Make Time For Love

by Louise Clark

  “Cody doesn’t care about what you and I were talking about,” Faith said, having finally gotten over the shock of meeting Cody Simpson here.

  Cody’s brows shot up and he said, “I think that was a very broad hint that I’m not wanted. It was a pleasure meeting you, Mrs. Hamilton.”

  “What a nice young man,” Chloe said, as both women watched his muscular form jog down the pathway.

  “He’s a computer geek and he’s driving me crazy,” Faith said. “When Sue Green gets back from her medical leave, he’ll be out of my life. Forever.”

  Chloe shot her a speculative look. “Think so?”

  “Yes, and you’re crossing bridges that aren’t even there.”

  Chloe laughed and didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “Maybe. Maybe not.”

  Chapter 9

  “Fabulous day, isn’t it?” Ralph Warren gazed around the park where the annual NIT company picnic was taking place. Ava had exceeded expectations this year, finding a location that boasted plantings of annuals and perennials, all in bloom; graveled paths that twisted through groves of evergreen bushes and lofty trees; and charming walkways under vines of jasmine and honeysuckle. As well, there were open areas where a croquet game had been set up and volleyball and badminton nets erected. In the center of it all was the NIT command post, where the beverages were laid out and the food was prepared. The whole event had an air of upscale, casual fun. Ralph was clearly very satisfied with everything about the party, including the weather, which had cooperated with warm temperatures and a bright blue sky, peppered with white fluffy clouds.

  Faith smiled at him. Ralph had every right to be pleased. Back in the days when she’d handled all the management details except sales and promotion, she’d been the one to put this event together, so she had a good idea of what the elegant charm was costing—more than it had in the past, that was for sure. But then NIT had changed and grown so much in the last year that image had become an important component in the annual event. Trust Ava to understand and capitalize on that.

  “I spoke to Grant Balfour and Jason Wong earlier. They were about to play volleyball against Ava and Angela. They all seemed to be having a terrific time.” Balfour and Wong were info tech executives from two of their new long-term contracts. It had been Ava’s suggestion that top-level clients be added to the guest list, to bring them into the NIT family, so to speak. Ralph loved the idea.

  Now he nodded, suddenly serious. “I’m delighted to hear that. I must say, Ava excels at ensuring that NIT puts on the right corporate image. I think today she’s outdone herself, though. Perfect weather, a great location…” This time his sweeping gesture was meant to encompass the park they had rented for the afternoon. “Wonderful food and drink—have you had anything to eat yet?”

  Faith held up her glass, which had once contained lemonade. “I’ve already munched on a hotdog, thank you, Ralph.”

  He looked horrified. “Not just a hotdog, Faith. A gourmet European sausage. Surely you noticed the difference?”

  Faith smiled, not about to argue. “It was delicious. I enjoyed it very much.”

  Ralph nodded. “I did too. A great choice.” His gaze strayed, swept the crowd. “You’ll excuse me, Faith?”

  “Sure,” Faith said to Ralph’s retreating back. She scanned the crowd, found a likely contact and started networking.

  An hour later she had chatted with three members of the Board of Directors, two senior engineers, the vice-president of marketing and the chief financial officer. Each conversation had included the weather, the charming location, the fabulous food, and what a great company NIT was.

  Tired of mixing, she wandered over to the awning where Ava and her helpers had set up the food and beverage tables. Ava wasn’t around, but her secretary, along with Ralph’s executive assistant and the CFO’s secretary were keeping the area tidy. Faith refilled her lemonade then asked if she could spell anyone. She wasn’t surprised when her offer was cheerfully refused. She looked at her watch and decided she’d stick it out for another half hour, then be off.

  Sipping her lemonade she glanced around. The volleyball game was underway in a grassy area some distance from the refreshment table. She could go over and cheer the teams on, but she might get pressured to join the game. Though the people playing were laughing, they were sweating too and wearing shorts and t-shirts. Faith glanced down at her crisply pressed linen slacks and silk blouse. She didn’t see volleyball in her future.

  She caught sight of Ava near an ornamental pond, talking to a new employee. A moment later Ava was on the move, dragging the new staff member behind her. Ava caught sight of another solitary employee and steered in his direction. Once she reached her victim, she made introductions and left with a wave, having successfully achieved her goal. Faith chuckled to herself. Ava playing hostess was a formidable sight.

  And a dangerous one. Now on the prowl, looking for someone else who wasn’t mixing, Ava would be onto Faith at any moment if she didn’t appear to be busy. Faith was still uneasily aware that Ava wanted to use the picnic for a little lesson in Cooperation 101 between Faith and Cody. Since that was something Faith would be happy to do without, she checked for someone to mix with. She caught sight of one of the project managers looking a little lost and headed over in his direction.

  They chatted about—what else?—the good weather, the tasty hotdogs, and the effort that had gone into putting on the party. The project manager was one of the new employees hired as a result of the successful contract bids. Faith couldn’t remember his name right at the moment, but he was friendly and as desperate for someone to talk to as she was.

  The conversation passed a good fifteen minutes before it petered out as another of the new managers appeared and the two men began to talk shop. Faith did a quick scan for Ava, but couldn’t see her anywhere nearby. She breathed a sigh of relief and decided that in another quarter of an hour she could decently head off. She was considering how she could safely pass the final few minutes when she heard Ava Taylor’s voice behind her.

  “Hello, Faith. Having a good time?”

  Silently cursing her bad luck, Faith turned. “Lovely, thank you, Ava. You’ve outdone yourself.”

  Ava smiled, a little smugly. In shorts and a t-shirt, wearing tiny tennis socks and pristine white runners, she looked fashionable, tanned, and healthy. “I have an excellent team. They did all the hard work. Have you had a chance to talk to Cody Simpson yet today?”

  Feeling overdressed and at a disadvantage, Faith said, “I haven’t, no.” She’d seen him just before she’d gone to the refreshment table, though. He was wearing his standard jeans and a t-shirt and a lock of his thick black hair had fallen over his forehead in a way that was far too attractive. Faith hadn’t deliberately avoided him, but then she hadn’t tried to connect with him either.

  “You must,” Ava said. Before Faith could react, Ava grabbed her arm. “Come on, I saw him over by the rhododendrons.”

  “Ava, what are you doing?”

  “Making sure that you and Cody Simpson deal with your differences,” Ava said, striding purposefully across the grass. Faith was nearly trotting as she tried to keep up with her. “Communication is important in situations like yours,” Ava was saying. They reached the rhododendron bed. Ava circled it with the concentration of a hound dog trying to catch a scent, but she came up empty. Cody had moved on.

  Relieved, Faith said, “Well, thanks for trying, Ava. Cody must be somewhere around here. I’ll keep an eye out for him.”

  Ava wasn’t listening. “Ha! There he is. Over by the volleyball game.” She headed off, Faith in tow.

  Faith could see he was eating. He popped the last of a hamburger into his mouth, licked each of his fingers, then chewed in a leisurely way while he watched the game. As they neared he tipped his head back and tossed the dregs of whatever beverage remained in a paper cup down his throat. Faith swallowed. He looked fit and strong, and way too sexy for a computer geek.

  “Cody!” Ava sa
id.

  He turned. His eyes were shaded by sunglasses, so Faith couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but after a moment of stillness he strolled toward them.

  “Cody, here’s Faith. I realize you two don’t know each other well, which can be a problem when you have to work closely together, so take this opportunity to chat. Talk about anything that interests you—but not about work!” She smiled at both of them, but the expression didn’t reach her eyes. “That way you can discover something about each other and relate as individuals, rather than employees. I’ll go now and leave you to it.” She waved airily and moved off.

  Cody watched Ava walk away. “That woman is quite terrifying.”

  Faith grimaced. She was dusting herself off, as if this could somehow get rid of the embarrassment she was feeling now. “She’s not my favorite person at the moment.”

  Cody took off his dark glasses and smiled. “Don’t like being dragged around like a reluctant kid?”

  Faith finished dusting herself as she nodded. “She’d never understand, though.”

  He laughed. “You’ve got that right. Let’s see, we could Ava-bash for the next fifteen minutes or so, or talk about something else, since we’re supposed to be relating on a deeper level. What do you think?”

  Mischievously Faith said, “I heard it was going to rain at five-oh-two. That’s in forty-five minutes. Did you bring your umbrella?”

  Cody didn’t bother to glance at the blue sky, which didn’t have a cloud in it. “Well, that’s not a bad gambit to keep the conversational ball rolling without revealing much about yourself. How about something more in-depth?”

  Faith’s breath caught and she felt herself blushing. Revealing her personal life to Cody was not in her agenda—no matter what Ava wanted. The problem was, he was a perceptive man. She’d have to be careful as she steered him away from the information she didn’t want him to know. “You don’t believe in small talk about the weather?”

  He shook his head and smiled into her eyes.

  Unsettled, she resisted the urge to smile back and spill her entire life history to him. “Every conversation I’ve had today began with a comment about the weather.”

  His gaze drifted slowly down her body, then back up. “Useless chat isn’t my style.”

  Faith blamed the heat burning through her on the afternoon sun, not that visual caress that had her imagining long sensual kisses with a guy she’d decided she had better stay away from. She took a deep breath and opted to meet him head on. Otherwise, they might end up flirting through the rest of the afternoon and—horrors!—connecting on what was definitely a personal level. “Cody, I don’t think this is exactly what Ava had in mind.”

  Cody’s shrewd gaze scanned her face. He laughed, not pretending that he didn’t understand where she was coming from.

  She liked that about him. Damn it, he was already getting too close and they’d only been talking for three minutes.

  “I know it isn’t,” he said, his voice low and filled with—oh, heavens—a sensual amusement. “The thing is, I don’t really care what kind of textbook mixing Ava’s got us down for.”

  “Amen to that. Sometimes she creeps me out the way she talks.” Faith considered him seriously. There was a warmth in his eyes that was truly unnerving. She heard herself say hastily, “Now, let’s see. What can we talk about for a few minutes so we look like we’re connecting that isn’t, um, useless chat? How about this—you were jogging during lunch the other day. Do you do it often?”

  Behind them the volleyball game was breaking up. Cody began to walk. Faith followed. Part of her wanted to refuse to move. The other part, the curious part, was happy to wander along with him.

  Staring ahead, he said, “For the record, I don’t fulfill anyone’s expectations. I choose to do what interests me.” He looked at her, his eyes hooded, his mouth turned up in just the sexiest hint of a smile. “And right now what interests me is talking to you, so I’ll play nice and make small talk…” He paused for the space of a heartbeat, then another. When he resumed his voice was lower and rough with unmistakable promise. “But what I’d prefer to be doing is something else entirely.”

  Faith’s skin felt as if it was crackling with heat. She wished she’d worn shorts as Ava had, short shorts with a bikini top that showed off her figure. “Cody…”

  He put his sunglasses on again. “I jog every day, but not always during the lunch hour. There are times I don’t remember to take a lunch break and if I get hungry in the middle of working on something I simply eat at my computer.”

  “Hence the fridge in your office.”

  “Hey, we’re not supposed to be talking about work, remember?”

  “Right.” Faith blushed. She was the one who had insisted on doing the Ava-enforced networking. She needed to stick to the program. Before she could figure out another bland topic to discuss, Cody had chosen a new gambit.

  “Your mother seems like a nice person.”

  Faith could feel herself freezing up. “She is.”

  He tilted his head. She couldn’t read his eyes behind the dark glasses, but she sensed he was studying her. “You have a similar bone structure, which probably means that in twenty years you’ll look much as your mother does now. Not a bad way to age, to my way of thinking.”

  It was such a stupid thing to say that Faith forgot to be tense and laughed at him. “Excuse me?”

  He shrugged and smiled a little ruefully. “It was a compliment.”

  “Some compliment. I’ll stick with the present, thank you very much. Don’t try to morph me into the future.”

  There was that sexy hint of a reserved smile again. “Struck out there. I’ll have to try again.”

  “What kind of books do you read?” Faith asked before he could bring up another, potentially dangerous, topic. “Computer manuals?”

  “Tolstoy.” They entered one of the paths, shaded by large trees, and bordered by mature bushes. He took off his sunglasses.

  Faith choked back a laugh at his quick answer. “Really?”

  “No, but it sounds good. What kind of books do you read?”

  “Mystery novels.”

  “No kidding.” He looked intrigued. “Funny, I would have put you down as more of an erotica type.”

  His eyes slid down her body again, slowly, with obvious enjoyment. Faith could feel her skin prickling. She raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Why?”

  A smile twitched the corners of his lips. “Wishful thinking perhaps?”

  Faith’s heart leapt with pleasure. She told herself it was nothing more than a reaction, purely instinctive, to a good-looking male making a blatantly sexual move on her. She also told herself that it was not quite what Ava had had in mind when she put Faith and Cody together and told them to get to know one another. The thing was, did she really care what Ava wanted? “Cody, look, I…”

  He held up his hand and smiled rather ruefully at her. “You don’t have to say it. That comment was way out of line. I apologize.”

  “No, it’s okay. It’s just…I’m a bit surprised at the way our conversation has been going. I mean, we never do anything but argue.” The bushes and trees that lined their path created an illusion of separation from the rest of the garden, providing an aura of privacy that wasn’t quite real. “I didn’t…well, you know, expect it.” She closed her mouth tightly. She had to stop talking. She’d already made enough of a fool of herself, given that he’d been flirting with her since Ava had made herself scarce.

  “We don’t always have to argue. In fact, I was wondering if you would like to go out for dinner with me one evening?”

  His invitation was so completely unexpected that Faith could only gape at him. “Like, um, on a date?”

  His eyes lit up and he laughed. “Yeah, like a date.”

  “Well, I don’t know…”

  “Cody, Faith, hi!” Angela, the computer destroyer, bounced up, shattering the illusion of privacy. She was followed more sedately by Faith’s assistant, June. �
��Isn’t this a great party?”

  That wasn’t precisely how Faith would describe it, but she supposed it was as good a label as any. “Wonderful,” she said.

  Cody didn’t appear to be at all disturbed by the invasion. “As company parties go, it’s okay.”

  Angela flashed him a big smile. “Are you always a grouch, Cody?”

  Faith’s eyes opened wide and her mouth rounded in a silent exclamation of surprise.

  Cody crumpled up the empty paper cup he was holding. “I’m only grumpy when I’m interrupted in the middle of something.”

  Angela looked from Cody to Faith, her expression surprised.

  June tugged at Angela. “Let’s go. Becky is starting to pack up the refreshments. She needs some help.”

  “We interrupted something?” Angela said, ignoring June and sounding absolutely astounded.

  “Nothing special,” Faith said easily. “We were just chatting.”

  “You were chatting. I was asking you out on a date,” Cody said.

  Heat burned Faith’s cheeks in a wash of red. “Cody!”

  “It’s true, isn’t it?” he demanded, unrepentant.

  “Maybe, but do you really want to broadcast it to the world?”

  “Way cool! An office romance!” Angela announced in a loud voice.

  “Your secret’s safe with us,” June said. She grabbed Angela’s arm to drag her away.

  “Bye!” Angela said over her shoulder. “Have fun!”

  “Well?” Cody demanded as June and Angela moved out of range. “How about it?

  How about it indeed?

  For the sake of her job Faith figured she should say yes. It would be one evening, just a few hours of her time. Maybe she should take a chance and go. She would be fulfilling Ava’s demand that she get to know Cody. Maybe a better understanding between them really would help their work relationship. So why not say yes to his invitation?