by Mia Carson
Freddie saw the stack on the floor by her sister. “Some color would be a nice change.”
“Rosie said something changed at your job. What was it?”
“Nothing much, not really,” she said as she drew over a second stool and Hank and Theo stepped back to give them the semblance of privacy. “We were taken over by a bigger company, but I actually landed a promotion.”
“That’s exciting.” Clarice’s brow furrowed, and Freddie feared she was hearing the voices again. However, she leaned in close and painted the outline of a few trees in the distance. “Are you still happy there?”
“Happy is not my priority,” she admitted. “Though my new boss is kind of cute.”
Clarice grinned. “Good. You should date him.”
“What?” Freddie gasped, and the two orderlies hid smiles behind their hands. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why not? Rosie told me you broke up with Mack, called him a good for nothing, cheating fucking bastard who could kiss your ass and go to hell,” she repeated as if she had not just used very foul language. Freddie’s cheeks reddened as both orderlies had to turn away because they were laughing so hard. “It’s fine by me. I never liked him.”
“I thought you and Mack got along?”
“Eh, he was a bit much. He never took care of you. This new guy might, though.”
“He’s my boss,” she repeated.
“So what? Is there a policy against you dating your boss?”
Freddie started to say yes but stopped. She actually had no idea what the policy would be with these new people in charge. Her breakup with Mack was too close, though. Did she really want to get involved with another man so fast? It’s not like you were really involved with Mack. How many times did he call and cancel your dates? Or tell you not to come over? He was probably cheating on you then, too.
“You know, I might just do that,” she told Clarice, running her fingers softly through her sister’s hair. “What about you? Any boys coming to visit you from your school?”
Clarice’s face stiffened. “You know I don’t have friends anymore.”
“That’s not true.”
“It’s okay, Freddie. I don’t want anyone to see me like this anyway.”
Clarice was wise beyond her years. She’d had to grow up as fast as Freddie had, but she had landed the mental disorder while Freddie only had to find a way to keep them both financially stable.
The sisters sat in the art room, not talking much as Clarice painted. Their conversations were usually short and to the point. Clarice was not one to beat around the bush, and neither was Freddie. They’d inherited their bluntness from their mother. One day, Freddie told herself, she would get Clarice out of this place and find a better life for them both.
That one day grew further away every time she tried to picture it. All she had to do was hang on to this new position, stash some money, and she might finally come out on the winning end for a change.
“Freddie?” Dr. Gibbons waited by the door for Freddie to tell her sister good night and she would see her on Saturday.
“Betty told me about today, briefly,” she said to Dr. Gibbons as they stepped outside.
“I think she hasn’t been taking her meds,” Dr. Gibbons sighed. “Either that or it’s not working and we need to talk about trying a new drug.”
“But you said this one was our last chance?”
“Close. There’s a new one they’re coming out with to help with the hallucinations and the voices,” Dr. Gibbons told her. “Her depression has improved, but I’m afraid her other symptoms are returning.”
“Damn it.” Freddie paced down the hall, holding her face in her hands, her heeled steps echoing loudly around her. “What should I do?”
“We’ll give her another two weeks to be certain, but if there’s any more deterioration, we’ll talk about switching her to new medication. There’s a chance she’s not taking her meds, and if that’s the case, we’ll have to up her case to a higher priority. Have her watched around the clock if need be to make sure she’s not trying to sabotage herself.”
“You think she would do that? After how far she’s come?” Freddie asked in disbelief.
“I’ve seen patients do complete three-sixties,” Dr. Gibbons told her sadly. “I will do my best to ensure your sister does not join that list.”
Her Clarice, her baby sister. She was too young to suffer like this, too young. And all Freddie could do was stand by and watch.
It’ll be exactly the same as when Mom died, she whispered to herself as fear gripped her tightly. You’re going to lose her like you lost your mother. You’ll end up alone, nothing more than a broken shell.
Chapter 4
“Zach says you’re not playing fair,” Adam told Rhett the following Monday morning.
They were running through the new infrastructure for the software department, making any last-minute changes before sending the memo to Freddie to type and send out to the whole department. Rhett checked that his office door was shut, his assistant appearing distracted by her work.
“I’m not sure what he’s talking about,” Rhett replied simply. “Freddie is not like other women he’s used to falling at his feet. He actually has to work for her.”
“You told him to leave her alone.”
Rhett smirked and tossed his pen aside. “I told him to stop pushing her for a dinner date the first day because she clearly didn’t want one,” he corrected. “He’s more than welcome to try again. She just broke up with her cheating boyfriend. For all I know, she might not want anything to do with either one of us. I need him to focus on his job right now, anyway, same as you and Jeremy.”
“Whatever you say, boss,” Adam muttered. “I think I can finish this up in my office if these are all the changes you want to make.”
“Yes, fine,” he said and handed the papers back to Adam. “Just make sure you put the final draft on my desk so Freddie can get to work on it.”
“Am I allowed to talk to her or do I need to ask your permission first?” he asked with a wink and a snarky grin.
Rhett rolled his eyes. “How about you act like an adult?”
“Like you do all the time now? Sure thing, Mr. Macon,” he mocked and, the files tucked under his arm, waltzed out of the office. He greeted Freddie with a bright smile and an overly loud voice before he left. Rhett grumbled under his breath, wondering if taking off early would be a bad thing.
Freddie knocked on his door and he waved for her to enter. “I have a few things for you to sign,” she said, walking to stand beside him behind his desk, and laid them down in front of him.
Her tantalizing perfume of a tropical paradise made him fumble for his pen. “Sure. What are these for?” he asked, his voice rough.
“Ordering the new signage and stationary for the office,” she explained. “Another for the changes you wanted to implement with the security log-ins. Nothing too major.”
He scribbled his name at the bottom of the required papers, and she thanked him with a smile. Her fingers on her right hand rubbed and twitched against each other as if looking for a ring that wasn’t there. She cursed under her breath and suddenly seemed very anxious to be out of Rhett’s office.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m fine. I was wondering, though, if all your buddies have an ego complex.”
He folded his hands on his stomach and leaned back in his chair. He moved so he could look closely at her. She wore a tight, knee-length sheath of a blue dress, sleeveless, that hugged her curves immaculately. “They do tend to be a bit full of themselves, but can you blame them?”
“What do you mean?” she asked as her brow furrowed.
Did she really not realize how beautiful she was? How enticing with those blue eyes and that two-toned hair she managed to pull off so well. And her shoes. He knew women usually had too many pairs of shoes, but he swore she had a matching color for every outfit. The blue pumps today were no exception.
/> “You are quite an attractive woman,” he informed her. “I’m sure a few men have told you that along the way. You can’t blame us for looking.”
“Let’s just say the last man who supposedly found me attractive cheated on me,” she snapped. She puffed out her cheeks, cringing. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that.”
“I won’t take it personally. Something tells me that anger is meant for someone else.”
“The bastard who keeps calling and texting me? Yeah, it’d be for him.” Her fingers rubbed again and her frown deepened. Two worry lines appeared in the center of her forehead, right above the bridge of her nose. Rhett was beginning to notice them when she was extremely stressed about something at the office. Today, however, he sensed her worry was about her ex.
“Freddie, really, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing, I’m perfectly fine,” she lied, but the words came out in a much higher-pitched voice.
“Really? Your worry lines are showing,” he said, nodding towards her.
“I don’t have worry lines.”
“Actually, you do, right there.” He rubbed the spot on his own face though he wanted to reach out and wipe the lines away for her. He was still working on an angle to ask her out to dinner and did not want to blow his chances by crossing the personal space line too soon.
Freddie’s hand swiped at her forehead. “It’s nothing you need to worry about. You’re my boss.”
“I can be your friend, too,” he suggested and gently took the hand that kept fidgeting. “Did you lose something? A ring?”
Her hand stilled at his touch, but she didn’t pull away. “Do you have to notice everything?”
“I’ve had lots of practice.”
“Of picking up small signs from women?” she asked archly.
He grinned. “Of learning how to read people. It’s what makes a good boss—knowing who you can trust and who’s lying to your face.” He held the finger he saw her rubbing her other fingers across. “So it was a ring?”
“Yes, a ring… my mother’s,” she said sadly. “One of the few things I managed to hold onto of hers.”
“Did you lose it?”
“Yes and no,” she groaned and removed her hand gently from his. “I left it at my ex-boyfriend’s place and I don’t want to go over there and see him to get it. He won’t leave me alone… keeps calling and sending me texts. If I go over there, I’ll get the speech about how sorry he is, and I don’t want to deal with that.”
“How important is this ring to you?” He was already standing and digging for his car keys in his pocket without thinking of a plan.
“My mom died a few years ago. Most of her other things I sold or donated, but that ring… it’s been passed down for generations. Rhett, what are you doing?” she asked when he stepped around her and his desk and stalked to the door. “It’s a bit early to be taking off for the day.”
He held open the door for her. “I didn’t say I was going home. Come along then.”
“Where are we going? I have work to finish.”
More amped up than he’d felt in a long while, Rhett walked back to her, grabbed her hand, and led her from his office. She stopped by her desk to pick up her purse and they were off. He didn’t want to wait for the elevator, so they took the stairs, her heels echoing loudly around them.
“If you’re going to kidnap me, can I at least let my neighbor know so she can water my garden?” Freddie teased when they stepped outside and he continued to guide her to his bright red car. “Figures.”
“What?” he asked, stepping back to admire his red corvette.
“I pegged you for a red car man, and look, I was right,” she announced proudly. “Now really, where are we going?”
“We’re going to get your ring back.”
“No, I told you I’m not going to talk to him,” she said, stepping back.
Rhett ground his teeth. She looked so vulnerable, uncertain, and angry at the same time. A guy did that to her. Though he would never say he wasn’t a playboy, he was certainly not a cheater and loathed any man who was. Why be in a relationship if either partner clearly wanted to be with more than one person at a time? Zach had cheated on a few of his girlfriends, and lucky for him, they never found out. Rhett wouldn’t have been surprised if they beat the crap out of him for his antics.
“You won’t have to. You merely have to be my navigator.”
Her fingers moved as if to spin that missing ring again as the worry lines reappeared on her face. “Why are you doing this for me? You hardly know me.”
She had a point. He never went out of his way for any of the women he dated or had flings with, so why was he willing to go and speak to Freddie’s ex for her? The shallow part of his mind said he was working on winning her heart so he could win the bet with Zach, but at the thought of that damn agreement, his palms itched to deck his friend in the face. Freddie was not a woman to be led on for a bet. She was made of so much more, and Rhett liked her, plain and simple. He liked her and he wanted to get to know her, figure out who she was.
“Maybe I want to get to know you,” he suggested lightly. “Besides, what else are friends for?”
She eyed him suspiciously but took the hand he offered anyway and slid into the front passenger seat of the corvette. He hurried around to the driver’s side, revved the engine, and took off.
“Where does your ex live?”
“Downtown,” she said and gave him the street. “I don’t even know if he’s home.”
“Well, if not, we’ll come back later,” he promised, weaving easily in and out of traffic.
Freddie smiled when he drove faster, and he considered taking a longer route to reach their destination, if only to keep seeing that smile on her face. He doubted she would be smiling once they reached Mack’s apartment and saw whether he was home or not. Depending on what mood she was in, she might need a shoulder to cry on. He turned down another street, then another, the traffic not so bad since it was still a few hours away from rush hour. He wondered if it would be too much to ask her out for drinks after they dealt with the current situation. He pictured Zach’s angry face hearing he’d managed to spend a night out with Freddie before him. Rhett wished he’d never made the bet in the first place. The money was not worth what it could do to he and Freddie’s growing relationship if she ever found out. The right thing to do would be to put a stop to it before it went any further.
“There, that’s the building,” she told Rhett, and he parked along the curb.
“You can stay in the car if you want,” Rhett offered. “I don’t mind.”
“No—no, I can do this,” she insisted, smoothing back her hair and tugging at her blouse—as if anything about her appearance needed fixing. The worry lines returned to her face, and Rhett wanted to lean over and kiss them away and assure her everything was all right. No man who cheated on a woman like Freddie was worth all this fuss. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
He turned the car off and opened his door in answer. She climbed out after him, and he followed her into the building. They took the elevator the few floors up, and when they reached a door, she raised her hand to knock but couldn’t seem to finish the motion.
“At least see if he’s home,” Rhett said. “If he is, you can wait down the hall.”
“No, he’s home. I saw his car,” she grumbled. Her hand trembled as she flexed her fingers, held her breath, and knocked on the door. “Shit.”
“You’ll be fine,” he promised and squeezed her hand. “I’m right here.”
Footsteps stomped to the door, and when it swung inward, Rhett stared at the man about his height with a slender build and green eyes that widened in astonishment as he stared at Freddie. “You came back! I’ve been calling and texting! We need to talk.” He reached out to draw her into his arms, but Freddie backed away.
“No, that’s not why I’m here, you asshole,” she snapped. “My mother’s ring—I left it here.”
Mack’s face scrunched in
pain, but Rhett saw the annoyance under the surface quite clearly. “Her ring? You came back for that piece of junk but not for your boyfriend of two years?” His eyes shot to Rhett and he stiffened. “Who the hell is this guy?”
“Mack, don’t,” Freddie said sternly. “He’s a friend. Give me the ring and I’ll go.”
“No, we need to talk about this,” he demanded. “And since when do you need a friend to speak to your boyfriend?”
“I believe you’re her ex-boyfriend,” Rhett reminded him tartly.
“Says who?”
“Me. Did you think I would stay with you after what I saw?” Freddie spat. “Jesus, Mack, you were fucking one of your clients! And for how long, huh? Just that once or more times?” He glanced away, crossing his arms over his chest. Freddie laughed bitterly and angry tears shimmered in her eyes. “That’s what I thought. Why would I come back to you? Why?”
“I was there for you,” he argued, stepping towards her.
Rhett placed himself between the two of them, and Mack glared fiercely. “Back away from the lady. She wants her mother’s ring and then we’ll leave. No harm, no foul.”
“No, you weren’t. You were off working with your clients,” she seethed. “You were never there when I needed you the most, when Mom got sick and when… when the rest of my life fell apart. I’ve been working my ass off, and what did you do? You couldn’t even help me take care of a house I wasn’t ready to inherit. Hell, you canceled half our dinner dates. You rarely even paid for anything when we did go out.”
Rhett’s anger flared to life as he watched Freddie tremble, her chest heaving with each breath she took. She looked ready to deck Mack, and Rhett was more than willing to do it for her.
“You knew what I was doing all those times,” he muttered, no sympathy in his voice at all. “I was building my client list. I had to start my career.”
“Yes. Yes, you did,” she grated, her body stiff as a board. “And who was there for you during all those late nights and early mornings? I was, so don’t you dare stand there and give me all this shit about your career. Where the hell is the ring?”
