The Boss Next Door (Harlequin Heartwarming)

by Fox, Roz Denny

  “I can’t say ‘happened by’ is accurate. She had it in her head before she came over. She said Keith shouldn’t stay alone while I went to a breakfast meeting. Listen, I planned to call a babysitting service from the get-go. But this arrangement apparently suits her—and Keith. Frankly, I’m not sure it’s anyone else’s business. Including yours, buddy.” Garrett thumped Nolan’s chest twice with his forefinger.

  “Sherry is family. You may get bored with the job and move on. She’ll stay. In this town you don’t live down gossip like having an affair with your boss.”

  “Should I take out a billboard saying we’re not sleeping together?”

  Nolan backed away from the fire in Garrett’s eyes. “So...nothing’s going on?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Why?”

  “Pardon me?” Garrett took an exaggerated whiff of Nolan’s breath.

  “I haven’t even had a beer. Don’t you find my sister attractive?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “But what? I never figured you’d believe that trash about her. She’s no man-hater.”

  Garrett tipped his head and wiggled a finger in his ear. “Excuse me. First you threaten to tear me limb from limb for sleeping with your sister. Then you call me a jerk because I’m not. Which is it, pal?”

  Nolan rammed both hands into his front pockets and gazed sheepishly at Garrett. “Guess I’m off base on both counts, huh?”

  “Mm.” Garrett’s reply lodged in his throat as he remembered the heated kiss they’d shared. And the thoughts that kept him awake more nights than he cared to admit. Garrett chose not to tell Nolan just how attractive he did find his sister. Mostly because Garrett’s feelings were muddled at best. She was beautiful. Passionate about things she believed in. Easy to talk to. And his son thought the world of her. Beyond that, Garrett wasn’t willing to venture. Except he knew he’d rather be with her and Keith tonight than at this dance with her roommate.

  Nolan clapped Garrett on the back. “Glad we had this talk. Are you ready to go back and party?”

  “I’m ready to go home. If you’ll excuse me, I need to tell Yvette.”

  “She won’t leave. Yvette parties till the cows come home.”

  Garrett shrugged. “We came in separate cars. If she chooses to stay, it’s okay by me.”

  Which didn’t stop Yvette from pitching a fit, trying to change his mind. Garrett stood firm, although embarrassed by the scene. As he told his host and hostess goodbye, they made him feel persona non grata. Garrett worried he might inadvertently have added to the lies circling campus. On the other hand, he’d convinced Nolan there was nothing going on between him and Sherilyn. As her brother and a respected member of the faculty, he’d probably set about successfully squelching rumors.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  ON THE DRIVE HOME Garrett had time to think more clearly. Was Sherry aware of the talk? he wondered. He’d lashed out at Nolan in a knee-jerk reaction, but Garrett knew how conservative college administrators could be—and how they reacted to news of divorce or hanky-panky involving staff. They got nervous. Very nervous. And that didn’t even address his problems if Carla’s lawyer got wind of slanderous gossip.

  So what? This wasn’t the eighteen-nineties. Both he and Sherry were single and past the age of consent.

  Consent to what? Garrett snorted. A body would think something had happened between them. One kiss did not an affair make. But there were kisses...and kisses.

  The smart thing to do was end all contact between them outside of work. Sherry hadn’t seemed enthusiastic about going with him to St. Louis, anyway. It’d be a simple matter to say he’d changed his mind.

  Except he hadn’t. His son would be disappointed. Who was he kidding? He would be disappointed. Until this minute he hadn’t realized how much he’d looked forward to Sherry’s company on the return trip, after leaving Keith with Carla. Well, it couldn’t be helped. As Nolan had so brutally pointed out, Sherry’s reputation was on the line. Even conservative administrations looked the other way when male professors strayed. It might be the new millennium, but the double standard hadn’t changed.

  Parking in his designated spot, Garrett turned off the lights and yanked on the emergency brake. He ripped off his tie and, as he did, experienced a quiver low in his stomach at the memory of Sherry watching him tie it this morning. Her golden eyes had flowed over his chest. Garrett would bet money she didn’t have a clue she’d done it or that he’d noticed.

  He’d noticed all right. It was all he could do to keep his composure.

  He shrugged out of his suit jacket, picked up his briefcase and slammed the car door with more force than necessary. At the gate his steps faltered. Warm light spilled from the windows of his home. In Texas, Keith had always stayed at the sitter’s. The house had always been dark when he came home late. Who’d have thought a few lightbulbs would turn a man’s guts inside out? Garrett pushed through the gate. If he’d suspected that, he’d have put a lamp on a timer.

  The porch light, too, shone a welcoming beacon. Had Sherry left it on for him? Why were she and Keith home so early? He quickly checked his watch. Eleven. Not early at all. Where had the time gone? Although it had been after nine when he got to the party. The deans had hammered him all day and into the dinner hour, trying to wear him down and get him to pull the plug on the Hub. He’d trimmed so much fat from other beefy areas that he felt like the local butcher. Sherry would be pleased, he thought as he turned his key in the lock. He’d saved every one of her services.

  Stepping inside, Garrett sucked in the scent of cinnamon and coffee. Another wave of nostalgia overtook his senses, one stretching back to the happy days of his youth. His dad, a writer, had worked at home. His mother always had a pot of coffee on, and she filled the house with the aroma of baked bread at least twice a week.

  Until his stomach growled, Garrett had forgotten that he’d missed the barbecue portion of the party. All he’d had to eat since lunch was a handful of pretzels and half a soda. Bypassing the living room where the light was low, he headed for the kitchen, assuming that was where he’d find Sherry. The room was empty. He dropped his coat and case on a chair, staring at a coffee cake that sat cooling on the counter. Powdered sugar frosting still dripped onto the plate. He resisted swiping a finger through it for a taste and backtracked to the living room, calling Sherry’s name softly as he went.

  The minute he crossed under the arched doorway, Garrett saw why the house remained so still. She lay curled in the corner of his couch, feet bare, student papers floating unheeded from her lap to the floor. She’d fallen asleep.

  A lump rose in his throat at the homey picture she presented. A half-full cup of coffee rested on a coaster. The lamp, though low, glinted off red and gold highlights in her sable hair. On a whim Garrett leaned down to see if the thick lashes that lay against her cheeks were a mix of colors, too. With her face shadowed by the sofa’s winged back he wasn’t able to tell. He did know that up close her skin reminded him of vanilla ice cream.

  Twice he reached out to touch her cheek. Twice he drew back and watched the faint rise and fall of her chest. She slept, lips slightly parted. But no sound whispered through them. She looked like a waif, her face without makeup, hair feathered carelessly around it.

  Garrett shifted on the balls of his feet. It felt as if unseen fingers clutched his windpipe, forcing his breath out in ragged spurts.

  Sherry stirred. Her eyelids fluttered open. Groggy with sleep, she sensed a presence. An intruder? Panic welled in her throat. Then she saw a dark shape looming over her. Rearing back, she screamed. She felt a textbook she’d been using earlier topple from her lap. Papers crunched under her feet as she tried to escape the hands reaching out to her—to clamp across her mouth. Her heart hammered wildly, deafeningly, in her ears. A second scream built. Fear tasted metallic on her tongue.


  “Easy, easy.” Garrett took his hand from her mouth and lifted her free of the books and papers scattered around her. “Don’t scream,” he said gruffly, tucking her face against his chest and her head beneath his chin. “It’s me, Garrett. The last thing I wanted was to scare you. But you’ll wake Keith.” Smoothing a hand up and down Sherry’s shuddering back, he slowly rocked from side to side.

  She felt her heart drop from a gallop to a canter as she absorbed the heat pulsing through Garrett’s shirtfront. A shirt that tickled her nose and crinkled crisply in her ear. She should say something to let him know he hadn’t permanently warped her psyche. But lethargy seeped into her bones. She felt giddy and weightless, and closed her eyes again.

  “Sherilyn? Are you all right?”

  Nodding dumbly, Sherry wasn’t even aware that her arms were locked in a stranglehold around his neck. Because his worried questions beat rhythmically against her eardrums, she curved away from him with a sigh. “You scared me into next Juvember.” Loosening her grip, she slid to her feet. “I’ll live. You must wonder what kind of sitter falls asleep on the job. A burglar could have waltzed in and walked off with the silver.”

  A shaky laugh rumbled from Garrett’s throat. “You’re safe there. The silver went with Carla. As did any crystal, china and linens. Not that we had much. We were both struggling college students. Frankly, the pieces we received as wedding gifts looked out of place in our tiny apartment. I was just glad she left Keith’s crib and chest of drawers.” His thumbs scraped lightly over her jaw, while his gaze meandered lazily over her sleep-flushed features.

  More conscious now, Sherry digested what he’d just said. Some of those wedding gifts must have come from his friends and family, and Carla took them all? When she’d counseled divorced wives who poured their hearts out in her office at the Hub, not once had she thought of an ex-husband’s needs. Her focus had been on securing a workable household for the displaced mom and kids. Feeling guilty, Sherry stepped away from Garrett. She rubbed at goose bumps that rose on her bare arms.

  “What’s wrong? Did I hurt you when I yanked you off the couch?” He brushed her fingers aside and inspected her upper arms.

  His warm breath skittered across her skin. Laughing nervously, she massaged away a shiver. “Garrett? Why did your lawyer let Carla take so much when you were the one left to provide a home for Keith?”

  At the time of his divorce, he and Carla had shared a lawyer to cut costs. A lawyer she’d found. Too late, Garrett realized the man was her friend, not his. The one-sided disbursement of joint goods had been a sore point for a long time. One he never talked about. He couldn’t think why he’d brought it up now. Garrett thought he’d finally evolved beyond the anger.

  “We split six years ago. Maybe I don’t have silver and maybe the furniture doesn’t get dusted regularly. But I’d gladly stack up Keith’s home against any you care to show me.”

  “I never meant... Garrett, I’m sorry.” She closed the distance between them. “Your place has what a child needs most—love.” Turning from him, she began to collect her papers and pile them neatly. “Keith and I had a blast at the arcade tonight. He’s dead-eye Dick with the control stick. No Tiger Woods at golf, I’m afraid,” she said, chuckling at the memory. “Did you have fun at the Conways’?” she asked lightly.

  He knelt to help her. “I may as well tell you. I suppose you’ll hear, anyway. Your brother gave me kind of a hard time. Then Yvette wanted me to stay longer and I left early. She’s...not pleased.”

  “Oh, Yvette blows up and gets over it. But Nolan? He’s normally so laid-back. What set him off?”

  “I...” Garrett got very precise straightening the edges of a stack of tests. “Rumors concerning you and me,” he growled. “On campus. Have you heard them?” Setting the papers aside, he paced to the fireplace and back, massaging his neck.

  She turned aside to keep Garrett from seeing the hot flush climbing up her neck. “A little over a year ago Nolan was dumped by his fiancée, who made some cutting remarks in front of staff. The whole thing got blown out of proportion. It was headline news around campus until the next rumor hit the fan. I give the latest gossip a week—two at most—to run its course.”

  Garrett shifted a picture of Keith that sat on the mantel. “It’s my fault. I should have called you into my office to give you my house key.” He was on the verge of telling her about his decision to avoid contact with her outside of work when she glanced up from stuffing some of the papers into her book bag.

  “Don’t be so quick to take all the blame, Garrett. This morning Lynn Tabor stopped by our table at the restaurant. She confused Keith with Mark. I said he was your son. I just neglected to add that I was doing you a favor running Keith to school.”

  “Lynn Tabor.” Garrett groaned. “So she assumes all women are like her? I’ve never met anyone who comes on so strong—except for Yvette. I’ve uninvited Lynn to my house twice. I’ve started keeping a list of excuses so I don’t mess up and do something stupid like kill off my grandfather twice.”

  Sherry’s eyes darkened sympathetically. “I know how Lynn is. She says vile things about people. She loves to stir the pot. Yet I deliberately let her think the worst. If I could take it all back, I would.”

  Garrett found himself growing angry at Lynn and those who listened and believed her lies. Lynn had probably fueled the first rumors he’d heard about Sherilyn. And Sherilyn had never acknowledged that the stories hurt her. But it didn’t take a Rhodes scholar to see how vulnerable she was. Now he was glad he hadn’t brushed her off. “You’re right, Sherilyn. Campus rumors are shortlived. What do you say we don’t let on we’ve heard them? Hey, join me for a cup of coffee and a slice of that cake some good fairy left in my kitchen. And I’ll give you the best news you’ve heard all day.”

  A sunny smile brought a dimple to her cheek. “You saved the Hub?” Her shaky question vibrated with hope.

  Garrett loved to see the eager anticipation flood her face and brighten her jewel eyes. He was tempted to drag out his response. But the breathless way she danced toward him, a bundle of nervous energy, had him reaching for her and blurting out the truth. “The budget committee didn’t like leaving the Hub funding in, but I’m well within the parameters they set for total dollars. Outside of finalizing, it’s a done deal.”

  Sherry threw her arms around his neck. Elated, she rained kisses on his face.

  Tongue cloven to the roof of his mouth, Garrett could do little but grin like a fool. Encircling her with his arms was automatic. She made his head swim with the smell of lilacs and shampoo and something he’d begun to recognize as her special womanly scent. All his good intentions to keep a distance between them evaporated like smoke.

  He kissed her back, at first matching her soft childlike pecks. Next came slower but as yet impersonal kisses between friends. Then, holding her head in both his hands, Garrett touched Sherry’s lips with his tongue and kissed her the way a man kisses a woman he cares about. It’d been so long since he’d allowed himself to feel this way, the truth momentarily escaped him.

  Sherry didn’t realize she’d been waiting for a repeat performance of the last time they kissed until her fingers framed his face and she strained on tiptoe to feel his chest against her—didn’t realize it until a fire ignited in her belly. It wasn’t that she’d never kissed a man, as some on campus hinted. More that she’d never allowed herself to let go. With Garrett it was different. She couldn’t hang on to a single solitary thought.

  Time held no meaning until the grandfather clock standing at the foot of the stairs chimed twelve. Garrett broke away, dragging in ragged breaths as the sound clanged inside his head. His gaze left her swollen lips and smoky eyes to travel over her pale face, illuminated in the glow of the lamp. A lamp that also highlighted the wooden banister that led to the loft. A loft where Keith slept. Since the move, his son often fought
bad dreams in the middle of the night.

  What was he thinking? What if Keith—? Garrett catapulted away from Sherry, unable to even finish the thought.

  “Garrett?” Her voice seemed to come from miles away as he stood in the middle of the room clenching and unclenching his fists.

  Noticing his harshly set jaw, she felt heat blaze up her neck and sting her cheeks. Why didn’t he say something? He was obviously drowning in remorse. What was the protocol in a situation like this? Should she laugh it off and leave? And then tomorrow morning return to business as usual? As she gathered books and papers, her hands shook noticeably.

  All at once Garrett landed on a knee at her feet. “Don’t look like that. Like we did something horribly wrong.” He cleared his throat. “I just... If Keith... What I’m trying to say is...I don’t make this a habit.”

  “If you think it’s my normal modus operandi,” she said hotly, “you’re mistaken.”

  “I know that.” He caught her fluttering hands and drew his thumbs back and forth across her knuckles.

  She stared at his hands, remembering how she liked the feel of them on her skin. Not something she cared to have Keith see any more than his father did. They were friends, she and Keith. Sherry knew the boy was confused about his mother’s sudden appearance in his life. Confused by her marriage to a man he didn’t like. Keith was pretty vocal about not liking it when Yvette kissed his dad. What if...?

  “Garrett.” Her voice caught. “I’d never do anything to hurt Keith. This is my fault. I was deliriously happy that you’d saved the Hub. Things got out of hand.”

  Garrett absorbed her precise little statement. He felt like shaking her until she admitted the truth. But reason stole over him. Letting it go for the moment made sense. He acknowledged what they both knew—that Sherry had become Keith’s rock. A liaison between himself and her was trouble looking for a place to happen.