asked for a mojito. He turned his attention back to her. “You obviously love what you do.”

“I do, but I’m never going to be a millionaire, working in training and development, even for a big company like RBM.”

“So you equate success with how much money you make.”

Her eyes widened. “No! I don’t. That’s my point.”

“Then why’d you say that?”

“Because…you…”

“Because I have money, you think that’s how I define success.”

She gave a short nod. He sighed. “Well, it’s not. Don’t get me wrong, I like money, but that’s not what it’s about for me. You like the security of working for someone else, but I like taking risks—it’s a thrill for me. It’s not good or bad, right or wrong. Everyone’s different. And right now, I have money, but a couple of bad decisions could flush that all down the toilet. Whereas you know you’ll get paid next week. And the week after that. Right?”

Her eyes were wide and moved over his face as she studied him and listened to him. “Yes,” she finally said. “That’s right.”

The waitress returned with their drinks.

“So you like taking risks,” she said, pulling her glass closer.

“Yeah.” He grinned. “That’s why I skydive.”

She gasped. “Skydive? Jesus! You jump out of planes?”

“Yeah. It’s a rush.”

“You jump out of planes for fun.” She shook her head. “Oh my god. That’s crazy.”

“The first time scared the hell out of me,” he said. “My buddy in the plane almost had to push me out. I was hanging on by the tips of my fingers. Probably would’ve stayed there forever. But sometimes…you just have to jump. Take a chance.”

“That’s a pretty big chance to take.”

“That’s what makes it exciting.” He lifted a shoulder. “I had to learn to slow down, to analyze and weigh things and make careful, rational decisions. I tend to rely on my gut too much, but you can analyze and weigh things and procrastinate to death. Sometimes you just need to go with your instincts. Even in business, sometimes you just have to…jump.”

“So, that’s what you like—taking risks.”

“I also like creating, coming up with ideas.”

“I could tell that earlier. You were all full of energy when we were talking about your idea.”

“Yeah.” He smiled. “I love that part of it. You’re exactly right—it energizes me.”

Their eyes met and a connection shimmered between them despite the fact that she him pegged wrong, all wrong.

“Tell me how you and Chris met,” he said, picking up his beer, not sure if he really wanted to hear this story.

“We told you, we met at work.”

“You were doing training for his department?”

“Yes.” She smiled. “I guess we were both attracted to each other, but we waited until the project was done until we went out together. It made going to work every day pretty exciting for a while, though.”

“What was it about him that attracted you?”

She tipped her head to one side and gave him a narrow-eyed look, as if she found his question odd. He probably should drop this. “Well, he’s good looking, of course.”

“He’s pretty.”

She frowned. “No, he’s not.”

Dag laughed. “Sure he is. He’s a pretty boy.”

“Well, he does have a sweet smile.” Her own mouth curved. “But he’s so big—I guess that’s why I don’t think of him as a pretty boy.”

“Yeah. The big muscles save him from looking too cute.”

She laughed. “And I love his shoulders.” She gave a little shrug. “But I liked how he was so…accepting.”

“Huh?” Dag sat back, watched her face. He hadn’t expected to hear that word from her.

“I was junior on the project team. When I’d remind him about the human impacts of certain decisions, he listened to me. I really liked that. He could have ignored me, but he made me feel like I had something important to say.” She looked down at her drink. “He was very focused on the project goals, very task oriented, very let’s-get-it-done. But when there were problems, he’d sit back and not react. Other people would freak out and start rushing into crazy decisions. I liked how he listened to everyone, even me. Sometimes people get lost in the business decisions, and for me, it’s all about the people. It’s the people who make the company.”

Dag nodded. Yeah. That was Chris. The way he’d accepted Dag as his friend from the first time they’d met, despite their vastly different backgrounds, despite the fact that Chris was a golden boy who’d gotten all kinds of breaks in his life and had it all, whereas Dag had started with nothing and had had to fight for every damn thing. He’d treated Dag as an equal. Yeah, that was a good word—Chris was accepting. Of most things.

Listening to Chris’s girlfriend praise him, watching her face light up as she talked about the man she loved, had something tightening hot and hard in Dag’s chest.

Wanting to change the subject, he said, “You mentioned you have a sister.”

“Yeah. Hailey. She’s two years younger than me. You’ll meet her tonight, actually—she works at the nightclub we’re going to.”

“Really?” He lifted a brow and took a swallow of beer.

“She’s a bartender.” Kassidy lifted one shoulder. “She’s not exactly career oriented.”

“Bartending can be a career.”

“I suppose.” Doubt shadowed her eyes. “She’s a lot different from me.”

“Hmmm. Interesting. Does she look like you?”

Kassidy’s forehead furrowed. “No. I don’t think so.”

They ordered another drink, hopping easily from one topic to another as they talked, until Kassidy finally checked the time. “Jesus! It’s almost seven. Where the hell is Chris?”

Dag hadn’t realized how much time had passed either. He’d actually been having fun, lost in the pleasure of getting to know Kassidy who was surprisingly easy to talk to, surprisingly sweet and sexy. Okay, that part wasn’t surprising. He’d already known that.

They were meeting friends at the club between nine and ten; Chris had arranged it all with some of the people he knew who were still in Chicago. They needed to grab some food, and he needed to shower and change. Shit.

Kassidy had pulled out her cell phone and quickly sent off a text. Her phone buzzed in response only a moment later. “He’s on his way,” she said.

“Tell him to just go home,” Dag suggested. “We should get going—”

“There he is.” Kassidy lifted a hand, and Dag followed her gaze to where Chris was entering the patio. He strode toward them, tugging at the knot of his tie.

“Sorry, sweetheart,” he said, bending to kiss Kassidy before grabbing a chair. “Little problem with the new WAFS project. Hey, Dag.”

“That’s okay. Dag and I were having so much fun we didn’t even realize what time it was.”

Chris looked between them, no doubt taking in Kassidy’s flushed cheeks from several mojitos. “That’s good,” he said. “I could use a drink.”

Dag stood. “You two go ahead and order if you want, I gotta get back to the hotel. Oh shit.”

“What?” Kassidy gazed up at him.

“All your stuff is in the trunk of my car.”

“Oh yeah.”

“I’ll bring it over in a while,” Dag said. “We can all go to the club together.”

“Gotta take a taxi anyway,” Chris said. “You won’t be in shape to drive later.”

Trust Chris to be the responsible one. But despite his risk-taking behavior, Dag would never drink and drive. “We’ll see,” he said. “I’ll see you back at your place in…what…an hour?”

“Sounds good.”

As he turned away, Dag saw Chris lean over and kiss Kassidy again, this time a longer, lingering kiss, his fingertips resting on her jaw in a tender, intimate gesture, and something twisted inside him as he dragged his gaze away from the image and made his way out of the bar.