“Indeed. See you then.”
She narrowed her eyes at me, let out a huff, then disappeared into her condo.
Yep. I was going to wear her down, all right.
Chapter Nine
Rose
I
’d been distracted ever since the random dinner date I’d had with Aiden. And it wasn’t even a date. But ever since he walked me back to my door, I couldn’t stop thinking about him. It was really quite annoying.
In fact, that morning, for the first time in my whole life, I hit the snooze button.
Three times.
I’d had a hell of a time falling asleep. I’d tossed and turned until finally succumbing to sleep sometime after one in the morning. When the alarm went off, my arm—which weighed a thousand pounds, or so it seemed—searched for my phone, snoozing the alarm before my brain was awake enough to protest.
I didn’t protest, though.
I just went back to sleep.
A few times.
When I finally rolled out of bed, it was without the normal pep in my step. Coffee didn’t hold the same appeal. I needed rocket fuel. The idea of walking to the office made me want to cry, so even though it wasn’t raining, I took an Uber. On the drive I texted Stephanie and told her I needed an emergency delivery of her strongest espresso and luckily she had an opening and promised to bring me my usual order with a gallon of extra shots.
Yawning as I walked into the office, I realized it was the first time I could remember that I wasn’t the first one there.
Others had keys because you never knew what could happen—I wanted my staff to be able to get in and out of the building even if I couldn’t be there.
But I had to admit it was weird.
No one seemed to notice when I walked in late and for that I was grateful.
I placed my purse in the drawer it always sat in, placed my phone on the wireless charger, then took a seat at my desk and let out a large sigh.
I’d always loved the glass walls of my office. I loved the idea of being transparent. I wanted my staff to see me working, to see me there all the time, working alongside of them. But in that moment, I was simply wishing for a dark room and solid walls. I wanted to drop my head on my desk and close my eyes for just a moment. A nap on a couch across the room sounded magnificent.
My eyes closed for a brief moment and I nearly sighed in relief, but they snapped open when I heard my door opening.
“Rose?”
Riley’s soft voice filled the room.
“Hey, come on in,” I called out, plastering a smile on my face.
“Is everything okay? I got here early this morning, but you weren’t here yet. I told everyone else you had an early meeting.”
“I overslept,” I admitted, trying not to look stressed out by just muttering the words. “Actually, that’s a lie. I hardly slept at all, and then when I was finally asleep my alarm tried to kill me. I’m exhausted.” The words came out with a large sigh and my shoulders slumped in defeat.
“Maybe you should go home. There’s nothing wrong with taking a day off,” she said, winking at me.
That made me smile.
“As tempting as that is, I have a meeting with Aiden Daniels today at noon. Hey, did you know he lives in my building? Isn’t that weird? Like, I never knew he existed and then all of a sudden he’s kind of everywhere.”
“I thought he lived on the mountain,” she replied with confusion.
I laughed. “That’s pretty much what I assumed too. And he very well might, but he has a place in my building. He said he’s just renting, but he’s been there while working on the Belmont Estate. Do you know what that is?”
“Uh, yeah. It’s a gorgeous, old historical mansion in the hills. It looks over Portland. He’s been doing a renovation on it. Fixing it up. He usually just does new builds, but the owner bought one of his new houses and then asked him to do the renovation on the mansion. Since it’s a registered historical landmark of Portland, he has to abide by all these codes and stipulations.”
“Wow, sounds like you know a lot about it.”
She shrugged.
“Not really. Camden hangs out with him sometimes and him and Justin, Hadley’s husband, helped him a little with the contracts. Usually, as you know, Aiden works for himself, but this time he had contracts he needed looked over. The guys got kind of close over the last couple months, so sometimes Camden tells me things.”
I was irrationally jealous that Riley knew more about Aiden than me. It was a useless emotion—jealousy—but it was there, and I couldn’t ignore it.
“He must have thought it was easier to stay in the city. I could have sworn he really lived on the mountain.”
“Thank you for opening up the office today. I’m glad you were here to get things started without me. And thanks for covering for me with everyone. Oh,” I said, suddenly remembering. “Stephanie will be here in a little while with an emergency coffee order.”
“Oh, that’s amazing. I’m sure we could all use a little pick-me-up. Also, I wanted to talk to you about the Halloway account.”
And just like that we fell into the work routine. Hours passed, and I only almost fell asleep about five more times. Luckily, we’d had our weekly meeting the day before. I probably wouldn’t have been able to make it through one of those. As it was, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it through the day.
I’d never had a hard time sleeping and obviously my body and mind were pretty pissed about the lack of rest.
I looked at my schedule and figured there wasn’t anything so important it couldn’t wait until the next day and made the executive decision to go home after the meeting with Aiden.
Thinking about seeing him again made everything wake up a little. I hadn’t seen him around the building, even though every time I left or returned I was constantly looking for him. Torn between wanting to avoid him and needing to see him again, it was driving me absolutely crazy. Especially since the need to see him again was winning the war waging inside me.
At five minutes until noon my stomach was roiling with nerves. He said it was a business meeting, but I wasn’t stupid. I had my suspicions about his intentions. Just the idea of spending a few hours with him had my belly flipping and breath catching.
Every time the door opened to the office my eyes darted to them like lasers. Each time it wasn’t him I had to calm myself, roll my own eyes at how silly I was being.
But when the door opened again, and then he walked in, it could have been out of a movie.
His eyes came straight to me and my lungs locked up. He walked through my office as though he was locked on target—his target being me. He didn’t stop to chat with anyone, didn’t even bother acknowledging anyone, just marched right toward me.
His chin tilted up in a nod as he approached my door.
Damned glass walls.
My door opened, and Aiden was filling the doorway.
“It’s noon, sweetheart.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to just stay here? I could order in. Riley could join us.”
I was begging him to let me off easy, to allow me to maintain some of my dignity. I didn’t know if I could handle spending time with him outside of the office again. Lord knew I was tested every night knowing he was somewhere asleep in the same building.
“We’re leaving, Rose,” he said sternly, but not unkindly. In fact, the tone of his voice, the way he was making it clear he was in charge, it was strangely attractive.
“Okay,” I agreed softly.
Grabbing my phone, purse, and jacket, I walked past him as he held the door open for me. I stopped at the front desk, speaking to the receptionist, Krysta.
“Please take messages for any calls I get. I won’t be back until tomorrow.”
“Sure thing, Rose,” she replied brightly. “Have a good rest of your day.” She said the words as her eyes trailed up and down Aiden’s large form. I knew what she was thinking, but she couldn’t have been farther off the
mark.
“I know of another restaurant we can go to, but it’s a little bit out of town. They’ve got the best damn seafood, though. You up for it?”
“Sure,” I replied, giving him my best forced smile.
The elevator doors closed, leaving us isolated for the ride down to the bottom floor. As soon as we were moving, so was Aiden. He stepped forward and turned so he was standing right in front of me. His finger came right below my chin, pulling my gaze up to look him in the eye.
“Gotta say, you look like shit, sweetheart.”
I rolled my eyes but didn’t try to step away. I liked being close to him too much.
“Something going on?” he asked, his voice laced with concern.
“Not sleeping well,” I managed, even though my voice was just a raspy breath.
“Hmmmm.” His thumb swept over my chin, then continued along the edge of my jaw and I wanted nothing more than to lean into his touch.
The doors opened, and his hand fell away, leaving me unsteady in so many ways.
We left the building and I saw his truck right away, looking completely out of place parked along the street. He opened the door for me and I felt the pressure of his hand at my back as I climbed in.
As soon as he pulled out into traffic, I jumped into work-mode.
“I was thinking it might be fun to do a Gatsby theme for your event. I looked up the Belmont Estate and think it’s got a great vibe to it. We could definitely bring in more people and that means more money.”
“That sounds great. Whatever you want to do is fine with me. I just want to show up and say thanks to people who donate.”
“If you don’t want to contribute to the planning of the event, then why are you insisting on these meetings?”
His head swiveled, and his eyes locked on mine.
“Isn’t it obvious, Rose?”
I didn’t respond because the answer scared me.
He merged onto the Sunset Highway and headed west. The farther out of the city you got, the greener everything became. His engine rumbled softly, and the radio was low, playing something soothing, and the next thing I knew my eyelids were drooping shut.
Chapter Ten
Aiden
M
y plan had always been to take her to Mo’s for lunch, but I expected more of a fight in doing so. When I’d found her in her office it was clear she was exhausted. Her normally clear eyes were bloodshot, and I could tell there were dark circles hidden underneath her makeup.
If I’d had my way, I would have taken her right back to her condo and made her go to sleep, but I knew that would never fly. So, the fact that she fell asleep in my truck was kind of perfect.
The highway to Seaside was a straight shot and since it was a Tuesday afternoon in the middle of spring, there was no traffic, so it was smooth driving all the way there. In fact, I arrived in the beach town and then continued driving around for another hour, making laps up and down the coast just to get her as much sleep as I could. But eventually my stomach growled so loudly I was afraid it would wake her up.
As soon as I put the truck in park and turned off the ignition, Rose roused.
“Oh my God,” she said sleepily. “Did I really fall asleep in your truck?”
“Indeed. But you needed the nap. Feel better?”
“Yeah,” she replied as she sat up slowly and adjusted her skirt. She flipped down the visor and checked her hair. She looked perfect to me, but I was sure she probably saw something entirely different.
“I guess I just needed a twenty-minute power nap.”
I let out a laugh. “You were asleep for almost three hours.”
“What?” she cried. Her frantic gaze slammed into me and then she looked out the window of the truck, apparently for the first time. “Is that the ocean?”
I had to laugh at how surprised she was.
“The Pacific, the last time I checked.”
“You drove me to the beach?”
“I probably would have told you that’s where we were going, if you hadn’t fallen asleep.”
“Probably?”
“Okay, maybe not. I figured I could get far enough out of town before you really started asking questions and by then we’d be closer to the beach than the city so there’d be no point in turning back.”
“This was the plan all along? To kidnap me?”
“This wasn’t an abduction, sweetheart. I told you we were going to get the best seafood around.”
“I thought ‘around’ meant by the river. You know, twenty minutes from my office.”
“You have to admit, food at the coast is better than food at the river.”
“I don’t know. I’ve never been to the coast,” she replied, irritation heavy in her tone.
“You’ve never been to the coast?”
She exhaled loudly and turned to me again.
“No. I grew up in Arizona. Landlocked. We never traveled. Not far, anyway. And I’ve never taken the time to drive to the beach since I’ve lived in Oregon.”
“But it’s an hour and a half away.”
“I realize that. I don’t have a car. I’m a busy woman. It wasn’t high on my priority list.”
“You’ve got a lot of lists, don’t you?”
My words seemed to catch her off guard.
“Maybe,” she replied, her voice softer than it had been just moments before.
“Tell you what, whatever list you’ve got me on, throw it away.”
“What?”
“I know you’ve categorized me already. Put me on some list. Do not date. Do not fuck. Do not associate. I don’t know which, but I know you’ve already written me off.”
“Aiden,” she said, her tone apologetic and soft. “It’s not you—ˮ
“Oh, I know it’s not me. If it were up to me, I would have already had you. We’d be past this strange game of denial you like playing. So today, I want you to just forget your lists and let me be in charge.”
“I don’t have you on a list,” she argued lamely.
“Yes, you do, sweetheart.”
“Why do you always call me that?”
“Because it bothers you. And because I’m hoping if I call you that enough, eventually you’ll let me. Maybe even one day like it.”
She didn’t respond, so I continued.
“So, give me the rest of today. Just today. Let me take over and show you how great it can be to not be tied to some arbitrary list of dos and don’ts.”
I held her gaze and could see the deliberation in her eyes. She wanted to give in, to let me take over, but something told me handing over the reins was hard for her. She needed to be in control, for whatever reason. But maybe, if I got her to let go a little, it would make her want to hold on a little too.
“Fine,” she finally said on a breath, pretending like she was doing me a favor. “You have the rest of the day.”
“Okay, first order of business is lunch. You hungry?”
“Promise you won’t order for me?”
“I’ll let you order, but if you make a bad choice I have the option to override.”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
Rose managed to order one of the best items on the menu, so I didn’t scold her, but I did enjoy watching her stare at the ocean.
Mo’s was an Oregon coast staple and the location we were at had huge picture windows along the west wall and we got a great table.
“It’s hard to believe there’s someone who’s never seen the ocean.”
“Well, believe it. Have you ever seen the Grand Canyon?”
“Can’t say that I have,” I admitted.
“It’s regional. If you’d lived in Arizona and hadn’t been to the Grand Canyon, that would be weird. So, I guess I understand what you’re saying.” She looked out at the ocean again, then said quietly, “It’s so big. Hard to wrap my mind around it.”
“That’s what they all say,” I said, smirking.
When she gave me a withering look, I winked at
her. Luckily, she laughed.
“So, why Portland?” I asked when my crab melt was dropped off at our table. Her clam chowder looked just as good as I knew it would be.
“What do you mean?”
“What brought you here?”
“It’s a growing metropolis. There didn’t seem to be a very strong presence of established event planners, and I saw an opportunity.”
“Do you go back to Arizona often?”
“Not really. I don’t travel well.”
I had to laugh at her wording. “What in the world does that mean?”
“I am a terrible flier. Planes freak me out, so I only travel when necessary.”
“Why don’t you like to fly? It’s safer than driving.”
“No, that’s not true.”
“It is true. More people die in car crashes than planes crashes. By far.”
“Well, sure, but that’s simply because there are more cars than planes. Plus, you could theoretically survive a car crash. In fact, many do. But if you’re in a plane and it crashes, you’re dead.”
“Well, you have a point there.”
“Flying is so, I don’t know, out of my hands. There’s nothing to do to protect yourself. We all know those seatbelts aren’t going to save you. You’re literally putting your life into the hands of one person, hoping they do a good job of flying a plane. A PLANE!” she cried out, obviously very passionate about her hatred for flying.
“Okay, I’ll remember that you don’t like to fly. We can only ever go places you can drive to. Or wait, do you like boats?”
“Are you serious? At least in a plane crash your death would be quick and painless. Drowning is one of my biggest fears.”
“All right,” I said with a laugh. “No boats.”
She relaxed a little, her shoulders coming back down to a normal level, then she did something I’d remember forever.
She laughed.
She laughed and I couldn’t look away from her. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Grumpy Rose was a sight to behold. Cantankerous and snippy Rose was one I’d gotten to know. But happy, laughing Rose? She was like a siren, calling out to me. The sound of her voice as she laughed, the way her face lit up when she smiled—I wanted to watch her laugh forever.
Coming Up Roses: #MeetCute Books (With A Kiss Book 4) Page 8
