IN LOVE WITH HER BOSS

by Christie Ridgway

  Interest. Curiosity. Excitement.

  But that was just all the more confusing! She'd been honest with Josh when she'd said she'd sworn off men. Yet the truth was, when he'd brought up the idea of her socializing, of her dating, for a moment she'd wondered what it would be like to date him.

  Of course, after her little panic attack outside the gym this morning, he probably couldn't imagine fixing her up with someone, let alone himself. But that was fine. That was what she wanted. She wanted to do a good job as his receptionist, nothing more.

  By the time Josh arrived from the Feeney site, she had her emotions back under control. As the door shut behind him, she scooped up the pile of pink slips that were his messages.

  "Good morning," she said, as if they hadn't already encountered one another that day. "Your messages, Mr. Anderson." She held them out.

  He approached her desk. "Josh," he countered, though his voice was mild. "You're supposed to call me Josh." When his large hand slid the papers from hers, their fingers didn't touch.

  She was glad. Though she'd promised herself to curb her jumpiness around him, her reactions weren't always easy to control. Her breath, for example. As he hesitated in front of her, she couldn't seem to catch her breath.

  She swallowed, trying to meet his eyes without flushing. "Is … is everything okay?"

  There was something different about Josh now, she noticed. His big body seemed stiller, calmer than before. Which only made her feel that much more gauche. "Did you want something?" she asked, when he didn't say anything.

  "No." He smiled, that slow, wide, warm one that seemed to brighten the whole room. "Everything's fine now."

  The rest of the morning echoed his words. For the first time they worked in an atmosphere of friendly harmony. He didn't bark out assignments, she didn't jump when he walked into the reception area. It was almost as if Josh had turned his personality on Low. While he couldn't do anything to mitigate his massive size, she thought he'd somehow banked his normal forcefulness.

  Their business relationship might just work out.

  At noon, she retrieved from the refrigerator a salad she'd made at home and carried it to her desk. Whistling softly, Josh walked out of his office, his coat caught on two fingers.

  He glanced over at her. "I'm off to—" His mouth turned down in obvious distaste. "That's lunch?"

  "Well, yes." Looking down, she couldn't stop from making her own face. When she'd made the salad that morning, the lettuce had already been half wilted. Now it looked like it had gone into a dead faint.

  Josh shook his head. "Why don't you come with me? We'll find something better."

  "Oh, no," she said instantly. Not when their business relationship was just getting established.

  He hesitated. "C'mon, Lori. I know you said you didn't want me to introduce you to any men, and I respect that. But I know some other people you might like to meet."

  "Oh, I couldn't." She drew her chair closer to the desk to make sure he got the message. "There's the phones, the business…"

  "The machine will take the calls and this is business," he countered. "I'm going over to the Hip Hop Café to check the crew's progress. I told you about that project, right? We're rebuilding the restaurant after the arson fire last month. As the company's receptionist, you should know the kinds of things we do. I'm meeting the owner there, Melissa North. I'll introduce you. You'll like her."

  Melissa North. Lori hoped her face didn't betray her sudden eagerness. Melissa North. She weighed the prospect of meeting Melissa North against the danger of spoiling this very newfound peace with Josh by spending more time in his company.

  As if he sensed her mental struggle, Josh used his own weapon. He smiled, that easy, patient, warm one. "Let's go," he said, nodding toward the door. "It's business."

  Because it was business, Lori didn't feel obligated to keep up a conversation on the short drive from the office to the heart of downtown Whitehorn. When Josh turned his big, black four-wheeler into a parking place, she was out of her seat and on the sidewalk before he had the emergency brake on. One business associate certainly didn't expect another business associate to open her door for her and help her out, despite the long leap to the ground.

  Because it was business, she kept her attention strictly on the discussion between Josh and the Hip Hop site foreman as they toured the reconstruction. The restaurant had burnt to the ground a few weeks before and the Anderson crew was just beginning to rebuild.

  Though she didn't understand all of the conversation, Lori was fascinated to learn that some time capsules had been found buried in the restaurant's original foundation. When Josh bent over to inspect the cavity where they'd been discovered, his thigh-length parka rode up. It might not have been completely businesslike of Lori to notice the long muscles of his hamstrings or the tautness of his gluteus maximus muscles beneath his worn jeans, but it was natural, right? She had an interest in fitness.

  By the time Josh straightened, she was perusing a set of plans unrolled on the hood of the foreman's truck. All business.

  Josh checked his watch. "Time to meet Melissa," he said.

  Lori looked up. "She's not coming here?"

  "We're meeting her at the counter of the Big Sky Five & Dime." His thumb jerked to the small variety store across the street. "She's probably waiting for us."

  Lori's heart hammered as she crossed the street in Josh's wake. Now that the moment had come, she wondered if she should have stayed safely back at her desk after all. Melissa North.

  At the door of the Big Sky Five & Dime, Josh turned to watch Lori's reluctant progress. One of his eyebrows rose. "Something the matter?"

  Taking a breath, she shook her head, then hurried her footsteps. Josh had witnessed enough of her craziness for one day. With a businesslike cloak, she'd hide from him her inner turmoil.

  He held the door for her. "There's a counter and a couple of booths at the back that have gained new life since the Hip Hop went out of commission."

  At a calm pace, Lori walked down the narrow aisles in the direction Josh indicated. Her gaze darted over the customers she encountered, though, her stomach clenching as she wondered if she would recognize Melissa.

  As the smell of french fries and coffee grew stronger, Josh called from behind her, "Take a right." Lori obeyed, coming upon a counter with five stools and beyond that, two four-person booths upholstered in red vinyl.

  In the nearest booth a couple sat side-by-side. The woman laughed, and her dark hair slid away from her cheek as she lifted her face for the man's brief kiss. Then he whispered something in her ear, and she turned her head toward Lori and Josh.

  She looked beautiful, with fair skin and blue eyes. She looked happy and friendly.

  She looked just as Lori had imagined her half sister might.

  It was lucky that Josh stepped in to make the introductions, because Lori felt anything but businesslike as she met Melissa and Wyatt North. In seconds she was knee-to-knee with the other woman, though, as she and Josh took the seat on the other side of the booth.

  Lori's tongue remained knotted, so it was lucky, too, that it took some minutes to order their lunch – Josh told her the only substantial food offered was grilled cheese sandwiches – and get the Hip Hop details out of the way. By the time her plate was in front of her, Lori had relaxed a little.

  When the men started talking about the arson investigation, Melissa grinned at her. "Would you be horribly offended if I snitched a french fry?" she asked.

  "Oh. Oh, no." Lori flushed and pushed the plate toward the center of the table. "I should have offered. Forgive me."

  "Done." Melissa bit into the french fry with relish. "It's the only thing they make nearly as good as the Hip Hop."

  Lori took up her own fry, but her stomach was too nervous to eat. "I'm sorry to hear about what happened to your restaurant."

  Melissa shook her head. "Don't get me started. Half the time I want to cry and the other half I want to strangle whoever did such
a destructive thing."

  "They haven't caught who did it?"

  "No." Melissa sighed, but then took another french fry and turned her attention to Lori. "So tell me about you."

  "I…" This wasn't the time or place to blurt out the truth. Lori licked her lips. "I'm new to Whitehorn. As Josh said earlier, I'm his temporary receptionist."

  "He's a good man," Melissa said, then her gaze sharpened. "But you know that, right?"

  Lori bit into her french fry so she could nod instead of talking.

  "Still, it can't be easy to settle someplace new," Melissa went on. "Did you have a special reason for coming to Whitehorn?"

  Lori swallowed. "I wanted to set down some roots."

  Melissa nodded, as if she understood. "I grew up in Whitehorn, and then my mother and I moved when I was a senior in high school. I spent the next few years mooning over Wyatt and doing what I had to come back." She cocked her head. "But it was coming home for me. How did you even hear about Whitehorn?"

  "My mother told me about it. She was from Whitehorn."

  One of Melissa's dark eyebrows rose. "From here? Who is she?"

  Lori didn't think her mother's name would mean anything to Melissa. Her mother had said that Charlie Avery, Lori and Melissa's father, had been a philanderer, and that her parents had moved the family out of state as soon as she'd discovered she was pregnant. "Jill Hanson. The daughter of Roy and Jane Hanson. But they're all gone now."

  "Oh." Melissa's face softened "I'm sorry. That must be lonely sometimes." She reached out and covered Lori's hand with her own.

  Lori froze. Women didn't send her into a panic, but she hadn't felt comfortable with anyone's touch in a long while. Because of the kind of marriage she'd had and the way she'd been on the move after it, she hadn't had the opportunity to develop any kind of relationship that involved touching, not even something as casual but as considerate as this.

  She stared at their joined hands, at the similar skin tone, at Melissa's slender fingers that reminded her so much of her own. Tears burned the corners of her eyes.

  "Lori?" Josh softly called her name.

  Blinking, she turned her head toward his. Her breath caught. There was concern on his rugged, handsome face. Kindness.

  Then something more. As she looked up at him, with her half sister Melissa's hand still covering hers, Lori felt her heart open up, and she saw Josh watch it happen.

  Warmth, trust, promise. Like petals, the feelings tentatively unfurled in her chest, a blossom taking its chance on a winter sun.

  * * *

  Chapter 4

  « ^ »

  At one end of the weight room, Josh leaned against a Nautilus machine and pretended he was merely resting between sets instead of what he was really doing – resting between sets while watching Lori work out. It was a kickboxing class today, in the adjacent aerobics area. The class was unusually small, probably because it was New Year's Eve and most people had headed home early this Saturday afternoon to prepare for their evening celebrations.

  But Billy Blanks and his Tae-Bo enthusiasts would be proud. Even without the communal energy of a full class, Lori's sidekicks punched outward with determined force.

  Her jaw looked clenched in concentration. The tendrils of hair that had escaped her ponytail hung in damp question marks against her cheeks. In a baggy pair of sweatpants cut off at the knees and an oversized T-shirt, she should have looked tough. Competent.

  She did. But why she worked so hard on that strength clawed at him.

  Her terrified reaction when he'd stopped her from falling a few mornings ago, added to her self-defense attack when he'd bumped into her on the running track the first day they'd met could equal only one thing. A man had hurt her. Not just emotionally, but physically too.

  The certainty made him sick. And relieved, though that sounded more warped than it should. He wasn't happy about whatever experiences she'd endured, of course, but he was glad to finally understand her skittishness. He was damn glad to know so that he could quit adding to her disquiet with his attempts at flirtation.

  None of this changed her appeal for him, though. God, no. Now she was more than beautiful. In every bead of sweat, in every kick, in every lap, he read Lori's determination never to be a victim again. He admired that.

  But overlying his regard for her tenacious guts and her uncommon gorgeousness was something that sent him running. Tenderness. Protectiveness.

  He didn't want to feel that way.

  So he reminded himself that she needed healing, not him. She wasn't in the market for a fling any more than he was. Neither one of them was in any emotional place to want anything more.

  As Josh watched, Lori changed direction, back-kicking for all she was worth. If only he could kick off his raging guard-dog complex as easily. Such an ability would come in handy right this minute, Josh thought, as he spied Wily Rick Weber sauntering through the weight room, his gaze glued on Lori.

  Josh suppressed a feral growl, instead smiling at the other man as he intercepted Rick's straight path toward the aerobics room. "Hey there, Rick."

  It took Wily a moment to switch his focus to Josh. "Anderson," he said absently, already moving forward to brush by him. Then Wily paused, the expression on his face reflecting his crafty nickname. "Wait a minute," he said softly. "She works for you, doesn't she?"

  Josh folded his arms across his chest and looked down at the smaller man. "Who?"

  Wily's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, right. As if you don't know who I mean. Her name's Lori, correct?"

  No one ever said Wily was dumb, just trouble. "Mmm," Josh answered, shrugging.

  Wily's eyes squeezed to suspicious slits. "Don't try scaring me off, Josh. There's no reason I shouldn't ask her out. It's not like you have a claim."

  "What the hell do you mean by that?" The hair on the back of Josh's neck bristled.

  Wily gave him a smarmy guy-to-guy smile. "Word is you're more monk than man, Anderson. Can't see you trying to melt the ice queen over there as your first foray into romance after all these years." His smile widened. "Leave the hard ones to me, big guy."

  Smarmy, wily, stinkin' Rick Weber had just insulted him. Lifted Josh's ego and dumped it on its head. He was so pissed, he just stared at the jerk.

  Which apparently gave Rick the idea that he was letting him get away with it, because Rick smiled again. "I've suddenly found myself dateless for the New Year's party at the country club tonight. Watch this. Give me five minutes and I'll make her say 'yes'." He swaggered forward.

  Until Josh grabbed his arm and hauled him back. "No," he said.

  Wily frowned. "No?"

  "No." Josh would have let his ego take the beating, but he couldn't let Rick Give-me-five-minutes Weber try to make Lori do anything. "She's busy tonight." Hadn't Lori asked him herself to put out the word around the gym that she was off-limits?

  Rick's eyebrows rose. "Maybe I'll make certain of that myself. Maybe I'll just show up at her place tonight and hope she invites me in for … something."

  Josh squeezed Rick's arm, the idea of him on Lori's doorstep tightening a sudden knot in his belly. "She's already going out with me."

  "Oh, yeah?" Rick asked. "Where?"

  "The country club." Josh didn't have time to come up with something else. He had been going to the country club celebration. Stag.

  "Hmm." Rick's face turned down in a considering frown. Finally, he shrugged. "I'll see you there, then." Shaking off Josh's hand, he sauntered in the other direction, toward the men's locker room, leaving Josh to face Lori, who didn't know she'd just gotten herself a New Year's Eve date.

  Her class over, Lori walked out of the aerobics room, blotting her face with the end of the towel hanging around her neck. When she saw him, she halted, a shy smile on her face. "Josh."

  Oh, he felt like a heel. In the past few days, since figuring out what made her afraid, he'd been so damn careful with her. He'd given her space. He'd made sure he never showed how he gulped back his lust when she w
alked into his office, her peachy scent preceding her. Her ease with him had grown by leaps and bounds and now, damn it, the leaps were going to be backward ones.

  "Lori, good to see you." He cleared his throat, keenly aware that asking her out was going to put her guard back up. "Do you, uh, do you have any New Year's Eve plans?"

  A shadow darkened her jewel-blue eyes. "No."

  "I was hoping … I was wondering … I'm going to the Whitehorn Country Club tonight for a dinner dance." His feet, his hands, his Adam's apple felt as if they were growing like Pinocchio's nose. Damn, she made him that edgy, even when he was asking her out for her own good.

  She frowned and took a small step back. "Josh,

  I—"

  "The Norths are going to be there," he said hastily, thinking of Rick's smarmy smile and his notion to show up on Lori"s doorstep. "Melissa and Wyatt. Some other people I think you'll like, too."

  "Melissa?" Lori swallowed. "The Norths?"

  Josh nodded, pleased that mentioning the other couple seemed to pique her interest. He knew she'd established an instant rapport with Melissa when they'd met. "We've planned to sit together."

  "I'd…"

  Josh marshalled his thoughts, trying to come up with some additional enticements.

  "…like that."

  "You would?" He stared at her, trying to squelch the heated rush of satisfaction pulsing through him. This wasn't a date, he reminded himself. This was a rescue. That's all.

  * * *

  Not a date, a rescue. He was still trying to tell himself that as he escorted Lori into the Whitehorn Country Club a few hours later. If it were a date, he would have allowed himself to comment on the beauty of her shoulders, their delicate strength revealed by the off-the-shoulder black velvet of her dress. If it were a date, he would have told her he liked the sophisticated twist of her hair on the back of her head. If it were a date, he would have touched her elbow, the small of her back, as he led her toward their table.