by Lexy Timms
I frowned. “I didn’t tell anyone about that.”
“She got spotted walking into the building this morning, apparently,” Austin said, shrugging at me. “Someone’s been watching your office ever since the thing with Gerrard, from what I can gather. But yeah, it was splashed all over the place. So anyway, how did that whole thing go?”
I groaned and pressed my fingers against my eyelids. “I don’t want to talk about it,” I said. “At least not until I’ve got a few beers in me.”
I hoped Abby didn’t know that she was back in the news again already. I didn’t even want to think about what the press probably had to say about her return to McGregor Enterprises. Or about her two-week absence. But at the same time, I hoped Abby did know about all of it so that she would be prepared for the press trying to corner her again.
This whole thing was such a mess. If I had thought I could hire private bodyguards to keep the press away from her, I would have done that. But I knew that Abby would hate that even more than having the paparazzi hound her.
Would this all be enough to get her to quit? She had told me that she would be back the following day in the office, but was that contingent on not reading about herself in the papers that evening? I sure hoped not.
How fucking ridiculous was it that she had been gone for two weeks and the press still hadn’t given up on following her? Didn’t they have anything better to do with their lives? But of course they didn’t. They never did.
“Fair enough. I’ll wait until I’ve gotten some drinks in you,” Austin said, grinning at me. “Sure looks like you need something stronger than a beer. I figure we’ll head to the other side of town. Gives us some extra space to lose the paparazzi trail.”
“Good call.” I sighed, leaning back in my seat and letting Austin pick the place.
Chapter 6
Abby
ON SUNDAY, I’D BEEN so sure that I wouldn’t want to talk to Leanne about my first day back at the office, but come Monday evening, I found that I’d reversed opinions on the matter. I just couldn’t seem to puzzle out what I was feeling anymore. Watching Daniel in those meetings acting as though...well, acting as though he was a hundred percent focused on the business and not on me?
He had to act that way, I knew. But it hurt that he barely even glanced over at me until we were alone in the conference rooms after everyone else had filed out. And even then, he only asked for my advice on business matters.
I couldn’t take it personally. That was the way it needed to be. That was just what I had asked him for. But at the same time, it hurt more than I had expected it to.
I spent the whole day wondering whether I could really continue working for him. It was harder than I’d expected to put my feelings for him to the side. And not only that, but it was hard for me to focus on my job when all I seemed capable of doing was thinking about Daniel and wondering if he still had any feelings for me at all.
I definitely still had feelings for him, that was for sure. And what was more, I wasn’t sure that I could continue to deny the feelings I had for him. But what the hell was I supposed to do? I wasn’t sure I could commit to being with him. What would I have to give up in order to do so? My privacy? My chances to be taken seriously by the business community in the future?
I just didn’t know if it was worth it.
I called Leanne. If anyone was going to help me sort through my feelings for Daniel, it would be her. “Hey, honey, you okay?” she asked immediately.
“Yeah.” I sighed. “I just need some girl time. Today was rough.”
I heard the sounds of Leanne moving around and talking to someone with her hand pressed over the phone. Then, she came back on. “Ugh, I wish I could help more, but Matt ended up having a meeting at work tonight, and I’m home alone with the kids. And it’s a bit too late to call a sitter.” She paused. “But maybe we could all go to a movie together? That would at least get you out of the house.”
It wasn’t exactly what I’d been hoping for, but she was right that it would probably be a good thing for me to get out of the house and have something to distract me. Besides, it wasn’t like I could blame her for not being able to offer me more. She had the kids. She had offered to clear her schedule for me yesterday, but I had told her that I might be working late.
I had really thought that we would be working late that night. I’d been surprised when Daniel was ready to get out of there as early as he did. But then again, I supposed that he didn’t want to be in there alone with me any longer than he had to be. He probably expected the press to be all over us.
I was grateful to Erin for giving me the heads-up about the paparazzi swarming outside the front of the building. I’d ended up going out the back and slipping away down an alleyway before calling a cab from a few streets over. I wasn’t sure how much longer I’d be able to sneak away like that before the press caught on to it.
Could I really keep doing this job? I just wasn’t sure. I didn’t want to face the idea of never seeing Daniel again. But things were only getting more and more complicated.
It wasn’t just the media factor, either, I reminded myself. It was everything I had seen that night at the bar. The way he had lost his temper, the way he hadn’t seemed to really care that it was his old advisor that he was beating up.
If Erin was to be believed, Gerrard might have deserved it. But all the same, was that the kind of man I wanted to be with? Whatever Gerrard had done, whatever his relationship with the company and his boss had been, could I really believe that Gerrard had deserved to get punched out like that?
I just didn’t know what to believe.
It was a question that had been nagging at me ever since the incident at the bar, to be honest. Initially, I’d shied away from reading any of the articles about it, knowing that they probably weren’t telling the truth. But I’d desperately wanted to understand how things had escalated so quickly. The thing that Gerrard had said to me and Daniel and the way he had looked at me definitely weren’t flattering. But they were nothing to incite such a violent reaction, I was sure.
So I’d started scouring the articles, trying to learn the backstory between Daniel and his former advisor. But the trouble was, no one seemed to even know why Daniel had fired the guy. What if Daniel really had fired him just so that he could hire an attractive female in the older man’s stead?
That was always the sticking point, though. Surely if that was Daniel’s goal, he could have hired someone more attractive than me into the role. Not that I didn’t think I was pretty in my own way. But photos of Daniel out at club openings showed him with women who could have stepped right out of billboards. I was curvy. I had long since given up on the idea that I would ever look like a model.
Besides, I really didn’t believe everything the tabloids said about Daniel.
Maybe I should talk to Erin about why Daniel had fired Gerrard. But I was afraid she would just tell me to talk to Daniel. And even more than that, I was afraid that maybe she would confirm the stories that the paparazzi had put out. Did I really want to know if those stories were true?
So I had resolved to forget about it, and I had gone back to avoiding the articles about me and Daniel. That had worked fine while I wasn’t working alongside him, but now that I was back to work at McGregor Enterprises, I found that all my questions were even more pressing than they had been before. And I still was no closer to figuring out the answers.
Leanne trailed off into silence on the other end of the line, and I realized I had hardly heard a word of her explanations of the kid-friendly movies that were out in the theater at the moment. But I cleared my throat anyway.
“Yeah, let’s see a movie,” I said to Leanne. “Whatever the kids want to see. I’m good with whatever.” Otherwise, I was going to spend the whole night thinking about Daniel and winding myself into knots over my feelings for him.
“All right, I’ll text you when we have it figured out,” Leanne told me. “See you soon!”
�
�See you soon,” I echoed, hanging up the phone. I would have preferred for it to be just the two of us tonight so that I could really talk to her about Daniel and my confusions. But I was already smiling at the thought of seeing Zach and Layla, so I figured that in terms of cheering me up, this was just as good.
Leanne gave me a huge hug when we met up at the movie theater. I could tell from her searching gaze that she was worried about me, but the kids were all over me before she could say anything. “Auntie Abby, can we get popcorn?” Zach asked, tugging me over toward the concession stand.
I laughed and glanced back over my shoulder at Leanne. “I think that’s a question that you have to ask your mom,” I reminded him.
“I did,” Zach insisted. “But she and Layla are going to get chocolate drops, and I want popcorn. Mom said that if you’d share it with me, then we could do it.”
I grinned and knelt down next to Zach, leaning in to whisper. “I’ll share popcorn,” I told him conspiratorially, “but only if we can put marshmallows in it.”
“Yeah!” Zach cheered. I could see Leanne shaking her head fondly at me.
“I’m never going to get him to bed tonight,” she sighed.
I shrugged, entirely unrepentant. “You knew that was going to happen when you told him to ask me,” I pointed out.
She grinned back at me and stepped up to order. Eventually, we went into the theater with our goodies, finding it mostly empty. Zach chose our seats, practically dragging me up the steps with him while he chattered about the movie we were going to see.
“Have you seen this one already or something” I asked Leanne as we took our seats.
She rolled her eyes. “Only three times,” she said.
I snickered and tried to settle into my seat as the opening credits started to roll.
But all through the movie, even though I was having fun and enduring Zach’s whispered commentary the whole time, I couldn’t stop thinking about Daniel.
What was he up to tonight, if not working late? Suddenly, I got a sick feeling in my gut. I had been so sure that the reason he didn’t want to work late tonight was because he didn’t want to be caught in the office alone with me. But what if there was a different reason for it? What if he had a date tonight?
It was one thing to think of him as having moved on. Which I was sure he had, given how entirely cool and professional he had been all day. But it was another thing to realize that he was already dating other people.
I sighed heavily and shook my head a little as Leanne looked questioningly over at me. “I just ate too much popcorn,” I lied.
Leanne didn’t look convinced, but fortunately, she didn’t choose to start that conversation right in the middle of the movie.
My thoughts swung back around to Daniel. I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about him. Was it possible that he was thinking about me as well? I doubted it. But I guessed I’d see the truth of things in the paper the next morning. If he had had a hot date tonight, surely someone from the paparazzi would have found out about it. There would be photos.
I couldn’t decide if I was looking forward to seeing evidence of his night out or not. I should just forget all about him. And what would it mean if there was no evidence? It didn’t necessarily mean he hadn’t been out with someone.
I swallowed hard, trying to forget about all of that bitterness. I was the one who had told him that we couldn’t be involved with each other. This was for the best. The way that things needed to be. Who cared what Daniel McGregor was up to tonight? He was just my boss, and that was none of my business.
Chapter 7
Daniel
I LIKED THE PUB THAT Austin had brought me to, I finally decided, glancing around at the place again as I took another sip of my beer. It was comfortable. Casual. Kind of grimy, to be honest. Definitely not the kind of place I would normally go to, not with the kind of money I had.
Not that I always had to be seen at the most trendy places around town, but I tended to avoid places like this for the simple fact that I usually came out drinking after work and was thus often at least in a button-down and slacks. This was more of a jeans and t-shirts kind of place. But no one really seemed to care; they were all minding their own business. I appreciated that.
Fuck, it seemed like I never found a place where people would just mind their own damned business anymore. Here, people didn’t seem to recognize me, and I was free to just sit there with Austin and have some drinks and cheap pub food. Everything kind of tasted like grease, but honestly, it was delicious just knowing that I didn’t have to pretend like $15 for a half-rate, twice-frozen appetizer was worth it.
“All right, you’ve had your couple of drinks. Talk to me,” Austin finally said.
I sighed, but I had known it was coming. Not that I was any more prepared to talk about Abby than I’d been before, but I knew Austin would get the truth out of me sooner or later.
“I think I kind of got in over my head,” I admitted to Austin. Because really, that explained a lot of things with regards to me and Abby.
Austin nodded sagely. “I was wondering if you’d realized that or not,” he said. I blinked at him in surprise, and he shrugged. “Hate to break it to you, but you’re not exactly a mystery, man. I knew you were putting a lot of pressure on this relationship from the moment you wanted me to meet her. You’d only known her for, what, three weeks by that point?”
I gaped at him. “You never told me that it was weird,” I protested, hating the defensive note that came into my voice. I knew that Austin wasn’t saying it to be mean. He was just stating the truth. I had always liked that about him. But now, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hear the truth or if I wanted him to sugarcoat things a little more.
“For what it’s worth, you weren’t the only one putting a lot of pressure on the relationship,” Austin said slowly. “I think Abby let herself get just as carried away.”
I frowned, chewing at my lower lip. Then, I nodded. “I was just so caught up in the idea of it,” I told Austin. “In the idea of Abby, not the boss-secretary romance or whatever.” I paused. “She just wasn’t like anyone else I’ve ever met before.”
Austin paused. “I hate to say this, and trust me when I say that I’m sorry that you and Abby didn’t work out, but have you stopped to consider that maybe that’s because you didn’t meet her at a bar or a club?” he finally said.
I sighed. “I know,” I said. “But I didn’t meet Ivy at a bar or club, either, and that wasn’t any better. Actually, that was probably worse.”
Austin grimaced with distaste at the mention of my ex-girlfriend. Ex-fiancée, really. Ivy and I had dated for a year. Things had been good between us, or so I had thought. She challenged me in our relationship, although not in the business sense. She was everything I had ever expected to want in a woman too. She charmed everyone at the fancy galas I had to attend for work, but she was just as comfortable hanging out around the house in her sweatpants, her hair pulled up in a messy bun, thick glasses perched on her nose.
We’d had fun together. She always wanted to go out and do things, and I loved that. She would come up with elaborate plans for our weekends, keeping me away from any sort of work. She’d really helped me relax a little, for the first time in my life.
When we’d first gotten engaged, the initial media reaction was that we were rushing into things. We’d only been dating for seven months at that point. And in retrospect, I guess I should have seen where things were headed. Ivy liked being in the public eye, almost more than anyone I’d ever met.
Her social media had blown up in the time that we were together, and I had a feeling that most of those weekend adventures were more about racking up likes than about spending time together, just her and I. She liked when I took her on expensive evening dates or out to the newest clubs. Not only that, but I slowly started to realize that she wasn’t just chitchatting at those galas; she was networking.
I still probably would have overlooked all of that, but about a year
into our relationship, five months after we had gotten engaged, I caught her sleeping with one of my old friends, Devon Hedley. The news had pretty much destroyed me. I’d been as close to Devon as I was to Austin; he’d always been one of my best friends, a guy that I could really count on to have my back.
But apparently not.
Not that I was naive enough to think that Devon was the only person Ivy was cheating on me with. The more I looked into it, the more I realized that this was a pattern for her. She’d been cheating on me for a solid six months of our relationship. At least. There were probably dozens of guys. She just liked what I could give her; it didn’t mean she really wanted to spend the rest of her life with me.
The worst part of it, though, wasn’t the trust issues or losing her. The worst part was that I missed having someone in my life. That was why this whole thing with Abby had seemed so incredible, and why I had fallen into it so quickly. I was more than ready to fill the void that Ivy had left in my life.
It wasn’t fair for me to pin all of that on Abby, though. I never should have rushed things like that. Especially since a good part of my interest in her no doubt stemmed from the fact that she was so not interested in being in the public eye. Oh, I liked Abby, a lot. But there was part of me that really liked Abby because she was so much Ivy’s opposite.
“Look, I’m not trying to say that everyone you meet outside of bars and clubs is going to be perfect,” Austin finally said. “And please don’t tell me that you’re still hung up on Ivy.”
“I’m not,” I assured him. I paused and then admitted sheepishly, “But to be honest, sometimes I do kind of wish that I had never found out that she was cheating on me or using me or any of the rest of it. I wish I could have just married her and built a life with her and, I don’t know, stayed ignorant of the fact that she never loved me back. It would have been easier that way.”
