by Lynn Stevens
I opened the text.
Are you still at work?
Me: No, just got home.
Devon: Good. I’ll be there in an hour. We’re going out to dinner and I won’t take no for an answer.
Me: Then I’ll see you in an hour.
Devon sent a handclapping emoji. I laughed and hurried to get ready. An hour wasn’t a lot of time, especially when I had layers of grease to scrub from my skin. I cleaned up in record time and put on the minimum amount of makeup. The minute I shut off my hair dryer, a soft knock announced my hour was up and I wasn’t even dressed yet.
“I’m not quite ready,” I said through the door as I tugged the belt of my robe.
“Are you naked?” Devon drummed his knuckles against the door again.
“Not exactly, but I’m not dressed, either.” I grinned as I watched his expression through the peephole.
“All the more reason to let me in.” His gaze heated and shifted to the peephole. “Are you watching me?”
I laughed and opened the door. “Maybe.”
“Just wear that. All night. Every night.” He stepped inside and kicked the door closed.
“A white robe? Not a sexy lingerie kinda guy?’ I tightened the belt again.
“You have no idea how sexy you are right now.” He put his hands on my hips, pulling me closer. “I want nothing more than to untie that belt and see the robe draped over your shoulders and down your body, barely covering that gorgeous form underneath. Knowing that it could fall open any minute and I’d get to see every inch of you.”
My hands slid up his chest and over his shoulders. I rose on my toes and kissed along his jaw.
“Jesus,” he said before turning his head and capturing my mouth with his. I pressed my body against his until he pulled away. “Get dressed so we can go or we’re not leaving.”
I backed away from him and grinned. “Fine, but where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.” His gaze drifted down my body. “Please hurry.”
I laughed. He was dressed in jeans and a white button-down shirt. Nothing too fancy, but nothing too casual. I walked over to my armoire and took out a black skirt, pairing with a white top Paige left. It wasn’t something I’d normally buy with a scoop neck that dipped down to reveal my cleavage, but I wanted to look as sexy as Devon made me feel.
After I dressed in the bathroom, feeling self-conscious in the shirt, I stepped into the living room. Devon sat on the daybed, looking at an old photo album I’d left out the night before.
“Is this your mom?” he asked, pointing at a photo of four-year-old me on her hip.
“Yeah.” I sat beside him and turned the page to another photo of us splashing in the small plastic pool in the backyard. Mom and I splashed baby Jacob as he laughed. I smiled and pointed to the photo beside it. “That’s the last family photo of all of us. Mom was pregnant with Bradley. Dad had bought the photo session for her for Christmas. She had wanted to wait, but it was only good until the end of the year.”
“You never told me how she died,” Devon whispered. He took my hand and squeezed.
“She died when Bradley was born.” I put my head on his shoulder. “Brad hates his birthday. That’s why I make sure I’m there every year.”
Devon kissed my forehead and flipped through a few more pages of family memories. Tony’s high school graduation, Trevor’s first Mustang, Adam’s college graduation, so many important moments she missed.
“We should go,” I said, taking the album from him. “I’m starving.”
Devon smiled and stood. He offered his hand. “Good thing. Where we’re going, you’re going to need a big appetite.”
I locked up the apartment and followed Devon outside. He stopped by a 1985 Chevy El Camino.
“You’re kidding, right?” I laughed at the classic. Never would I have expected this from Devon. “An El Camino? It doesn’t seem your style. Where’s your SUV?”
“It’s a classic.” Devon opened the door for me. “My grandfather gave it to me for my sixteenth birthday. Used to be his. I only take it out of the garage for special occasions.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I love it. El Caminos are underrated and underloved.” I slipped into the black vinyl seat. The interior was immaculate. There wasn’t a speck of dust on the gear shaft. I ran my hand over the dash as Devon climbed in. “Did you clean it before coming over?”
He laughed as he started the engine. “No, I’m not a fan of dirt.”
“Minimalist, too?” I thought of his room, how it lacked anything personal.
“Not really, I just prefer order. Most of my stuff is at home, not the dorm.” He shrugged as he drove us to the unknown destination.
“So your room at your parents’ house isn’t the stereotypical boy’s room with clothes on the floor and dirty dishes under the bed?”
Devon laughed. “I hate to disappoint you, but that’s one stereotype I don’t live up to. Like I said, I prefer order to chaos.”
“My brothers prefer chaos. And lots of it.”
He parked in a spot less than five blocks from my apartment.
“We could’ve walked.” I reached for the door handle, but Devon grabbed my hand.
“We could have, but I wanted to take you out in style. Treat you the way you deserve to be treated.” He leaned over and kissed me quickly. “Besides it’s thirty-five degrees outside. Why walk?”
The restaurant was a hole-in-the-wall Thai place that I had passed several times but had never looked at twice. Devon held the door for me. Inside wasn’t any more impressive as the outside with almond flooring, cheap wooden booths along the walls, and a hot table in the center of the dining room. Despite its shabby appearance, it was packed.
“Mr. Miller,” a small Asian lady said as she hurried toward us. “Good to see you. I have a table waiting as you requested.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Munitz.” Devon took my hand and led me after the woman.
The booth was nestled in the back with a single flower in a vase and a fake candle flickering in the center. Two plates and silverware were set on one side of the table. I slid into one side and Devon took the other, moving one of the plates.
“She’s a good woman, but she tends to be a little old-fashioned and pushy.” Devon lifted a glass of water. “To our first official date.”
I followed suit and tapped his glass with mine. “Why here?”
“Oh ye of little faith,” Devon said with a laugh. “You think I wouldn’t bring you to the best restaurant in Madison? You won’t get better Thai food anywhere else.”
“I’ve never actually had Thai before.”
“A Thai virgin? And you live so close.” He smiled and it didn’t matter that I’d never eaten it before. “Trust me, Olivia.”
“I do.”
Mrs. Munitz brought us four dishes: Pad Thai, pineapple curry, Pak Prik Poa, and Pla Sam Roy. The only thing I recognized was the pineapple curry. Devon dished them onto his plate, explaining what was in each one. None of it sounded good, at least until I sampled each. They were delicious. Even better were the prices. I could eat out a little more often.
The clock clicked closer to nine and Devon’s baseball curfew. The school had become harsher on the rules since Aaron Betts’s steroid scandal. But I didn’t want the night to end. I walked to the car in silence.
Devon pulled out onto the street and headed back toward my apartment. “This was nice.”
I snorted. “Nice? Yes, it was nice. I was going to up it to an amazing, five-star date, but if it was only nice—”
“I just didn’t want to appear too eager.” Devon glanced over at me. “Besides it’s more of a four-star date at this point.”
“Oh? And how did we lose a star?”
He stopped at a light and leaned over, cupping my chin in his hand. “Because it has to end.”
A horned blared behind us, but Devon didn’t move. I smiled. “But there will be another.”
“Yeah.” He let go and sat back. “T
here will be another. Then another. Then another.”
I smiled. “And another.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
I skipped classes on Monday to work on the rudder. This project was more important and needed my full attention. Besides, math put me into a trance.
My phone buzzed on my bed.
Devon: You’re skipping class? Are you OK?
I smiled and sent a quick reply.
Fine, just have to work on a project.
Devon: Have fun with that. Dinner tonight?
Me: Working at Stockade as soon as I leave JenCar.
Devon: Call you later.
Lawler wasn’t in his office when I got there. Someone said he’d been pulled into a conference call with the South Carolina plant. I sat in my cubicle and continued to work on the rudder. When I left at five, I still hadn’t seen Philip.
Mondays were usually my off day at Stockade, but I promised Logan I’d work since I would be off the weekend for Bradley’s party. My shift went by fast, but I was exhausted when I got home at one in the morning. I worked on a paper for another hour before finally crashing. My alarm went off too early the next morning.
I arrived at JenCar early on Tuesday, anxious to share my findings with Philip Lawler. If he gave me the files to prove myself, I sure as hell did. Acton had a great idea, but he had no skill at executing it. He didn’t even try. The math was all over the place. If a rudder was produced using his calculations, it would look like a Picasso painting. No wonder Lawler tossed the files into a corner.
Lawler wasn’t in his office. That put a damper on my enthusiasm. Again. I sat in my cubicle and worked on organizing another file. That in itself was a time-consuming chore. Acton was also ridiculously messy. I spread out the contents and reorganized everything to make some form of sense. Then I plugged in his calculations. Nothing was even close to right and I had only entered a handful of data. Checking the time, I realized I’d been at this for over an hour and a half. Lawler should be in his office. The hall sped by in a blur as I hurried for no other reason than to prove him wrong and prove myself useful.
And ran smack into Devon.
“Whoa, slow down, Olivia. You’ll hurt yourself.” He put his hands on my upper arms to steady me, and he held on to me too long. No way I was getting another PDA lecture from Acton. I shrugged them off with a wide-eyed stare. Devon smiled and shoved his hands into his pockets, rocking back on his heels. “What’s got you in such a hurry?”
“I just need to get to Lawler’s office. I’m sorry.” I stepped around him, but his hand shot out and grabbed my arm again.
“Hold on, okay? I haven’t seen you since Sunday,” he said, letting his hand drop to his side.
I hated being such a bitch to Devon more than ever in that moment. “I know,” I said, calmer than I felt. All I really wanted to do was kiss him in the hallway. “I need to see Mr. Lawler. It’s important. I’m sorry.”
“Why?”
“He gave me some files to go over. I need to show him something from one of them.” My thin veil of professionalism slipped as I let my hand caress his in the barest of touches.
Devon raised his eyebrows and stared at me with a longing that matched my own. “He’s in a meeting.”
For the second time that day, my excitement slipped away. I nodded to Devon and headed back to my cube. He strolled along right behind me.
“He put you in a cube? Huh,” he said behind me. “Acton lets me work in his office.”
“That’s nice. I kinda like the cube, though. I get peace and quiet to work. Nobody bothers me,” I muttered. My frustrations grew to Mount McKinley heights and I didn’t want to take it out on Devon.
“He’s got some amazing ideas,” Devon said.
“Yeah, I know.” I turned to face him outside the ladies’ room. “Seamus,” I whispered, “I miss you.”
He glanced down the hall each way before quickly kissing me. “I miss you, too.”
“But we can’t do this here.” My lips tingled and shivers raced up my spine.
“Yeah, I know that, too.” He smiled as he backed away from me. “This weekend?”
“I’m going home for my brother’s birthday, remember?” I leaned against the restroom door, wanting nothing more than to duck inside and calm myself down.
“Right. Why don’t you come over tomorrow? Mac moved into Betts’s room last night,” he said, quickly touching my hand. “Just because I have to be in my room by nine doesn’t mean I have to be alone.”
“Now that’s an interesting prospect. I won’t get out of work until late.”
“Call me when you’re on your way.” He bent down to whisper into my ear. “I’ll meet you at the door. Pack a bag, too. Just because we’re taking things slow doesn’t mean you can’t spend the night.”
“Or I could just sleep in your shirt,” I said, then stepped back into the ladies.
“You’re killing me, Olivia,” he said, but he didn’t follow. Thank God. I half expected him to. Hell, I really wanted him to. It took me a few seconds to calm my racing heart.
I pulled out my phone and read my texts. Jacob sent me several long messages about Dad’s latest dictatorship move. Dad wanted Jake to start working at the garage more. Jake wanted to spend every minute he could on the field for the college scouts. After I read them, I simply responded, I know, buddy.
Nothing from Paige lately. She’d been hanging out with Hailey more and more. I still didn’t trust that girl. She’d come over to talk to me several times during my lunches with Devon. Judging by Devon’s reaction, he wasn’t crazy about her either. I shot Paige a quick text, then put my cell back into the pocket of my blazer. Taking a deep breath of floral air freshener, I strode out of the restroom and straight to Lawler’s office. Just in case the meeting was over.
Lawler sat inside, buried in his mess. I knocked on the frame before I entered. He didn’t even look up.
“Mr. Lawler?” I didn’t want to come across as unprofessional or interrupt him if he was deeply involved with whatever it was on his screen. “Can I discuss this file with you?”
“You finished one? I didn’t expect that for another month at least. Especially knowing Marvin’s tidiness issues.” He leaned back in his chair and motioned me inside. “Just make it quick.”
I launched into the problems with the file and the math and let everything out in one long rambling speech. So much for professional, but he didn’t interrupt me for more in-depth details. Then again, he didn’t have to. I threw it all out there. And I threw Marvin Acton, and by default Devon, under the bus. Devin had approved the math, so part of this was his doing. I just had a hard time believing there wasn’t some other reason. Still, I couldn’t let it go and it ate at me that Devon was going to take a hit for this, too.
“How’d you get through it so fast?” He sat up in his chair and leaned on his desk with his fingers intertwined in front of his keyboard.
“I went over it this weekend and then again yesterday.” I handed the file over. At least when he opened it, he’d see everything clearly. It was meticulous in the organization. No way I was turning in sloppy work. I didn’t have to work on it outside of my internship, but this man needed to know I was capable. More than capable, that I was willing to learn. I just needed to get him to teach me. “I notated where the calculations were off and put in corrections.”
Lawler took the file and opened it. He didn’t say anything as he glanced over the copy of schematics that I’d scrawled all over. Finally, he dropped the file in the center of his desk, not in the corner. “This looks like a copy. How’d you get this?”
There was a note of disappointment in his voice. I wasn’t sure how to answer. It was like he was putting me under a microscope and dissecting my every move. Shivers went down my spine, and not the good kind this time. “I m-made it,” I stuttered. All the confidence I’d built up disappeared faster than water down a drain. “So I could get it done like Mr. Anderson wanted. I hope that’s okay. I didn’t wa
nt to take the entire file out of the building so I made a copy of the schematics and took it home with me to get it done quicker.”
“Where’d you do the work?” he asked, still calm. But eerily so.
“At school. They have the necessary programs in the engineering department.” I stopped myself from asking why. A pit of fear settled into my chest. I also stopped myself from saying, I want to prove to you that I could do this. Sure, I still have a lot to learn, but teach me. I want to be an engineer. I want to work at JenCar. I want to show you that I’m more than capable of being your peer.
He nodded and shooed me out with a wave of his hand while picking up his phone with another. I went back to my cubicle to work on the next file. It was impossible to concentrate. Every tick of Lawler’s flipped through my head. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what happened. If I went by his reactions, I’d done something wrong. But he always stared at me as if I was wrong: wrong to be at JenCar, wrong to believe I could be an engineer, wrong to even be in his presence. I worked on sorting the next, thicker file. It had far too many notes inside and none of it made any sense. It took several minutes before I realized the phone on my desk was ringing. Nobody ever called me in the short time I’d been at JenCar. This couldn’t be good.
“Olivia Dawson,” I answered, working hard to keep the fear out of my voice. I hadn’t done anything wrong. In fact, I’d done exactly as Philip Lawler asked me to. So why did I have this dread coursing through my veins like poison?
“Madeline Upton here.” Her clipped voice cut every syllable like a box cutter. “Report to my office immediately.”
She hung up before I could even breathe.
I walked as fast as I could without running to the elevators. Of course, it took its sweet time coming to my floor. Then all I could do was stare at myself in the mirrored doors. My hands shook as I tugged at my black blazer. My lips were pursed into such a thin line I couldn’t tell if they existed anymore. I wanted to run to the ladies first to straighten my makeup, brush my hair, anything to make me not appear as the nervous wreck I clearly was. If it was anyone else in HR, I wouldn’t worry so much. But Madeline Upton meant something was wrong. She rarely dealt with problems first hand. Then again, it could be a good thing. She might praise my work on the file. It was too soon for Lawler to review it in detail, though. Maybe a quick glance was all he needed? Either way, now I knew what it felt like to be called to the principal’s office.
