Sweet Deal

Chapter Twenty

Jake sat in his office, unable to focus on anything except what he’d done to Shelby. And Andrew and Gianna, even though him having that drink with Gianna was evidently the least of their problems. He felt like crap about it. The six or eight beers he’d drunk the night before didn’t help. Other than that, he felt great. Really great. Pumped. Ready to move forward with his life and his new business.

Yeah, right.

But he’d done it. Even if everything else in his life was fucked up, this was one thing he could do. One positive step. One thing he could make right.

His phone rang and he reached for it. “Jake Magill.”

“Hi, Jake. It’s Courtney at reception. There’s someone here to see you.”

Every nerve ending in his body went on alert. Shelby? It had to be Shelby!

“Who is it?” he demanded.

“Andrew Haddon.”

Huh? Jake frowned. “Andrew?”

“Yes.”

Jake licked his lips. What the hell was Andrew doing there? “Ah. Okay. I’ll be right there.”

“Thanks, Jake.” Courtney’s perky voice didn’t fit with the disturbing news she’d just delivered.

He thrust both hands into his hair and stood like that for a moment. Okay, whatever. He’d face him and get it over with. Curiosity about why Andrew was there led him out the door of his office and down the hall.

Andrew sat on one of the chairs lining the reception area. They didn’t get a lot of visitors on this floor, so it wasn’t all luxurious, just basic tables, chairs and a few ancient copies of the Wall Street Journal and Time.

“Andrew.”

Andrew looked up. He stood. The two men faced each other.

“Got a few minutes to talk?” Andrew finally said in a low voice.

“I’m pretty busy.”

“Oh for shit’s sake, get over it, Jake.” Andrew kept his voice down, but Courtney still sent them a puzzled glance.

Jake sighed. “Come on in.”

He led the way to his office. Inside he gestured to one of the chairs and he threw himself down into the one behind his desk.

“What’s up?” he asked, ignoring the rapid thump of his heart.

“That was a pretty ugly scene last night.”

Jake’s mouth twisted. “Yeah.”

Andrew’s eyes shifted and it seemed he wasn’t sure exactly what to say. Jake folded his arms across his chest and waited. He wasn’t going to help the guy out.

Finally Andrew spoke again. “What’s with you and Gianna?”

“Maybe you should ask her that.”

“I did.”

“And?”

“She wasn’t speaking to me last night.”

“Great.” Jake rubbed his forehead. “There’s nothing going on between us.”

“Bullshit.”

Jake sighed inwardly. “It’s the truth, Andrew. I told you last night—we were just having a drink.”

Andrew gave him a hard stare. Jake met his gaze head on and challenged, “And what about you and Shelby?”

Andrew’s brow furrowed. “What about me and Shelby?”

“What were you doing with her?”

“We were having a drink.” And then understanding dawned. “Oh.” He was silent for a moment, and then once again went on the offensive. “I can’t believe you did that.”

“Did what?”

“Hurt Shelby like that.”

“I can’t believe you were trying to get with her, you asshole.” Jake leaned forward, arms going to his desk. “You’re married! You’re her boss! What the hell were you thinking?”

Andrew half rose out of his chair. “Are you fucking kidding me? I wasn’t after Shelby! Do you think I’m that stupid? She works for me! Ever heard of sexual harassment? Jesus Christ.”

“You’re saying you weren’t?”

“Yes! That is what I’m damn well saying!” Andrew rubbed his jaw. “Shelby is a very bright and talented project manager. I hired her. I want her to do well. And besides, I’m married.” He glared at Jake.

“You were making her life miserable.”

“What?” Andrew’s mouth fell open.

“People are talking about you. Maybe you’re walking around with your head so far up your ass you don’t know what’s going on, but everyone at Gold Shield thinks—or should I say, thought—you two were having an affair. You gave her the best projects. Passed over people with more seniority. You two go out for drinks after work, business dinners with clients. She gets to travel and take long lunches with you. No wonder people were talking. She’s still new there and everyone hates her guts.”

“They do not.” Andrew’s forehead furrowed. “Do they?” Confusion lined his face.

“Okay, nobody hates Shelby, she’s too sweet to hate, but it was damn uncomfortable for her. I was doing her a favor, making people think she had a boyfriend.”

Andrew lowered his chin and gave Jake a yeah-right look. “A favor?”

“She told you she had a boyfriend to get you off her back. I volunteered to act the part for the barbecue.”

“To get me off her back?” Andrew’s eyes widened. “Is that what she said?”

“Well not in those exact words. She said you never did anything inappropriate. She just felt uncomfortable.”

“Holy shit.” Andrew passed a hand over his hair. “Holy shit. I didn’t know how I was coming across. But I swear to you, Jake, it was just professional interest. Mentoring. Shelby came to Gold Shield with not a great track record from her last job.”

“That was not her fault.”

“I kind of thought that. Our HR department said we should avoid her, but I wanted to give her a shot.”

“And that had nothing to do with what she looks like?” Jake scowled suspiciously.

“No. Seriously. After I went to bat for her, I wanted to make sure she succeeded.”

“But what you were doing was putting her in the exact position she was at in her last job. She’d had an affair with her boss.” Telling this made his gut hurt, but, oh well. “The guy used her then let her take the fall for his screw up. That’s why she got fired.”

Andrew winced. Dropped his chin to his chest for a moment. “Shit.” Then he looked up at Jake and narrowed his eyes. “So if you were supposedly just doing her a favor, why are you still seeing her?”

Jake stared at him. “Because…because…I like her.”

“Bullshit.” Understanding dawned in Andrew’s eyes. “You thought I was after her. Jesus Christ! You were trying to get back at me!”

“No. I wasn’t. The truth is…” He heaved a heartfelt sigh and rubbed his aching chest. “When I saw you and Gianna again, I thought you still felt sorry for me. I didn’t want your goddamn pity. I wanted you to think I’d found someone else.”

“Oh hell.” The two men sat silent as time ticked by. “It’s not like that,” Andrew finally said. “I didn’t feel sorry for you. Like, pity you. But I did feel sorry…I do feel sorry…for what happened. Hell, Jake. I fell in love with Gianna. I couldn’t help it. She loved me too. You were a fucking hero about it all back then, but I knew you had to be hurting.”

Jake nodded. With distance and time and a whole different perspective on things thanks to Shelby, he could admit it now. “Yeah. I was.”

“I would never do anything to hurt Gianna. I love her.” Andrew closed his eyes and leaned his head back. “For all the good that does me.”

“What I said last night was true. There was nothing going on,” Jake told him. “I really am over Gianna.”

Andrew eyed him doubtfully. “What about Shelby?”

“What about her?”

“She’s a mess.” Andrew scowled. “She came in this morning looking like hell. And I had to give her some very bad news.”

“What bad news?”

“Business bad news.”

“Don’t you even fucking think of firing her over this!” Jake’s blood pressure shot up and he almost leaped out of his chair.

“Jesus Christ! Would you quit being so emotional and reactive about this? Get a grip, man, I’m not firing her.”

Jake leaned back again in his chair, sweat breaking out under his arms. “Okay.”

“We had to pull the plug on the project she was working on,” Andrew continued.

“What?” Oh holy hell. Shelby would be devastated. “Why?”

Andrew waved a hand. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Jesus Christ, it’s happening all over again.”

Andrew frowned. “It was a business decision. But now I can see why she might have been so upset.”

“No fucking kidding. Didn’t she tell you? She has a solution to the problem.”

Andrew squinted at him. “She does?”

“I can’t believe she didn’t tell you.” Jake shook his head. “It was brilliant.”

“How the hell do you know?”

“We talked about it.” Now it was Jake’s turn to dismiss Andrew’s question. “Oh man. This is so bad.”

“Well, personally, I think she’s more upset about you. You hurt her.”

“I know.” His lips twisted glumly. “I fucking know that. And I never meant to.”

“She talked about you all the time. She worships you, man.”

Jake let the words sink in. Then he shook his head. “No, she doesn’t. We had a deal. She needed a boyfriend. I wanted you to think I had a girlfriend. We got along okay and neither of us wanted to get involved.”

“You’re an idiot. It might have been a deal to start with, but she clearly has feelings for you now. How could you do that to her?”

“I’m an asshole, all right?” Jake almost shouted the words.

After a moment of dense silence, Andrew said, “No, you’re not.”

Jake stared at him.

“She told me all the stuff you did to help when her friend died. You didn’t have to do that. If you were just using her, you’d have run the opposite direction.”

Jake blinked. Gripped the armrests of his chair.

“Look. Whatever twisted reason you had for hooking up with her, you need to fix this.” Andrew rubbed his forehead. “She’s a mess, I tell you.”

Jake’s throat tightened. “She’s better off without me.”

Andrew rolled his eyes. “Oh, get over yourself.” Then he sighed. “Hell. I’ve got woman problems of my own. I believe you when you say you’re over Gianna, but hell, Jake.” He paused, swallowed hard, looked away. “I’m not sure if she’s over you. She’s been acting weird lately.”

Jake gaped at his old friend.

He could tell Andrew about Gianna’s phone call, her begging him to see her, her hanging around his office building last night waiting for him.

At that moment, he felt like someone had just handed him a weapon and with it, with a few words, he could make Andrew suffer for everything he’d done to him. Everything he’d taken away from him.

Revenge. Is that what this had really all been about? Had Andrew been right? Had he been using Shelby to get back at Andrew for what he’d done to him?

What had happened to her life?

Shelby sat cross-legged on the couch in her living room, wrapped in a blanket, with a thermometer in her mouth.

She’d had such high hopes for this job, relieved at having found such a good job in her field, working for a good company and for what she’d thought was a decent boss. Then things had gone kind of sour, even though she was getting good assignments and lots of perks, when she started to worry about what Andrew really wanted from her. Then Adam had been diagnosed with cancer. Her parents were too busy fighting with each other and making up to care about her career problems or friend problems.

Then she’d met a guy, a hot guy, but a nice guy, the first guy in a long time—or maybe ever—she’d believed wasn’t using her for his own reasons. Well, other than the reasons they’d agreed on. But then she’d stupidly fallen in love with him, and it turned out he was using her. And now her boss had screwed her over, yet again.

Did she have “kick me” written all over her, or something?

The thermometer beeped. She slid it out and peered at the digital readout. Normal. Huh. She turned it off and tossed it to the table.

She didn’t have the flu. She was just heartbroken.

Her bottom lip pushed out and she let it, indulging in one more moment of self-pity. Then she sighed.

It was her own fault for letting her feelings get involved with Jake. She should have known she wasn’t going to be able to not do that. She’d started off great, making that deal with him, confident she could do it, but then she’d gotten all soft and hopeful, dammit, with her usual sickening optimism, and actually started having crazy thoughts about love and a future when she should know what men were like.

And that included her boss. A guy who’d steal his best friend’s girlfriend. What the hell? That was low. For a moment she almost felt sympathy for Jake after having that done to him.

And now Andrew had killed her project.

Restlessly she threw off the blanket, suddenly feeling hot.

There was no reason they couldn’t do the two projects that needed to be done simultaneously, if they hired an external consultant. She knew they didn’t have internal resources to run two big projects simultaneously, but her cost-benefit analysis showed the savings they could make if they did it with an external consultant, even taking that additional expense into consideration.

She had to tell Andrew that. Why hadn’t he listened to her earlier?

Well, for one thing he’d had another meeting to go to. And for another thing, she hadn’t even really tried to tell him. She’d been so shell-shocked she’d barely been able to speak.

But what could she do? He’d already assigned the new project to someone else. Which made her burn with anger. That was not fair! Then she had to heave a huge sigh, because when Andrew had given her this project, she’d totally thought Brad should’ve been the one to run it.

But she’d been doing it. It wasn’t her fault their internal processes were such a huge barrier. Now people were going to think she couldn’t handle this project, just like Bram and Davis had been afraid of. Nobody would ever take her seriously on any other projects she was given.

If she had to leave this job too, her professional reputation would be trashed for sure. She’d never get another job, other than maybe waiting tables. Impotent fury rose up in her, fast and hot, and she clenched her hands into fists.

She fought her way out of the blanket still tangled around her hips and stood. She wasn’t going down without a fight this time. She was not going to let this happen to her again. If Andrew didn’t want to hear this, she’d go to his boss. She was not going to let her career be trashed yet again.

She’d changed out of her suit when she got home, into her favorite yoga pants and T-shirt. Damn. She looked down at herself. Much as she didn’t give a shit right then how she looked, the VP of Benefits was not going to take her seriously if she stormed into his office looking like this.

Trembling with determination, her stomach tight and her jaw clenched, she hurried into her bedroom and whipped her clothes off. The suit she’d worn earlier lay on the bed and she grabbed it and put it back on. She washed her face, briefly thought about the contact lenses, but her eyes still stung, so she gave up on that idea. Ah well, Jake had said she looked intelligent in her glasses. She hated wearing them, they interfered with her vision and hurt her nose and ears after a few hours, but right now she didn’t care.

She fixed her makeup, not wanting to look like her world had just fallen apart.

No. She straightened her shoulders and studied her reflection in the mirror. She was in charge of her world. Two guys who had some kind of bad history and wanted to stab each other in the back over a woman weren’t going to destroy her world. Let them battle it out over her. Gianna. Her mouth twisted, a sharp pain slicing through her at the memory that Jake had been in love with her.

And likely still was. Why else would he have tried to get back at Andrew like that? Well, if he was still carrying a torch for Gianna, he was an idiot. She was married.

Breathing caused a jagged pain in her chest, sharp and hot.

He was an asshole to use people the way he did. So there.

She turned on the spiky heel of her favorite pumps. She looked fine, even with the stupid glasses.