“This couch has more cup holders than my car,” I marveled, flipping up the armrest to reveal even more places to put a drink.
“Who has this many cups?” Oliver asked. His brow was knitted in what looked to be genuine confusion. “It’s just not practical.”
I laughed. “Maybe this is a party couch?”
We looked at the relatively small gap between us. There was probably only room for two more people if they were small.
“This couch is making me uncomfortable,” he announced, pushing up onto his feet. “Let’s move on.”
I leapt up to chase after him, allowing him to lead me through the store like he was a bloodhound following a scent. We’d been doing this for the past hour. Surprisingly, I wasn’t even a little tired. I was enjoying myself.
Probably too much.
Who am I kidding? Definitely too much.
“What about this one?” I pointed to a leather marshmallow just to my left.
Oliver shrugged. “May as well give it a try.”
We approached the sofa and sat down in what had become our customary way—backing our knees up to it and then collapsing like ragdolls.
“I still find it hard to believe you haven’t found anything you love more than that horrid chair, yet.”
Oliver wiggled down into the cushions. “That chair is a classic. My grandfather bought it back when he first started his business.”
I sank further into the couch without trying to. It was like leather quicksand.
“It sounds like you really admired your grandfather.”
His expression wasn’t quite what I’d expected. He frowned.
“Yeah. He was a great man. He loved his family. He loved his business. He loved that house.”
“I’m sensing a ‘but’ there,” I prodded.
The headrest was making it hard for me to see Oliver’s face. I squeezed my abs and held my body forward more.
“No ‘but’,” he said, shaking his head. The fabric groaned from the motion. “He was a bit eccentric, but he wanted the best for me. I’m just still trying to figure out what that means.”
We lapsed into silence. It wasn’t my place to ask what he meant. I’d learned that if Oliver wanted to say something, he would. I waited for him to say it.
When he remained silent, I decided it was time to move on.
“Can we try another one?” I asked. “This one is eating me.”
Oliver looked over and cracked his lips into a smile. “I can’t help but imagine how many fewer problems I would have if I just let that happen.”
“Oliver!” I moaned dramatically. “Help meeee!” My abs finally gave out and my head fell back against the cushion. I must have looked truly pathetic because Oliver laughed and stood, extending his hand.
“Alright there, Shatner. Enough with the dramatics.”
I grabbed his hand and sent all my weight into standing up, not expecting him to pull me with the force that he did. I smacked hard into his chest.
Jesus. He could probably pick me up with one hand.
I retreated, nearly losing my balance and falling back onto the sofa. He steadied me with the hand still holding mine.
“You okay there?” His lip curled in amusement.
“Fine,” I said quickly. “Totally fine.” I glanced backward. “The sofa gods will not be receiving their offering this day.”
Oliver shook his head, chuckling. Neither of us seemed to notice that he was still holding onto my hand until we started walking.
Okay, maybe one of us did. But it felt too good for me to want to let go.
Chapter 25
Oliver
“Hey boss.” Elizabeth breezed into my study, carrying two mugs. She set one down on the desk in front of me.
I eyed it warily.
“What’s this?” I leaned forward, inhaling some of the steaming vapours. Coffee. “Poison?”
Elizabeth laughed, swinging her hip up to half-lean, half-sit on the front of my desk.
“It’s coffee, you dolt,” she chastised. “I can’t poison you yet. I’ve still got a couple checks to collect.”
I reached for the mug and pulled it toward me. Elizabeth was horrible at making coffee. Nonetheless, I took a sip and smiled at her. “Thank you.”
“I’m just waiting for the workers to have their lunch,” she said. “After that I’m putting them to work moving furniture around in the library.”
“We’ve been through this, Liz,” I remarked. “You don’t have to inform me of every move you make each day.”
She giggled and shook her head. “I can see you’re in a good mood.”
I raised my brow at her and took another sip of the coffee. Too much cream made it feel thick in my mouth.
“I’m telling you because I thought you might want to come and help,” she said.
I let out a bark of laughter. “What gave you that impression?” I asked. “I’ve never wanted to help.”
“With the party planning done, I thought you might be bored.” She smiled warmly at me, batting her eyelashes over the rim of her cup. I loved when she looked at me like that. “I got my invite yesterday. You didn’t have to mail it.”
“I wanted you to feel like a bonafide guest instead of somebody I had to invite out of social requirement,” I replied.
Her plump lips pulled into a secret smile. I took another sip of the disgusting coffee to distract me from thinking about how much I wanted to bite them.
“So, are you coming or not?” Elizabeth asked.
I sighed and looked at my laptop screen. On it, my paused game of Tetris flashed insistently. “I suppose I can come down in a few minutes,” I agreed.
“Ollie,” she groaned. “Just come down with me now. Otherwise we’ll only end up having to move all the furniture again when you get there.”
“Why on earth would you have to do that?” I asked.
She looked at me as if it were obvious. “Because you won’t be satisfied with it.”
“And don’t call me Ollie.” The only one I let get away with that is Damien. He probably wouldn’t stop if I asked him to anyway.
She laughed maniacally. “I was wondering how long it would take you to notice!” she keened. “You called me Liz. Seems only fair.”
I wished I could be angry at her. I wished I could be angry in general. But the way her face lit up with mirth, the way her eyes danced in the fading afternoon light… I only felt a featherlike fluttering in my belly and the desire to reach out and pull her to me.
I’d always hated the nickname “Ollie”. My grandfather used to say life was too short for the third syllable in my name. Now, only the people I cared about could get away with using the moniker, as it reminded me of him.
I took another drink of the coffee. A big one.
I care about Elizabeth.
It wasn’t the first time I realized that, but as I considered it, I realized it went even deeper.
I care about Elizabeth a lot.
“I’ve got something I need to finish up first,” I said, nodding at my screen as though it contained important stocks figures instead of several rows of poorly laid Tetris blocks. I needed to think. This was trouble.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes but grinned. “Fine.” She pushed away from my desk and sauntered to the other side of the room, saluting me with her coffee cup. “Don’t be too long,” she said. “I’ll start with the small stuff.”
As if remembering something suddenly, her eyes popped wide. “I forgot to ask!” she exclaimed. “If I bring my swimsuit, would you mind if I took a dip after work tomorrow?”
“I suppose,” I said, furrowing my brow. “I didn’t realize you were much of a swimmer.”
“I’m not normally,” she admitted. “But the pool guys came around this morning and declared the pool officially open. And it looks inviting.”
The pool did look good. I’d had that renovated last year, since I used it a lot in the summer.
“Just don’t drown.” I flicke
d my gaze back to the screen and tried not to imagine Elizabeth in a bathing suit. “I don’t want to get sued. It’s a pain in the ass.”
“Roger,” she said, slipping from the room.
When I was finally alone, I let out a frustrated groan. I wasn’t angry at her. I could never be upset with her. I was more annoyed with myself. How had I let it get this far? How could I have been this stupid?
We’d gotten close enough that she felt comfortable calling me nicknames and swimming in my pool. She brought me coffee and I thought about kissing her while we talked. It was a big, goddamn mess.
I’d thought that our little pillow fight would clear my mind a little, but it had only made it worse. A punch in the face would have definitely been better. It certainly wouldn’t have ended the same way.
Now all I could think about was her. That kiss. Everything else I wanted to do to her. My mind was consumed with Elizabeth.
I couldn’t afford that.
This had to end. And it had to end so completely that I wouldn’t be tempted back again. There was only one way to do that. I’d avoided it for far too long. It should have been the first thing I did when she showed up that first morning to start work.
I slammed my laptop lid closed and picked up my phone, dialing Todd’s number. He strode through the study door a few moments later and closed it tightly behind him.
“What’s the emergency?” Todd asked.
“It’s not an emergency.”
Todd looked down at his cellphone and frowned. “You should work on your communication skills then.”
“I need you to do something for me. It’s not an emergency, but it is important.”
Todd walked calmly over to my desk and crossed his arms, awaiting my instruction. If only it was going to be that easy.
“I need you to fire Elizabeth.”
Todd blinked. “Excuse me?”
“I need you to fire Elizabeth.”
Todd narrowed his eyes, then took a sweeping glance around the room. He stalked over to the windows and patted the drapes.
“What are you doing?” I asked. My irritation was beginning to rise. It was hard enough asking him to do this. Did he have to act like a fool?
“I’m convinced you two are playing some sort of prank on me,” he explained, dropping to his knees to look beneath my desk. “I’m just not sure where you’ve hidden Elizabeth.”
I leaped from my seat. “I haven’t hidden her!” I growled. “I wouldn’t ask you to fire her while she was in the room, would I?”
“You would if you two thought it would be funny.”
“Do I look like I find this amusing?”
He shrugged and slid open the drawers of the filing cabinet. “I have no idea what goes through your heads.”
“Todd!” I bellowed. “Get back over here.”
He froze on the spot, slowly stepping over to me. My assistant wasn’t short, but he looked small to me now. I towered above him, just as I towered above most people. And I was going to use all the intimidation I had at my disposal.
“Fire Elizabeth. Make sure she knows she’ll be given credit for the work and the rest of her fee,” I commanded.
“But she’s nearly done,” Todd argued.
“Exactly,” I snarled. “We can have her contractors finish the rest of the work. She doesn’t need to be here.”
I felt like I was watching myself from the outside, and I hated the person I was being right then. But it was necessary. This was the persona that would protect me. The one that I always relied on to protect me.
Todd’s mouth slipped into a disapproving frown. “This is about the will, isn’t it?”
“Of course it’s about the goddamn will!” I exploded. “Everything’s about the will.”
The will. My grandfather’s legacy.
“Why did he do it?” I groaned in frustration. “Why would he leave me everything with the caveat that I could never settle down?” I slammed my hand down on the desk. My throat felt raw. “I can’t have her around, Todd. I’ve tried. I’m too close to the brink and if I don’t pull back now, it’ll be too late.”
“I’m not firing her,” Todd stated. “And you shouldn’t either.”
“I didn’t ask for your opinion, Franklin.” I only used his last name when I was seriously angry with him, which was rare. I gestured to the door. “Get out there and fire her. She’ll take it better from you.”
“That’s bullshit!” he growled. “You just don’t have the guts to do it yourself.”
I knew he would call me out on it. It still pissed me off, but only because I knew he was absolutely right.
“Just fucking do it!” I bit out. “I’m not going to stand here and argue with you about your job.”
Todd stood his ground, taking a deep breath. His glare tightened like a vice. “You know damn well my job doesn’t include doing your dirty work,” he snapped. “If you want to fire her, do it your goddamn self.”
He turned and walked back to the door, refusing to even toss me a backward glance.
“Maybe I’ll fire you too,” I called after him.
His dark chuckle drifted back to me from the doorway. “You won’t do that,” he said simply. “Your list of friends is growing thin enough as it is.”
With that, Todd left me alone to stew in my own darkness.
Bastard.
The asshole was right, as usual. This was my mess and I needed to clean it up. I was so stupid for ever getting involved in this shit in the first place. And once I did, I should have just stuck with ignoring her. I should have never brokered a truce and tried to be friends.
Who am I kidding? By then it was already too late.
The only time to stop this was the day she showed up. I knew it then, but I failed to act. She was a threat that I had failed to neutralize. And over time, that threat had just grown to the point that if I didn’t do something immediately, she’d end up bringing the mansion down around me.
I rose from my desk, knocking my laptop to the floor. It clattered against the hardwood loudly. It felt good.
Elizabeth was in the library, just as she’d said. Rodney and his employee, James, were moving a table across the room while Liz gave them directions.
“A little more to the left, guys,” she said, squinting. “Mmm, maybe a bit back to the right again. Sorry.”
“Elizabeth,” I called. My voice hung heavy and deep in the room.
She looked up at me, eyes wide with surprise. Then her lips spread into a wide grin.
It fucking killed me.
“You made it!” she exclaimed. “We’re just tryi—“
“I need to see you in my office,” I commanded. “Now.”
I turned on my heel and headed back to my sanctuary, leaving a gaping hole in my wake. I heard Elizabeth scramble along behind me. Would I still think of this room as my sanctuary after today? Maybe not.
“Everything okay?” she asked. “What happened?”
I stayed silent. She would find out soon enough.
In my study, I closed the door and strode to the head of the room with my hands clasped behind my back. Elizabeth followed. She never kept her distance anymore. Until now, I’d never wanted her to.
I had no plan past this point. There was no way to do this without hurting her. Without hurting us both.
“You’ve done excellent work on my home and I’m grateful,” I began, straining to keep my voice stern and steady. I didn’t want there to be any confusion. “But the work is done now. I don’t think it necessary for you to remain for the final touches. I’m dismissing you, effective immediately.”
I struggled to keep eye contact with her while I said it. Elizabeth deserved that, at least.
She deserved so much more, of course. But I wasn’t free to offer anything more, as much as I wanted to.
“What?” She stepped up closer to me, frowning. “I don’t understand.”
My blood was still racing from my fight with Todd, so I grasped hold of that anger a
s a lifeline. It was the only way I’d get her out of here without my resolve breaking like a frozen twig.
Frozen like my heart. I hated myself for all of this.
“You never do, do you?” I sneered. “You’ll get the rest of your pay and credit for the work. You should be thanking me.”
Dirty Jock Page 41
