Sweet Deal

Chapter Eight

Jake pulled up in front of Shelby’s apartment building and parked on the street. He’d hardly even noticed what the building looked like the other night—it had been dark, and besides that, he’d been in a total fog of lust. He grinned, remembering their frantic entrance that night.

He studied the white stucco building with its arched windows and red tiled roof as he walked up the brick sidewalk. Only three stories high, there were probably only about twelve apartments in the Spanish-style edifice. Palm trees lined the front of the building, their fronds swaying gently in the soft evening breeze.

A moment later he knocked on Shelby’s door and waited for her to open it. When she did so, he swept his gaze from the top of her shiny blonde hair down over a loose, drapey top that slipped low on one shoulder, a short denim skirt sitting low on her hips, and all the way down her bare legs to her pink-polished toes in a pair of sandals. Oh yeah. She had it going on.

He smiled at her and her answering smile warmed him.

“Hey.”

“Come on in. I’m ready to go. I’ll just get a sweater and my purse.”

He followed her into the small entrance, once again taking in the details he’d completely missed the other night—shiny hardwood floors, the potted palm next to the chocolate brown leather sofa sitting in front of the arched window, a floor lamp at the other end creating a soft illumination in the room. A glass and wrought iron coffee table sat on a rug patterned in shades of brown and moss green and gold.

Shelby disappeared down the short hall to the bedroom they’d headed directly to last time.

“So what did you find on your antiquing trip?” he called to her.

“Oh.” Her voice drifted down the hall. “I’ll show you. Hang on a sec.”

He wandered across the living room and paused in front of an old bookcase filled with white dishes, all different shapes and sizes. He turned as he heard Shelby’s flip flops on the wood floor. “That’s my ironstone collection,” she told him with a smile. “I found two new pieces—this pitcher and this soup tureen.”

“Uh-huh.” Didn’t do much for him, but she seemed happy.

“And I got this chandelier.” She turned and lifted a metal chandelier that had been painted shiny white. “We found this great little shop up the coast in Seaview. The woman who owns it fixes things up and sells them. Usually I like to fix things myself, but she does such a nice job! Look at this.”

Again, he nodded. “Where are you going to put it?”

“Above my table.” She pointed to the ordinary fixture on the ceiling that no doubt came with the apartment. “I’ll have to get an electrician in, I guess.”

“I could do it.” The words just popped out.

“Really? You know how to do that? Without electrocuting yourself?”

She looked so impressed he couldn’t help the masculine pride that expanded in his chest. “Yeah. Of course.”

“That would be awesome!” She set the fixture back on the floor. “And I got this little table. It’s already refinished just how I would do it.” She stroked her hand across the surface of the golden oak table. “Isn’t it nice?”

“Yeah.” Her entire apartment was furnished with those kinds of pieces, he realized, scanning the room and noticing more details—the old floor lamp with a new-looking shade, the antique pedestal-style dining table with six chairs, none of which matched. At all. “Looks like you’re really into antiques.”

“A little. I’m not obsessed or anything.” She grinned. “I started collecting things when I moved into my first apartment, mostly because it was all I could afford, but I’ve kind of fallen in love with the way it looks. I used to like things all matchy-matchy but now, I like this.”

He had to admit, her place did look good. Despite the mismatched furniture and accessories, it was almost excruciatingly neat and tidy, unlike her bathroom which was an explosion of girl stuff. How could a person be so neat and tidy in every room of the home but one? Of course, thinking of his own messy house, he wasn’t exactly one to talk. But even orderly and spotless as her apartment was, it felt comfortable. “I like it.”

“Thanks. Should we go?”

“Sure.”

They walked out to his car parked on the street. “I thought we could go to Ambrosia.”

“That sounds great.”

A short time later they were seated in a booth in the casual restaurant drinking margaritas on the rocks. And then she asked the question he’d been stewing about all day.

“So now are you going to tell me what happened between you and Andrew?”

He kept his face in a careful, casual smile. “It’s not that big a deal. We met in college. About a year ago we were talking about going into business together. It didn’t work out.”

A small crease appeared between her sexy bedroom eyes. “Oh. What kind of business?”

“Consulting. Project management, business process renewal.”

“What happened? Why didn’t it work out?”

“We both decided with the economy the way it’s been, we were safer to stay employed than trying to start a business. That’s risky at the best of times, never mind in a recession.”

“That’s true.” She gave a vigorous nod. “Probably worked out for the best. Will you still do it when the economy picks up?”

“Maybe.” Although not with Andrew. He made a face. “I’m not exactly happy with my job right now, but it’s a regular paycheck anyway. Our company is coming through the recession okay, so I’m pretty safe.”

“Why aren’t you happy there?”

Now he could be more open with her and he relaxed a little, having moved on from talking about him and Andrew. “Ha. Where should I start? The company I work for has out-of-date processes and they’re completely resistant to change. Even when upper management agrees they need to make changes, they don’t want to commit enough resources to the project and the staff are all so resistant to change, it’s hard to get anything moving. I got promoted to Senior Business Analyst a while back, and I feel like all I do is sit in an office and analyze shit and check the work my team is doing.”

She laughed. “Analyze shit?”

He smiled back at her. “Yeah. I like solving problems, thinking up new ideas. I like to be doing new things all the time, otherwise I get bored.”

She nodded, her lips pursed. “I guess I can relate to that. I like project management because it’s always something new.”

“Yeah.” He hitched a shoulder. “That’s why I wanted to start my own business. Be my own boss. My boss is a clock-watching, by-the-books paper pusher, and that is so not me.”

She gazed across the table at him, sympathy shining in her wide eyes. “That doesn’t make work fun, when you’re not working for a good boss. Even with the problems I’ve had with Andrew, I have to say he’s actually great to work for.”

“Really. I got the impression you don’t like him.”

“Oh no! It’s not that I don’t like him. He’s very smart and knowledgeable. He really goes to bat for his staff, I’ve seen him.”

Jake didn’t really want to hear how great Andrew was. “But you said his attention was causing problems for you.”

“Yes. That’s true.” Her smile faded. “I don’t know what it is, he seems like such a fair-minded man, but he seems to be treating me differently. Well, you know all about that.”

She hitched one shoulder, and the thin fabric of her loose shirt slipped off again, exposing one pretty, smooth shoulder. Did she not have a bra on underneath? His gaze dropped to her chest, but he couldn’t really tell. Focus, man.

“Did we convince him the other night? That you’re not ah…available?”

“I think so.” A tiny furrow wrinkled her forehead. “He was a little cool yesterday. And not very happy that I couldn’t work late tonight.”

Hell. He didn’t want to make things worse for her. But still, it was good that she hadn’t had to work late with him. Who knew what could happen?

He wanted to ask what she knew about Andrew’s marriage, but couldn’t think of a casual way to throw that out there. “Well. We should order.” He didn’t want to talk about Andrew anymore. He was the last thing Jake wanted to talk about to Shelby. Or maybe the second last. Luckily she hadn’t even mentioned Gianna.

They looked over the menu then gave the server their order. “Tell me about the project you’re working on,” he invited Shelby. They worked in similar fields and had a lot in common, and talk flowed easily, moving on to other topics like Jake’s training schedule for his triathlon and Shelby’s friends.

When Jake had paid the bill and driven Shelby back to her place, heated memories of Saturday night had him swelling in his jeans, but this time he was gonna be a nice guy and leave her at her door. This time.

“How did your cookies turn out the other day?” he asked as he walked her to her door.

“Oh.” She smiled. “Good. Taylor was very excited to take them to school.”

“That’s nice of you to do that.”

“I guess.” She lifted one shoulder and her top slipped a little again. “Her mom’s a single mom. She goes to school all day, works two part-time jobs, so Taylor’s on her own a lot. She’s at that in-between age where she doesn’t really need a babysitter, but she’s not quite old enough to be on her own all the time, so I ask her over sometimes. I know how it feels to be alone.”

He studied the faint shadows in her eyes as she said that, remembering what she’d said about her parents. “I’m sure they appreciate that.”

She just smiled.

“’Night, Shelby.” He kissed her mouth, a soft and gentle kiss though he wanted to shove her up against the wall and devour her. “Mmm.” Her long eyelashes fluttered.

He kissed her again, just because she was so soft and sweet. “Wanna do lunch on Thursday?”

Her eyes opened and she straightened. “Oh, Jake.” She touched her fingers to his cheek and smiled. “You don’t need to do that. I appreciate your help—coming to the picnic. And thanks for dinner tonight. But it really wasn’t necessary.”

Damn. He flipped through some thoughts in his mind, the first one being, she was saying no to him, the next that she didn’t want to see him again, and the next was—what the hell was he doing? He wasn’t looking for any kind of relationship. He should just walk away from this too.

But he wanted to see her again. “I’ll come pick you up at the office for lunch. Andrew will see us. It’ll just help make it more convincing.”

She eyed him for a moment, lips pursed as she thought. “Okay,” she finally said.

He smiled. “Great. I’ll give you a call Thursday morning.” He brushed a kiss over her mouth, turned and left.

Thursday morning at work Shelby had to determinedly push away thoughts of Jake and lunch with him and what a potentially bad idea that was, for her meeting with the two business units involved in her project. The meeting didn’t go well, and back in her cubicle she pressed her fingers to her temples. Then she got a call from Riley.

“It’s Adam,” Riley said, referring to their friend Kiara’s husband. “He’s in the hospital.”

“Oh no.” Shelby dropped into her chair and stared across her cubicle. “Is it bad?”

“Yeah.” Shelby could sense Riley’s struggle to get the words out. “This is probably the end.”

“Oh lord.” They’d known this was coming. “We’ll go visit him tonight.”

“Yes. We should. Kiara says he may be able to come home, but if he does, it will be…” She couldn’t finish the sentence, her voice catching.

“Yeah.” Shelby rubbed her forehead, her eyes burning. “I know. I’ll pick you up after work.”

“Okay.”

Shelby put down her phone and bit her bottom lip, fighting back the tears. The office was no place for tears. She had a hard enough time being taken seriously without sitting there sobbing, but damn, it was hard. Adam was a great guy, a talented lawyer, a faithful, devoted husband, fun to be around. He and Kiara were so much in love. It was so not fair, and Shelby hated the helplessness of not being able to do anything to stop this tragedy from happening to her friends.

“Shelby? You okay?” Once again Andrew appeared in her cubicle at the worst possible moment. She quickly swiped the moisture from her eyes and faced him.

“Yes. I’m fine.”

“How did your meeting go?”

She sighed. “Not that well.”

“Are you that upset about it?” His brows jerked together.

“No, no. I just got some bad news from a friend.”

His frown eased into concern. “Oh. Is everything all right?”

“No, not really.” She gave a small sigh. “I’ve mentioned my friends Kiara and Adam. He’s just been hospitalized. This might be the end.”

“Oh.” His face softened even more. “I’m so sorry. Do you need to go?”

“No.” She shook her head and lifted her chin, pressing her lips together. “We’re going to see him tonight.”

“Okay. But if you need anything, let me know.” His eyes fastened onto her intently, and she sensed the sincerity of his offer and once again was seized by guilt at the act she was putting on.

“I will. Thanks. So, um, the meeting this morning was a bit difficult. The new payment system has to meet the needs of both Short Term Benefits and Long Term Disability. Davis and Bram were almost coming to blows when I was trying to determine what their needs are.” She shook her head. “Why is there so much competition between them?”

“Always has been between those two departments,” Andrew replied, leaning one shoulder against her cubicle wall and crossing his arms over his chest. “Come to my office, and we can talk more about it.”

“Sure.” Trying to put aside her thoughts and worries about Kiara and Adam, she followed Andrew to his office. There was no privacy for sensitive discussions in cubeland.

Andrew shut the door of his office behind her and held a hand to the chairs at the round table. “Have a seat.”

She lowered herself to a chair.

“Sure you’re okay?” Concern shadowed his eyes. “You know you can take off if you need to.”

“I’m fine. I will probably need some time when…” And she, too, wasn’t able to finish the sentence. Geez, this was hard.

“Of course.”

She was grateful for Andrew’s understanding and flexibility.

He told her some of the history of the rivalry between the two departments, how Short Term Benefits always felt as if they never got their share of budget, staff, or any resources, for that matter. Davis Cooper seemed to have a bit of a chip on his shoulder when it came to negotiating anything with the division that handled long term disability claims. Understanding some of the history helped, but Shelby knew it was going to take a lot of effort to get both men on board with the project and cooperating. Great. She so much wanted this project to be a success, but conflict among the business units involved was not a good start.

“Have you decided who your team is going to be?” Andrew asked her.

“Well, that’s a bit of an issue too. I’ve talked to a few people, but Davis says he can’t let the staff I want go. They’re too busy to take on any additional work.”

Andrew frowned. “He can’t do that.”

Shelby bit her lip. “I know he’s not supposed to, but that’s what he told me.”

“This project is important. Its success is important. We were promised whatever staffing resources we need to make it successful. I’ll talk to him.”

“No.”

Andrew looked at her, brows raised. “No?”

She shook her head. “I want to handle it. If you’re telling me that I’m supposed to have access to whatever staff I need to resource this project properly, then I’ll deal with him.” During the meeting, the two men had argued over top of her and ignored her attempts to mediate their disagreements. “If I’m going to manage this project, I need them to know I’m in charge. Having you intervene won’t help that.”

“True,” he said slowly. “Okay. You handle it. But let me know if you need anything from me.”

“I will.” Shelby glanced at her watch. “Oh, look at the time. I have to go.”

“It’s lunch time,” Andrew said. “Why don’t we go get a bite and we can talk about strategy for dealing with Davis?”

She gave him a cautious smile. “I actually have lunch plans. Sorry.”

“Oh.” Andrew’s dark blond eyebrows pushed together. He studied her for a moment and she resisted the urge to blurt out, I have a date! With my boyfriend!

“All right. But if you want to talk more just let me know.”

“Of course. Thanks, Andrew. I appreciate your support.”

She rose and left his office, hurrying to her cubicle for the suit jacket she’d left hanging on the back of her chair and her purse.

She pushed her arms into the lightweight gray jacket as she walked through the office, then lifted her hair out from under the collar. With another glance at her watch, she made a quick stop in the ladies’ room. Jake had said he’d come by at noon. She brushed her hair and touched up her lipstick, straightened her gray pencil skirt and smoothed the silk blouse beneath her jacket. The meeting had frustrated her, the phone call from Riley had dragged her mood down, but anticipation at seeing Jake again brought on flutters of excitement inside her.