“I meant the company around this table.”
“Oh. Right.” She took a gulp of her wine, hoping it would help. It was so dry she had to take a sip of water to wet her mouth again so she could speak. Wes never would have ordered dry wine. “So where are you from?”
“Boston,” he answered. She should have known that from the way he was only wearing a suit jacket and it was twenty-six degrees outside. He didn’t even have gloves. It was proof aliens were taking over the world slowly, starting with the Northeast. “I went to USC.”
If she wouldn’t have already thought there was something off about Duane, this information would have sealed the deal. Who would attend four years of school in Southern California and willingly come back to this frozen hell?
His swordfish on a bed of quinoa was set down in front of him as a different person simultaneously put her plate in front of her. The crab cake was so tiny, she was already planning to make Easy Mac when she got home.
Eventually she was able to pull the conversation to work, and he told her he would forward the library plans to her in the morning, since he’d forgotten to bring them along. Likely story.
After dinner she directed him to her apartment building, thinking she should have come up with an alternate plan. She pointed to the curb where Wes always parked when dropping her off. It was a no parking zone, but she was always quick to jump out.
Duane pulled over but paused. “Do you have a parking garage so I can walk you up?” he asked.
“Oh, no. That’s okay. I can walk up myself.”
“Maybe I won’t be walking back down right away.” His voice had changed. It sounded lower and icky.
Oh, God, no.
This was all her fault. She’d gone out with him looking for some kind of sign that she was making the right decision not to join his team.
And now here was the sign. Giant, neon, with an arrow. He was hinting that he wanted to stay when all she was thinking about was how she wanted to go make some Easy Mac. It would have been laughable if she wasn’t so surprised.
Again he’d surprised her and she didn’t like this one any more than the restaurant with the miniscule crab cakes. She was certain she would be equally disappointed.
“No. I don’t think that’s a good idea. We both work tomorrow.” This was nicer than what she’d been thinking.
“Okay. Well, maybe another time.”
“We’ll have to see.” She slipped out of the car and hurried into her building. When she turned to wave, he was already gone. Wes always waited until she was safely inside before he pulled away.
Chapter 3
Wes had to laugh when Jamie walked into their office in all her Abominable Snowman splendor. The parka with the fur-trimmed hood, the angora mittens, the scarf up to her nose and the giant snow boots. This was her normal attire when the thermometer dropped under twenty degrees.
“It’s three inches of snow, James,” he teased as she struggled to escape her outerwear. “You look like you’re competing in the Iditarod.”
“Three inches on top of the six inches already on the ground.”
“Shouldn’t you have acclimated by now? You’ve spent five years in Boston. You know it’s cold in the winter and scorching in the summer.”
“It’s hell,” she grumbled.
Weston twisted his mouth to the side, thinking over her allegation. He was from New York. There wasn’t much difference between New York City and Boston, as far as the weather went. But New York did have better pizza.
“Yes. Hell,” he finally agreed, earning a satisfied smile from Jamie.
He’d never met anyone so determined to be right all the time. She made everything into a competition. Fortunately, he didn’t feel a need to compete with her.
The woman definitely saw them as a team. They were a single unit working toward a common goal. And 99 percent of the time they were completely in sync when it came to the goal.
“I wouldn’t need boots in Jamaica,” she grumbled as she kicked them off and yanked on her sneakers.
She was still worked up about the couples’ trip. Weston agreed it would be a great way to convince the McCaffertys that he and Jamie could give them what they wanted.
“I brought you coffee, but it’s probably iced by now.” She handed him the cup, with bright cheeks and a frown. “I made some of that casserole you like. I brought you half.”
“Thanks, work wife,” he said while rubbing his palms together. When he was first paired with a female partner, he had reservations. Not with her skill, but with the possibility of a physical attraction getting in the way of their job. He was glad that hadn’t happened.
“What is that?” She pointed at the paper on his desk. “I don’t like these pillars.”
“They hold up the building.”
“I understand that. I’m saying they need to be less aggressive.”
“Aggressive?” He didn’t know how to make a pillar less aggressive. It was a pillar, not a shark.
“They need to look less institutional and more . . . romantic.”
“Romantic pillars?” He made a noise between a sigh and snort. He’d never heard anything so ridiculous.
“Yes. Romantic.”
“How about this?” He quickly sketched out a rose winding up the pillars.
“You think you’re funny, but you’re not.”
“I’m hilarious.”
“No. Trust me on this. It isn’t so.”
“What do you want?” He handed over the paper, knowing whatever she came up with was going to be amazing. It always was.
“The lines across the top are softer. You need the columns to match. Like this.” She held it up, showing her swoopy columns. “Can you do this?”
“Of course I can do it.” He snapped at the offense. She knew better than to question him. With a smirk she handed him back the tablet and went to her desk.
As expected, her design was amazing.
It should have been the biggest reason why he enjoyed working with her. They complemented one another between a design’s aesthetics and strength. She could take anything he made and somehow tweak it to be exceptional. And he gave her designs substance. But that wasn’t the only thing he liked about working with Jamie Witmer.
It was the way she brought him half of her casserole or the way she stayed late to help him finish when she was done, but he wasn’t. The way she laughed at his stupid jokes, and hung out with him after work when he was bored.
She was his partner. The other half of him. The part that made him better than he was when he was alone.
She was his very best friend in the entire world. He was even closer to her than to his brother, Ben; or Zane, who had taken second place when Wes started working with Jamie.
“What did you do last night?” he asked casually as she continued to peel off layers of clothing.
She stopped moving and looked away. “Nothing, really. Why?”
She was lying to him. He could tell. It was the reason she didn’t like lying to her father. She was horrible at it. While he normally wouldn’t have pressed the issue, he was curious as to what she’d done that was turning her winter-pink cheeks a rosy panic.
“Nothing? Did you go out?” He assumed she’d met someone from the dating site and it hadn’t gone well. He leaned back and crossed his arms, waiting to hear the story.
She bit her bottom lip for a second and then shrugged defiantly.
“Duane and I went to dinner. He wanted to talk about the library project. I offered my thoughts.”
Wes was not prepared for the bad date to have been with Duane. And she hadn’t said anything to indicate it had been bad.
“Duane? Wow. He’s really going all out trying to get you on his team.” Wes released the fist resting on his thigh.
“No. He just . . .” She shrugged again, bu
t wouldn’t look at him. “He wanted to talk some things out. No big deal.”
He wanted to push for more information. Was she going to go? Before he got the chance to ask, his phone buzzed and Cindy’s voice filled the room.
“Mr. Archer, there is a Benjamin Archer here to see you.”
* * * *
Ben stood when his big brother walked into the lobby to meet him. Wes was smiling, and Ben realized he was too. They didn’t hug, despite the fact they hadn’t seen each other in person since last September. Their family didn’t hug.
“I was hoping you’d be able to squeeze in a visit when you said you were coming to Boston,” Wes said, and Ben could see he was genuinely glad to see him.
Growing up the way they had, with cardboard parents, it was difficult to interpret what someone was really thinking. He and Wes were generally pretty honest with one another. They had been a safe place for each other while surrounded with fake emotions.
“I have a few hours until my next appointment. I hope you don’t mind that I stopped in.” Though they didn’t have the opportunity to hang out often, they did speak on the phone frequently. Mostly about the family business.
“No. It’s great. Come up to my office. I’ll show you where I work.” Wes started off and Ben followed.
“So I’ll know how to make my offer more enticing?” Ben asked.
Wes shook his head. “You sound like Mother.”
“I do not. If I wanted to sound like Mother, I would have heaped on a bunch of guilt and mentioned the words family legacy nine million times in one sentence.” Ben mock-shivered as they approached an empty desk and a door.
“Cindy’s out. She’s our assistant. I’ll introduce you when she gets back.”
“Is she hot?” he teased.
“Cindy is a forty-five-year-old mother of three, who makes killer chocolate chip cookies.”
“No wonder you don’t want to come back to New York to work with me.” Ben was laughing when they walked into the office and a brunette looked up with a gorgeous smile.
“Jamie, this is my brother, Benji.” Wes gestured toward him and then back to the woman. “This is my partner, Jamie.”
“This is Jamie? I didn’t know Jamie was a female.” He had been joking about the assistant with the cookies, but this . . . He didn’t realize there was really someone keeping him from wanting to come home.
“Don’t I ever say she when I talk about her?”
“No. You always say we.”
“Huh.” Wes shrugged and nodded toward female Jamie. “She’s my partner.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” she said.
“It’s nice to meet you.” More than nice. Unless she and Wes were an item. But were they? Wes wasn’t giving off any romantic clues, and she didn’t look at Wes with a love-struck gaze.
Despite the lack of romantic sparks, there was definitely a familiarity between them as they joked and told Ben what they were working on.
By lunchtime, Ben was thoroughly confused by the situation between the partners.
“Do you want to go grab something to eat before you have to go to your next meeting?” Wes asked.
“Sure.” Ben turned to Jamie. “Will you be joining us, madam?” He bowed and she laughed.
“I don’t want to intrude on your male bonding,” she answered.
“Please. I’ll see enough of him on my next visit. Which will probably be soon, now that I know he has such a beautiful partner.”
Jamie’s cheeks turned pink, but her smile told him she was flattered.
“Well, then in that case, I’ll go to lunch with you the next time and leave you boys alone this time.” She winked and went back to what she was drawing.
“I’ll bring you something back,” Wes offered.
“Thanks,” she called as they left the office.
“What is that?” Ben asked as soon as they were in the parking lot.
Wes looked around. “What was what?”
“Jamie.” Ben pointed back at the building.
“She’s great, isn’t she?”
“Yeah. So you’re together?” The smile on Wes’s face looked like a man who was interested in the woman he was speaking about.
“No. Not like you mean. But that doesn’t mean you should mess with her. She dates a lot of assholes. She needs a nice guy.”
“I can be a nice guy.”
“Yes, I know. You just aren’t.”
“So it would be okay if I asked her out?” Ben confirmed, watching his brother as they got in the car.
“If you promise to treat her nice. Yeah. You’re better than most of the guys she dates.” Wes paused before starting his SUV. “Wait. You don’t have any kind of Cupid fetish, do you?”
* * * *
“Did you have a nice lunch?” Jamie asked Wes as soon as he got back in the office. He’d left Ben in the parking lot so he could go to his meeting.
“Yes. It was nice to catch up.” He handed over her lunch.
She opened the container holding her club sandwich and squealed in delight. “An extra pickle.”
“You’re so easy to please.” This was true. It was fun to see how excited she got over the simplest things. Things his mother wouldn’t even notice, let alone get excited about.
“Yes, speaking of that. Your brother.”
“I gave him your number before he left.” He figured she would want him to do so with the way the two of them had been flirting. Wes wasn’t sure it was a good idea to facilitate a match, but neither Ben nor Jamie was the type to care whether he thought it was a good idea.
“Thank you. He’s adorable.”
“He looks like me,” Wes pointed out. Everybody mentioned how much they looked alike. They’d even been mistaken for twins.
Jamie tilted her head to the side as she inspected him like a bird watching a worm. Then she shook her head. “I don’t see it.” She turned back to her task. “Wouldn’t it be cool if I ended up being your sister someday?”
Wes just hoped no one got hurt.
* * * *
Jamie winced as she walked into the conference room the following Wednesday morning, knowing what was coming. At least Wes was there to soften the blow.
“Congratulations, Duane and Neil!” Everyone cheered as Rob continued. “The figures are back from finance and you’ve officially been named Design Team One for the sixth year in a row!”
Everyone clapped. Jamie clapped too as she leaned over to whisper to Wes.
“Next year it will be us.” She and Wes were a great team. They just needed a chance to do a bigger job so everyone could see it. They could do anything together.
If too many of her ideas got in the project, it came off weak. If too many of Weston’s ideas got in, it looked like an institution. But together it was a perfect blend.
* * * *
“Okay, that concludes the regular team meeting. I need the people who are going on next month’s trip to stay a couple of extra minutes. I want to go over the itinerary quickly.”
“I wonder what they would do if I insisted on going. Would they tell me I can’t go?” Jamie said as she and Wes walked back to their office.
Maybe she was being ridiculous. After all, she’d heard the saying, marriage is work. She had no experience with it herself, but maybe this trip was not going to be nearly as much fun as she thought.
Maybe it would be like the time the firm sent her to Houston and she spent the entire trip in a hotel conference room that looked like every other hotel conference room anywhere in the world.
But whether or not it was ridiculous, she couldn’t shake the feeling she was missing out on a great opportunity to get the McCafferty job. Her father had told her six million times that life was not fair. As an adult she’d realized quickly it was one of the many things he’d been right about.
However, that didn’t mean she should just sit back and accept this injustice. For single women everywhere, she felt like she needed to speak out. Even if it was just to her partner.
“You could always ask and see,” he suggested diplomatically.
“But what if they said no, and then I lost my shit and told off my boss and got fired. I mean, getting fired won’t help with my goal to get to Team One.”
“This is true.”
“But it would be nice to spend a week in Jamaica.”
“You make money. Why don’t you take some time and go?”
That was a good question. And only because it was Wes, did she answer. “I feel like I should spend my vacations with my dad. After his cancer scare I realized he’s not going to be around forever, you know? I wouldn’t be able to have a good time in Jamaica if I went on my own time. I would feel like I was wasting a chance to hang out with him. I’m sure it sounds stupid.”
“It doesn’t. It makes sense. I’m sorry.”
“If I was going on the trip as a function of my job, and didn’t have to give up any of my vacation days, I would be able to have fun.”
“Maybe you should take your dad to Jamaica.”
“Not only is that just sad, but I’m sure he would want to assist me in finding a husband. No, thank you.”
“He couldn’t do worse than you have so far.”
Wes mumbled, but she’d heard. No doubt he was talking about her date with Duane. They hadn’t talked about it since her reveal, but it was pretty obvious, Wes didn’t approve.
“Well, I need to go on this trip so I can steal the McCaffertys from Neil and Duane.”
“Good luck.” He tapped the keys of his computer. “I don’t think it would be all that fun hanging out with the people I work with during vacation.”
She couldn’t help the little gasp that escaped.
His head jerked up, his blue eyes wide. “I didn’t mean you.”
“It’s okay.” She brushed it off. They went out for dinner and drinks after work occasionally. They’d even gone to the movies, but a vacation together would probably be outside the limits of their friendship. “I think of you as a friend, even if it is just while I’m in the office.”
The Work Wife Page 4
