by M. S. Parker
“Wait until it’s time for dinner.” Gracie smiled. “I’m making chicken and dumplings, and Stella brought a cheesecake.”
I closed my eyes in satisfaction. “That will be amazing.”
We chatted for a while, and after we were done cleaning up, I turned to the room at large.
“I don’t suppose one of you could drive me back to my car, so I can get my things?” I grimaced as I adjusted my borrowed jeans. “I’m wearing borrowed clothes. Ryder had some at his cabin, but I wasn’t about to borrow somebody’s panties.”
Stella volunteered.
After her SUV warmed up, we climbed inside, and I curled my toes inside the boots that Ryder had criticized. They were still damp. Maybe if I left them by the fireplace all day today and all night, they’d be dry – and warmer – by the time we headed out tomorrow.
“So…you met Ryder,” Stella said, her voice almost too casual.
“Seems like.” I slanted a look at her, but she kept her focus on the road as she maneuvered the SUV around the twists and turns.
“I’ve met him before,” she told me, still not looking my way. “He’s nice to me, but…well, I’ve also seen how he acts with women.”
“You’re a woman,” I pointed out.
She hitched up a shoulder in a quick shrug. “I’m a woman married to one of his best friends. That probably makes a difference in how he treats me.”
“He was a perfect gentleman.” Crossing my arms over my chest, I looked outside at the scenery slowly passing by.
She sighed. “That’s good.”
I shot her another look as she slowed down to take a sharp curve. She lapsed into silence for the rest of the short drive, and I relaxed a little, thinking the inquisition was over.
But…nope. Apparently, Stella wanted to have this conversation.
She focused her hazel eyes on me as she put the SUV into park. “Look, Ryder is hot. I’m hooked up with somebody else, but I’m not dead.”
“Is there a point to this?”
“Yeah. I just…look, I asked Lukas about him after you left last week. Like I said, I’ve met him, and he’s always been nice to me, but Lukas…well, he told me that women were pretty much interchangeable when it came to Ryder. I don’t want to see you get tangled up with somebody who treats women that way.”
I pursed my lips as I turned her words over in my mind. Finally, I shook my head. “I spent the entire night with the guy, Stella. He was a perfect gentleman. Maybe he’s not as wild as Lukas thinks he is.”
“Maybe,” Stella said reluctantly, but I could tell she didn’t really mean it.
“Anyway…I’m just looking to have some fun.” I shrugged, thinking about the careful distance Ryder had kept between us. It could be because I had a connection to Lukas – it would make sense. But he’d had plenty of chances to make a move on me. And if he’d done it, I’m not so sure I would have turned him down. “And Ryder, hot though he may be, just doesn’t seem like he’s out to have fun.”
Shoving my hair back, I reached for the handle. “Let me grab my stuff, and we can get back to the cabin.”
Later that night, I slid onto the bed next to Stella.
The cabin was small, although Lukas had added onto it this past summer. The first time I’d come up here with Stella, there hadn’t even been a bedroom, just a simple bed tucked up against one of the walls.
Since then, Lukas had added on a bedroom and bought more furniture for the place, including a sofa bed where Tabitha and Gracie now slept.
It was late, and Stella had already fallen asleep. I’d been the last to get ready for bed, so the cabin was quiet around me.
The quiet made me think about last night, and how quiet it had been in the tent with Ryder. Save for the whistle of the wind and his soft, steady breathing, there hadn’t been any noise.
Normally, I found that kind of silence unsettling. I needed some sort of white noise to sleep, and as I lay down in the bed, Stella breathing softly next to me, I wondered at how easily I’d managed to go to sleep the night before.
I had a much easier time of it last night, with a total stranger, than I was having now, that was for certain.
Lying tucked up next to Ryder had felt oddly…right.
A fantasy, because the man had made it clear he wasn’t interested.
I sighed. Too bad.
Curling onto my side, the rapid pace of my thoughts finally slowed down. I hadn’t lied when I told Stella I was just looking for fun. And if Ryder had been at all interested, I couldn’t help but think that he and I could have a lot of fun together.
5
Breanna
Monday morning dawned far too early, in my opinion.
On the way back to Denver, my service had finally reconnected, and I listened to the message from the wrecking service about my piece of shit SUV. There wasn’t a lot of information, just a location and number I could call once the place reopened on Monday.
I had no doubt the bill for the wrecker was going to be unreal, and I thought about the glum state of my finances as I showered.
I’d probably be eating a lot of cereal and Ramen noodles in my future. I’d existed on cereal and Ramen in college and wasn’t particularly eager to go back to that, but I’d probably need to work a new car payment into my monthly budget.
And boots, I thought sourly. I was getting a better pair of boots for winter.
Fortunately for me, my home wasn’t too far from a bus stop, and I was able to use public transportation to get into the office Monday morning. It did require getting up an extra thirty minutes early. Like Mondays didn’t already suck enough.
I spent the time on the bus perusing a website for car sales and debating on how much I could afford and what I wanted.
I’d probably have to compromise on what I wanted for what my budget could produce, but I killed a little while, daydreaming about a brand-new Jeep – one with heated seats – before focusing on the practical.
I got to the office with ten minutes to spare and was debating on darting across the street to get some coffee from a local barista, but common sense told me I’d be better off getting the free stuff at the office rather than spending six bucks on a latte. I usually bought three or four a week, something else I’d have to nix until I worked my car problem out.
Instead of giving into the latte urge, I made my way to the breakroom. I’d just finished filling my cup when my phone rang.
I took the call and the news filled me with bemusement.
It was the wrecker company calling, letting me know where my car was. It was in one of the small towns between here and the cabin in the mountains, and he’d left it with a mechanic that came highly recommended.
I thanked the man and asked him about his bill.
“Oh, that’s been taken care of, ma’am. You be sure to let me know if you need your SUV taken somewhere else.”
He gave me the number for the mechanic and hung up, while I continued to turn over what he’d said.
The bill had been taken care of – Ryder?
It had to be because I hadn’t even had a chance to call my insurance and ask whether my roadside maintenance would cover the tow service.
I was still puzzling over it as I made my way to my cubicle. It sat next to Stella’s, and she and Lukas were talking quietly beside her desk. They caught sight of me, and I waved before ducking into my spot and putting the coffee down.
I had just finished locking up my purse when Stella popped in.
“Got any news about your SUV?” she asked.
She’d known I was dreading getting that information, and I gave her a negative shake of my head. “I know where it’s at, but I haven’t had time to call yet. I’ll do that once I get a bit more settled in. Something weird, though…I think Ryder paid for the tow.”
She blinked, then angled her head to the side as she processed what I’d told her.
“I hadn’t had time to call my insurance and see if my roadside would cover it, but when I tal
ked to the guy who hauled it off the mountain, he said the bill had already been taken care of. Who else could have done it?” I asked as I picked up my coffee.
“I guess nobody,” Stella answered, sipping from her own mug. She was dressed in sleek, sexy, Christmas red and I caught a glimpse of a magnificent pair of heels as she crossed one ankle over the other.
We never really talked about it, but I knew Stella came from money – the kind of money that didn’t have to worry about budgets or whether a tow truck bill would make a difference between Ramen noodles for lunch or eating out once a week.
A part of me dealt with some envy, but I knew all about how money didn’t make one happy.
Stella’s family was loaded, but one of the reasons she’d left the city was to get away from the overbearing press of a too-perfect family. I was close to my parents and my siblings, and we all usually got together for holidays. We all still lived in the same general area, save for my big sister, Louise. She was a skydiving instructor and lived in Idaho with her husband. My parents and brothers, along with several cousins and aunts and uncles, all lived about a half-hour away in Boulder.
I adored my family, and while I was glad I didn’t live close enough for my mom to just drop in two or three times a week, I couldn’t imagine feeling so stifled by my family that I moved across the country just to be able to breathe.
“Are you going to be okay if you have to get another car?” Stella asked.
I shrugged. “I’ll make do. Might have to live on Ramen noodles for a year, but I’ll manage.”
She made a face at me. “Friends do not let friends exist on Ramen noodles. I’ll be taking you out to lunch every now and then.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I’ll be fine. I’ll just have to be a little more careful. Besides, who knows…maybe my piece of shit SUV is salvageable.”
Stella gave me an appraising look, and I knew she was remembering a trip or two in said POS, when the engine had resisted turning over or would occasionally give a large shudder, like an old man with creaky bones trying to work his joints loose.
“If you say so,” she said, but even an idiot could hear the skepticism in her voice.
The head of our department appeared then, and Stella gave me a quick wink. “Gotta go.”
While Lukas had softened a lot in the year since he’d taken over Cutting Edge, there were still a number of people, intimidated by him. The head of our department, Miles Wimberly, was one of them and he often approached Stella before going straight to Lukas.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Stella ended up in charge here in a couple more years. Lukas was a business genius, and I suspected he’d eventually get bored of the advertising agency thing and move on to another pursuit. He was sharp, and there was no denying he got the business, but I also knew just why he’d bought the place. He’d bought it because of Stella, after their meeting on the mountain last year.
As I took one more sip of coffee, I turned my computer on and checked my organizer, getting my mind ready for the day’s work ahead.
I paused at nine-thirty and took a few minutes to call the mechanic about my car.
He’d told me he’d be happy to take a look, and he took my phone number, so he could get back to me. I grimly pushed the issue of my SUV aside after that.
It was coming up on eleven – and lunchtime – when a shadow fell across my desk.
I looked up and blinked in surprise to see Ryder standing there.
“Um.”
He blinked, lashes falling over a pair of deep gray eyes. “Um,” he said back.
Rising, I folded my arms across my mid-section and pasted a polite smile on my face as I studied him.
His attire was a sharp one-eighty from what he’d been wearing when I met him Friday. In a sleek suit of steel gray, he could have passed for some well-off businessman, save for the beard that still obscured some of his face. It looked like he’d trimmed it back somewhat and his hair was neatly combed.
My tongue tried to glue itself to the roof of my mouth as we stared at each other.
“What are you doing here?” I finally managed to ask.
He looked around my cubicle with a frown. “Business. Don’t you have an office?”
I flushed but shook my head. “I’m still fairly new here.” I’d been working with the agency for a few years, but offices were reserved for the heads of department and other bigwigs. Even Stella didn’t have an office yet, and she was hooked up to the owner.
He glanced around the small cubicle which was designed for work and phone calls, not talking to clients – or whatever Ryder was going to end up being.
“There are conference rooms. Would you like to step into one of those?” I asked.
He nodded, giving my cubicle another narrow look. “It’s not that bad,” I told him.
“It’s small,” he returned.
I just shook my head as I unplugged my laptop and moved to exit. He didn’t step aside until the last second, and I stood there, breathing in the warm scent of him while my heart hammered in my ears.
He finally stepped back, and I slid past him, heading toward the conference rooms that lined the back of the building. I chose one of the smaller rooms farther down the hall and stepped inside, flicking on the lights as I did so. “Will this work?”
He nodded and dropped a file on the desk as he moved around, eying things curiously.
“We use these rooms for meetings with clients and such,” I said as he paced over to the big whiteboard on the wall.
He just nodded again.
After a few more moments of silence, I asked, “What did you want to talk to me about?”
He glanced at me over his shoulder. “Business. I’m looking for a new marketing company for the family business, and I know Lukas has got the best agency in the city. I told him I wanted his best.” He turned to meet my gaze then. “He said that would be you, next to Stella, of course.”
I rolled my eyes. “He’s biased. Not that she isn’t good. But he’s still biased.”
Ryder nodded, looking unconcerned.
“Well…would you like to sit down, and you can tell me just what it is you’re looking for?”
He pushed the folder in my direction but didn’t sit.
I flipped the folder open and studied the information inside. It was the upcoming season, and I winced as I saw the layout. It was…clunky. “Who came up with the marketing campaign?” I asked.
“It’s in-house right now. I think we could use a fresh eye on things.”
He could indeed, but I didn’t say that. Finally flipping through everything else, I closed the folder and asked, “What’s your budget and time frame?”
I had to grit my teeth as I got a noncommittal sort of answer in the form of a shrug.
“It helps to have that information handy when you want to put together a marketing campaign,” I advised him.
He gave me a level look. “I’ll hook you up with my people once I decide if you’re a fit for the job. They’ll have all the information you need.”
“Okay.” To buy myself a few minutes, I got up and went to the water cooler tucked up against the back wall and got myself a cup of water. “Just what did you have—”
The rest of the words froze in my throat as I turned and found him standing just a few feet away.
I hadn’t even heard him approach.
His dark grey eyes caught and held mine. My throat was suddenly dry. Lifting the cup to my lips, I took a sip. It was unsettling, having him this close to me. His nearness had a crazy effect on my heart, causing it to flutter and race around in my chest.
“What did you have in mind?” I asked, modulating my tone and pleased with myself when I came out sounding calm and relaxed.
He gave another maddening shrug. “I’m not sure. I just want something that doesn’t look so…dated. And maybe something that would appeal to the female outdoor lover as much as the male.”
“So, you want a complete overhaul,” I said dryly. I
went to cut around him.
He shifted his stance at the same time, and I froze as his arm grazed my breast.
It was purely accidental, but still a shocking contact.
Quickly, I moved away from him and returned to the table. I grabbed the folder again, desperate to have something to do with my hands.
“Considering this is your spring catalog, we probably can’t do a total rebranding, at least not on the time we have. But we can definitely streamline things and make the catalog a little less…manly.”
“I don’t want anything fussy,” he told me.
“Darn. There goes the pink and lace I was planning on using as a backdrop,” I said.
I saw him draw close. “We’d be better served holding off on a total rebranding campaign if we focused on your summer catalog.” I glanced up at him.
“Okay. How do we go about doing that?”
I offered a shrug and said, “We need a budget, get some more insight from your marketing team…” I trailed off as I sensed his eyes on me again.
Meeting his gaze, I stared at him.
A hundred things raced through my mind. There were any number of things I’d need if he was serious about rebranding and redesigned his marketing platform, but oddly, I couldn’t think of a single thing to tell him related to the proposal.
“Did you pay the wrecker that towed my car?”
He didn’t even blink at the question. “Why?”
I lifted my chin. “Because somebody did, and it wasn’t me.”
“Yes, I paid it. Is that a problem?”
I opened, then closed my mouth. Finally, I said, “That wasn’t necessary.”
“I know.”
Why was he standing so close?
And why wasn’t I moving away?
“Why did you pay the wrecker?” I asked.
“I just did.” His lashes drooped low over his eyes, and although neither of us moved, it was like our bodies were suddenly straining to be closer.
Then they were.
