Garrett, Mark and Keith watched him lope from the room. Garrett and Mark gathered soft drinks.
“I’m not a guy,” Megan said as they followed Nolan. “But I like the Chiefs, too.”
Left in the kitchen to await the second bag of popcorn, Sherry endured Emily’s grilling. “You rascal. Holding out on us, huh? Do I smell something cooking between our maid of honor and our best man?”
“Popcorn,” Sherry said flippantly. Then spun and gaped. “Best man? When did Lock go from being handed a casual invitation to being best man?”
Emily took the bag from the microwave and dumped the contents in a bowl. Sliding it to the center of the table, she sat in the nearest chair. “Nolan’s held off asking anyone from his department. He didn’t want to step on toes. The other day, when Garrett helped on the house and we all had such a good time, Nolan asked him. He seemed genuinely touched, and agreed. Quit changing the subject.” Emily idly picked up a piece of popcorn. “It’s not too late to make it a double wedding.”
“A double—?” Sherry swallowed a kernel whole. Nan reached over and pounded her on the back. “It’s nothing like that, Em,” Sherry choked out. She explained the meeting that had taken her to Garrett’s tonight.
“Mm-hmm.” Emily just smiled.
“Stop that, Em.” Sherry flopped back in the chair, at once remembering Yvette. She straightened. “In fact, he had a date with Yvette tonight. So they’re more likely to take the plunge. She’s declared him to be the love of her life.”
Nan snorted. “Number what? She’s in double digits when it comes to being in love, isn’t she?”
“Even so, don’t look for Lock and me to set off any rockets. He’s my boss, for crying out loud.”
Emily closed her eyes and cupped her hands around the popcorn bowl as if it were a crystal ball. “I see love in your stars. I feel it in the cosmic vibes.”
Sherry laughed. “Get out hip boots, everyone. I hope you don’t expect me to cross your palm with silver, Madame X.”
“Okay, skeptic. But mark my words,” Emily said smugly.
“Enough nonsense,” chided Nan. “Sherry, what’s going to happen about Keith and the dog? If he has to give Rags up, that boy will be heartbroken.”
Sherry sobered immediately. “I wish it’d been a mutt. Then there’d be a better chance Rags hasn’t got an owner. But if no one turns up, I can ask our complex owner to make an exception. Ron’s a softie. I didn’t tell Garrett and Keith, but Ron looked the other way when the kids who used to live in that house found a kitten.”
“If Garrett relents and lets Keith spend the night tonight, on the way home you might introduce that idea gently. I can’t decide if Garrett doesn’t want to deal with a pet or if he’s only concerned with breaking the rules.”
Sherry gazed at her mother. “I’ll attest to the fact that he’s a stickler for rules. But if you convince him to let Keith stay here, I’ll offer to talk to Ron.”
“Deal.” Nan stood. “Come help me tie satin ribbon around the rest of the favors. We can watch the game as we work. At the end of third quarter, I’ll open the floodgates on the question of sleeping over. I think Mark and Megan will run with the ball from there, don’t you?”
“Mom, I never realized you were so devious.”
“Mothers have to be to survive kids. Just wait, you’ll see.”
Sherry shook her head. “Not me. Never.” Yet even as the words left her lips, her head and her heart objected. She had to admit to suffering a stab of envy when Nolan, Emily, Megan and Mark had piled into the house tonight full of laughter.
Silly! It’s just that old biological clock tick-tick-ticking. She bustled about cleaning up the kitchen.
“You’re a regular Suzy Homemaker.” Emily grinned, not the least deterred by the fact that Sherry was trying to ignore her.
At the pause between the third and fourth quarter, true to her word, Nan introduced the subject of Keith and Rags spending the night. As predicted, Megan and Mark jumped on the bandwagon. Poor Garrett didn’t know what ran over him. Even Murphy barked his two cents’ worth, waddled over, sniffed the pup thoroughly, then lapped Rags’s face.
The group looked so right together that a bone-deep feeling of contentment mocked Sherry’s earlier denial. No, she told herself, it was better—safer—to recognize the scene before her as a sham. She was Lock’s subordinate; he’d never allow himself to get involved with a staff member.
Yet she continued to daydream and was surprised when everyone jumped up announcing that the game was over and the Chiefs had won.
“The Cowboys had three men out with injuries.” Garrett made allowances.
“Traitor.” Nolan poked Garrett in the ribs.
Doubling over, Garrett slapped Nolan’s hands away.
“You try switching horses in midstream. I’ve been a Cowboys’ fan all my life.”
“You’re lucky we’re non-violent types,” joked Sherry’s dad. “In a lot of circles them’s fightin’ words.”
Garrett’s eyes lit on Sherry and he smiled indulgently. “Not all Campbells are nonviolent. Am I in danger of being murdered on the way home?”
“Not because of football ties. Keep heckling me and maybe yes.” Sherry hadn’t joked around in some time and realized it felt good. Being with her family felt good. When had she started spending so much time at work that she’d forsaken lazy evenings like these?
Garrett shook hands with Ben and Nolan, but his gaze remained on Sherry, who deftly tied a slippery ribbon around the last favor in the basket.
“Are you doing groom’s cake, too?” she asked her mother. At Nan’s nod, Sherry said, “Call me when you’re planning to do it. I’ve wrapped enough groom’s cake for friends’ weddings I could cut those foil squares in my sleep.”
“Always a bridesmaid, never a bride?” Nolan teased. “After the first of the year, guys, we’re going to have to do some serious matchmaking for this lady.”
“Not!” Sherry stood and punched her brother’s arm.
Keith looked up from his seat on the floor between the two dogs. Dark eyes serious, he said into the sudden silence, “If I was older I’d marry her. She does neat things. Skates. Likes cool music, and she’s really good at giving dogs baths.”
For too long a time no one spoke. Nolan found his voice first. “All-important criteria for choosing a wife. Here, I picked Emily because she could cook.” Mugging, he slung an arm around his sputtering fiancée’s shoulders and nuzzled her ear.
After the laughter died, Garrett told Sherry they’d better leave. “I’ll pick Keith up at ten tomorrow. And no dallying, son. I’m telling you right now, Rags stays here.”
“Okay. But can I visit him every day until you know for sure he don’t belong to nobody?”
“I won’t promise, Keith. Next week the college starts budget meetings. I expect a lot of early mornings and late nights.”
The boy seemed so distraught Sherry blurted without thinking, “If your dad doesn’t mind, I’ll bring you here to visit Rags.”
“Really?” He perked right up. “Thanks!”
Garrett didn’t say anything then. He did after they reached the car. “What are you trying to do, Sherilyn? Undermine me? Why give him false hope?”
“You’re totally insensitive. He’s lonely and he already loves that dog. There’s a fifty-fifty chance no one will answer your ad.”
“That’ll be ten times worse. Who’d give him a home? I know you think I’m hardhearted. Not even I can take that fuzzy mop to the dog pound.”
“What if I asked the complex owner to bend the rules? I know him pretty well.”
“That’s convenient. How well?” Garrett snapped, unable to disguise a thread of jealousy that he could actually hear in his voice.
Sherry heard it, too. “Ron Erickson is my dad’
s age. I went all through school with his twin sons. Anyway, what’s it to you?”
“Nothing,” Garrett muttered. “It’s a better solution than your first one of asking Carla and the banker to give the dog a home,” he said bitterly.
“If you have such negative feelings about your ex, why did you move here?”
Sighing, Garrett gripped the steering wheel tighter. When the silence dragged on, he explained Carla’s belated interest in her son. “My lawyer said to play along. He thought she’d back off. I honestly don’t know what I’ll do if after all this time some judge gives her custody of Keith. She abandoned him when he was two. Doesn’t that count?”
Sherry chewed at her lip. She’d counseled women who sobbed that same question in her office on numerous occasions. Over the years she’d gotten inured to the father’s side of divorce issues. Oddly enough, she found herself in sympathy with Garrett. She didn’t want to be. Every avenue she’d worked so hard to establish at the Hub assumed the woman—the mother—was virtually always the injured party. If Garrett’s case was valid, how many other men shared his plight? Sherry refused to consider that her feelings might be biased. Garrett was probably one man in a million. And if he was such a great husband and dad... That spawned another question.
“Why haven’t you remarried? I know it’s not for lack of prospects. I’ve seen women flock to your door.”
“I...I...” he stammered. Although nearly six years had passed since his failure with Carla, Garrett still had trouble admitting he feared a repeat. He found it infinitely easier to let women think he preferred to devote his energies to work and to raising his son. Far safer than venturing his heart again.
“I’m sorry,” Sherry mumbled. “I had no right to pry.” Then tension was so thick she exhaled in relief on seeing they’d arrived back at the complex. Jumping out, she shut the door before he’d circled the bed of the pickup to assist her—something she noticed he did as a matter of course.
They walked in silence to his gate. Sherry would have hurried on to her place, but Garrett caught her hands, stalling her in the muted lamplight. “Don’t rush off before I thank you. Maybe I didn’t sound it, but I’m grateful you came along when you did. In Texas I had friends who were single parents. We shared war stories and lent each other a hand. Here, I’m on my own. And Keith...” Garrett swallowed hard and tightened his fingers around her hands. “It hurts me to see him unhappy. With budget talks starting next week, I’ll have even less time to spend with him.”
Sherry saw the shudder in his chest as he closed his eyes and released a pent-up breath. He’d just laid out another problem that she thought was a women’s issue. She really had hidden her head in the sand. Impulsively she squeezed his hand. “I love kids, Garrett. And Keith’s a fine bright boy. Why don’t I collect him from day care? He and I can skate, rent videos or visit Rags. On the rare days I’m tied up with late meetings, I’m sure Mom would fill in. Just add our names to the authorized list.”
Garrett, humbled and touched by her sincerity, searched for but didn’t find subterfuge in the depths of her warm dark eyes.
“I...I don’t quite know what to say. I’ve never had a sitter with a doctorate,” he teased, freeing one hand to cup her cheek. The next second, without even knowing he was going to, he kissed her. It was a kiss born of gratitude, but his lips had barely connected with hers before it changed.
In shock, Sherry did nothing to break away. At least not at first. She rose on tiptoe, reveling in the weightless feeling that came with the unexpected kiss.
The squeal of tires out on the street jarred both of them into separating at the same time. Each tried to appear unaffected. Both breathed raggedly.
Sherry saw excuses building in his blue eyes. Preferring not to hear them, she whispered a husky goodbye and literally ran down the walkway to her town house.
Unsettled as she felt, she wasn’t at all prepared for Yvette’s verbal attack.
Pacing the entryway, an ugly twist to her mouth, Yvette shrieked, “Some friend! Where have you and Garrett been for three hours?”
“I...I...” Sherry got hold of her raw feelings and explained about the dog.
“Don’t add lying to back stabbing! Keith wasn’t even with you just now. I saw you kiss Garrett, Sherry.” She crossed her arms and tapped a foot. “I want you to move out. Tomorrow isn’t soon enough.”
That sent a wave of anger through Sherry as nothing else had. “Me? I will not move. The lease is in my name. If anyone leaves it’ll be you.”
“Well, I don’t have money for first and last months’ rent. So we’re at a stalemate. But don’t think you’ll get away with this. When I get through telling people what you’ve done, you won’t have a single friend left.” Snatching her purse, Yvette slammed out of the house.
Sherry stifled a cry with her fist. She stared at the door for a long time, hating the fact that a one-time friendship had ended so badly. Yet try as she might, she couldn’t make herself feel bad about kissing Garrett Lock.
CHAPTER NINE
THE ENTIRE WEEKEND Sherry didn’t catch sight of Garrett again. He called Saturday to ask her advice on wording the dog ad. She had reservations about it for Keith’s sake. But in the end, she suggested also placing a notice in the neighborhood newspaper that was distributed free to homes near the school.
Yvette kept a low profile, too. Though Sherry was in and out running errands and doing laundry, their paths never crossed. Sherry doubted they’d salvage any part of the friendship that’d been forged when they were young. And it saddened her.
She also dwelt on the feelings that had developed between her and Garrett. After examining it from all angles, she’d come to the conclusion that the kiss had sprung from the tension of the moment. Nothing more.
Sherry was sure her assessment was correct when Garrett rushed into her office on Monday morning asking for—no, demanding—figures to take to his first budget exercise. She called them exercises because they were repetitive and raised everyone’s blood pressure for weeks.
The way he barked at her, she decided any real or perceived emotions they’d shared had flown from his mind two seconds after parting—if those feelings had ever been more than a figment of her imagination. If anyone had even jokingly said a simple kiss would have such a profound effect on her, Sherry would have laughed outright. Since he’d certainly erased all memories of it, she’d show him she could be just as blasé.
“I saw your ad in Sunday’s paper,” she said by way of polite conversation. “I didn’t expect it to run so quickly.”
He glanced up blankly from a stack of reports Angel had handed him. “Ad?”
She could almost see his mind screech to a halt. “Lost and found. For Rags,” she reminded him, leaning casually on the table where he was seated.
His eyes were level with a chunky gold-chain belt Sherry wore loosely looped around her hips. It circled a lime silk blouse that fell over the orangest orange skirt Garrett had ever seen. A floaty skirt reaching her knees on legs that were long and smooth and tanned. Garrett coughed, doing his best to refocus on the figures covering the pages now strewn over the tabletop.
“Well, did you get any calls on Sunday afternoon or evening?”
“Calls?” Garrett felt like a parrot. Some part of his brain functioned enough to know that. The rest was frozen in a purely male response linked to the vision shimmering before him.
“You think that by not talking about Rags the problem will disappear? I’m here to tell you it won’t. Not that you’ll care, but last night I phoned Ron and laid the groundwork for Keith to keep Rags in the town house. Ron hasn’t agreed yet. But he hasn’t said no, either. You’re to give him a jingle if the pup’s owner doesn’t show up.”
Garrett managed to assimilate every third word. Enough to get the drift. “No one called,” he admitted gruffly. “Keith is
flying in the clouds. I tried to tell him it’s early to claim victory. He refuses to listen.” Discussing his son served to take Garrett’s mind off areas he had no business thinking about in the first place. Sherry was so cool today she couldn’t have been as affected as he was by that kiss Friday night.
Even now he’d like to rattle her cage. See how cool she’d be if he got up, locked the door and announced that his thoughts ran toward the two of them staging an encore.
Bad idea. Garrett shrugged out of a suit jacket that suddenly made him sweat and snapped forward in his chair. Hoping to dismiss her with a roll of one shoulder and the appearance of dedication to the task at hand, he got out his pencil and set some purely meaningless figures down on the ever-present legal pad.
Sherry took the hint. “Guess I’d better quit bugging you. Any other information you need, just yell. I’m sorry we didn’t finish our talk regarding the services we offer before you have to slice and dice our budget.”
“Me, too,” he grunted. And that was an understatement. There was much about Friday he’d like to play over. Ten percent he wouldn’t trade, he thought reluctantly, swiveling to watch her leave the conference room.
Garrett tapped his pencil idly, wondering what Sherry liked to do on weekends. He wondered a lot of things about her. None pertained to work or, more specifically, to her department budget. After another five minutes or so of nonproductivity, Garrett stacked the papers one last time, picked them up and told Angel he was taking them back to his office. The look that young woman delivered him cut him down to size. She’d seen his interest in Sherry and made no pretense of liking it. That was okay. Garrett didn’t care to have it flashing in neon, either. His interest was illogical. Insane. He met Angel’s frigid gaze without flinching.
As Sherry worked in her office, Angel burst through the door, interrupting her dictation. Surprised, she faltered over a word and clicked off the handheld mike. She’d decided to provide Garrett with a list of the points she’d intended to make at the meeting they never had.
The Boss Next Door (Harlequin Heartwarming) Page 14
