by Timms, Lexy
There was just something about her. I still couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was, but I didn’t want to go home with this random redhead, not when things were actually, somehow, almost working out with Abby.
I was taking her on a date on Friday, and I still could barely believe it.
I hadn’t really intended to ask her out. And I’d been sure that she would tell me no. But I had asked, the words slipping easily out of my mouth, and she had said yes. Now, I had to figure out just where to take her. I didn’t particularly want to take her somewhere where the paparazzi might find us. For the first time, it wasn’t because I didn’t want the paparazzi thinking that it was something more than it was. And it also, surprisingly, had nothing to do with the fact that she was my employee and that information might get out if we were seen together in public, at dinner, alone.
No, I just didn’t want Abby to feel the pressure of dating me. I wanted things to be all fun and no stress. So I needed to figure out the perfect place. In the past, I would have asked Gerrard, but obviously I couldn’t do that now.
“Whoa, there you go,” Austin said, shaking his head, and I realized that whatever he had said, I had totally ignored it. He grinned slyly at me. “But if you’re not interested in the redhead over there, then there must be someone else making you space out like that?”
I sighed but knew that there was no lying to him. No point in lying to him either. Maybe he could help me figure out the best place to take her on a date.
“You remember me mentioning my new advisor? Abby?” I asked him.
Austin snapped his fingers. “I saw this coming a mile away,” he said. Then, he paused. “Are you serious about this girl, or is it just an office fling?”
I gave him a look. “When have I ever been the kind of guy to have office flings?” I asked.
“You aren’t,” Austin said immediately. “But you’re also not the dating kind of guy either. So I’m just wondering what you’re really doing with her.”
“Fair enough.” I sighed. “And honestly, I don’t really know. It’s too early to tell. I’m taking her to dinner on Friday night, I guess, but I didn’t even expect her to say yes to that.”
“Wow,” Austin said, sounding impressed.
“There’s just something different about her,” I continued, thinking back to that kiss we’d shared. I’d kissed a lot of girls in my life, but none of them had been quite like Abby. She hadn’t been meek and docile, and she hadn’t left everything up to me. I had been able to feel just how much she wanted it, in ways I couldn’t describe. It was as though she’d been waiting for me to do that.
But she had pulled away looking just as surprised as I had felt.
I shook my head. “She’s smart as a whip,” I told Austin. “And she’s funny as hell. And she keeps me on my toes, and she challenges me. I like working with her, and she gets along with everyone at the company too. Plus, she’s good at what she does. So far, all of her advice has been sound. She’s helped me make good decisions for the business, and I can see things working out well.”
“But that’s just the danger, isn’t it?” Austin asked, making a face. “I hate to say it, but are you willing to risk a good employee just for the sake of this relationship or whatever this is?”
“What do you mean?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.
Austin looked uncomfortable, but he forged ahead. “Come on, Daniel, you know yourself. Like I said before, you’ve never been the dating kind of guy. So if or when things go south with her, well. You have to think about that before you start anything with her. If you do date her and things end badly, you might lose a great advisor. And if you don’t date her but you give her the impression of wanting something more with her, before you’ve even started anything, then who knows how it could end up.”
I frowned as I considered that. I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought about it before. I had been so worried she would think I would fire her if things went badly that I somehow hadn’t even considered the fact that she might feel uncomfortable there and not want to work for me anymore. It might not come down to me firing her; she might quit.
Was I ready to face that sort of possibility? I thought about the work she had done for me already. And I thought about how difficult it had been to sit through even one day of interviews before I had hired her. I didn’t want to lose her, I was sure of that.
But it wasn’t just about her work, that was the thing. I didn’t want to lose her, but I also didn’t want to miss out on anything. What might happen if we did date? Maybe she was the perfect woman for me. Maybe things would work out. Could I give up on that, all because things might go south? It was risky either way.
The same as business, really. It was all about the risks. Figuring out which risks you could take and which risks you should avoid. Which ones were going to be profitable and which ones were better forgotten about. I didn’t really want to think about this relationship with Abby in those terms, honestly.
Maybe I had to, though. Because losing her wouldn’t just affect me, it would affect my business. Not only because I would have to spend money hiring and training a new advisor, but because we would lose all the insight she might ever have given me otherwise. There was an opportunity cost there, I was sure. Not one that I wanted to figure out, but maybe one that I needed to figure out.
The first time she and I had kissed, I’d just been acting on impulse. But I couldn’t live my whole life on impulse; that just wasn’t how I did things.
I scowled darkly down at my beer and took a long sip of it.
“What’s going through your head?” Austin asked, and he actually sounded worried about me.
I realized I was gritting my teeth, and I forced myself to take a deep breath and let it out slowly. I unclenched my fingers as well, laying them flat on the table. “I can’t let this all come down to business,” I said.
Austin looked horrified. “That’s not what I meant to say,” he said, shaking his head quickly. “Not at all.” He paused. “I just want to make sure you’ve thought through all of this.”
I nodded at him, but I knew that I was still distracted.
There was a possibility that Abby could be what I had always wanted. Needed. Someone who was going to make that old house feel like a home. Someone who could fill the place with her light and fill that aching void in my heart that had been there ever since my father had died.
Was it fair to put all of that on Abby, though? Was I putting too much pressure on this before it had even started?
But whatever my feelings on it, it might be too late to call things off anyway. I didn’t want to tell Austin about the kiss. Or the second kiss. How would Abby feel, though, if I canceled on her before we even went to dinner together? I had seen that look in her eyes when I had asked. I knew she wanted this.
And I did too.
“Whatever you do, you know I support you,” Austin said quietly, in a moment of uncharacteristic emotion. Of course, that was something I already knew; he was my best friend, and we had spent so much time together over the years. Whatever I did, he was always there for me. But it meant something to hear him say it out loud. “You’ll make the right choice,” he continued. “You always do.”
I tried to think of what to say in response to that, but nothing seemed fitting for the gravity of the situation. Finally, I just held up my glass to his, waiting until he clinked his glass against mine. We each took another sip of our beers.
Chapter 18
Abby
LEANNE WATCHED AS I tried on everything in my closet for a third time. She snorted as I put on a black button-down and red skirt. “Come on, you and I both know that you’ve worn that same outfit to work before,” she said.
“What’s wrong with that?” I asked defensively.
“It’s a date,” Leanne reminded me, as though I needed the reminder. She got to her feet and pushed me over to my bed so I’d take the seat that she had vacated. “I’m not saying you have to bare it all,
but this is Daniel McGregor we’re talking about. You at least want to look a little sexy, don’t you?”
“Well, yeah.” I sighed. “But I just don’t know what to wear. I don’t even know where he’s taking me.”
“I have a feeling he’s taking you somewhere nice,” Leanne said in a singsong voice.
“So you’ve told me,” I said, rolling my eyes and trying to feel fond rather than just exasperated. “But I’m telling you, I don’t think that’s what this is.”
“You kissed him, didn’t you?” Leanne asked.
“That doesn’t mean anything,” I said, shaking my head. “It just means that he thinks I’m a prude and that I won’t sleep with him unless he buys me dinner first. And he’s probably right.”
“Even if that were the case,” Leanne said, as though we hadn’t already had this conversation a half dozen times, “I think he would still be taking you somewhere nice. Daniel McGregor doesn’t do things halfway. And not only that, but he also likes to show off.”
I shook my head again. “No, he doesn’t,” I said.
Leanne raised an eyebrow at me. “No he doesn’t?”
“He’s not like the guy that you read about in the tabloids,” I told him. “He doesn’t just like to show off. He’s not like that.”
“If you say so,” Leanne said, and I could hear the doubt in her voice. I didn’t regret asking her to help me get ready for this date, because I knew that whatever her personal opinions were on things, she was going to help me look my best for this date. But at the same time, I could tell that she didn’t approve, and that was starting to make me even more nervous than I’d already been.
“This,” Leanne said suddenly, grabbing a green dress from the back of my closet and throwing it toward me.
I caught it automatically but shook my head. “I can’t,” I protested. “This is too nice. I’ve worn this to a couple weddings.”
“It’ll be perfect, I’m telling you,” Leanne said. “Put it on, let me see how it looks.”
I sighed, knowing that there was no way to get out of it. I stripped off the shirt and skirt that I’d been wearing and slid into the silky green dress. It fit just as perfectly as it ever had, but when I looked in the mirror, I grimaced. “I’m telling you, this is too fancy,” I said, plucking at the floor-length material.
“So try this,” Leanne said, coming around behind me and taking my hair out of its bun so that it cascaded in loose waves down my back. Then, she frowned, pursing her lips. “Nope, not that either.”
I sighed. “You’re not giving me a lot of confidence that we’re ever going to find something I want to wear for him,” I said, staring in dismay at the clothing that littered the floor. I didn’t even know what else to try on.
“This,” Leanne said, grabbing a short black dress that was in the very back of my closet.
I pursed my lips and shook my head. “No way,” I said.
Leanne frowned down at the dress. “Why not?” she asked. “I bet this hugs you in all the right places. And I doubt this is something that you’ve worn for a wedding.”
I stared at the dress for a long moment and then took a couple of steps forward. I ran my hands lightly over the material, remembering the last time I had worn it. Then, I shook my head again. “I wore that for...” I trailed off, knowing she would know who I was referencing.
She look surprised and then grimaced. “Oh honey. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make this a thing.” She paused, but then, slowly, she said, “But I do think it would look good on you for this. And it’s such an easy thing to either dress up or dress down.”
“I know,” I said unhappily, taking the dress away from her and looking down at it again, trying to forget the significance of it. I had originally bought it because someone else I knew would have thought I was sexy in it. Now, those memories were all screwed up in my head. But maybe it was time to make new memories in this dress.
After all, Daniel wouldn’t know the history behind the dress. And it would look good on me.
I sighed and slipped out of the green dress, letting it fall to the floor. Then, I slipped into the black dress, slowly zipping it up. It still hugged all my curves the way it should, and my breasts looked even more full against the low-cut sweetheart neckline. I looked at myself in the mirror and smoothed my hands over the fabric.
I looked good; even I had to admit that. Paired with my black heels and Daniel wouldn’t be able to get enough of me. This could be just what I needed, too, to boost my confidence for the evening.
“You look beautiful,” Leanne breathed.
I gave her a wry smile. “Beautiful isn’t exactly what I’m going for,” I told her.
She laughed and shook her head. “Sexy, then,” she said. “You look sexy as anything.” Then, she sighed. “I wish Matt could see me looking that good. But I could never pull off something like that. Especially not now that I’m a mom.”
I laughed. “Bullshit,” I told her. “I bet especially because you’re a mom, if you wore something like this, Matt would eat it up.” It wasn’t as strange as it once had been to talk to my best friend about my brother. She was my best friend, after all, and I knew how to support her. Through anything. “You’ve definitely got the curves,” I added.
“Not like yours, though,” Leanne said. “You have the best hourglass figure. Me? My curves have curves.”
I shook my head, grinning at her even as I continued to stare at myself in the mirror. “You would look great,” I promised her.
“Well, you look great. I know you have some history, so I can’t blame you if you don’t want to wear this. But you do look really good.”
“Thanks,” I told her. I finally sighed and shook my head. “What other options do I have?” I asked. “And anyway, I guess you only live once.” I went back to the closet to find my heels. I nearly fell over putting them on, but Leanne steadied me.
“Just don’t do anything stupid tonight,” Leanne said when I was ready to go. “I’m still worried about you with this guy.”
“I know,” I said, giving her a quick hug. “But I promise you, I’m going to be fine. Daniel’s a nice guy.”
“How can you be so sure?” Leanne asked. “You barely know the guy. And no offense, but he has a lot more experience in these things than you do. What if he’s just playing you?”
“I don’t think he is,” I said, shaking my head.
“But you barely know him,” Leanne repeated. “And he’s your boss. That’s something to be wary of.” She paused, noting my tight expression. She sighed. “I’m not trying to say that you shouldn’t do this,” she continued. “But the press love him. This is the kind of story that the media would just eat up, if they caught wind of it. If they knew that you were his new assistant. And I just don’t want to see you getting hurt.”
I shook my head. “They’re not going to find out about it,” I told her stubbornly. It was something I had thought about ever since he had asked me to go to dinner with him. But no one knew about this date except for Daniel, Leanne, Matt, and myself, as far as I knew. Maybe Daniel had told one or two of his friends too. But he wouldn’t have told anyone he couldn’t trust, just like I wouldn’t have told anyone that I couldn’t trust. And none of the people who could possibly know about it would go to the media.
There wouldn’t be a story. It would just be me and Daniel. I was sure of it.
A car honked outside, and I frowned. “Is that him?” I asked, glancing at the clock. Sure enough, it was time for me to go. I looked around the dilapidated room, taking in all the clothes that were scattered on the floor. “I hope he doesn’t want to come back here at the end of the night,” I joked.
Leanne snorted. “You should at least hold out for the second date. Or maybe the third,” she joked.
I rolled my eyes and gave her a small push, but I couldn’t help grinning at what she was implying. “I’m not going to do anything like that,” I said. “You know me.”
Leanne drew me to a stop be
fore we went outside. “Just be careful, okay?” she asked.
“You know I will be,” I said.
We stepped outside, and I walked slowly down to the car that was waiting there for me. I frowned, not seeing Daniel there. But the driver rolled down the window. “Ms. James?” he asked. “Mr. McGregor sent me to pick you up. He’ll be waiting for you at the restaurant.”
I grinned and turned to Leanne. “I’ll see you later, okay?” I told her.
“You’ll let me know how it all goes?” Leanne asked.
“Of course I will,” I assured her.
Leanne gave me one more quick hug and then let me go. I slid into the car, trying to pretend that I wasn’t as nervous as I felt. “Let’s go,” I said to the driver.
I felt a thrill run through me as we drove to the restaurant. I had never had a date send me a car before. Maybe this really was going to be just as fancy as Leanne had told me it would be. I tried not to feel too special about that. I knew the way that Daniel did business, after all. I knew that he liked to impress his clients. Surely, he wasn’t trying to impress me; he was just doing what he normally did.
But I was impressed, in spite of myself. Not that I would build a whole relationship on how impressive a guy was. That said, though, I felt special. And that was something that no man had ever bothered to make me feel before.
When I walked into the restaurant, I felt even more impressed. It was a nice place, and I was more glad than ever that Leanne had talked me into wearing this dress. And heels. If I’d been in flats, I probably would have felt ridiculously out of place. I still didn’t feel like I fit in, but at least I didn’t feel like everyone was staring at me.
Daniel, on the other hand, looked entirely relaxed where he sat at a table in the back of the restaurant, in a private room, waiting for me to show up. He grinned at me as I walked toward him. A waiter rushed from somewhere to pull my chair back for me.
“Hey,” he said warmly when I had sat down.
It took me a minute to find my voice so I could respond to him. He looked even more amazing than usual, dressed in a tailored black suit and handsome as ever. If I hadn’t felt nervous before, I definitely did now. “I hope the place is okay?” he asked.
