by Stacy Finz
“You’re laying it on a little thick, don’t you think?”
He pulled her over the center of the Jeep into his lap and kissed her silly. “This is a better use of that smart mouth of yours. This settles it. We’re together now.”
She hadn’t committed to anything but that was Win for you. Presumptuous and infuriating and … Mm. He was kissing her and she couldn’t think. Her body was too busy responding to his with a throbbing ache that set her on fire. They were fogging up the windshield when his cell rang. He glanced at the caller ID on his dashboard phone holder. They both recognized the number.
“What?” Win answered, trying to catch his breath.
Darcy couldn’t make out the other end of the conversation. Win listened while TJ rattled on. She pulled her shirt down and flipped open the visor mirror to check her hair, her pulse still pounding. Darcy loved Win Garner. There it was, pure and simple. Like a million women before her, she loved him.
And against her better judgment she was going to take the leap and put her faith in him not to make mincemeat of her heart.
“Madison called.” Win put the phone back on the dash. “She wants me to come to Santa Clara and close the deal.”
“What—what about me?” She wanted to be part of winning the FlashTag account as much as anyone else.
He didn’t say anything for a few minutes, leaving her hanging. “She just wants me.”
She let out a mirthless laugh. “Of course she does. She wants in your pants and once again I’m getting edged out … of getting the account.” Edged out of getting Win.
He sat up straight. “What do you mean ‘once again’? I’ve never edged you out of anything. We’re equal on this.”
She noted that he wasn’t denying the fact that Madison was hot for him.
“I’ll be the guide in charge,” he continued. “Corporate team building is my specialty. She wants me to meet the staff. It seems pretty reasonable that I should visit the company, get a sense of the culture and the employees. But if you don’t want me to go, I won’t.”
“No—no, that would be ridiculous.” GA needed the account as badly as she wanted her promotion. They’d just been offered a second chance and she’d be insane, not to mention selfish, to put the kibosh on it. “You should go.”
“And you should trust me.”
“I do.” At least she wanted to. With all her heart.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Win had pretty much all he could take of Madison De Wolk and FlashTag. Everyone at the company was great. Friendly—Madison too friendly—accommodating, and down-to-earth. But Win had never been a city or a suburban dweller and Silicon Valley was a lot of sprawl and smog. And he missed Darcy. He’d only been gone two days and he missed her like crazy, which was a million kinds of weird.
Never before had he been that hooked on a woman. Sure, he’d had his fair share of cravings that kept him seeing the same woman for a while but not anything like this. This was a bone-deep yearning. Not just for sex, but to hear her voice, her laugh, just to be near her.
The good news was it appeared that GA was going to get the account and tomorrow, after a good night’s sleep, he’d be going home.
TJ had called a dozen times to check up on him, which was par for the course for his big brother, the king of control freaks. Darcy had been caught up with getting her grandmother settled in at home and hadn’t had time to talk much. Hilde was weak but the prognosis for a full recovery, promising. Thank God. When he got home he was planning to go over to the house and grill them dinner to celebrate.
“Is your lobster good?” Madison picked at hers, making Win wonder if she even liked seafood.
“It’s great.” Though the dim lighting was driving him berserk. He liked to see what he was eating but he assumed the votive candles were supposed to be romantic. Probably Madison’s idea.
The restaurant was owned by a big-deal chef, had high, open-beam ceilings and interesting structural objects on the wall, a sort of abstract interpretation of the sea floor. At the entrance, there was a huge built-in fish tank. Everything was “farm-to-table” and they served two kinds of butter—goat and cow—in handcrafted dishes with warm, crusty bread. It had a prix fixe menu with a price tag as big as California. And yet, people made reservations a year in advance. Madison apparently knew one of the investors who still had to pull strings to get them in. He would’ve been happy with the Vietnamese place down the street from his hotel.
At least FlashTag was footing the bill. And Madison wasn’t sparing any expense, including a bottle of Screaming Eagle, Second Flight for seven hundred bucks. He checked the menu to make sure it wasn’t a typo. Nope.
“Sorry, our angel investors would look askance at me dropping a few grand on the actual Cabernet,” Madison said.
“What’s this?” It was red, that much he knew.
“It’s a combination of grapes. Merlot and Cabernet Franc, I think. The original Screaming Eagle is just Cab and it’s thousands of dollars.”
Insane. He’d rather spend the money on a vacation.
“Taste it.” She made sure to touch his hand as she pushed his stemware closer.
All night, she’d started in again with the flirting and overt touching. A few times, she’d posed with him for selfies.
She just didn’t get that this … them … wasn’t happening. It seemed pretty unprofessional for the CEO of a major company to continue to persist. Then again, social media start-ups weren’t like the rest of corporate America. He’d read somewhere that the executives of a lot of these outfits sat around all day, smoking pot. Not your normal breed of suits. In fact, the dudes mostly wore jeans and hoodies and never seemed to shave. Except for the shaving part, the women dressed pretty much the same way. Some wore Tshirts under blazers. Almost everyone had an Apple watch or a Fitbit and a messenger bag strapped across their chest. It was a little like a clone bank.
Not Madison so much, though. He noticed she had a penchant for designer clothes. Tonight, she wore a fitted dress and stilettos. She looked great, very sexy. But Win simply wasn’t interested.
He’d just be happy when dinner was over and he could go back to his room to get a good night’s sleep. First thing in the morning, he was heading back to Glory Junction.
“What do you think?” she asked as he took a sip.
He didn’t want to seem ungrateful but it tasted like wine. “Wow, it’s something else.”
“Right?” The toe of her shoe brushed his calf and he moved his leg away, trying to be subtle.
“You eat rich foods like this all the time?” Win had noticed that FlashTag brought food in for its employees every day. Pasta, sandwiches, soups, everything you could imagine. One day there was even a taco bar, beer, and margaritas. Right in the middle of the day. They were pretty laid-back in the adventure business but nothing like Silicon Valley. The place was off the hook with perks.
“Are you kidding? I mostly grab food on the run. But I wanted to do something nice for you because you drove all this way and you’ve been so great.” She leaned across the table, giving him a generous peek down her cleavage.
Win felt as if he was on a slippery slope. “Not necessary, but much appreciated. GA is looking forward to some serious team building with FlashTag.” That’s right, keep it strictly business.
“I like the way you think.” She made it sound like he’d been talking about sex. “Now that we’ve got this thing sown up, I think we should celebrate.”
He held up his hundred-dollar glass of wine. “Isn’t that what we’re doing?”
“We can do better than this.” She twirled the red liquid, her eyes never leaving his. “I think we should go back to your room after dinner?”
Whoa, talk about being direct. Win was used to being propositioned on a fairly regular basis but she just came right out with it, no beating around the bush. He liked her style. You want something, go after it. But he still wasn’t interested.
“Ah, Madison, we talked about this. Bes
ides the fact that it’s unprofessional, I’m involved with Darcy.” Was he? She’d never actually said yes to his proposal. The truth was he didn’t know where he stood with her.
“I’d wondered about that,” she said. “The way you took off when her grandmother got sick … well, it was very commendable. I convinced myself that you were just really good friends because she doesn’t seem like your type at all.”
Win thought it was presumptuous of her. She barely knew him; how would she know what his type was?
“No offense to Darcy,” she continued. “But she seems … just not what I would expect for someone like you.”
Yeah, what was that? The implication pissed him off.
“It’s funny because I never thought I had a type until I fell in love with Darcy.” Love. Whoa, that’s what this was. He loved Darcy Wallace. The knowledge roared through his head like a freight train. For the first time maybe ever, he was in love. No one had ever made him feel the way Darcy did. From the night she’d crawled into his bed, he hadn’t been the same. She tested him, captivated him, turned him on to the point where he couldn’t keep his hands off her. But most of all, she got him and he got her. No artifice, just a hundred-percent real.
“That must be why I never fell in love before.” He put down his glass. “Because Darcy’s my only type. She’s the one, the only one.” He smiled because the revelation made him ridiculously happy.
He was in love. Crazy in love with Darcy Wallace.
“Why didn’t you just tell me from the get-go, instead of letting me make a fool of myself?” she asked, but didn’t sound angry, just curious.
“You didn’t make a fool of yourself, Madison. Darcy and I are pretty new and you and I …” he said, winking. “We’ll always have Alaska.”
They laughed like two old friends.
“Do you have any single brothers?” she asked. “I take it TJ’s off the market.”
Win grinned because not too long ago they’d all been single and miserable. “I’m afraid we’re all taken.”
“All the good ones always are.”
She paid the bill and took him back to the hotel, a big high-rise with an indoor pool, decent gym, and a couple of bars and restaurants. Instead of going straight to his room, he wandered into the lounge in the lobby and ordered a beer. He found a spot near one of the flat screens to watch the baseball game, hoping that by the time he went up to bed, Darcy would be available to talk on the phone. He just wanted to hear her voice.
Halfway through his beer, a group of women invaded his space and tried to chat him up. He wanted quiet so he took the elevator up to the ninth floor. In the room, he stripped out of his clothes, turned on the game, took a quick shower, and sank into the bed. It was the first chance he had to check his messages so he propped a few pillows behind his head and scrolled through e-mail on his phone. Nothing that couldn’t wait until he got home. He noticed there were a couple of alerts on his FlashTag app. Darcy had downloaded the damned thing on his cell to make a good impression.
For shits and giggles, he tapped on the logo and waited for the site to come up. And uh-oh … there were two pictures of Madison sitting in his lap. He remembered her taking the photo at the restaurant. An innocent pose for an innocent selfie. But the snapshots, with the lighting of the restaurant and the placement of Madison’s hands, looked anything but innocent. It looked more like a spread in Maxim magazine.
“Shit, shit, shit,” Win chanted as he jumped out of bed, found a clean pair of pants, and shoved them on. This was exactly the kind of crap Darcy expected of him. He grabbed his discarded phone and dialed her number. But she didn’t answer. He called Hilde and nothing. Where the hell was she? She was supposed to be bedridden. “Shit,” he yelled again.
Darcy had also downloaded the app on her phone and while she wasn’t a huge social media user, this stuff had a tendency to spread. Screw it. He decided to make the 220-mile drive tonight. Nip this shit in the bud.
He called down to the valet to get his Jeep and raced down the stairs with his duffel. Silicon Valley traffic was legendary and he was going to be right in the thick of it. But he didn’t give a damn. He had to get home and explain to Darcy that the pictures were nothing and there was a better than good chance she wouldn’t believe him.
As he sat on I-680 in a parking lot of automobiles, he had a come-to-Jesus moment. Darcy wasn’t the only insecure partner in this relationship. All his life, he’d used his charm and good looks to worm his way into people’s lives. He’d collected them like baseball cards and discarded them just as easily. It was never his intention to hurt anyone but it had always been his way of fitting in, of being more than he thought he was.
He should’ve told Madison from the beginning that he was in love with Darcy. And that he was a one-woman man.
By the time he got to Sacramento, he tried her cell and home phone at least twenty more times, leaving more than a dozen messages. He was almost tempted to call Colt to do a welfare check and was starting to fear that Hilde had wound up in the hospital again.
Win pulled off at one of the exits to get gas and a cup of coffee to make the rest of the drive home. While he sat at the pump, he dialed TJ.
“How’d it go?” his brother asked by way of greeting. Always the freaking businessman.
“Good. Madison said she’ll call you Monday to work out the details but she’s gonna sign. Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know where Darcy is, would you?”
“She was at work today. Why?”
Win didn’t want to get into the photos. TJ would chalk it up to Win being up to his usual tricks. “I’ve been trying to call her to tell her I’m on my way home but she hasn’t been answering. I’m concerned about Hilde.”
“Haven’t heard anything. You want me to cruise by Mrs. Wallace’s house and check up on them?”
He did but what good would it do? He already knew they weren’t home or someone would’ve answered the goddamn phone. And if an ambulance had been called TJ would know. That kind of an emergency spread through Glory Junction faster than a brush fire in summer. “Nah, I’ll be home in a couple of hours.” No need pulling TJ into his soap opera. There was a good chance Darcy already knew about the photos and was ignoring his calls.
He hit more traffic outside of Sacramento, folks driving to the mountains for the weekend. At this rate, it would take him forever to get home. At ten, he finally pulled up to Hilde’s house. Darcy’s Volkswagen was nowhere to be seen and his stomach lurched. She’d either gotten the hell out of Dodge as soon as she’d seen those pictures or Hilde had taken a turn for the worse.
It was too late to knock on the door but he wasn’t going to wait for a decent hour. He got out of his Jeep and rang the bell. All the lights were out and no one answered. He pressed the heel of his hand against his eyes and broke down and called Colt.
“Everything okay?”
He heard a TV on in the background. “I don’t know. I just rolled in and Darcy and her grandmother aren’t home. I’ve been trying to call her all night.”
Win heard Colt shuffling around. He was probably turning off the television or moving to a different room.
“As far as I know there was no emergency response to the house but it’s Jack’s night. You could call Sierra General but with HIPAA law they won’t be able to tell you anything. All you can do is wait and keep trying to call her. What about her parents? You have their phone number?”
He didn’t. “No. I’ll just hang out here and keep trying her. Sorry I called so late. I hope I didn’t wake up Delaney.”
“It’s only ten. Call me when you know something. I don’t care what time it is.”
Win smiled to himself. He had a good family. A damned good family. “Roger that.”
An hour later and still nothing. Tired of waiting in his Jeep, he got out to stretch his legs. A pair of lights came up the drive and he sighed with relief until he saw the car. It was an Audi. He didn’t know anyone who owned an Audi.
A tall, older d
ude got out of the vehicle. It was hard to tell with only the porch light on, but he didn’t look particularly menacing. “Can I help you?”
Win approached him. “I guess I could ask the same. This is my girlfriend’s grandmother’s house. They’re not home right now.”
The man opened the passenger door and there was Hilde. “Win?” she shielded her eyes from the glare of the porch light. “Is that you? This is my son, Max.”
Darcy’s dad. “Pleased to meet you.” He stuck out his hand and Max shook it. “Where’s Darce, Mrs. Wallace?”
“She’s not home?”
“Nope. Not answering her phone either.”
“I’m sure she just went out with friends after work. I was supposed to stay overnight with Max in Reno and realized I forgot my medication.”
Win thought she looked good, not at all like someone who’d just gone under the knife.
“Come in the house,” she told Win.
Max carried a floral overnight bag, which Win assumed was Hilde’s, and put it in her bedroom. “I’m heading home, Mom.”
“Don’t be silly. I dragged you all the way here in the middle of the night. Stay over.”
Max gave Win a cool assessment and apparently determined he wasn’t a threat. “It’s best that I go now. I have a tee time at eight.”
“All right, dear, drive carefully.” She kissed him good-bye and as soon as he left the house said, “He couldn’t wait to get back to that girlfriend of his.”
“Darcy told me about that.” And now she was going to look at him the same way. As a cheater. “So you have no idea where she is, huh?”
“My guess is she used the opportunity of not having to babysit me to get out on a Friday night. It’s only eleven. I wouldn’t worry. You’re welcome to wait for her here, watch TV, whatever you like. But I’m going to turn in. I still don’t have all my energy back and frankly my son is exhausting.”
He winked at her. “You’re looking pretty spry to me, Mrs. Wallace. Next week we’re going rock climbing.”
