Executive Decision: A Romance Novel

by Mandy M. Roth

  “Liz?” Dale put his arm over me protectively.

  Zach nodded and flashed him a smile before staring down at me. “I seem to remember this scrawny lil’ thing with dark brown hair that hung to her nothing of a butt begging me to teach her to defend herself. I then spent six years teaching her every day only to find her grown and hiding under a man’s arm now.”

  I wiggled closer to Dale and wagged my eyebrows. “In my own defense, you were scrawny too and now you’re as big as he is.” I nudged Dale. “And I’d never try it with him. He’d break my neck. Don’t let the thousand-dollar outfit fool you. I’ve seen him pissed.”

  “’Bout done makin’ up excuses?” Zach asked, tipping his head slightly.

  “I think so. But I’d like to take this moment to point out,” I stood and put my chin on Dale’s shoulder, “that before you knew it was me, you thought I was hot. Would you ever really do what you’re planning on doing to a hot chick?”

  Zack beamed and tossed his cap on the ground. He pulled his dark green polo over his head, exposing his chiseled dark brown chest as he went. Sliding his belt off, he worked on his boots while he stared at me.

  “What the fuck is going on?” Dale asked.

  Quickly, I slipped my shoes off and gave them to Dale. “Hold these for me.” Pulling my hat off, I handed it to him as well. “This too.”

  Dale seized hold of me and pulled me around to face him. “Care to tell me why you and this man are stripping in the middle of the town, in broad daylight?”

  Zach chuckled. “Want us to wait until it’s dark? I should warn you that we only did that once, okay maybe twice.”

  The look on Dale’s face was anything but friendly. Before I could comment, I was yanked off my feet and tossed in the air. I grabbed for Zach’s back to hold onto something.

  “In all the years I’ve been doing this to you, I’ve never dropped you once.” Zach smacked my butt hard and laughed. “Well, except that one time but that was because ... err ... you remember.”

  Dale folded his arms over his chest and glared at me. I hit Zachary in the back and pinched him hard. “Stop making everything sound sexual! You’re pissing Dale off.” I glanced at Dale and smiled. “Honey, he’s just saying that to make you mad. He’s like that. It’s your own fault. You shouldn’t have said I was your ... ahhhh!” I screamed out as Zach hopped into the ice cold base of the fountain with me. Instantly, I was submersed under two feet of freezing water.

  Pushing off the cement bottom, I got to my knees. Zach stood, dripping water everywhere and offered me his hand. I took it and yanked as hard as I could. He tumbled under the water next to me.

  I climbed out of the huge grey fountain and hopped up and down. “Ha! It took me almost thirty years but I dunked your ass!”

  Zach stood tall and shook his head, laughing. “Somebody’s gotten stronger. What the hell have you been doing? You aren’t still beating on that heavy bag I got you, are you?”

  I grinned. “Yep. My friend Seth hung it in the basement of our building and even hooked me up with all kinds of other neat, related gadgets.”

  “How the hell do you hit a punching bag with those fingernails?” He arched a brow and stared down at my hands.

  “Very, very carefully.”

  Dale cleared his throat and I flashed Zach a look warning him not to be cute or funny. He smiled and put his hand out to Dale. “Zach Caros, long time friend to Liz. Sorry about giving you a scare. If it was the other way around, I’d have been pissed too. But Liz is right. I’d never hurt her.”

  I turned and looked at Dale, afraid of what I’d see. He put his pleasant face on and walked up to us. I noticed that he stood extremely close to me as he reached his hand out to Zach. “Nice to meet you, Zach. I’m Dale Corbin, long time ... uhh....”

  Hearing him struggle over what to call himself, I decided to cut him some slack and help out. “Dale and I have been living together for eight years. He doesn’t exactly have a label. Beyond friend but other than that I’m lost.”

  Zach let go of Dale’s hand and laughed. “You can wipe the jealous look off your face, Dale.”

  My jaw dropped. I moved towards Zach to shut him up.

  “Calm down, Liz. I was just going to tell him that if he’s managed to live under the same roof as you for eight years and still have you get that dreamy look on your face when you introduce him to someone, then he’s safe. You aren’t going anywhere. It’s pretty damn obvious you love him.”

  That was rather unexpected. Apparently, Dale agreed with me because he laughed and slid his hand down my wet back. Running it over my butt, he stopped and inched his finger under the edge of my shorts. He adjusted them, moving them to cover my cheek completely. Guess they must have ridden up during the water thing.

  “I’ve got to admit, Zach, when I saw the way you two ran around here and seemed to know exactly what the other was going to do, I thought there might be something between the two of you.” He glanced back at me with questioning eyes.

  I tried not to laugh. But the very idea of sleeping with Zach didn’t make my stomach curl. It made it flip inside out. “Dale, remember how we discussed you not feeling like a brother regardless how close we are?” He nodded. “Yeah, well, Zach feels like a brother and he always has.”

  “But you said he was your first kiss?”

  “No, I said I was his first kiss. Cindy was my first kiss. We were like six and pecked each other on the lips fast and thought we’d just done the same things adults do.”

  Cindy’s hysterical laughter reminded me she was still there. I motioned for her to join us. She looked Dale over rather obviously and put her thumbs up. Rolling my eyes, I just laughed.

  Zach took his shirt from Cindy and put it back on. “I was too young to appreciate two women making out in front of me. If I only knew. And as for the rest of that. I was just trying to get Liz riled up.” He tucked his shirt in and kept his eyes on Dale. “See, when you pulled up and she didn’t cuss you up one side and down the other I figured she liked you. I couldn’t stop myself. But, you’ve got nothing to worry about. In fact, I’m most likely going to be unable to perform for some time because I’ll be mentally replaying everything I said to her while she was running with Cindy.”

  “Wait until I tell Nathan you said I was stacked!”

  “Fine, but you should know that I’ll arrest his ass if he beats the shit out me like he did that college kid who blew into town trying to get you, at age fourteen, to go out with him. I’m still not sure why Nathan bothered to kick his ass. You already had the guy lying flat on the ground holding his nose and groin when we found you.”

  Dale looked down at me, smiling slightly and looking at me like he didn’t know me. “Why was he like that?”

  I smiled sheepishly. “Cause he tried to put one hand up my skirt and the other up my blouse. Zach, Nathan and Scott had drilled into my head what boys and girls do.” I cast Zack a wry grin. “I did exactly what they told me to do when a boy touched me where he was trying to touch me. Turns out, you really aren’t supposed to grab that spot every man loves and twist until you can’t twist anymore. They tend not to like that.”

  Dale and Zach made moves to cover their groins.

  “He screamed so loud that he sounded like a woman. It scared me so I punched him. He shut up then. I never got a chance to thank you for completely re-writing the birds and the bees did I?”

  Zach shrugged. “It was Nathan’s idea. He said we couldn’t watch you and Cindy all the time. It worked. No need to discuss safe sex when the guy you’re with doesn’t have working equipment.” His gaze flickered downward on Dale.

  Dale flinched. “I ... uhh ... thankfully she outgrew that.” He put his face close to mine and locked eyes with me. “You did outgrow it, right?”

  I let my mouth fall open a bit and cocked my jaw to the right. “That all depends. Are we done fighting all the time? It’s all we do anymore.”

  Dale’s gaze darted towards Zach and then towards Cind
y as if to remind me that other people were around. I folded my arms and pushed a hip out. I knew I looked like a bitch. I was aiming for that look.

  “I want witnesses, Dale. Are you done throwing a fit every time something doesn’t go exactly the way you want it to?”

  “Honey,” he said between tight lips. “Now’s not really the time.”

  “When is a good time, Dale? We’ve established that nightclubs don’t work. My apartment doesn’t work. I’m sorry that Charles showed up. In twenty-four hours you have flipped my entire life upside down. One minute you’re my best friend. The next we’re lovers....”

  Dale smiled, his face red and nodded at Zach.

  I grabbed his chin and made him look at me. “Don’t you dare be embarrassed when I’m talking to you. I said lovers not ‘fucking my brains out on the bedroom floor because we couldn’t make it to the bed.’” I stopped a minute and looked at Cindy.

  “We get the picture. Zach’s turning white so I’m thinking he really got the picture. Hopefully, he’ll face the other way before he throws up.”

  Putting my focus back on Dale, I found him standing there with his mouth open. I pushed his jaw shut. “I can’t do this rollercoaster thing with you. Friends for eight years, more than that for one night and then slamming doors and taking keys back from each other. So, until you’re ready to make a choice, I’m not sure if I outgrew the knee jerk reaction to keep twisting.”

  Zach coughed. “Now, that right there is why I never even thought of laying a hand on her. She’s scary.”

  I glared at him and he backed away with his hands up. When I looked back at Dale he laughed softly.

  “He’s right, you are scary. You did chase two interns away.”

  Huffing, I went to walk away.

  Dale grabbed my arm and pulled me back to him. “Hey, before you went off on your tangent, did you stop and think that I’m standing here, before you, in Ohio. Clearly, I ran to you, Liz. Not from you.”

  Great, he would point out something obvious and huge.

  He moved his lips down towards mine and someone pulled me backwards.

  “Hey.”

  Zach ignored me. “Now, I’m trying to let the floor comment go but I’m not going to watch you kiss someone.”

  “Then go,” I said, standing on my tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “Hurry up. I might use my tongue.”

  Zach batted his arm as he turned and ran towards his truck. “We’re causing a traffic jam!”

  Dale and I turned to see a line of cars on both sides of the road. Taking Dale’s hand in mine, I pulled him towards the car, laughing as I went.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Stop being a baby and come on,” I said, pulling on Dale’s arm.

  He didn’t budge. “I’m nervous. Really nervous.”

  It was cute that Dale put so much into his first meeting with my parents. It meant that he cared what they thought of him. “How about I go to a hotel for the night and then meet your father at his party tomorrow while there are a lot of other people around to keep him from strangling me.”

  “Please, Dale. I want him to meet you. I want them all to meet you.”

  “Why?” he asked, finally moving a few steps. I took a moment to look at him with the ivy-covered barn as his backdrop. It didn’t matter where you set Dale, he was still gorgeous to the point you thought you should look away but knew you couldn’t.

  “I want you to meet them because you’re ... you’re you and I ... uhh ... I want you to meet them, Dale.”

  “But you can’t even figure out what I am and what I mean to you how are you going to explain it to your parents?”

  This was insane. “Dale, it doesn’t matter. They know we pretty much live together and....”

  “And we keep telling them we’re just friends.” He was getting agitated and that was never good. “And it matters to me, Liz. I care what I am to you.”

  “Oh, sugar, if you haven’t figured out what you are to her then you never will,” my mother said, appearing from the other side of the tall bushes that ran to the house. She stood there smiling at Dale with her long brown hair down. She was in a pair of white slacks and a white sleeveless shirt. The brown basket she held had various greens, ivy and such laying in it.

  Dale nudged me and whispered out of the corner of his mouth. “That’s your mother?”

  Confused, I nodded. “You’ve seen her picture.”

  “Yes, but I thought it must be an old photo because I guessed her age and she looked at least twenty years younger than that in the picture. Good God, the woman looks half her age! She’s beautiful.”

  I could tell he was being honest. My mother had shocked him. I glanced at her and smiled.

  Looking Dale up and down, she smiled and came towards us. “Well, after a comment like that I’m fine with him being part of the family.” She took hold of his upper arm and turned him back and forth slightly.

  I sighed. “Momma, what are you doing?”

  She kept turning Dale who didn’t say a word as he let her twist him and pull on him. “Sweetie, I’m trying to picture my grandbabies that’s all.”

  Groaning, I dropped my head into my hands. This wasn’t happening to me. It really wasn’t. I would wake up any minute and find out it was all a freakish dream.

  Someone wrapped their arm around me and then yanked it off quick. “Liz, you’re soaked and you smell funny. Ha, so I see you ran into Zachary.”

  “Thanks, Scott. And yes I did happen to run into him,” I said, secretly wishing I had a garden hose to soak my brother with. Scott was the middle child and it showed. Always the attention getter.

  He laughed when he saw our mother turning Dale more. “Momma,” he said. “Stop sizing the man up for his reproductive qualities. I’m positive that had a part in Lisa walking out on me.”

  My mother let go of Dale and stared at Scott. “Lisa left you because she’s a selfish little girl who never grew up enough to marry let alone be a mother. And you, should be happy she did leave.”

  Scott chuckled. “Yes, Momma. I’m thrilled my wife walked out on me and left me with a child to raise on my own. Speaking of which,” he looked behind him, “Beth-Ann! Aunt Liz is here! And she brought someone special with her!”

  “She brought him?” A tiny scream was followed closely by hysterical laughter. I looked at Dale for help, he shrugged and smiled. Trust a guy from Park Ave. to be clueless when it comes to children.

  I spotted the dark head of spring loaded dark curls and smiled as Beth ran full force at me. Her little yellow sundress went straight up in the air, showing off her yellow ruffled panties. Laughing, I shook my head. I used to be just like her.

  “Liz, Liz, Liz!” she screamed as she wrapped her tiny frame around my leg and squeezed it tight. “Eww, you’re wet and you smell funny.”

  “You don’t say?”

  She looked up at me with wide, confused brown eyes. “But I did say it.”

  Dale laughed and Beth zeroed in on him. Her eyes narrowed as she walked over to him. Crossing her arms, she motioned for him to bend down. Dale looked at me and I nodded. He was so tall that he had to practically sit on the ground to be eye level with her.

  Beth stuck her face right against his and began to look him over thoroughly. When she began to pull on his lips and I couldn’t hide my laugh. The urge to touch his lips apparently ran in the family. Beth gave me a stern look and I stopped laughing. She looked back at Dale and put her hand on her hip. At five she was quite the diva. “Smile.”

  “What?”

  “Smile.” She stamped her foot for effect. “I said it slow. Any man should be able to understand.”

  Scott started to correct her but Dale put his hand up and stopped him.

  Dale smiled wide and laughed softly. “You are just like your aunt.”

  Beth squealed and tossed her arms around Dale’s neck causing him to lose his balance a bit. He touched the ground to stay up with one hand and patted Beth on the back with the other.

>   “I didn’t know if it was you or if Aunt Liz tried to sneak someone else in. I promised you that I wouldn’t let her do that and I didn’t. Was that good, Uncle Dale?”

  Uncle Dale?

  I couldn’t have been more surprised if I tried. “You put my niece on spy duty?”

  Beth nodded proudly as Dale looked at the ground. “Yep and I’ve done really good. The last four times,” she held up for fingers just in case I needed a visual, “you’ve been home he had me do it.”

  “You’ve had her spying since she turned four? Isn’t that against child labor laws?”

  Dale grinned and pulled his wallet out. “I think that you did such a good job that you’ve earned a reward.” He pulled out a hundred dollar bill and went to hand it to her. Scott and I both moved forward.

  “Dale, she’s five!”

  “Right.” He nodded and pulled four more out to go with the first one. I shoved them back in his wallet and grabbed a one dollar bill instead. I handed it to Beth-Ann who smiled just as wide as she would have if it would have been a hundred dollar bill.

  Scott looked at me and I knew what he was thinking. Was this guy for real?

  “Thanks, Uncle Dale!” She beamed as she hugged him tight.

  My mother hid her laugh and put her hand out. “Come on Beth, Nana needs help with the green beans.”

  Beth ran after her and my brother put his hand out to Dale. “Nice to finally meet you.”

  “You too.”

  Scott looked back at me and laughed.

  Jerk.

  “Did I do something wrong?” Dale asked so innocently that I wanted to cup his cheeks and kiss him. So I did.

  When I pulled back I snickered. “Honey, you don’t give four-year-olds that much money. You give them a dollar and it makes them happy.”

  “My father gave me hundreds,” he said defensively.

  “And that’s why we’re having this conversation now.” I took his hand in mine as he stood. I pulled him through the large white arbor and onto the tiny inlayed stone path that lead to the kitchen and back of the house.