“When do you want to start working?” he asked.
“Can I have a week to get settled in first?”
“Of course. You can have all the time you need.”
“I just need a few days, and then I’ll be ready to do whatever you need me to do. I really am grateful for you letting me come work at your firm at such short notice and all.”
Tobias waved his hand dismissively. “Don’t mention it, sis,” he said before turning around and leaving me to familiarize myself with his mansion.
* * *
Two days later, I was already growing restless hanging around Tobias’ mansion.
“I thought you said you needed a week to adapt before starting work?” he asked me after I told him that I was ready to start training for my new job position.
“Yeah, well, there’s no need to prolong things,” I said. “The sooner I start working, the sooner I can be out of your hair.”
“Having you here is no problem, I keep telling you that.”
“Yeah, I know. But still, I’m ready.”
The next day, he began training me for the new job, and once we hit the one-week mark of my return to Chicago, I was ready to officially start working at his firm. Against my will, he had given me shopping money to renew my wardrobe, although I only accepted it after he promised to let me pay him back.
The morning of my first day, I woke early, showered, and carefully tied back my hair into a neat ponytail. I dressed in a new gray business suit I’d gotten, consisting of a simple white blouse, pencil skirt that hit me right at the knee, and a blazer. I then slid on a pair of modest heels and eyed my reflection in the mirror. An unusual feeling came over me, which I recognized to be a mixture of grief and excitement. Knowing that I was about to start a new job just made me miss the one I was leaving behind. With my abrupt departure from Miami, things clearly hadn’t ended on the best terms with that particular job. After my first day showing up to my brother’s, I’d had to painstakingly call my boss to explain why I had left so suddenly. To say it had been one of the most awkward conversations of my life was an understatement.
My stomach clenched in knots just thinking back on it.
I turned around when I heard a knock on the door of the guest bedroom I had claimed for myself. Tobias poked his head in. He wore a crisp suit and was carrying a briefcase. “Ready?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yep.”
“All right. Let’s go.”
When we arrived at the office, I was once again reminded of why I so thoroughly hated feeling like the new kid in town. It was just a solid reminder that I hadn’t entirely outgrown the self-consciousness I’d suffered in childhood; it was always there, ready to resurface. My self-consciousness was what had contributed to my need to be an over-achiever. Too often, it felt like the only way I could make myself feel worthy was by proving how adequately I could do my work.
“Are you all right?” Tobias asked, obviously noticing my distress.
“Yeah.”
He raised an eyebrow, clearly not believing me. “How about taking a quick break? I know this all must feel overwhelming.”
I nodded gratefully. “Yeah. That would be nice.”
And with that, I headed to the break area, where I began making myself and Tobias fresh cups of coffee.
Finding peace in the room being empty, I took a long and deep breath.
“Come on, Joanna,” I said to myself. “You’re just working for your brother. How hard can it be?”
Filling two cups from a fresh pot, I reflected on the training I’d had thus far, as well as the people I’d met, trying to recall names and faces even though so many of them blurred together.
I sighed in frustration as I added sugar and cream to the coffee.
Holding a cup in each hand, I took another deep breath and got ready to return to the office to let him know that I was ready to resume. But just as I reached the door, a figure unexpectedly appeared before me.
I crashed right into him, sending the hot liquid splashing all over both of us.
I looked up, positively mortified.
A man stood before me with a disgruntled look on his face as he stared down in disbelief at his expensive suit that I had just ruined with coffee.
When our eyes locked, my heart almost stopped entirely.
It had been a long time, but I easily remembered his handsome face, short blond hair, and impressive physique.
Just like I recalled the sneer he currently wore, and the way it had always been reserved specifically for me…
Anderson Lawrence.
I knew he worked with my brother and that I was bound to run into him sooner or later. If I was being perfectly honest with myself, I also knew that he was part of the reason I felt so nervous. Throughout my teenage years, I’d maintained a super-intense crush on him. There were times that my young self wanted him so badly that I didn’t know what to do.
What I hadn’t been prepared for was that over the years, he would manage to become even more handsome.
He was drop dead gorgeous; my memory hadn’t been doing him justice at all.
“Dammit, Joanna,” he said.
I recoiled.
Anderson was even more gorgeous than I remembered, but obviously, one thing hadn’t changed at all.
He still hated me.
CHAPTER 4
Anderson
I stared down at the hot brown liquid staining my new suit. In that moment, I knew Joanna was going to be just as much a nuisance as I always remembered her being. I began having vivid flashbacks of the annoying kid sister Tobias just couldn’t shake off whenever I was around.
“Oh my God,” she said. “I’m-I’m so sorry…”
I glanced up and froze dead in my tracks. I blinked, staring after her as she scurried across the room for paper towels, talking a mile a minute.
“I just started officially working here and it’s been a bit overwhelming,” she said. “I’m sorry about being so on-edge. And I’m sorry about the coffee, I just—”
But whatever else she said fell upon deaf ears because I was too stunned.
When the hell did Joanna Gentry get so beautiful?
I only halfway listened as she continued to talk and apologize. Images of the scrawny girl came to mind, and it was in stark contrast to the ridiculously stunning young woman standing before me. Joanna was still petite, but she was far from the stick-figure she used to be as a kid. She had grown up to develop ample curves in all the right places. Her curly hair fell smoothly down her back in a ponytail, and her gray eyes—which had once been identical to her brother’s—now held a sensual gaze that was hard to look away from.
I blinked again, suddenly realizing that she was thrashing paper towels in my face.
“I’m sorry,” she said again.
I cleared my throat. “Yeah…I got that.” I took the paper towels and began wiping at the jacket of my suit.
“I don’t think you’ll be able to see it once it’s dry,” she said.
I nodded. “Yeah, I think you’re right.”
A long silence stretched between us. “Well, I’ve got to get back to Tobias,” she said. “I’ll, um…See you around, Anderson.”
I nodded again. “Yeah. See you, Joanna.”
* * *
Running into Joanna had completely thrown off my day in ways I would have never anticipated. No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t get her out of my mind. Every time I saw her passing by, I couldn’t stop my eyes from trailing her every move. My mind was completely boggled that she was truly the same girl I had known so many years ago.
I’d been sitting in my office thinking about Joanna when Tobias suddenly appeared. My face instantly felt like someone had lit a match over it.
What the hell is wrong with you, Anderson? I thought to myself.
The sisters of friends were off-limits. I was well aware that my thoughts were completely out of line considering Joanna was the kid sister of my best friend. It didn’t matter how gor
geous she had become; my attraction to her would always be unacceptable. Hell, simply finding her attractive was damn near incestuous, any sister of Tobias’s should have been like a sister to me.
But she’s not my sister, a voice in my head challenged.
“Come on,” Tobias said, snapping me out of my thoughts. “You’re going to be late for the meeting, man. What’s your deal?”
I swore and sprung up from my seat. I had almost forgotten about the meeting because I’d been too busy thinking and fantasizing about Joanna.
“What’s wrong?” Tobias asked.
“Nothing,” I answered far too quickly. I found that I couldn’t even meet his gaze; I was afraid he would somehow sense my thoughts and want to kill me for my betrayal. I cleared my throat and scratched the back of my head.
“Have you seen Joanna today?” Tobias said.
My heart literally skipped a beat at the sound of her name. “Why?”
“Just asking,” Tobias said. “She’s new here. I can tell she’s a little nervous. She could use a friendly face. So help her out and be nice, all right?”
“Oh…Um… Sure. Yeah, I can do that… I mean, I’ll try…”
Tobias narrowed his eyes at me. “Are you sure you’re okay, man? You seem weird. Weirder than normal, I mean.”
I laughed. “How so?”
“I don’t know. Oh…wait a second…”
“Huh? What?” I said, my heart hammering again.
Tobias folded his arms. “How are things going with the new project?”
“Fine.”
“Yeah right. That’s what you’re hiding, isn’t it? You can’t get those numbers together.”
Having serious concentration problems, I just stared at him for a moment. My thoughts were so preoccupied with Joanna that I couldn’t even remember what project he was even talking about, let alone what numbers I needed to get together.
Tobias sighed. “All right. Just come on. Get to the meeting. We’ll discuss it more there.”
“Yeah. Okay. I’ll be there in a second,” I said.
I darted from my office and headed to the men’s room, where I splashed my face with cold water from the sink and took a moment to stare at my reflection. “Seriously, get it together, man,” I said to myself. It was unsettling to suddenly feel like a hormonal adolescent boy so painfully attracted to a girl that I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was too old to feel that way, and needed to snap out of it immediately.
I reached for some paper towels, dried my face, took a deep breath, and then headed to the meeting.
Yet as fate would have it, Joanna was there. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me that she’d be at the meeting. She was a new employee, after all…
I hated the way my eyes instinctively zoomed in on her as I entered the room. I felt like everyone noticed. She caught my gaze and gave a slight smile that sent adrenaline coursing through my body.
“Care to join us, Anderson?” Tobias said from the head of the table.
“Sorry,” I muttered. I closed the door and took a seat several chairs away from Joanna, ensuring others were between us so that I could attempt to stay focused.
“All right. Now that we’re all here, let’s get started,” Tobias said. “First though, I want you all to welcome the newest member to our team.” He motioned toward his sister, asking her to stand up.
She glanced around sheepishly for a second and then stood. Subconsciously, I leaned back in my seat to get a better view of her.
“Everyone, this is Joanna. Joanna, this is the team.”
“Hi Joanna,” people muttered and she waved to the room at large before retaking her seat.
“Now, let’s begin,” Tobias said.
Whatever he said after that was completely lost on me, I spent the rest of my time glancing in Joanna’s direction, at least until the coworker beside me gave a rather loud and fake-sounding cough, which I felt certain was aimed at me.
“Any questions?” Tobias asked at the meeting’s close. “Excellent. Well, I wish you all a productive remainder of your day. You’re dismissed.”
Chairs began to slide and shuffle across the wooden floor as fellow co-workers got up.
Keeping watch of Joanna in my periphery, I lingered behind, a shameful plot brewing in my head that I had no hope of stopping.
Tobias nodded goodbye to me on his way out the door and not before long, Joanna was about to follow him.
“Joanna,” I said. My heart pounded as she turned around and eyed me with those hypnotic gray eyes of hers. She raised her eyebrows, as if uncertain of what was about to transpire. I easily got the impression that she was still feeling leery around me due to the coffee spill from earlier, and I wanted nothing more than to put her at ease. She and I hadn’t gotten along well when she was a kid, but I desperately wanted to turn over a new leaf with her now…
“Yes?” she said, drawing attention to the fact that I had called her and then failed to say anything.
I cleared my throat. “Um,” I said, trying to think fast. “Are you busy right now?”
She shook her head. “No, I guess not.”
“Follow me to my office, please,” I said, trying to put some authority in my voice and sound more certain than I felt. “I have something I want you to take a look at, if it’s all right.”
“Sure,” she said, and then grinned. “I think this is a first. You actually want my opinion on something, Anderson?”
I smirked at the sound of her saying my name. “Well, times have changed. Besides, I need to see if you’re really up to the task of working here.”
Joanna laughed. “Challenge accepted. Lead the way.”
I held open the door for her, trying unsuccessfully to not let my eyes roam her body as she stepped in front of me to wait in the hallway.
“This way,” I said, taking the lead and listening to the rhythm of her heels clicking down the hall. When we reached my office, I held the door open for her once again, and then closed it behind us.
Suddenly feeling too warm, I fumbled with my necktie as I approached my desk. “You know the project your brother spoke of at the meeting?” I said.
“Yeah,” Joanna said with a nod. She brushed back a strand of hair that had come loose from her ponytail, and I suddenly got the overwhelming urge to touch her hair.
Pushing the thought away, I abruptly turned to my desk and started shuffling papers. “Well,” I said, stalling, “I was wondering if you could help us out with that. I mean, your brother has a lot of faith in you and all, and this could be a good starter project for you…”
My voice trailed off as she slowly crossed the room to approach my desk. The scent of her perfume drifted to my nose, making me inhale deeply as I glanced up at her again, startled to find her so close. She stared at my desk, at the papers I pretended to organize.
“What can I do for you?” she asked.
You have no idea, I thought. I took a deep breath. “How about looking over the numbers for me and making sure everything is order?”
She smirked, the sight of it so sexy that my mind was flooded with a million different indecent thoughts all at once.
“Numbers, you know that’s right up my alley,” she said. “Just show me what you need.”
I swallowed and glanced down at the papers on my desk, quickly fumbling to find the one in question. As luck would have it, it was toward the top of the pile. I laid it on the desk before Joanna. “This one right here,” I said.
She leaned over to take a closer look and my mind almost exploded. I took several steps back, feigning giving her space, but truthfully, wanting to get a better look at how her shirt hung as she leaned over, displaying the smooth skin of her bosom. I pressed my lips together, careful to not make a sound.
A long moment of silence spread over the room in which I was practically afraid to breathe.
Finally, Joanna looked up. “This is going to take a while.”
Before I could stop myself, before I could thi
nk better of what I was about to say, the words spilled out my mouth and there was no hope of taking them back. “How about we have dinner so that we can go over things in more detail?”
Joanna smiled. “Sure.”
CHAPTER 5
Joanna
Although I had been with Zander for a while, I still recognized the signs of another man’s interest, or at least I hoped I did. A part of me wanted to be cautious about thinking Anderson had actually asked me on a date, especially since our outing was supposed to be business related. On the other hand, I was pretty sure there had been something more to the way he had looked at me.
I’d known Anderson for a long time, and he had never once looked at me that way before. Just recalling it gave me butterflies.
Regardless, I kept reminding myself to not get my hopes up too high.
“Hey, Joanna!”
Tobias called me from downstairs while I was in my bedroom, stressing about what to wear, not knowing whether I should dress casually, in business attire, or as if this was a real date with a man I wanted to impress. I felt silly, but there was no denying that I wanted Anderson to just look at me as more than just Tobias’s kid sister…
Still dressed in the sweatpants and t-shirt that I’d thrown on after stepping out of the shower, I headed down the hall and peered over the balcony to where Tobias stood. “Yeah?” I said.
“What do you want for dinner? I was going to order takeout. Is that good with you?”
My throat suddenly felt too tight to speak. I hadn’t told Tobias that I was going out with Anderson. As I peered down at him, the awkwardness suddenly felt unbearable.
Sometimes, Tobias felt entirely too much like my father than my brother, and it was hard to talk about these kind of things with him. Something told me he wouldn’t approve of my attraction to Anderson. When I was a kid, I had never dared let a soul—especially not Tobias—know about the massive crush I’d harbored on Anderson. And as Tobias looked up at me in that moment, waiting for my answer, I felt like a sixteen-year-old with a secret all over again.
I scratched my nose and averted my gaze. “Um…don’t worry about me. I’m…I’m going out…”
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