“Oh, he will,” Piper said. “She spells Jinger with a J.”
“Huh?”
Piper waved her hand. “Never mind.”
“What if he surprises you and picks one in the first group just to get it over with?”
“Then he’ll miss the best candidates!” She gazed at Dancie in indecision. “And if she doesn’t work out, he’ll say ‘See? You don’t know what you’re talking about.’”
Dancie bent down and moved Jinger to the first group, picked them up and handed them to Piper. “You’re overthinking again. Let him interview these.”
As Piper predicted, after a morning of interviews, Mark summarily rejected the entire first group.
“You called that right.” Dancie handed her half a roasted-veggie sub and set a medium iced tea on the filing table.
It was a couple of days later and there had been complete silence from Mark. According to the candidates, he’d told them all the same thing—that he was going to keep looking and he didn’t want to leave them in limbo when they could be interviewing for another position. He’d even pointed out weak areas in their work experience or suggested job leads. One gushingly reported that he’d helped her with her interviewing skills.
Saint Mark.
Although he did tell Jinger that constantly having to spell her name to interviewers would be a distraction and slow her down. Fair enough.
Piper and Dancie studied the second group of candidates as they ate their lunch. “Are you going to send him all seven of these?” Dancie asked her.
Piper chewed on the end of her iced tea straw. “I haven’t decided yet. Either of these two—” and she separated them from the rest of the applicants “—would be perfect. This one is in her mid-forties and has worked overseas. She took time off when her kids were younger and now wants back in. She’s got three teenagers—she’ll be able to deal with Mark. The other one is mid-thirties, but still a little older than Mark and wants to break out of a small domestic market. She’s got six brothers and sisters, so I know she’ll be able to handle Mark, as well.”
“So what’s the problem?” Dancie asked.
“Do I send them with the rest? Or do I split the group in case he’s not through making his point to OMG?”
“What did he say was wrong with the first batch?” Dancie bit into her sandwich.
“He didn’t.” Piper took off the top of her bun. She’d eaten too much bread lately.
“You mean he refused to tell you?”
Piper took a bite of sandwich.
Dancie, recognizing the evading tactic for what it was, waited until Piper swallowed. “You did ask, didn’t you?”
“I heard from the women he interviewed. I haven’t talked to him, directly.” Piper opened her mouth but Dancie held her wrist to keep her from taking another bite.
“Why not?”
“I figured he’d call me if he had anything to say.”
“You’re avoiding him.” Dancie released Piper’s wrist. “And you’re still twitchy. Now I’m really worried.”
“Don’t be.”
“You do know you have to talk to him before you send him the next batch.”
“Not necessarily.” Piper stared unseeingly at her sandwich.
“Yes, you do!” Dancie insisted. “Find out why he didn’t like anyone and then you’ll know whether you need to split that last group or not.”
“Okay. I’ll email him.” Piper took another bite of her sandwich.
“Chicken. And I don’t mean the sandwich.” Dancie set hers on the wrapper and brushed her hands together. Then she rolled her chair back until she could reach Piper’s desk phone. Turning it around, she held out the receiver. “Swallow and call him. You need to be able to hear his voice when you discuss this. Guys don’t communicate well in email.”
“I’m still eating,” Piper protested. “I’ll call him after we go over the website.”
Dancie looked down at the discarded bread and the rest of the sandwich Piper held. “Are you going to eat that bread?”
“No.”
“Then you’re a bite away from done. No sense putting it off. Take this.”
Piper popped the last bite into her mouth and took the receiver.
“Call,” Dancie ordered.
Piper pointed to her mouth.
“You can dial and chew at the same time.”
When had Dancie become so bossy? Fine. She’d call him. Piper waved her away. Dancie shook her head, not budging. Mark was probably at lunch, anyway. Piper punched in his office number and swallowed.
No answer. Breathing easier, she hung up without leaving a message. “I’ll try again later.” Maybe.
“Coward,” Dancie said.
“Because I didn’t leave a message? He’ll see my number on caller ID. He’ll know why I called and if he feels like calling me back, he will.”
But Dancie wouldn’t quit. “Have you got his cell number?”
Piper pointed to a sticky note that Dancie had to read upside down.
Trying to keep her breath even, Piper tapped in the number. “See? I’m calling. You don’t have to wait,” she told Dancie while the phone rang.
“Ha” was Dancie’s comment.
When the call rolled over into Mark’s voice mail, Piper was relieved. She did not want to have a conversation with Mark in front of Dancie. She could cite confidentiality, but Dancie wouldn’t buy it.
Piper hadn’t spoken to Mark since the other day. Twitchy didn’t begin to describe her conflicted emotions. She was drawn to Mark, who’d turned out to be both more and less than typical of his type.
She didn’t trust herself to keep her voice neutral if Dancie listened in. Especially if Mark brought up the kiss. But why would he? She’d totally exaggerated it in her mind. It was a brief moment. She’d felt sympathetic. He’d gone through a horrible ordeal. It was only one, sweet little kiss.
One that snuck past her defenses and turned into a bigger kiss.
A sneaky kiss.
So, she gave the receiver back to Dancie and shrugged. “No answer. He’s probably in class. I’ll just email.”
Dancie gave her a look and withdrew her cell phone. She pressed a number. “Hey, Travis—where’s Mark? He’s not answering his cell, but we want to set up interviews with this next batch of candidates. Okay, thanks. I’ll tell her.”
Dancie ended the call, set her phone down and picked up her sandwich. “He’s at PT.”
Piper gathered up her lunch trash. “I’ll catch up with him later.”
Dancie sipped her tea and said nothing.
“I will.”
Piper balled everything up and tossed it toward the wastebasket two feet away. She missed. Conscious of Dancie watching, Piper picked up the ball and a stray napkin and dropped them into the trash. The napkin fluttered just outside the basket. Seriously? Exhaling, Piper stooped to retrieve it and placed it carefully into the wastebasket.
“Hmm,” Dancie commented.
“Dancie, calling Mark is no big deal. Really.”
“Then why are you twitching?”
“Why do you keep using that word?”
“Because it fits.” Dancie examined her sandwich and pulled out a strand of shredded lettuce. Dangling it over her open mouth, she dropped it in.
“Whenever you’re finished playing with your food, we can go over the mock-up for the Piper Plan website.” If Piper didn’t know better, she’d think Dancie was waiting for something.
And then Piper’s desk phone rang. Dancie met her eyes. Bingo.
“Piper Scott,” she answered.
“Hey, it’s Mark. Travis said you were trying to get ahold of me.”
“That was thoughtful of Travis.” She spoke in a sugar-sweet voice and directed a venomous gaze toward Dancie, who was avidly watching her. “Mark, I’m putting you on speaker. Dancie is with me.” Which ought to nix any personal talk.
“Sure. But I’ve only got a couple of minutes now. I’m about to get hooked up to a heat-therapy machine and w
on’t be able to take my phone in with me. You could actually come and talk with me here. You’d be doing me a favor, because I’m at the mercy of whatever they’ve got on the TV for the next hour. You might get kind of sweaty, though.”
An image of a sweaty Mark Banning popped into her mind. A shirtless—and she had to use her imagination—Mark, muscles glistening, unable to walk away, completely at her mercy, clouds of heavy steam surrounding them, shielding them from other eyes as she ran her hands over his slick—
“Piper?”
“Uh…that’s okay. I just wondered if you had any overall comments or concerns before I send the next group.”
“I’ve been thinking about that. Since I can’t have an intern to boss around, I’m looking for someone with more experience. I’m not going to do any on-the-job training. She’s got to be able to function independently.”
“It’s up to you and Travis to vet the credentials. I can only work from the names you give me. However, I will remind you that the more experience someone has, the less you’ll be able to ‘boss her around’ and the more she’ll want to contribute to your story.”
“I don’t share bylines,” he said, flatly. “At the most, she gets a producer credit. Make sure anyone I interview will be okay with that.”
“Got it. Let me tweak the parameters of my search criteria and send you my recommendations.”
Dancie caught her attention. Tweak the parameters of your search criteria? she mouthed and rolled her eyes.
Piper gave her a warning look.
“Thanks, but I don’t need to see them first,” Mark said. “Do me a favor and set up the interviews for tomorrow morning. If anyone can’t make it then, I could see them after six, but I’d prefer not to.”
Piper opened her mouth to tell him that was not her job, when Dancie cut in. “Sure, Mark. Did you want Piper to be there, too?”
Shaking her head, Piper vehemently crossed her hands over each other. “Dancie, we’ve already discussed that. It’s better if Mark interviews one-on-one.”
There was a short, charged silence before Mark said, “If you change your mind, I don’t have a problem with you being there, too. So if we’re all set, they’re ready for me here.”
“Okay. Dancie—” and she emphasized the name ever so slightly “—will let you know the interview schedule.”
“You practically hung up on him,” Dancie said after the call ended.
Piper turned to her. “What are you doing? No. I get what you’re doing. Why are you doing it?”
“You like him.”
“Leave it alone, Dancie.”
“Why? He likes you, too.”
“Because he ‘doesn’t have a problem with me being there’? That’s a big stretch.”
“No, because he’s going to pass on the next group, too, and then he’ll invite you somewhere to discuss it. Only he’s really going to use the opportunity to make his move.”
Thud. Thud. Thud. Oh, stop it, Piper told herself. “Well, I’m not giving him that opportunity.”
“You’re looking at this thing with Mark in entirely the wrong way,” Dancie told her. “This is a unique opportunity.”
“There is no ‘thing’ with Mark,” Piper insisted, to herself as well as Dancie. “There isn’t going to be a ‘thing’ with Mark. He’s leaving after the first of the year. It would be stupid to have a ‘thing’ with Mark.”
“Really? You’ve followed your own plan, but when you meet your perfect man, you don’t like him. No sparks. No love connection.”
How had Dancie known?
“So either The Piper Plan is flawed and we’d better fix it before it goes live, or you lied on your own compatibility questionnaire.”
“Why would I do that?”
“I don’t know. Why would you?”
Piper narrowed her eyes. “I didn’t.”
“Maybe not intentionally. But you’ve got the hots for Mark Banning and you need to find out what it is that he’s got that you want.”
“Oh, I know what he’s got that I want,” Piper mumbled.
“That’s what I’m talking about.” Dancie jabbed her finger. “I’ll bet you rated a hot body low on your list of desirable traits because you think it sounds shallow.”
“It is shallow.”
“So what? It’s one thing, not everything. You’re not your mother.”
Piper was getting angry. “I know I’m not. I also know that you’re taking up all the time I’d blocked to review the website this afternoon. So save the lecture for another time and let’s get to work.”
The outer door opened and closed. “Hey, Anna,” Dancie called.
Anna appeared in the doorway. “What’s up?”
“Would you make a run to the Croissant Cafe for a couple of chocolate croissants with mocha cream?”
“Sure.”
“And get one for yourself. There’s money in my purse. Take your time.”
Anna looked from one to the other. “Gotcha.”
Piper could get up and walk out with Anna. How many of her clients had become defensive and had done just that when she told them truths they didn’t want to hear?
But she was going to sit here and listen to what Dancie, her closest friend, had to say.
Dancie waited until Anna left. “You’ve spent your life trying not to be your mother. Okay. Mission accomplished. What’s next?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’ll have to figure that out.”
“Mark can help you.”
“No!” Piper’s voice sounded loud and tinged with panic. If she could recognize it, so could Dancie.
“Why not?”
“Because he’s not the right kind of man for me.”
“I know, he’s leaving. That’s why he’s ideal. You already know he’s not rejecting you—he’s leaving because of his job. You won’t be invested in the relationship, and if getting involved turns out to be a mistake, he’ll be gone soon, anyway.”
“It’s stupid to go into something knowing you’ll be hurt. Isn’t that what I tell all those women who keep falling for bad boys? And then when he acts like a bad boy and they get hurt, they want me to tell them how to get him to stop being a bad boy. But if he did, they wouldn’t like him anymore.”
Dancie looked intrigued. “Is Mark a bad boy?”
“No.” Piper hesitated. “Maybe a little. The point is that I don’t want to get hurt.”
“Piper! Oh, my God, if you already know you could fall for the guy so hard it’ll hurt when he leaves in a couple of months, then you absolutely have to find out why.”
She made sense, but Piper wasn’t sure if it was because Dancie actually was right or because Piper wanted her to be right. “Then what?”
“When it’s over, you fill out the Piper Plan questionnaire again. And promise me you’ll answer with what you want, not what you think you should want.”
Piper sighed. “How about I skip getting my heart broken and just fill out the questionnaire now?”
“Listen to you! Did you ever think it might work out between the two of you?”
Piper shook her head. “That would be just stupid. Really, really stupid.”
“But if he tries to set something up, and I think he will, you have to go.”
And then Dancie did something horrible and awful. “Even though you’ve paid me back, I know you’ve always felt you owed me because I helped you.”
“Oh, no.”
Dancie nodded. “I’m asking you to accept if Mark wants to see you. You don’t even have to make the first move.”
“What if he doesn’t?”
She smiled. “I may not be the expert on men in this room, but I bet a chocolate croissant he will.”
10
Step ten: Beware of the pseudotype. Has he been concealing traits that caused you to mistype him? He may not be your perfect man after all.
“A MOTORCYCLE? YOU didn’t say anything about a motorcycle.” Piper stared at the big, black hulking thing parked on the stre
et in front of her apartment. Because, yes, everything had played out just as Dancie had predicted. Mark hadn’t liked any of the women he’d interviewed and wanted to meet with her to discuss it. And Piper had agreed because Dancie had turned out to be a ruthless negotiator.
But Dancie had not predicted a motorcycle. She couldn’t hold Piper to her promise to see Mark when it involved riding a motorcycle, could she?
He’d told her he wanted her to meet some friends and Piper had been surprised and touched, not to mention really curious. But now that she knew motorcycles were involved, not so much.
Mark stood beside her, grinning happily. “I didn’t know if my leg had healed enough for me to ride yet. And then my bike had been in storage for so long, I spent most of yesterday working on it so it would pass inspection. I pulled in right as the place closed, but I told the guy I’d been waiting to ride my bike for over a year and wasn’t sure I could hold off until Monday. Bottom line, it passed, and I can take you riding today.” He looked down at her and his whole face was pure, uncomplicated joy.
Piper’s was pure, uncomplicated terror.
“Anyway, in case it didn’t work out, I didn’t want you to be disappointed.”
“How…thoughtful.” She gave him a determined smile because he looked so happy and she’d never seen him looking so happy.
Piper could tell from his gush of words that he’d been afraid his injury wouldn’t allow him to ride again. He was elated. Elated looked good on him, as did the leather riding jacket.
“Come on. I brought a jacket, gloves and helmet for you.” The way he grabbed her hand and drew her toward the bike made him seem younger. It was as though he’d shed his skin. The Mark Banning skin.
It was a compliment. He felt he could drop the facade with her. That’s exactly what she wanted; to get to know the real Mark Banning. He apparently loved motorcycles.
Okay. Okay, she could do this. She was not going to spoil it for him.
“Isn’t this the most perfect Sunday afternoon ever? Last night’s cool front blew all the pollen out of the air.” He paused to take a deep breath and look around him before he unbuckled the saddle pouch and removed the jacket for her.
It looked exactly like his, and both were mercifully free of tacky logos.
Tall, Dark & Reckless Page 14
