by Lynne, Donya
He let the call go to voice mail but struggled to concentrate on the remainder of his conference call. Don was a connection to Karma.
After the call with his boss ended, he checked his messages.
“Hey, Mark. It’s Don Jacoby from Solar Industries. I hope you’re doing well. But hey, I’d like to discuss an opportunity with you. Give me a call back on this number.” He rattled off his digits. “Call any time. I’ll be around. Thanks, Mark.”
Not wanting to get his hopes up that the universe was finally delivering, Mark got up, shut the door to the office, and paced behind his chair as he collected his thoughts. This could all be nothing. Just an acquaintance calling to check in. A colleague and former client seeking advice.
Then again, Don’s call could end up changing his life. This could be it. He took a deep breath and dialed his number.
“Mark. Hi. Thanks for calling me back so quickly,” Don said.
“Sure. No problem. What’s up? Everything okay at Solar?” He already wanted to ask about Karma. How transparent.
“Yes, yes. Everything’s great. We’re up almost ten percent over last year, thanks to you.”
“Good. I’m glad to hear it.” How’s Karma? Is she seeing anyone? God, I hope not. And how selfish was that? He should be hoping that she was dating again. That had been the whole purpose of their time together, to set her up to find her one true love. But more and more over their months apart, he’d thought that maybe, just maybe, he was her one true love, because it was clear that she was his.
Don chuckled. “Took our guys a few months to get used to that new software, but now they can’t live without it. They’re getting almost twice as much work done now than before, and the customers have really taken notice. We’ve secured two large accounts we’d been after for years but who were always wary to commit.”
To Mark, it was all blah, blah, blah, which was awful. He should have been happy to hear Solar was doing so well. And, really, he was, but that wasn’t what he wanted to talk about. Still, he forced himself to say, “That’s great, Don. Glad to hear it’s turning around.” He paced to the window and glanced out at a pair of geese drifting over the surface of the retention pond behind the office building, knowing Don hadn’t called to give him a company update. The man had something on his mind, and all this chatter was just ice breaking kind of stuff. “So, how’s everything else? Everyone doing well?” Karma? Is she doing well? “The family?”
“Yes, everyone’s great. Better than great, actually.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. And that’s partly why I’m calling.”
Now they were getting down to it.
“Mark, our COO is retiring, and I’ve been offered the position.”
“That’s great news.” The geese tittered out of the water and shook their tail feathers. “I know you had your sights set on that position.”
“Yes, it’s what I’ve been working for. But now the director of operations position is open, and…” Don paused, and Mark could hear what was coming. “You’re the first person I thought of as Phil and I discussed who would replace me.”
Mark closed his eyes and turned his face toward the ceiling.
Thank you.
Even though nothing was set in stone, this was the sign he’d been waiting for. He could feel it. Yes, he would need to get the details. Yes, he would need to negotiate salary and give notice at Carter Mitchell. Yes, he would have to make arrangements to move. But in his heart, he knew that somehow, some way, he would end up taking the job.
That had been over two months ago. And now, here he was. It was a done deal. After weeks of discussion and negotiating, he had signed the paperwork last night. He was Solar’s new director of operations, and Karma was his assistant. Of course, that would have to change now that he was back. She couldn’t work for him if they were romantically involved. Mark wasn’t sure how that would all work out, but he’d gotten his sign, so the rest would fall into place.
Mark had it all figured out. He would reenter her life and they would pick up where they’d left off last year. After a few months, she would move in with him, which was why he was looking at family homes instead of bachelor pads. He wanted enough room for them both…and anyone else who came along later. Because he definitely saw children in the cards.
“Hello, Karma,” he said. “It’s a pleasure to see you again.” Maintaining a professional demeanor while the woman he loved stood less than six feet away was nearly impossible.
Her brow crinkled as she glanced between him and Don. “What’s going on?”
Okay, so that wasn’t the reaction he’d expected, but then, maybe she was just trying to hide how intimate they’d once been with one another so as not to let the cat out of the bag. He really needed to discuss this with her in private. Maybe he should have called her first. He’d thought about it, but then decided against it, preferring to surprise her instead. Suddenly, his plan didn’t seem like the best idea.
“Mark’s joining us,” Don said, clapping him on the shoulder.
“J-joining us?” Karma’s luminous, green eyes opened wide. “What do you mean?”
“He works for Solar now. We’re making an announcement at the company meeting this morning. Mark’s our new director of operations.”
The color drained from Karma’s face, and she looked like she might be sick.
“You okay?” Mark realized this had to be a lot for her to take in. The decision not to call and warn her seemed to be backfiring. He’d only wanted to surprise her, not give her a stroke. Now it was obvious he hadn’t really thought things through. He’d been too excited to get back than to actually formulate a plan on how to reenter her life.
“Yes, I’m just tired. I had a…um…” She exhaled and lifted her fingers to her brow as she glanced down. “It was just a long night.”
That’s when he noticed the ring.
Whoa. That wasn’t supposed to be there.
The fat, sparkling princess cut diamond on her left hand glared like a magnified explosion he was viewing through a telescope. And for all the destruction obliterating his heart that very second, it might as well have been an H-bomb.
She wasn’t supposed to be engaged. That hadn’t been part of his plan.
“Karma?” Don reached across the counter and took her hand. “Is this what I think it is?”
Color rushed back into her cheeks as she met Mark’s gaze and gulped. “Uh, yes. Brad asked me to marry him yesterday.” Her eyes never left his as she spoke.
“Well, congratulations. That’s good news.”
Yeah. Great news. Just fucking great.
He cleared his throat. “Yes, congratulations.” Shit, but he felt like he was going to be sick now.
The universe hadn’t given him a sign, after all. It had slapped him in the face, and now it was sitting back laughing its ass off.
So much for putting his faith in invisible entities.
Chapter 15
In a stupor, Karma plopped into the chair beside Lisa in the large, downstairs conference room. The rest of Solar’s employees filtered in. The company’s president, Phil, along with Don, Mark, and Barrett, the chief operating officer, stood in a cluster at the front of the room, engaged in conversation.
Seeing Mark again had nearly made her faint. He looked better than she remembered, his features sharper. He’d also let his beard and mustache fill in, giving him a distinguished yet welcoming appearance. She’d thought he looked good clean-shaven, but this look was just as hot, if not hotter. And, damn him, he’d worn that navy pin-striped suit she loved so much. Seeing him in that suit had always turned her on, and now was no different. She wanted to run her hands up the lapels and stroke his beard with the tips of her fingers as she took his lips against hers.
Except now, everything was different. For starters, she was engaged. Second of all, she’d put him behind her months ago. Or at least she thought she had.
What was he thinking taking a job with Solar? Don’s job,
no less. Was he insane? With their history, he’d been crazy to even consider the position, let alone accept it.
“When did this happen?” she said quietly, catching Lisa’s eye.
Lisa hunkered down and leaned closer so no one would overhear. “From what I can tell, they’ve been talking to him at least a couple of months, maybe longer. He just accepted yesterday.”
A couple of months! And he hadn’t called to warn her? He hadn’t thought this was something she should know, or that he should at least discuss it with her?
“What am I going to do, Leese?” This was a colossal train wreck.
“We’ll figure it out. But, hey, maybe this means the two of you can finish what you star—”
“I don’t think so.” Karma held up her left hand, flashing her engagement ring.
“What!” Lisa’s eyes bugged out as several pairs of eyes turned toward them, including Mark’s. She instantly lowered her voice. “Oh my God, Karma. Brad proposed? When?”
“Yesterday. In front of my family.”
“And you told him yes?”
Karma nodded and glanced down at the ring as she lowered her hand to her lap. Brad’s proposal and their pending nuptials suddenly lost some of their luster. She just couldn’t find the excitement she’d felt yesterday.
“What about his daughter? Jade? How’s that going to work? From what you’ve told me, she hates you.”
Karma pressed her lips together and rubbed her chin. Jade was a sensitive subject where Brad was concerned. “I don’t know. We’ll figure it out.”
She never would have guessed that Brad’s daughter would be such a thorn in her side. After she and Brad had been dating a couple of months, he finally introduced them. Karma had looked forward to meeting his daughter only to find that Jade didn’t feel the same way. In fact, Jade made no secret that she couldn’t stand Karma and only tolerated her presence to appease her dad. And now Karma had just signed up for a lifetime with Brad…and his daughter. Hopefully, things would get better between her and Jade, because being around that twelve-year-old bundle of hostility and disrespect for an hour left her frazzled and near the end of her patience.
And now, to make matters worse, she had to contend with Mark. How was this going to work?
Mark lifted his gaze to hers from the front of the room, and her heart skipped a beat. In that split second, she knew without a doubt that she still loved him, but damn it, she didn’t want to. Mark could never give her what she wanted. What she deserved. She’d worked so hard to forget him. For her efforts, she had won an engagement ring from a stable, good-hearted man who wouldn’t flake out at the mention of commitment. Who welcomed the idea of eternity with her. Maybe Brad wasn’t the most passionate man, and maybe he wasn’t as sexually adventurous as Mark, but he was emotionally solid and promised security. Karma couldn’t let Mark get in the way of that, because she knew where that road led. Straight back to heartbreak.
Lowering her gaze, she turned away.
“Damn him,” she whispered to Lisa. “Damn him for coming back.” Her tone held more aggression than she intended.
“Are you okay?” Lisa touched her wrist.
“No.” Anger rose in her blood. Why now? Why come back now? After a year away? Mark hadn’t tried to call her once. After leaving last September, he hadn’t called, and he hadn’t e-mailed or texted. He hadn’t even written a fucking snail mail letter or sent a generic Christmas card or wished her a Happy New Year or a Happy Birthday or bothered to keep in touch at all. And now, here he was. And from his hopeful expression when he’d walked out of Don’s office and met her gaze, he thought everything could go back to just how it had been before.
Well, screw that. She wasn’t going back. She wasn’t the same person she was last year, and she had no desire to return to that state of existence. She was with Brad now. That was where she belonged. Mark needed to get that through his commitment-phobic skull pronto. There would be no walks down memory lane, holding her hand, kissing her, sweeping her into his bed. That shit wasn’t going to happen. Karma refused to allow it.
“Karma?” Lisa nudged her arm. “What’s wrong.”
“Just…I…” She huffed. “I’m so mad at him for doing this to me. Now, of all times, when I’ve finally moved on and found the man I’m going to spend the rest of my life with. Who does he think he is? He had no right to—”
“Calm down, Karma. Just keep your cool.” Lisa gently waved her hand in a downward motion to indicate she needed to take deep breaths and chill. “We’ll go to lunch after the meeting, and you can unload then, but hold it together during the meeting.”
Karma crossed her arms and threw one leg over the other, tapping her foot in the air. Fine. She would keep her emotions under control for now, but once she and Lisa left for lunch, she wasn’t going to hold her frustration in. She had a thing or two to say about Mark reinserting himself into her life when she had only just gotten over him.
Chapter 16
Karma fumed through the entire meeting. Why did Mark have to be so fricking hot? So delectably sexy? So magnetically gorgeous? Shouldn’t someone allergic to long-term relationships have an egg-sized wart on his nose? A missing front tooth? No teeth at all?
But his sex appeal didn’t make up for his audacity.
Unable to meet his gaze, she kept her eyes on Don, Phil, and Barrett—the traitor. Barrett was retiring. How dare he retire and leave an opening Don needed to fill. Now she was stuck with Mark, because Don would move into Barrett’s upstairs office and inherit his assistant.
How was she expected to work with Mark given their past? She would just have to lay down the law immediately and make Mark understand she was with Brad now. She wasn’t interested in getting caught up in any more of his “lessons.” She no longer needed him to teach her how to be with a man, or how to talk to one. She no longer needed him to boost her confidence and make her feel beautiful. Been there, done that.
After the meeting, she bolted out of the conference room before Mark could stop her, rushed upstairs to grab her purse, then met Lisa outside by her car.
“What is he doing here?” She thumped her fist on the door panel as Lisa pulled out of the parking lot.
“Taking Don’s job,” Lisa said matter-of-factly.
“It’s not that simple. Nothing was ever that simple with Mark. He’s up to something.” She crossed one arm over the other and nibbled her thumbnail. What angle was he playing?
“Maybe the opportunity was simply too good to pass up.” Lisa turned up the air.
“Huh-uh. I’m not buying it. He came back for me. He came back to mess with my head.”
“Karma—”
“No, Lisa. I know him. If he thinks I’m just going to fall back into his bed, he’s got another thing coming.” She smacked her fist against her thigh. “Damn it, Lisa. You know how long it took for me to get over him.”
“Sounds like you’re still not,” Lisa said under her breath.
“What? What did you say?”
Lisa took a left into the parking lot for Café Nine. “Listen to yourself, Karma. Would you really be this upset if you were honestly over him?”
Karma ricocheted back. “Are you serious?”
“Yes, I’m serious.” Lisa parked the car, shut off the engine, and turned toward her. The look in her eyes made it clear Lisa was about to give her a reality check. “You’re not over him, are you? Tell me I’m wrong.”
“You’re wrong.”
“I’m not buying it.
“Why not?”
Lisa’s jaw clenched as if she didn’t want to say what was about to come out of her mouth. Then she took a deep breath, held it for a second, then blurted, “Because if you were really over him, you’d be happy to see him.” Before Karma could protest, Lisa held up her hand. “Look, it’s okay if you’re not over him. The two of you shared an amazing summer and you fell in love with him. I’ve read your blog. I know what he meant to you. You have a right to be angry right now, but—”<
br />
“But what? But maybe I should cut Mark some slack? Is that what you think I should do?”
“No.” Lisa sighed. “But you’re being irrational.”
“Damn straight I’m being irrational.” She pointed in the direction of the office. “That bastard just blew my entire world apart back there. I’ve moved on, and now he comes back and saunters out of Don’s office like everything’s the way it was between us, and all I wanted when I saw him was to…” She met Lisa’s gaze as the wind blew out of her sails. In her tirade of tumbling thoughts, she’d been about to say that when she saw Mark all she’d wanted was to kiss him. The moment he emerged from Don’s office, her heart skipped a beat then unfurled as her body instantly heated. Arousal flooded her lower belly, and all she’d wanted was to touch him, be touched by him, and taste his skin. Mark still had that effect on her, but she couldn’t bow to it. She had to resist.
Lisa tilted her head as if she’d read Karma’s thoughts. “You know, all this time I was worried you were just frontin’ with Brad. That you’d latched on to him because you thought he was your only shot at happiness after Mark left.” She paused. “I think you just confirmed I was right.”
“I love Brad,” Karma said a little too defensively.
Lisa smirked like she didn’t believe her then got out of the car.
“I do.” Karma hopped out and followed her into Café Nine. “Do you think I don’t?”
“Oh, I’m sure you love him.” Lisa stepped up to the counter to order then looked over her shoulder and said, “I just think you love Mark more.”
The words hit her like a shot to the gut, rendering her speechless. But really, hadn’t she realized during the meeting when Mark’s gaze met hers that she was still in love with him? Lisa was only stating the obvious.
After ordering, Karma sat down across from Lisa at a patio table. “Fine, maybe I’m not over him, and maybe I do still love him, but, Lisa, he’s never going to be what I need. He’s never going to be able to commit, let alone marry me. If I learned nothing else from our four months together, I learned that much.”
