First Love (Love Collection)

by Natalie Ann

  He was wearing long cargo shorts and sneakers, a button-down short-sleeved shirt and had a bottle of diet soda in his hand.

  “Sorry to just drop in this way. I was in the neighborhood and thought I’d stop and say hello to some people.”

  “I’m sure many were glad to see you,” Jace said.

  Mr. Stratton laughed. “Not as many as I would have liked. Or they acted like they were. It’s all good. What goes around comes around. I know that well. And who do we have here?”

  She stood up fast and extended her hand, but Jace spoke before she could. “Lauren Towne, this is my father, Jason Stratton.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Stratton,” she said.

  He laughed and waved his hand at her. “Call me Jason. I don’t really work here anymore.” Jason walked over to the chair next to her and sat down opposite Jace. “So where’s your secretary? Is she out today?”

  Jace sighed. “She should be at her desk, but obviously she isn’t.”

  “No worries. I would have still just walked right by her.”

  Lauren looked up and noticed that the door was still partially open and was going to shut it, but figured it wasn’t that big of a deal. She doubted they’d talk too much about work. “I can leave you two alone if you’d like and we can try to get together later this afternoon if you’ve got time, Jace.”

  “No, no,” Jason said. “I won’t stay here long. Just wanted to stop in and see you. I thought maybe I’d extend an invitation to dinner for the two of you.”

  Her jaw dropped and she looked over at Jace with something like panic in her eyes, she was sure, because she was sure the hell feeling it! All he did was roll his eyes.

  “We’ll get back to you on that, Dad.”

  Jason laughed, then stood back up. “I think I just put my foot in my mouth. Or maybe you did yours, Jace. I’ll let you two get back to work and go down and check in with Skip.”

  “You do that, Dad.”

  Lauren watched Jason walk out and leave the door open, but she stood up and shut it firmly, catching sight of Katy rushing toward her desk.

  “How could you?” she demanded of Jace. “Why would you tell your father about us? God only knows what he must think of me.”

  ***

  Of all times for his father to just walk in and do that. Right when Jace was getting to the point in their relationship where he was going to broach the subject of them coming out that they were dating.

  He’d been fine with keeping it hidden in the beginning, but lately it didn’t feel right. He didn’t care what other people said or thought. He was the boss and could do whatever the hell he wanted.

  He and Lauren were getting along great. They made a wonderful team. He was sick of sneaking around like a child waiting to be caught and then get grounded for breaking curfew.

  This past weekend he had every intention of bringing this topic up with Lauren, but then he chickened out. Talk about mortifying.

  But the truth was, he really didn’t want to upset her or cause a fight like he was sure was going to happen right now.

  He should have figured his father would find a way to make matters worse for him.

  “My father doesn’t think anything one way or the other.”

  Well, he didn’t now. In the beginning, he got sick of telling his father it wasn’t a fling. That he wasn’t just getting a piece of ass. After a few months, his father finally got the point when Jace talked about Lauren nonstop and how helpful she’d been to him.

  “How long has he known about us?” she asked, her hands on her hips. Signs of her rare temper were bubbling at the surface.

  “I don’t know the exact time. It doesn’t matter. He knows that we’re in a relationship. Trust me on this, if he thought it was anything else, he never would have asked you to come to dinner.”

  “Why did he have to do it here? I feel like he did it on purpose.”

  “He probably did. He’s been bringing it up lately on the sly about wanting to meet you and I know you don’t want anyone to know. I was trying to figure out how to talk to you about it. I’m sure he knew darn well if he caught you in here and asked, then it’d be out in the open.”

  “I could have acted like I didn’t know what he was talking about,” she said.

  “That hurts.” He was shocked he’d said that. It was supposed to come out as a joke, but he knew it didn’t. Not when her face paled.

  “I’m sorry,” she rushed out quickly. “I don’t mean to hurt you. You know my stance on this though. I hate that I was bombarded like that.”

  He pushed his hurt aside and tried to nudge away the fact that he was getting sick of always worrying about her getting upset over this. He didn’t know how many times he had to assure her he didn’t care what people thought if they knew.

  “It’s over with. I can’t do anything about it. I’ve never had any control over my father before and, to be honest, I’m kind of glad he did it.”

  “Why? The next thing you’re going to say is you want to tell everyone about us.” He stared at her hard. “No,” she said. “We have to give it more time.”

  “How much time is more time? I’m too old to be sneaking around like this.”

  “You’re younger than Scott and he’s doing it.” She slapped her hand in front of her mouth. “I didn’t mean to say that.”

  “Yeah, I know all about him and Katy. What am I supposed to do about it when I’m doing the same? I can tell you I don’t like being compared to him either.”

  Her shoulders dropped a little and he could see she might be relenting on this. Was it actually possible?

  “Can we talk about it tonight? Let me think about it a little. We need a game plan if we do it.”

  He shook his head. “Only you would think that. Yes, we’ll talk tonight about it.”

  For once he might actually thank his father for his interference.

  Worse Than Ever

  A few more weeks had gone by since his father had dropped in and more or less forced Lauren to concede it was time to be more open about their relationship.

  They’d had dinner twice with his father. The first time, Lauren had been a nervous wreck, but surprisingly his father was pretty mild. He’d talked about the business and asked how Lauren liked working for the company.

  There were no talks about her family or her past and little to none on his. Not after his father made a comment about Jace being a star athlete and Jace responded with, “You’d have known more if you ever went to any games.”

  “Jace is right,” his father had said. “I was selfish and self-centered when Jace was a kid. I was more focused on the business than my family. It took me a long time to realize that. I just hope Jace can forgive me for everything.”

  Jace had nodded. It was the only time his father had ever come that close to really apologizing and sounding sincere. He didn’t know why it was done in front of Lauren, and he was fast to change the subject after that.

  But since his father knew, he’d been able to convince Lauren to finally go public with their relationship.

  She’d had all these ideas and plans on how to do it. He wanted to just make an announcement.

  In the end, it was his father that spoiled it once again, coming into the office last week and asking when Lauren was going to cook dinner for him. His father had made that comment in front of Skip and MaryAnn and that was pretty much all it took after Lauren responded with, “I can make dinner for you guys at Jace’s tomorrow night if you’d like.”

  It was out and it was confirmed and only a few had the balls to come and ask him to his face. Skip being one.

  Lauren had said MaryAnn had talked to her too about it, just saying she thought it was nice. He assumed there was more being said, but either Lauren didn’t listen to it, or didn’t care.

  He was hoping it was the latter, because he wasn’t concerned one way or another what anyone thought of their relationship. Not when he knew without a doubt, he was in love with her.

&
nbsp; The only problem was, she’d yet to say anything to him about it.

  Not once had they talked about their future more than dinner or weekend plans. And if that wasn’t bad enough, she’d been distracted lately. More so when he said he was considering promoting her to oversee the accounting department for the new franchises.

  The staff from that business had been in the building for a few weeks now and not only was Lauren working with them daily, but she seemed to be working well with them.

  If only he could figure out what was going on. He listened to her arguments on the promotion, but he didn’t care. He’d hate to think there was more, but he had no way of knowing why she was so distant.

  Not just at work, but at home too. And it was home to him when he thought of her because she’d been staying with him more often than not.

  ***

  Now that everyone knew about Jace and her relationship, Lauren felt like everywhere she went someone was talking about her.

  It’d been a week and only a few people had actually broached the subject with her. Those that did were more curious than judgmental. At least she thought so.

  Either way, she had more respect for them that they came to her rather than talk behind her back. She knew damn well that had been going on a lot.

  She’d had a thick skin from the years of growing up the way she had. She’d been talked about to her face and behind her back. She’d been made fun of and pointed out as the girl with no future, no hope, and no family.

  She’d worked her ass off to get where she was. Maybe it was just an average outcome for most. Get a four-year degree and start working.

  But for her, it was out of the cycle of poverty she’d been in forever.

  Though she never talked about her background with anyone, she was sure people could tell she didn’t come from much.

  Then throw in the fact she was dating the owner who easily had more than seven zeroes behind his self-worth and she became food for the gossip mills worse than ever before in her life.

  There was a knock at her door and she looked up to see Kelly standing there. Kelly had come over from the other business and was a staff accountant. She was a few years older than Lauren and they got along well.

  “Hey, Kelly. Something I can help you with?”

  “Actually, yes. I know you asked for an expense report on the food orders for the past month, but I’m still waiting on the shipping receipts to match to the invoice.”

  “What do you mean?” Lauren asked.

  “Before I enter the invoices into the computer, I check the shipping receipt to see that all the food ordered was received. It always takes forever to get the receipts from the store in Hudson.”

  “Why?” Lauren asked, leaning back. “Have you asked for them to be sent sooner?”

  “I have. It doesn’t seem to matter. I’ve even asked Scott and the sales manager, but they never push the store manager for it. I think they don’t consider it a major deal. I just didn’t want you to think I wasn’t getting you the work on time.”

  “I’ll reach out to the manager myself and if that doesn’t work, I’ll send an email and cc Scott and Jace on it. Maybe that will get the manager’s attention.”

  “Thanks,” Kelly said. “I don’t care what anyone else says, you’re really nice and helpful and you know your job well.”

  She’d told herself weeks ago she wasn’t going to ask if this came up but decided to break that promise to herself. “What’s being said?”

  “Just that you’re only getting so much attention because you’re dating Jace. But I’ve been defending you because you’ve been working me hard,” Kelly said, laughing. “I’ve learned so much in the past few weeks we’ve been here. I’m kind of hoping maybe at some point I could get some more responsibilities too.”

  Lauren forced a smile. “Thanks for telling me and for not believing everything you hear. I don’t even want to know who’s saying it. But yes, I’d like to see you take on some more work in the future.”

  Kelly smiled and left her office and Lauren went back to digging like she’d been doing for weeks.

  There was something to uncover and it was driving her insane that she couldn’t find it. If that wasn’t bad enough, Jace wanted to promote her and she didn’t want even more people thinking the only reason that was happening was because she was sleeping with the boss.

  She just needed more time and some clue on where to look because it’d been taking more effort than it should be. Not only her focus at work but at home.

  She needed to prove to Jace that she deserved the promotion he wanted to give her. And she needed to prove it to herself.

  Hoping to Find

  A few days later, Katy had come into her office and decided to start up a conversation. As much as Lauren wanted to kick her out, she never did. There was enough talk about her going around and she didn’t need anything added to it.

  Not only was Katy Jace’s assistant, but she also ran her mouth more than the energizer bunny hopping and banging around the room. If there was gossip being spread, it either started with Katy or got exaggerated once it hit her ears.

  “What can I do for you, Katy?” Lauren asked.

  “I was looking for Jace. Do you know where he is?”

  “I’m sorry, I don’t. Did you check his schedule?”

  “Of course I did,” Katy snapped. “Do you think I’m stupid?”

  Lauren lifted her eyebrows. “Not at all. I’m just curious why you thought I’d know where he was.”

  “I bet you know where he is after hours.”

  Lauren pushed back from the keyboard. “Not always. Is there a point to this conversation?”

  “I don’t know what he sees in you.”

  “Since you’re sleeping with Scott, why does it matter to you one way or another?”

  Katy and Scott’s relationship hadn’t been publicly spoken about, but they weren’t doing a great job hiding it either. The fact that Scott was significantly older than Katy and had children closer to Katy’s age made it all the juicier for the grapevine. Walking away from those conversations didn’t mean Lauren still didn’t hear them.

  Katy crossed her arms. “I think you’re the one that’s jealous. I think you saw that Scott and I were getting closer and you decided that maybe you needed to try your hand at moving up.”

  Lauren laughed. “I hate to break it to you, but Jace and I have been dating a lot longer than you’ve been sleeping with Scott.”

  Katy just stared at her. “We just found out less than two weeks ago.”

  “So, I guess you just aren’t as good as Jace and I at keeping work and our personal lives separate.”

  Lauren was surprised she was having this conversation. That she wasn’t shying away from it when she always did before. That she was giving it as good as she was.

  “It’s not like I work for Scott, so what’s the big deal? He loves me and he is going to take care of me. He told me pretty soon I won’t have to work here anymore where I’m not appreciated. I can just stay home and care for him if I want to or I can work part time. Everyone knows Jace is just passing the time with you. Whereas Scott and I have more in common and we love each other.”

  Lauren rolled her eyes. “What do you have in common so much?” she asked when she should have just dismissed Katy and gone back to work.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Katy all but snarled. “But Scott’s family owns a big accounting firm and he said that he could get me a job there part time if I feel like I need something to do. I’m thinking about it.”

  Lauren couldn’t believe Katy was that stupid. That she would say she was considering leaving her current job.

  “Good for you, Katy. I’m glad you two are so happy together. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got work to do.”

  Katy walked out in a huff and Lauren went back to work.

  Twenty minutes later it hit her. She pulled out some invoices from the accounting firm that the franchise used to use. The one that was overcha
rging and filing taxes late, not to mention other charges that Lauren hadn’t been able to figure out.

  Maybe it was a coincidence, but something hadn’t been sitting right with Lauren all along.

  She found the file she was looking for and scanned it. Scott’s last name was Fulton and the firm was Barber Inc. She went to their website and checked out the names of the owners and partners and nothing stood out there. That didn’t mean anything though.

  It was time to stretch her legs and take a walk. “Hi, Lauren. What can I do for you?”

  “Sue, I was wondering if you could go with me to HR. I know it’s last minute, but I’d like to see some of the personnel files of the new staff brought over. I’m afraid they won’t give them to me if I go and ask myself.”

  “Probably not,” Sue said. “They can be a little bitchy down there with their rules. You’re not a supervisor so they won’t release them.”

  “Not only that,” Lauren said. “I’m sick of the dirty looks because of my relationship with Jace.”

  “Well now,” Sue said, grinning. “The rule about not dating your supervisor. But no one is going to tell Jace he can’t do what he wants.”

  Lauren sighed. “I know. All the more reason I need you with me. I don’t want to bother Jace with this.”

  “Not a problem. Whose files do you need to see? Everything is electronic, so they will release them to me, but I’ll have them send them right to you. I just have to sign for it.”

  “Is it possible to get everyone’s? I had all their current pay, but not the history of their employment. I’m doing an analysis, but I’d like to see all the benefits they’ve signed up for too.” She was hoping by asking for everyone’s that the one she really wanted didn’t stand out.

  “Not a problem.”

  The two of them made their way to HR where Sue signed the form and requested the information to be sent to Lauren. “I’ll get it to you in an hour,” one of the HR specialists told her.

  “That was faster than I thought it’d be,” Lauren said to Sue on the way back.