Sweet Deal

Chapter Nine

Jake figured the chances of running into Andrew were slim, given the size of the Gold Shield offices, but he was standing in the small reception area on the twenty-first floor, not really reading a copy of the Wall Street Journal, when Andrew walked through the door leading to the offices. Jake waited, knew the exact moment Andrew’s gaze landed on him. His eyes narrowed, his step faltered ever so slightly, his jaw tightened.

After a brief hesitation, Andrew approached him. “Jake. Hi. Here to meet Shelby for lunch, I take it.”

“Yeah.” Jake smiled.

The two men sized each other up. “What are you doing with her, Jake?” He spoke in a low voice, aware of the receptionist across the room.

Jake lifted one eyebrow. “What do you mean, what am I doing with her? What do you think?”

“I know what you’re like with women. You don’t do relationships.”

Jake tossed the magazine down on the table, shoved his hands into the pockets of his suit trousers and rocked back on his heels, frowning. “I had a relationship once.”

Andrew opened his mouth then closed it again. He looked at Jake, and goddammit if Jake didn’t see pity there, just like he’d seen on Gianna’s face at the picnic. Oh, for Chrissake, they both felt sorry for him. Still. What kind of sad loser did they think he was?

“No reason I can’t have a relationship again,” he added, trying to sound cheerful.

Andrew gave him a stern glare. “Listen, she seems like she’s really into you. Just don’t hurt her.”

“You’re telling me that?” Jake’s fingers curled into fists.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I mean, you’re her boss. Leave her alone.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Andrew’s voice rose incredulously. “We work together.”

“You know what I mean.” Jake kept his voice low in the small reception room, but the warning in his tone was clear. Andrew’s mouth dropped open, and then Jake looked up as the door opened again and Shelby walked out.

She spotted him immediately, smiled, then noticed Andrew, and her smile faded as she tap-tap-tapped across the tile floor. Jake directed his attention to her, because she was much more pleasant to look at than Andrew—her hip-hugging, knee-grazing skirt, high-heeled pumps and fitted jacket, all very professional, couldn’t fully hide the lush body beneath, and certainly did nothing to hide her long blonde hair and sexy eyes and mouth. A mouth that was now tightened into a straight line.

“Hi,” she said as she neared. Her gaze darted back and forth between them.

“Ready to go, sweetheart?” Jake took her arm and leaned down to kiss her cheek, fully aware of Andrew’s gaze on both of them. “See ya later, Andrew, buddy.”

Andrew said nothing, but Jake felt his gaze follow them into the elevator.

“He looked kind of pissed off,” Shelby said, with an anxious glance over her shoulder as they stepped in. “What did you say to him?”

“Nothing.” Actually, Jake was kind of regretting the conversation. He was supposed to be helping Shelby, not getting her in trouble with her boss. He hoped Andrew wasn’t going to take out his annoyance on her. His gut clenched at the thought.

He was such an idiot. He’d been so determined to protect Shelby, he hadn’t really thought about the possible consequences. And Shelby didn’t need to know he’d warned Andrew away from her. That would just embarrass her. And quite possibly make her mad at him too.

Hell. Jake cursed mentally as they walked to the nearby restaurant he’d chosen for lunch. They were seated on the patio outside, beneath the shade of a spreading fig tree.

He watched Shelby open her menu, look it over, close it. She gazed off into the distance, then opened the menu again.

“Are you okay, Shelby?” She seemed distant, distracted. Oh man, was she angry at him? Dismay twisted inside him.

“I’m okay.” She focused her attention on him and gave him a small smile that was totally not okay. His concern deepened. “Actually, I got some bad news this morning.”

When she told him about her friend, he forgot all about asshole Andrew. Sympathy flooded through him along with a somewhat awkward helplessness. Problem solving was one of his strengths, and if Shelby had told him any other story, he would have been all over trying to fix that for her. But this…this was beyond him. His chest ached as he watched her struggle with the words.

“And Kiara’s six months pregnant.”

His forehead tightened as his eyebrows shot up. “Oh no.”

“Yeah, but don’t ever say that to her. They planned it. When they found out Adam was dying, they got pregnant on purpose.”

Jake stared at Shelby across the table. “You’re kidding.”

“No.” She shook her head, with another small, sad smile. “They wanted children. They decided to do it, even though Adam would never see his child. And their child would never know his dad.” Shelby’s voice thickened and she coughed. “Kiara says she’ll make sure their child knows all about his or her dad. She loves Adam so much, she wanted to have his baby even though she’s going to end up raising the child alone.”

“Holy hell. That is…” Jake shook his head, his pathetic little problems reduced to insignificance, his insides feeling hot and tight. “That’s an amazing story.”

“I know. We all admire them both so much for how they’ve handled this, although privately we’ve wondered how Kiara is going to do it.”

“I give her a lot of credit,” Jake said. “Wow. I’m not sure if I would want my wife to do that, if I would want to leave her with that burden.”

“See, that’s why we don’t say anything about our doubts or misgivings to Kiara, because she doesn’t see it as a burden. She sees it as a gift, as a part of Adam that will live on after he’s gone. Someone for her to love.”

Jake rubbed at his chest and blinked up at the waitress who stood at their table smiling. Her cheeriness seemed incongruous following the astonishing conversation. He and Shelby quickly ordered.

“What can I do?” he asked as soon as the waitress had left.

“What do you mean?”

“For you. For your friends.”

“Oh.” Her blue eyes softened as she picked up her goblet of water and sipped it. “That’s so sweet of you.”

Jesus. Had anyone ever called him sweet in his life? He didn’t think so. Sweat popped out along his hairline.

“I don’t know if there’s anything right now,” she continued. “I feel so helpless myself. I wish I could do more. I know after Adam’s gone, Kiara will need us, her friends. I’m going to be her birth coach when she has the baby, and I know she’s going to need lots of support then.” She shook her head, but this time her smile held a hint of happiness. “A baby is a joy and a blessing for sure, but also a lot of work, especially for a single mom. So we’re all going to be there for her.”

“Your friends are obviously very special to you.” He envied that. Jake hated to admit that he still felt a hole in his life since Andrew and Gianna had gotten together. At the time, Jake had assured them no hard feelings, they’d all still be friends, yadda yadda. But the reality had been that he couldn’t bear to be around them, and his friendship with Andrew had tapered off into nothingness. They’d been best buddies in college, shared so many interests. Including the same woman. He pushed those depressing thoughts away.

“They are.” Her smile warmed. “I don’t have much family and my parents aren’t really there for me much, so I guess Kiara and Riley and Myra are like family. I’m lucky to have them.”

“They’re lucky to have you.”

Her cheeks pinkened and she looked down at the water glass in her hands. “We’re going to visit Adam at the hospital tonight,” she told him.

“I know I’ve never met the guy, but let me know how he’s doing.”

“Thanks.” Her voice came out soft and floaty, her big blue eyes fastened on his. “I will.”

With his emotions all stirred up hearing the gut-wrenching story about her friends, he couldn’t take his eyes off Shelby through their entire lunch. They talked about other things, again the conversation easy and fun, even when it came back to Adam and Kiara. Shelby was so loyal and caring of her friends and he fucking hated that she was hurting over this.

Jesus. What was happening to him? He barely knew her and he was getting all sappy. Shit.

Although Shelby had lived on her own for years, she felt so alone when she walked into her apartment after visiting the hospital that evening, shaky, emotional and on the verge of tears. She stood looking out her window into the darkness, aching for her friends, and the unfairness of everything that was happening to them, when her cell phone rang.

It was Jake, calling to see how the visit had gone. It almost seemed as if he’d sensed she was going to be upset and lonely afterward. She curled up on her couch and they talked on the phone for nearly an hour. He offered to come over, but she refused. She liked talking to him, though, and felt a lot steadier when they finally said good-night.

It was crazy. She knew herself and she knew the more time she spent with him, the more likely she was to get involved. Already she found herself liking him more and more, feeling all warm and distracted when she thought about him. And the more she got involved, the more likely she was going to get hurt. Again.

She wouldn’t see him again. He’d served his purpose, though that thought made her wince at the cold-bloodedness of it. He was messing up her mind, making it hard for her to concentrate on work, and she had to be sharp to stay on top of things in this project.

The next morning at work, she tried to focus on the meeting she was facilitating, and not thoughts of Jake.

“I’m not giving up four full-time staff positions to work on this project, when Long Term Disability is only giving up two,” Davis said.

Shelby smiled at him across the boardroom table. “But your division is much more impacted by these changes,” she said calmly. “You handle eighty percent of the claims payments. And I know you’d want to have as much input into the end product as possible.”

“Which means we’re too busy providing customer service to be able to spare staff for a project.”

Shelby swallowed her sigh of frustration. She smiled at Davis. “I understand what you’re saying. We do have sufficient budget to backfill the positions, though.”

He snorted. “That means we have to recruit and hire someone new and then train them—that will take months.”

“Maybe we can find another way. Ideally I need four full-time people to work on the project. But I could probably make it work with two full-time dedicated resources and two part-time. At least until your new staff is up and running.”

Davis ignored her and spoke to Bram. “Why don’t you give up four people?”

Bram gave Davis a flinty stare. “Because we don’t have to.”

Okay, she’d had enough of this bullshit. Why had she planned this meeting for a Friday afternoon, anyway? Shelby leaned forward and laid her hand on the desk, not in a smack, but firmly enough to make a noise and attract their attention. She smiled again, this time with an edge. “He’s not giving up four people because I’m the project manager and I’m the one who came up with the resource requirements for the project. I need four people from Short Term and two from Long Term. I can be flexible about whether it’s four full-time or two full-time, two part-time, but I will have four people from your division, Davis. This project is important and Paul has committed the resources we need.” Mentioning Davis’s boss, the Vice President of Benefits, got his attention. His eyes narrowed.

“I suppose two full-time and two part-time would be more manageable,” he muttered.

“That’s a great idea,” she replied smoothly, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. “I’ll be setting up a meeting next week for the project team. Now, next on the agenda is our risk and mitigation strategy.”

Davis and Bram launched into a debate about risks to customer service, and once again Shelby had to intervene. Once she got through these initial stages and had her team assembled, things would be easier. Maybe.

“I don’t think you fully understand our processes,” Davis snapped at her. “How long have you worked here?”

“Almost a year.”

He nodded and Shelby felt herself grow warm. She knew what he was thinking. How could she be managing a project of this magnitude with such little experience?

“I have six years of project management experience from my previous employer,” she said. “I worked on two similar projects when I was with RBM Pharmaceuticals. Also as the project manager, I don’t need to have knowledge of every small business process in your division, but I do need to have a good project team who does. Which is why it’s important that I have your expert input, as well as those staffing resources.”

Bram shook his head, and glanced at Davis. “I’m afraid I’m with him on this one.”

Great. She was uniting the two enemies in their distrust of her. Her stomach clenched and every muscle in her body tightened as she dug deep for control.

She gave them a bright smile. “I’m so glad to see both of you on the same page about something.”

That got her a startled bark of laughter from both of them. They exchanged another glance.

“I still think we have to change the whole intake process,” Davis said.

“That’s not within the scope of this project,” she said firmly. “It’s all in the draft of the project charter I gave you.” She nodded her head at the documents in front of each man. “If there are processes that need to be reviewed, we’ll make note of them and I can include recommendations for future changes. But we won’t be including that in this project.”

They both nodded, seeming to accept her answer, and Shelby moved on with the agenda. When the meeting had concluded, she wrapped things up with her usual summary of what decisions had been made and next steps. She sent each of them away with tasks they grumbled about but didn’t outright refuse to do.

“Thank you so much for your help,” she said sweetly as they walked out of the meeting room. She clutched her folder of papers to her chest, trying not to look like she was tense enough to snap. “I so much enjoy working with both of you. Your experience here is invaluable.”

The sucking up seemed to work and they walked back to their offices smiling.

In her own cubicle, she let out a long breath and collapsed into her chair. She could do this. She could do this. She was a good project manager, task-focused, detail-oriented, well-organized, but managing the conflicts that always seemed to arise was a challenge for her. She’d always hated conflict and it didn’t take a psychologist to know why after growing up surrounded by it. Although, she knew she was better at dealing with it than some managers she’d worked with. It was also a challenge working on such a big project when she was relatively new to the company and didn’t know all the hot buttons. What she’d said was true, and she had faith in her brains and ability to learn, but she couldn’t help some of the self-doubts that swirled inside her, especially faced with such a lack of confidence on the part of the directors, not to mention their rivalry. And she knew that wasn’t going to be the only conflict she’d have to deal with.

Oh well. She sucked in a big breath and again let it out, trying to release as much tension from her body as she could along with it. She began tidying her already neat office, arranging folders and papers into perfect piles, straightening pens and plucking a yellowed leaf from the plant on the corner of her desk.

Seeing Adam and Kiara last night had put some of her problems into perspective. Of course she wanted to do a good job, and her career was important to her, but witnessing what her friends were going through, the brave fronts they put on in the face of such tragedy, definitely made her realize her career was actually pretty insignificant.

Oh, who was she kidding? Her career was important to her. She needed to prove to herself as much as everyone else that she could do this, after what happened at her last job. Hence stooping to the level of making up a boyfriend and lying to her boss.

She sighed. In a weird way, she envied Kiara and Adam. She didn’t envy what they were going through, but she did envy the love they had for each other and the strength they were finding to help each other through this. They’d talked about so many things, important things, knowing how little time they had together, becoming closer than any two people she’d ever known, and seeing the depth of their feelings for each other was truly humbling.

That was what was important in life.

On the other hand, she wasn’t about to give up on this new job either. Losing her job wasn’t going to get her a love like Kiara and Adam. She had to hold on to what she had in her life.

Feeling drained from the stressful meeting, not to mention her worry about her friends and most of all her confused thoughts about Jake, she began typing up minutes of the meeting she’d just held, including all those action items that needed to be done to move things forward. She looked forward to going home, changing into her yoga pants and curling up on her couch.

Then Jake called. “I thought you might want to have dinner,” he said.

She closed her eyes. She’d just determined she wasn’t going to see him again. She felt herself weakening, wanting to see him. This was crazy! What had she gotten herself into with that impulsive plan for him to pretend to be her boyfriend?

She opened her mouth to say no, when Andrew walked by on his way out. He paused at her cubicle, then saw she was on the phone.

“Hang on,” she said to Jake softly, and lowered the phone. She looked at Andrew questioningly.

“Time to go,” he said. “Want to get a drink?”

Her stomach tightened but she forced a smile. “Sorry. I’m still working on a few things.”

Disappointment crossed his face. “Oh. I kinda wanted to get a drink.” He lifted one shoulder, the corners of his mouth tipping down. “And, you know…talk.”

She gazed at him in dismay. “Is something wrong?”

“Nah.” He gave her a weak smile. “Just…stuff.”

Was it his marriage? She nibbled her bottom lip. She shouldn’t feel sorry for him, shouldn’t feel like she should go for a drink with him, because that was what she was trying to avoid. “I’m sorry. I do need to finish up a few things and then I’m…um…going out for dinner.”

“With Jake.”

She nodded brightly and indicated the phone in her hand.

Andrew just stood there, looking at her. What? What did he want? Confusion mounted in her. Then he shook his head. “Have a good weekend, Shelby.”

“Thanks. You too.”

Pushing her hair off her face, she lifted the phone back to her ear. “Sorry about that. Andrew was just leaving.”

“He asked you to go out.”

“Just for a drink. We often do that on Fridays.”

“Just you and him?”

Shelby frowned. “Sometimes. Sometimes others come too. You know, happy hour, Friday-evening stuff.”

“He asked you even though he knows you’re seeing me.”

Shelby waited a beat of silence. “First of all, it’s not like he was asking me on a date. He wanted to talk business. And second—I’m not really seeing you.” She kept her voice low. The office had emptied and was quiet but she didn’t know who was still around to possibly overhear. “I’m not really sure what we’re doing or why you’re asking me out for dinner. This started out as a favor but…”

Silence prickled between them over the phone.

“Yeah, I did you a favor,” he said finally, his voice rough. “But, hell, Shelby, I…look, let’s talk about it over dinner.”

She sighed. “I don’t think it’s really a good idea for us to actually get involved.”

“Why not?” Stubbornness edged his voice.

“Because…” She hesitated. “I’m not really looking for a relationship. I just needed someone to…” She glanced around again and lowered her voice to a near whisper. “Help me. You know.”

More silence.

“So I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong idea,” she said, even though she kind of felt like her insides were being shredded, forcing the words out because dammit, she really did want to see him again. But this was for the best.

“You just told Andrew you were having dinner with me.”

She frowned. “Yes, but that doesn’t mean we have to really do it.” She sighed. “I’m really tired, Jake. It’s been a long week, with Adam being in the hospital, and stuff at work.”

“You have had a rough week,” he admitted. “We don’t have to go out.”

Disappointment flooded her that he wasn’t going to push a little more to convince her. Man, she needed to screw her head on straight.

“Okay then,” she said. “Bye, Jake.”

And she snapped her phone shut.