Rescued by the Woodsman

by M. S. Parker

  “Here.” Lukas dumped a handful of quarters on the table in front of me. “Use that. I figured there was a chance you wouldn’t get ahold of him on the first call.”

  “That ready to get rid of me, huh?” I shot him a smile, hoping to get some sort of response.

  I did.

  He stood up.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I got you to town.” He shrugged. “You can call your boyfriend and work something out.”

  “You…” Blinking at him in realization, I tried to battle down the odd spurt of panic. “You’re just leaving me here?”

  After relying on him for the past several days, it seemed surreal that he would just suddenly not be there.

  “Wasn’t my plan to hang around. You needed a lift, I got you one.” He jerked a shoulder in a shrug as he pulled his jacket on. The day was a lot warmer than the past few had been. I hadn’t even needed the coat he’d offered me, but he’d put it in the truck all the same. Maybe he’d been a Boy Scout. Be prepared…wasn’t that the motto?

  “I know, and thank you…but I didn’t realize you were just going to just…leave me here.” It was what I wanted – being somewhere other than trapped in that cabin. I had to remind myself of that. Trying to cover my lapse, I gave him a cocky smile. “I can always just stick out my thumb and hitch a ride.”

  He studied me with those slate blue eyes for a long moment before shrugging. “Do what you need to do.”

  Then he turned around, and I watched that broad, strong back as he strolled right out the door and climbed into the Jeep parked in front of the diner.

  He left. He really just left.

  It wasn’t until that moment that I realized I didn’t even know his last name.

  8

  I wanted to go back to New York.

  Hell, I’d even go back to Michigan, and I’d been so ready to leave that state behind, it was laughable.

  It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with Denver – I didn’t think. I hadn’t had much chance to go out and get around much, despite the fact that my new employer had given me an extra week off after the ordeal. The ordeal. That’s what everybody was calling it.

  The ordeal.

  The plane crash, my days with Lukas, all of it was called the ordeal.

  Unless it was Aaron. He barely talked about it. When I tried to talk about how uncomfortable it had been, how scared I’d been, he brushed it all off like it was an everyday event.

  Now, as he led me around the office building of the advertising firm where I would be working with him, he had his hand on my waist, and I had the weirdest feeling I was there as more of a prop than anything else.

  “Aren’t you excited?” Aaron asked as he led me from the area where the cubicles were to the stairs. The stairs, clearly, were the gateway to the upper echelon here at the firm. While my cubicle was nice, bigger than what I’d expected, it was still a cubicle.

  Offering him a polite smile, I looked back over my shoulder. “Shouldn’t I get to work?” I asked.

  “This is part of it,” Aaron answered. “You’ve got to get to know everybody, know who is who, babe.” He gave me a broad smile as he slid his hand from the small of my back to my elbow, squeezing lightly. “Come on. Let’s go meet the bosses. Don’t be nervous about it.”

  “I’m not nervous.” Frowning at him, I told myself not to get annoyed about his arrogant attitude, but it was getting hard. He’d been acting like a prick almost since the time I’d arrived.

  I hardly even recognized him.

  “You don’t have to pretend around me, you know.” He stopped at the top of the steps and turned toward me, smoothing his hands up and down my arms. The weather had returned to something I considered closer to normal for fall, although it was cooler. I had on a lightweight knit sweater, and through it, I felt the heavy, almost hot weight of his hands, and I had the irrational urge to knock them aside. “It’s a different world out here, outside of college, without Mom and Dad’s influence to help.”

  “Mom and Dad’s influence haven’t helped me do jack shit,” I said. This time, I did step away, and I made sure to take an extra step so that he couldn’t reach out and touch me again as I finished speaking. “They didn’t get me into college, they didn’t earn my grades.”

  “They didn’t get you this job either.” He cocked a brow, eyes resting coolly on my face. His expression was telling. I got you the job.

  “I hardly asked for your help.” Then, realizing we were about two steps from devolving into a fight, I gestured toward the offices. “Did you want to finish up the meet and greet?” I offered him a conciliatory smile and held out my hand.

  After a long moment, he accepted.

  Still, he was cool toward me as he led me to the first office. “This is the assistant head of marketing – Terri Lubatti.” He knocked on a partially open door and stepped inside, his cool expression replaced by a warm, open smile. “Terri, darling…are you ready to meet that brilliant friend of mine?”

  Darling? I slid him a look from the corner of my eye. And I was his brilliant friend now?

  A woman rose from behind the desk as I stepped inside and she barely glanced at me, her blue eyes focused on Aaron. “Aaron…are we still on for our meeting this afternoon?”

  “Of course, of course.” He leaned his hands on the table. “Stella is anxious to get to work, but I wanted to show her around and make sure she knew everybody. You know, help with those first day jitters.”

  Finally, Terri glanced at me.

  She was pretty, a fact that didn’t go unnoticed by me. I wasn’t too concerned about her being pretty, but I was somewhat annoyed by the fact that she looked at me as though she was staring down her nose at me – or maybe she was trying to decide if I smelled bad.

  Since she wasn’t making an attempt to hide her immediate dislike, I didn’t bother wasting a smile on her. “Hello.”

  She inclined her head. “Try not to take too long learning your way around. We’ve got some big things in the pipeline, and we need all hands on deck.”

  Once we were out in the hall, I slid Aaron a look. He still had that smile on his face, so I decided not to make a pithy comment about how friendly the assistant head of marketing had been with him – but man, I wanted to.

  “Come on. The boss isn’t in right now so you’ll have to meet him some other time. I want to introduce you to Breanna.”

  * * *

  Breanna was a breath of fresh air.

  She was short, slender with long dark hair and eyes that took in everything. Something about the way she looked at Aaron had me curious, but since Aaron lingered in the cubicle even after he made the introductions made it impossible for me to ask her anything, and by the time he left, I completely forgot.

  Breanna was going to ‘mentor’ me for the next few weeks, which was welcome news. When Aaron mentioned that I’d be working under a mentor the first few weeks, I’d worried it would be him. And had immediately felt guilty.

  We were living together, we were lovers. It wasn’t a good idea for him to even be my boss, but it wasn’t like I was going to walk away from the job over it. Having some distance between us was a good thing.

  It was almost lunchtime before Aaron told us he had important meetings to get to so he’d have to leave us.

  Once he was gone, Breanna spun around in her seat and smiled at me. “Finally! Daddy’s gone!” She laughed, the sound bright and irresistible. “You can’t tell me he doesn’t come off like a hovering parent sometimes, watching everything you do.”

  “Well…I get the hovering,” I said with a reluctant smile. “But I’m going to avoid thinking about any sort of parental similarities.”

  “Good idea.” She wrinkled her nose then scooted her chair down and gestured to the wider space she’d cleared at her desk. “Why don’t you come join me? I’m working on an ad campaign for a new club that’s opening up soon, and we’re trying to come up with a logo. Maybe some new eyes will help.”

&n
bsp; We worked for a good hour before we decided to break for lunch, and by that time, Breanna was more than happy with what we’d accomplished. “You’ve got a great eye for design, Stella. This logo is far and away better than what we were coming up with, but it still holds true to what the owner wanted to do.”

  “It’s not that much different from what you were aiming at,” I said, shrugging. “Like you said…new eyes. Sometimes, that makes all the difference.”

  We ended up walking across the street to an Asian Fusion restaurant, and I gorged on sushi and salad. One look at the cocktail menu told me I’d be back at a time when drinking was allowed.

  “I desperately want to try that ginger drink,” I told Breanna as she scooped up noodles with a pair of chopsticks.

  “We should come out here on the weekend.” She winked at me. “Assuming Aaron doesn’t keep you glued to his side. I imagine the two of you spent enough time apart, what with you being in Michigan and him being here.”

  “Oh, I think we’ll manage to make time for you and me to hang out.” I was already planning on it.

  As we finished up and paid, a familiar form outside the window caught my eye, and I frowned as I realized it was Aaron. He was standing outside the restaurant next door talking to Terri. Remembering how she’d looked down her nose at me, I eyed them closely. The discussion seemed…heated.

  But before I could decide if I wanted to say hi to Aaron or anything, Breanna caught my arm in hers. “Come on. We’ve still got almost twenty minutes. We can walk by some of the shops, and I can tell you about the fun stuff you need to make time for.” She tugged me on down the sidewalk in the opposite direction where I’d seen Aaron. “So…serious, and important, question. Do you ski?”

  * * *

  The thank you card fell out of my purse as I rushed into my cubicle just a few minutes before my scheduled start time. I was on salary so it wouldn’t matter if I was a few minutes late, but I personally hated not being on time.

  That was one of the big bones of contention between Aaron and me at the moment and the reason behind the fight we’d had that morning. He didn’t see what it mattered if I didn’t get there until nine-thirty. Since I was scheduled to start at nine, I insisted it was a big deal.

  My parents were having my car shipped out, but so far, it hadn’t gotten here, and when I’d texted them last night – because there had been another fight yesterday – Dad told me Mom was taking care of it. He reminded me that she’d been caught up in the charity gala she was handling, and it might have slipped her mind.

  So at lunch today, I was picking up a rental.

  I didn’t care if I had to rent for the next month, I wasn’t relying on Aaron anymore for rides. If we lived closer to the bus line, I’d be riding the bus to get here, but that was too much of a hassle. I should feel bad that I wasn’t showing much environmental concern, but right now, I was concerned about conserving my sanity more than anything else.

  “Wow. You look mad.” Breanna appeared at the opening of my cubicle, her eyes wide as she took in the sharp, jerking movements of my hands as I shoved in all the odds and ends that had fallen out of my purse.

  The thank you card was already buried. I’d bought it on a whim, thinking maybe I could somehow track him down and mail the card, but I had no idea how I’d go about doing it. Why hadn’t I at least asked for his last name?

  That was yet one more thing that annoyed me because I’d spent way too much time the past few weeks thinking about him. First I hadn’t been able to get away from him soon enough, and now I couldn’t get away from him in my own thoughts. He was always there.

  “How is the solo project going?” Breanna eased a little farther into the cubicle, her eyes flicking to the whiteboard I’d left propped up in the one empty corner of my work area. She grinned at the notes. “You’re a mad scientist when it comes to work, Stella. I can’t make heads or tails of that yet.”

  The comment drew a laugh from me. “Thanks…I think.” Turning, I eyed the shorthand I’d developed in college and thought a little about the ideas I’d had for the project last night. I’d made a few more notes but hadn’t had time to add them. I was actually a little excited about this project – we were donating our services to a gala fundraiser to help raise money for a children’s home. The home was specially geared for at risk and medically fragile children, some of the most vulnerable youth out there. Aaron had given the project to our team, and when they’d ask who wanted it, I’d all but grabbed it.

  “It’s going pretty well, I think.” I didn’t go into detail about any of the work I’d done at home, and she didn’t ask. I took that to be a good sign since I was still technically mentoring under her.

  The phone in the cubicle next door rang, and she popped up, rushing over to answer it. “Umm…uh-huh. Absolutely, yes. I’ll let them know!”

  As this one-sided conversation carried on next to me, I sat down and flexed my hands. I was going to let the argument with Aaron go. We were just getting used to living with each other. That had to be it.

  “We need to go upstairs,” Breanna said from behind me.

  I spun around, meeting her eyes. “What?”

  “Big meeting. Everybody is being called in. We’ve got ten minutes.”

  “Did you say everybody?” I asked, arching my brows. Aaron wasn’t…

  Just as the thought crossed my brain, he came striding by, his tie hanging loose around his neck, head bowed. It was something that happened when you’d been with somebody for a while, but I could tell by his body language, by the way he held his shoulders, by the very way he cut through the room that he was still pissed off.

  So I didn’t call out to him.

  Maybe it was the coward’s way out, but I preferred to think of it as the wise woman’s course. When Aaron was in a mood, he was likely to fire off at anybody or everybody, and he wouldn’t take into account where he was either.

  Since I doubted anybody here wanted to witness him in one of his tantrums, the wise woman’s course wasn’t just wise…it was kind too.

  That was what I told myself as I turned back to my desk. Breanna was watching me closely, but she proved her own wisdom by saying nothing. “When are we supposed to head upstairs? Did you say ten minutes?”

  * * *

  We only waited five.

  Since we weren’t among the bigwigs, if we wanted to have a seat, we’d have to fight for one.

  The strategy worked, and we ended up in two of the remaining three seats.

  Aaron got there just in time to slide into the one last seat. It was next to Breanna, not me, a fact that made me more than a little grateful.

  “Daddy…you can’t–”

  “Terri, enough.”

  At the head of the room, Terri was having a heated discussion with her father, the head of the company. Cal Labutti was in his sixties, and if it wasn’t for the bad spray tan, he probably would have still been a good looking man. He had a full head of black hair, which I suspected he dyed, and had passed his blue eyes onto his daughter.

  Now, as the two of them shared a terse silence, somebody at the back of the room cleared a throat.

  Yeah, like that didn’t make things more awkward.

  Mr. Lubatti turned from his daughter to face the room, clapping his hands together sharply.

  “I imagine all of you want to know why I called you here together,” he said, smiling broadly. “I thought it would be best to tell you in person…I’ve made the decision to sell the company. It’s been bought by Grayson Investments, and he’ll be taking over, starting next week.” He paused, looking pleased with himself. “And I will be in Hawaii…getting married.”

  A smattering of congratulations broke out, but it was half-hearted at best.

  Everybody, including me, was eying the boss with speculation and more than a little concern.

  The company had just been sold?

  “Now, don’t look so glum,” Mr. Labutti said, still giving us that shark’s smile. “I didn’t bui
ld this company from the ground up just to see everything outsourced and dismantled. That was part of the agreement when I sold. All of you will keep your jobs, assuming your performance is up to snuff. But I told Mr. Grayson it would be. We didn’t become the best advertising firm in the state by having kids around who half-ass everything now, did we?”

  This comment was met with more enthusiasm, even a scattering of applause.

  “That’s more like it. So…” He gestured to his administrative assistant, a sturdy woman with hair dyed the most brilliant shade of red I’d ever seen. “Helen is going to pass out some information. Mr. Grayson has ordered a mandatory company retreat coming up next week. You’ll meet him at the retreat. You’ll love it…beautiful lodge, up in the Rockies.”

  “The Rockies?” I said involuntarily, and I couldn’t suppress the shudder. I wasn’t so certain I wanted to go back into those mountains…ever.

  Showing he wasn’t a total douche, Mr. Labutti gave me a smile. “You’ll be driving, of course, Stella. Don’t worry…this trip will go as planned.”

  The meeting dismissed a few minutes later, and I hesitated out in the hall, feeling the odd urge to talk to Aaron, despite my frustration with him. Maybe it was the unease caused by having to go back into the mountains. Maybe it was because the company I’d just started working for was already being sold.

  I didn’t know but I was uneasy, and I needed the familiar.

  However, long after the last person trickled out, Aaron still didn’t appear.

  I started to go back inside and froze in the door.

  Aaron was talking to Terri, their heads bent and close together. He had a hand on her shoulder, and something about the way they stood together seemed…intimate.

  But I had to be imagining things.

  That’s all it was.

  I was imagining things.

  * * *