Fighting Fate

by Louise Clark

  She dumped her purse into her desk drawer, then got down to business. After she’d arranged for Angela to go up to Sue Green’s office and file the stack of materials Cody had been collecting, she checked her e-mail and dealt with the various replies. She was deep into her major task for the morning, reviewing budget figures for the quarter, when June tapped on her door.

  “Sorry to interrupt you, Faith, but I’ve got a problem. Can you help?”

  Faith sat back, stretched, and said, “What’s up, June?”

  “I can’t access some of the files on the network. They’re ones I need in order to complete the mailing I’m sending out.”

  “Have you called Cody Simpson?”

  “I just did.”

  “Did you talk to him directly?”

  June shook her head. “I left a voicemail.”

  Faith considered that. Cody might be at his desk, but even if he was, he didn’t pay much attention to messages. There was also a good chance that he was hiding away in his secret place, working on one of his projects. She stood up. “I’ll take a look. If it’s a little thing I can easily sort out we won’t have to wait on Cody.”

  It wasn’t. Faith spent fifteen minutes assessing the situation, then glanced at her watch. “Okay, it’s eleven o’clock. Let’s give Cody a half-an-hour or an hour to get down here. If he hasn’t shown up by noon, I’ll call him and ask him to come down as soon as possible. Yesterday, if he can.”

  At noon June poked her head in the door. “He didn’t come.”

  That meant she was going to have to call Cody herself. She thought about the little bit of a dress that made her feel and look good and considered taking a trip up to his second floor lair, but decided to stick with voice and e-mail. When he came down she’d have a chance to see him. “Okay, I’ll organize this, June. Let me know when Cody arrives.”

  Of course his voicemail was on, so Faith left a message and sent him an urgent e-mail. Assuming he’d call right back after the way they’d meshed last night, she stayed at her desk and worked through lunch. The hour flew by, then June came in to say she was back from lunch, but the problem hadn’t been fixed.

  That put a damper on Faith’s buoyant good mood, but only a small one. Sooner or later Cody was going to show up and then she’d have a chance to talk to him. Humming a little tune, she called him again, then added an e-mail for good measure, and went back to work.

  June was back again a while later—an hour later!—to say her network link was still down. Faith considered her options. Between them, she and June had contacted Cody several times. If he ever picked up his phone or checked his e-mail he’d be awash with requests to come down to the main offices to fix June’s malfunctioning computer. Adding another one to the total would be like pouring a glass of water into a lake—unnoticeable.

  What this needed was the personal touch. She’d go up to the second floor and seek out Cody in his secret hiding place, room two-oh-seven. She let June know her plan, then hummed as she climbed the stairs and followed the hallway around corners into the depths of the building.

  When she reached two-oh-seven Cody wasn’t there. Nor was he in his corner office with the big windows. Faith’s mood plummeted. Where in heavens was he? She glanced at her watch. It was nearly two-thirty. He couldn’t be at lunch. No one ate lunch this late in the afternoon. Maybe he was in the washroom. She waited five minutes. Frustration grew. When he didn’t show up, she gritted her teeth and checked the men’s washroom by knocking on the door, then pushing it open and asking if there was anyone in there.

  There wasn’t. Or at least, there wasn’t anyone who was willing to admit his presence. With frustration rapidly ballooning into annoyance, Faith again checked his office, two-oh-seven, and even Sue Green’s office. When she had no luck finding Cody, she returned to the main suite.

  Somewhere between the second floor and the first, annoyance settled into a stubborn determination that June’s computer was going to be fixed today and that Cody was going to do it. Buried deep within that determination was a sense of betrayal. Last night Cody had made her believe that he accepted the pressures she was under, that he understood why she had to contact him to make the repairs on her department’s computers, that he was willing to work with her to ensure that what needed to be done would be done. He had told her about two-oh-seven hadn’t he? Wasn’t that evidence of his new cooperative attitude?

  Evidently not. The moment Faith reached her office she emailed, then phoned Cody. She did a follow-up five minutes later, then five minutes after that. With each unanswered call her stress levels rose, along with her temper.

  The clock was hovering between three-thirty and three-forty-five when June tapped on Faith’s door and announced that Cody was fixing her computer. Faith breathed a sigh of relief. After wrestling her temper under tight control she went out to June’s desk.

  Cody’s attention was riveted to the computer. He was dressed as he normally was, in jeans that hugged his lean hips and a t-shirt that made the most of his shoulders and strong arms. As he worked a lock of dark hair fell over his forehead, creating a look that was relaxed and decidedly sexy. Some of Faith’s tension eased, but not all of it. She’d needed his help hours ago and his slow response to her urgent messages had caused her and her staff problems that need not have happened.

  As if he’d felt her presence, he looked up. His expression shifted to one that was decidedly hostile. “We need to talk.”

  “Yes, we do,” Faith replied. She didn’t like his tone, or the grim look on his face. “My office when you’re done.” She deliberately turned and walked away without waiting for his response. She figured if they were going to have a battle over this, she needed to do everything she could to get the upper hand.

  She was halfway to her office when she felt a hand close around her arm. Surprised, she looked up to see Cody. Then suddenly he was leading her to her office, she wasn’t heading there on her own. Her temper started to steam again. It reached a full boil when he hauled her into her own office and shut her door behind them.

  “Did you fix June’s problem?” she asked. The effort to keep her tone coolly controlled when she wanted to shriek at him set her temper sizzling even more.

  Standing with his back to the closed door, he observed her thoughtfully, his hands in his pockets. His apparent calm was in sharp contrast to her annoyance.

  He advanced into the room, stopping just in front of her. “Yes. It was nothing major.”

  “Great. I have a staff member who couldn’t do her job all day because of a simple little problem.”

  Something akin to humor danced in his eyes. “You should have come up to two-oh-seven.”

  His response freed her seething temper. “I did. You weren’t there. You weren’t in your office either. You weren’t even in the bathroom! Cody, it took five hours and phone calls every few minutes to get a response from you! I thought we went out last night so we could get better acquainted and make sure this kind of miscommunication wouldn’t happen anymore.”

  A frown snapped his brows together. “Is that why you went out with me? To create a better working relationship between us?”

  “No! That’s not it…” Flustered, Faith’s voice dwindled to a stop. “Yes, it is. After I turned down your invitation at the picnic Ava put pressure on me to accept it.”

  “So you dated me because you had to?” He sounded more baffled than outraged.

  Faith wished she’d never opened her mouth. “Yes.”

  He took one quick step that brought him within inches of her. “That’s too bad,” he said, “because it’s not why I went out with you. As far as I’m concerned last night was a date, with everything that goes along with it.”

  She pressed her lips together. “Yeah? Then why didn’t you kiss me when you dropped me at my house?”

  His eyes narrowed. “My mistake.” He caught her waist and drew her hard against him. “I’ll just fix that now.”

  His free hand caught her head, holdin
g it steady as he slowly, oh so slowly, lowered his lips to hers.

  Though Faith put her hands against his shoulders and pushed, he was too strong for her. “What are you doing, Cody? Stop this right—”

  He paid no attention, swallowing her words as his mouth closed over hers. Faith stood stiffly, determined not to respond, but there was nothing distasteful about the kiss, except for the fact that it was happening in her office. His mouth was warm on hers, inquiring and gentle, a first date kiss that asked rather than demanded.

  And it didn’t last nearly long enough.

  Her eyes were closed when Cody released her mouth. She opened them to find him staring down at her, looking all together very pleased with himself.

  “Let’s get something straight, shall we?” he said.

  He was still holding her, one hand around her waist and one cradling her head. “And what would that be?” she heard herself ask in a languid voice.

  “I’m not dating you because Ava Taylor thinks it’s a good idea. I’m dating you because I like you—though I’m not entirely sure why.”

  Faith gave his shoulders another push. This time he released her. She straightened her dress. “Try not to be too lavish with your compliments, okay?”

  He laughed. “Maybe it’s because just when I think you’re completely uptight, you do something off-the-wall. Or it could be because I want to tear your gorgeous hair out of that prim little bun you wear all the time.” He reached out to fiddle with her hair.

  Horrified, Faith slapped his hand away. If he pulled out her knot she’d never get it back in place. Then the whole office would know that something other than an argument had been going on in her office. “Cody! You can’t do that here!”

  “Why not? I just kissed you here.”

  “That’s true, but…Look, it’s my office, okay? And it’s during working hours. I can’t…I shouldn’t…”

  “You look so cute when you’re flustered,” he murmured. “I feel like kissing you again, just to shake you up even more.”

  “Cody!”

  He laughed. “Instead I’ll ask you to go out with me tomorrow night.”

  Faith didn’t even stop to think. “Okay.”

  “I’ll pick you up.”

  “Okay.”

  He laughed and ran his knuckles down her cheek. “Wear jeans and comfortable shoes.”

  And then he was gone.

  Faith touched her fingers to her lips, lips that were still warm from the caress of his, lips that still tingled from his touch. At the thought of his kiss a shiver of awareness crawled through her. Along with it was a wish that he was still here so he could recreate the kiss one more time.

  His restraint had surprised her. They were both angry and he’d kissed her out of—what? Annoyance because she’d admitted that she’d only gone to dinner with him because of Ava?

  No, not annoyance. Faith visualized his face, saw again the determination there and that elusive something else. What was it?

  As she imagined the kiss again, she enjoyed the tingle of pleasure even thinking about his touch created, and she understood very well what Cody had been feeling when he’d decided to kiss her. She understood because it was what she was feeling at this very moment. Desire. He had wanted to taste her and his anger today had slipped whatever restraints he’d put on himself the previous night. He’d wanted and he’d taken. It was that simple.

  It was amazingly powerful.

  Even now, when Cody had been gone a full five minutes, Faith still couldn’t stop thinking about him or the way he had kissed her. Or the fact that they were going out again tomorrow night and this time it was for all the right reasons. The man-woman reasons, not the sensible business associates reasons. That meant another kiss, maybe many other kisses from Cody.

  She grinned at nothing in particular. She could handle that. Heck, she was even looking forward to it.

  Her telephone rang. She stared at it for a moment, completely disoriented. The ringing stopped as voicemail picked up the call. She realized that her light was blinking and that one or more messages had been left since she and Cody had kissed…here in her office…during business hours…

  She sank down into her chair, resting her head in her hands. Dear heavens what was she thinking of?

  Her mind clawed its way over physical need and emotional euphoria to take stock. She had just been kissed by another NIT employee, in her office. Okay, her door was closed so the staff couldn’t see them. That was good. That it had been done at all was bad.

  She’d agreed to go on a date with said employee. That was good. She liked him and she wanted to get to know him better. He said he wanted a relationship with her. A man-woman relationship, not a ‘let’s work well together’ relationship. That was…good, maybe. It was certainly a complication.

  Then there was Uncle Andrew. He was another complication. A big one. Said employee didn’t know about Uncle Andrew. She groaned. If her relationship with Cody had just been a work association, there would be no reason for Andrew’s name to even come up. But in a man-woman relationship? Wouldn’t Cody expect to know her odder characteristics, like her ability to draw people through time?

  The possibility that Uncle Andrew might accidentally meet Cody Simpson made her sweat just thinking about it. Somehow she was going to have to convince Andrew to stay away, at least for the next little while.

  Andrew was supposed to be coming by tonight so they could compare dates. She’d talk to him then and convince him that he should do as she asked.

  What if he refused? Andrew liked to be clean. To do that he liked to use her bathroom. He could be quite stubborn at times, particularly when something impacted directly on his comforts.

  She’d better have back up.

  Ignoring the flashing light that indicated waiting voicemail, she called her sister.

  Chapter 12

  “He can’t come anymore.” At her sister’s horrified look, Faith hastily amended her statement. “At least, not while I’m dating Cody.”

  “How are you going to stop him?”

  Faith chewed the inside of her lip. “I don’t know. Mom says that there’s no way to stop the beacon. She told me that if Andrew wants to come and he can find me, he will come.”

  “So, you’ll have to make arrangements that suit both of you.” Elizabeth opened Faith’s fridge door. “Don’t you have any milk? How am I supposed to make Alfredo sauce without milk?”

  “I ran out this morning. What suits Andrew is my bathroom, accessible to him whenever he wants it. We’re not going to be able to work out any compromises.” Faith watched Elizabeth as she rummaged around in the fridge, her back bent, her behind wiggling as she danced to some internal beat. “Look, there’s tomato sauce in the cupboard. We can use that on the pasta.”

  “No good. I want Alfredo. You’ve got the parmesan. Is there cream?”

  “I never buy cream. You know that.”

  “A girl can hope. Okay…” She pretended to be rolling up her sleeves, although they were enjoying a mid-June warm spell that had pushed the temperature into the eighties so she was wearing a skimpy tank top that showed off both her shoulders and her abdomen. “I’ll do modified Alfredo. Liz Hamilton’s own cream-based sauce with cheese. Now, what can I find in here? Is there plain yogurt? Cottage cheese? Honest to Pete, Faith. Don’t you keep anything useful in your fridge?”

  “Of course I do—normally. I’ve been distracted this week,” Faith said with considerable dignity.

  “Oh, right. Cody Simpson. From the sounds of the guy he’d distract me too,” Elizabeth said. “Ah-ha!” She pounced on a pot of sour cream, opened it up and sniffed to determine if it was still good. “Ummm, I can work with this. Okay, we’re in business. Oh, look, you have bacon! We’ll make it a creamy bacon and parmesan sauce.” She dumped food items on the counter and rolled up her sleeves. “Out of the way! I am cooking!”

  “And Uncle Andrew has also been on my mind,” Faith said, sitting down at the kitchen table. She wa
tched Elizabeth work, feeling rather gloomy. “Liz, what if he meets Uncle Andrew?”

  Elizabeth dumped a half a pound of bacon into the skillet, then scooped butter into a pan. As it was melting she pulled out the canister that contained flour. “Who he? Cody Simpson?”

  “Yeah. What if Cody and Andrew meet?”

  Elizabeth shook flour into the bubbling butter, then whisked it into a roux. As she added sour cream thinned with water, she said, “Well, they’ll either like each other or they won’t.” She mixed the cream into the flour, careful to keep lumps from forming.

  “Liz!”

  Satisfied that the sauce was heating nicely, Elizabeth left it to thicken as she turned her attention to adding pasta to the boiling water. “Faith, Andrew can take care of himself. And—” She broke off as she fussed with the bacon, which was just beginning to sizzle.

  “And?”

  “Do you want to do a salad, Faith? I saw lettuce and tomatoes in your fridge.”

  Faith stood up. “Yes, I’ll do a salad, but you’re not answering my question, Liz. You were going to add something. What was it?”

  The bacon popped. Elizabeth turned down the heat then faced her sister. “Do you really want to get involved with a guy who won’t accept your special abilities?”

  “Who says I’m getting ‘involved’ with Cody Simpson?”

  “You do.” The bacon spat and Elizabeth turned back to the stove.

  Staring into the fridge, searching for lettuce and tomatoes, Faith sighed. “You’re right, Liz. I do want to get involved with Cody. But…I’m not ready to reveal I’m a Beacon. I want to wait, to see how the relationship goes, before I unload one of my weirder characteristics on him. Is that so bad?”

  “Nah,” said Liz, flipping the bacon. “Pass me the parmesan, would you?” Faith pulled out the pot of grated cheese, which she handed to her sister.

  Liz watched the pan as she whisked the cheese into the sauce. “Talk to Andrew, Faith. You two have been friends since your were teenagers. Ask him to back off for awhile.” She looked over at Faith and her expression softened. “He’ll understand.”