The Executive's Decision

by Bernadette Marie

  His hand held hers, but his fingers didn’t hurt her. He wanted her attention, but he wasn’t causing her pain. She relaxed, but only slightly. “Angry? Do I look angry?”

  “Yes, you do.” There was that handsome smile on his lips, and it infuriated her.

  “I think I need to get my things and go.” She tried to move from him, but he blocked her way.

  “It was just a misunderstanding.” His eyes were soft, and so was his voice.

  She wanted to believe that he was a good man, but she couldn’t trust her judgment. She had leave. It was best to forget the job and the new beginning and just leave.

  “Misunderstanding? You lied to me.”

  “I didn’t lie.” He took a step back, a big concession for a man with such power. “I just didn’t tell you who I was when you confided in me who you were.” He let out a breath. “Okay, when I say it that way, it does sound pretty lousy.”

  “Why were you riding a bus? Saving money?”

  “How about the environment? One less car…” he offered.

  “Great. I feel so much better.” She walked past him and out of the office.

  She had already put on her coat and pulled the few items from her locker when Zachary Benson found her. The talking in the break room died down to a murmur the moment he walked through the door.

  “Could we talk before you walk out?” He kept his voice low and leaned against the locker next to hers.

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Regan, I’m sorry. I should have told you who I was on the bus. Mary Ellen picked you just for me, and I need you.” Regan held up a finger to stop him, but he continued. “Professionally, that is.”

  She didn’t speak right away. Instead she stared into the empty locker, willing her unease to subside. She wanted to trust him. “If I choose to stay—and I’m not saying I will—but if I do, I do it for Mary Ellen.” And for myself. She couldn’t be scared for the rest of her life. This was her chance to move on.

  “That’s fair.”

  “I’ll talk to you, but it’s strictly business.”

  “From now on.”

  “No more lunches under trees, no more daisies, and no more sitting on your lap on the bus, or…”

  “Regan, you’re ruining my day.” A smile broke on his lips. This time it unraveled her nerves, making her hands shake and her heart flutter. She took a deep breath.

  The silence of the other employees made the room uncomfortable. She looked around the room at her new colleagues, who had all averted their eyes from what had to be the latest source of juicy office gossip. She contemplated her position and looked back at Zachary. He was a powerful man who was willing to say he was sorry. That wasn’t something she’d run into in the past. Maybe Zachary Benson was different.

  It was worth her new beginning to give him the benefit of the doubt. If she was wrong, she’d just walk away.

  “C’mon, you have a meeting in an hour.” She closed the locker and walked out of the break room with him a few strides behind her.

  Mary Ellen was standing at the door to Zach’s office, her skin pale and her breathing labored. Regan took one look at her and raced toward her.

  “My water just broke. I need to get to the hospital.” She bit her lip and wrapped her arms around her stomach.

  “Okay. Let’s go.” Regan took her arm.

  Zach moved in on the other side of Mary Ellen. Crouching, he laced her arm around his neck. “My car is in the garage. We’ll take my elevator down.”

  He stood and carried her into the office without looking back at Regan.

  She realized she would soon see the secret workings of the River Front Building.

  The elevator was concealed behind what she’d thought was a closet door in the corner of his office. They crowded inside; the elevator car was only big enough for the three of them.

  She shifted her glance to Zach. “You have a car? Here?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And you were on the bus this morning why?”

  “Am I not allowed public transportation?”

  “You—”

  Mary Ellen screamed through a contraction, cutting off her verbal bashing.

  “Your conference call,” Mary Ellen blurted out.

  Regan shook her head. “I’ll go back up when he gets you in the car, and I’ll reschedule it.”

  “Like hell,” Zach said as the elevator slowed to a stop. “You’re going with us.”

  “I need to run your office.”

  “I can’t do this alone,” he argued as they helped Mary Ellen to the Lexus parked in the parking space marked with his name.

  “I’ll catch a cab once I’m done, and I’ll meet you at the hospital.” Regan held tighter to Mary Ellen as he dug in his pocket for his key fob and pushed buttons.

  “Just get in. I’ll call someone else to fill in.”

  Mary Ellen let out a yelp and they both diverted their attention to her. “Sorry for the interruption,” she scolded as she gripped her stomach again.

  Regan climbed into the backseat, and Zach helped Mary Ellen into the passenger seat, easing her down carefully. When Regan looked at Zach and realized he was as pale as Mary Ellen, she had to bite back the temptation to offer to drive. Men—what would they do if they had to bear children?

  The hospital was only ten minutes away from the office, but it could have been an hour, as nervous as Zach was maneuvering through the early afternoon traffic. He had his cell phone in his hand calling another executive to cover his meeting.

  Mary Ellen handed her phone to Regan as they swerved through traffic.

  “Call my husband. He’s on the speed dial under two.” She winced with another contraction as Regan followed her instructions and called her husband.

  “He’ll meet us there. He said he’s fifteen minutes out.” Regan closed the phone and handed it back to Mary Ellen.

  “God, I hope he makes it.”

  “First babies can take hours.”

  Zach’s eyes met hers in the mirror. “How do you know?”

  “Inside source.” Her voice cracked, and she averted her eyes out the window. She tried to focus on the world that passed beyond the car and not on the year she was trying to move on from.

  Zach pulled into the unloading zone near the emergency exit. He helped Mary Ellen from the car, and Regan climbed out from the backseat. She retrieved a wheel chair from the entrance and pushed it to the car. Zach held tight to Mary Ellen and helped to ease her into the chair.

  Regan spun her around and headed toward the door. “Go park the car. We’ll be on the second floor.”

  “How do you know where you’ll be?” he called back to her.

  “Inside source,” she said again and disappeared through the door to the hospital, hoping her slip of words would disappear in the chaos of the moment.

  The process was far more streamlined than Regan remembered. When they hit the second floor, nurses jumped from their stations to get Mary Ellen into the right place and start monitoring her. Mary Ellen threw her purse at Regan, who pulled out her identification and the envelope she’d labeled DELIVERY. A laugh caught her. She wondered if she’d ever be that prepared for anything outside of work. Then she thought of the morning and her lack of an umbrella. No, Regan Keller would never be that organized in her personal life.

  Most of Mary Ellen’s information was on file, and she relayed necessary details to Regan, who filled in the blanks. By the time the forms were complete, a monitor had been strapped to Mary Ellen’s stomach, and Zach walked through the door with her husband right behind him.

  Regan and Zach found themselves pushed to the corner of the room as people came and went. It would never cease to amaze Regan how many people it took to deliver just one baby.

  “Are you all family?” The nurse asked as the room grew more crowded.

  “No.” Regan answered for Zach and herself.

  “You’ll need to wait outside. The visitor waiting area is just down the hall.” She
pointed them in the direction.

  Regan headed toward the door as quickly as she could. She’d become much too uncomfortable with the situation once Mary Ellen was in capable hands. The delivery room was not where she wanted to be.

  “Are you all right?” Zach asked as they left the room.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  “You look a little shaken up now that it’s all over.”

  Of course she was shaken. She was standing in a hospital with a very powerful man, and around them were birth, sickness, and death. “I’m okay. I just don’t like hospitals much.”

  “Let’s get some coffee.”

  She’d rather have gone back to the office, but that would be cowardly, so she followed him.

  Zach fed quarters into the machine in the waiting room and checked his phone’s messages as they waited for the instant coffee to be dispensed into a cup. “I’ll bet you’ve never had a first day on a job like this one.” He closed his phone and placed it back in his pocket.

  “No, this would definitely be one of the most exciting.” She took the paper cup he handed her and sipped the strong coffee as they sat at a small round table by the window.

  “So your last job was in Hawaii?” He sat back in his chair, draping his arm over its back.

  She despised small talk, but she’d let him attempt to get her to warm back up to him. Whether she chose to warm up was another matter. “Yes.”

  “I love Hawaii. What would make you want to leave?”

  Regan forced the lump down her throat. “The job ended,” she said and sipped again at the coffee, but it was as bitter as her attitude toward the subject of her last job. She pushed it to the center of the table.

  “When was that?”

  “Eight months ago.” She looked around the room at the other waiting families and wished for a way out of the conversation and the room.

  “What has Regan Keller been doing since then?” He sipped his own coffee.

  She dropped her hands to the table and looked across at him. Damn, she’d hoped the handsome man on the bus was going to be a steppingstone for her.

  She’d hoped she’d be able to open herself up again. But finding that same man was her boss brought back the fear and anxiety all over again. She wiped her damp palms on her skirt under the table.

  “Mr. Benson, do I still have my job?”

  “Of course you do.” He drew his eyebrows together. “And it’s Zach.”

  “Fine. Zach. Then is it necessary to interview again?”

  He pushed his coffee to the center of the table and leaned in. His superior posture softened and, again, so did her attitude toward him. “I didn’t mean to pry, Regan. Things didn’t start as they should have. I apologize.”

  “I wish you’d been honest with me.” She nervously adjusted the hair at the base of her neck, freeing it from its band. “I don’t see the people I work for socially.”

  “I understand.” His eyes dropped, and he looked at the table like a child being scolded.

  “As long as you do, then we’ll be fine.”

  Zach sat quietly, trying not to upset Regan with any more questions. Obviously, she wasn’t someone who believed in crossing the line between employer and friend, like Mary Ellen had. He didn’t subscribe to the policy of no romance in the workplace. When two people were attracted, that was their business as long as they behaved like adults on the job. But Regan was very clear she would never date him, so he needed to let go the thought of her on his lap, quickly.

  But that didn’t sit well with him. Maybe she’d recently gotten out of a relationship and wasn’t interested in starting a new one. He just needed to give her time.

  Zach’s attention veered from Regan when a doctor in green scrubs burst through the door looking for someone. The frantic look on the doctor’s face settled, and he headed right toward Zach.

  “Regan?”

  He spoke and she turned her head toward him. A smile instantly formed on her lips.

  She stood and easily fell into his arms. Zach’s breath caught. Maybe he was wrong. She seemed plenty comfortable in this man’s arms. Maybe it was just him she didn’t like.

  “What are you doing here? I was scared,” he said, looking her over, touching her hair, and finally resting his hands on her shoulders in a possessive grip.

  “My coworker went into labor. How did you know I was here?”

  Zach looked for an ID badge to see the name of the man holding the woman who’d captivated him, but it was turned backward.

  “Carlos went by your office to pick you up. They said you’d left for the hospital. He was worried.”

  Zach watched the man’s eyes scan over her again. His hands were sturdy on her shoulders, and her hands rested comfortably on his chest.

  When she kissed him on the cheek and hugged him tightly, Zach’s stomach knotted.

  “I’ll call him and tell him I’m fine.” She patted the doctor’s chest with her hand.

  “Do you have a ride home? I’m here for another twelve,” he said, looking at his watch.

  “I can take her home. It wouldn’t be a problem.” Zach stood from his seat.

  The doctor turned his eyes back to Regan and raised his brows.

  Regan gave the man a nod as through to calm him before she introduced him to Zach. “Curtis, may I introduce my new employer, Zachary Benson.”

  Curtis shook his hand. “Benson? Benson, Benson, and Hart? Audrey Benson’s son?”

  “Yes, that would be me,” he said, feeling his shoulders go back and his spine straighten as he slipped into the role of benefactor.

  “It’s nice to meet you. Your family has been very generous with the hospital.”

  “Good fortune should be shared.”

  Curtis smiled and turned his head back toward Regan. “You’re in good hands.” He kissed her on the forehead and hugged her tightly. “Dinner, Sunday night?”

  “I wouldn’t miss it.” She was still smiling as Curtis pulled his beeping pager from his waist.

  “Have to go.” He kissed her again. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  Her affection for him shone in her eyes, and Zach realized this woman, who had his stomach tied in knots, was still a stranger, a complete mystery.

  A working relationship, he reminded himself. That’s all it could be, much to his disappointment.

  Zach kept his distance as they walked to the parking garage, and she was okay with that. She knew what he was thinking, and she was okay with that too. There were times when having a good-looking doctor for your brother was a benefit.

  She’d seen Zach’s eyes when Curtis told her he loved her. Yes, he thought she was in love with the tall, handsome doctor who had sought her out in a panic. Let him think that. It served him right for not being up front about his own identity.

  She’d do a good job for him. She was good at what she did. But never again would she be manipulated—or careless enough to fall in love with—the man she worked for. No, never again. The risk to her life and the lives of her family wasn’t worth it. If Zach Benson pursued her, she’d just have to leave.

  “Thank you for coming with me,” he said as he started the car.

  “My pleasure. But you would have been fine.”

  “No, I don’t think I would have been. Mary Ellen takes care of me. Not the other way around.” He backed out of the parking space. “I was scared. I was really scared. I can negotiate million-dollar real estate deals. I can face historical societies and tell them I’m tearing down an old building, or head to court and face down a contractor who took off with the money for a job and didn’t finish it. I can do all that without even a bead of sweat rolling down my back, but seeing Mary Ellen like that… that scared me to death.”

  “You handled yourself very well, Mr. Benson. I never would have known.” Even when things became complicated and out of his control, he hadn’t lost his composure. He’d stayed even tempered. He’d taken care of Mary Ellen.

  He glan
ced her way. “I guess I’ll be in good hands, then.”

  “That’s what I was hired to do.”

  “It’s too late to go back in and finish your work. Would you mind coming in a few minutes early tomorrow? I know I toyed with your first day, and I’m not sure how much training you got. I wasn’t really expecting Mary Ellen to take her leave already.” He blew out a breath. “I’m going to stay there tonight and finish up what I should have done today. If we get started early, that’ll help us both out.”

  “No problem.” She guided him through the streets of Nashville until they came upon her house.

  “Nice place.” He pulled up in front of the old brick row house.

  “It’s my sister’s. She’s in New York doing an off-Broadway play.”

  “Really?”

  Regan nodded. “I’ve seen it. It’s horrible, but she’s fabulous and she’s happy. So I get the run of the place until July.”

  “Then what?”

  She shrugged. “I guess I have to find my own place.”

  “I know a company putting up some great condos downtown.” He laughed.

  “Well, maybe if she strikes it rich, she can buy me one.”

  “What about the doctor? Not ready to move in with him?” She saw the pulsing in his jaw and watched him shift in his seat.

  With a smile, she shook her head. “No, he’s a slob, really. I’m not ready to be his maid. Besides he has a roommate and a big black lab who hogs the bed.”

  Regan stepped out of the car and looked up at the front door of the house as it opened. Carlos, another of her brothers, walked out onto the front step, and she smiled and gave him a wave before she turned her attention back to Zach. “Thank you for the ride. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  She shut the car door and hurried up the steps to the house without giving Zach a chance to ask about the man who awaited her there.

  Inside, Regan threw her purse on the desk by the door and fell into the overstuffed chair in the living room. She kicked her shoes off and rested her feet on the table. Arianna would have been yelling at her already, but it was Regan’s home until July, and she’d put her feet up if she wanted to.

  The smile on Carlos’s face must mean he had the same thought. He handed her a beer, sat down in the opposite chair, and kicked his feet up too.