by Nella Tyler
# # #
Once Lindsay was done with the two of them—Fred and Tara—and had made them look like incompetent fools, they quickly left the conference room and left the door open behind them.
I chuckled at Lindsay as I rose to my feet and paced to the door to close it. When I turned back around, she was right in front of me with her purse slung over her shoulder.
“Leaving so soon?” I questioned and scratched nervously at the back of my head.
“There’s a lot of work to be done.”
“Thank you for everything,” I said genuinely. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.” She shrugged and adjusted the strap of her purse over her shoulder.
“Do you think someone framed me?” It was a question that had been in the back of my mind since the day I first found out that I was being investigated, but it was a question I’m not sure I wanted an answer to.
She pursed her lips and glanced down at the floor, like she would have rather been talking about anything else. Her silence told me everything I needed to know.
“You do, don’t you?” I questioned softly and gritted my teeth. If it were true, I was going to destroy whoever was responsible.
“I do,” she said flatly. “But I don’t want to point fingers anywhere until I can find proof. I’m going to need more time to look into this.”
“Time’s running out.”
“I know, but if someone is trying to frame you, we’re going to catch them.”
“Thank you, again.” I stepped sideways, and out of the way so she could leave. I even pulled the door open and held it for her, but as she slowly began to make her way out of the room, there was one more question I hoped she had an answer to. “Why are you helping me?”
“I have my reasons,” she said softly and forced a smile.
And that was that. She looked at me for a moment more before she was making her way down the hall, leaving me to my own devices. My mind swirled with thoughts of betrayal, but if someone was trying to screw me over, I was more sure than ever that Lindsay was the girl who could figure it out before it was too late.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Lindsay
It seemed like I was the only person left in the building as the hours of the night faded into each other. From the distance, I could hear the faint buzzing of a janitor pushing a commercial vacuum over carpeted floors.
I unhooked my computer from the charger and stuffed it into my oversized purse. I glanced down at my watch and noticed the time: 7:18. It seemed way too early for everyone to be gone, but everyone had been working so hard lately and they more than deserved the break.
I was just about to head out of the office myself when I noticed a tall shadow over my cubicle. My first instinct, like anyone else alone in a large office building, was to run away. My mind just automatically went there, but when I shuddered ever so slightly and turned around, I was met with an equal combination of relief and terror.
It was Caleb.
And he looked like sin, dressed in a dark-grey suit that he hadn’t been wearing earlier. Probably had a meeting with a very important client he needed to impress in all the wrong ways.
There was just something so suave about his look. Something so sexy about the way his body filled the suit. Something dangerous about how his smirk was fitted perfectly between sullen darkness and cockiness.
It took everything I had in me to not fantasize about how good it would feel to let my guard down and take him home with me for the night. But I was also firm in my resolve that I was never doing anything with him again. Period.
“What are you doing here?” I questioned as I slung my purse over my shoulder. “I thought I was the last person standing.”
“Really?” He arched one brow and checked the watch on his wrist. “It’s not even that late. Honestly, I can’t believe the building is so empty right now. It’s like I’m a ghost or something, losing track of time.”
“Yeah… I get that, I suppose.”
“So….”
“Yeah?”
He puckered his lips before sliding his hands into his pockets and advancing towards me. “I’ve been thinking about how I was going to ask you this question for a little too long…” he began, and I instantly swallowed a nervous lump in my throat. I wondered if he knew, how long he could have known, and why he hadn’t said anything. I forced a nervous smile and waited for him to ask me about the thing I’ve been keeping from him. “So, I’m just going to come out and ask the question. Do you want to go get dinner with me?”
“Dinner?” I cocked my head, and felt a minor wave of relief crash over me. “I thought you were going to ask something else.”
“What were you expecting?”
“Oh…” I stammered. “It was nothing.”
“So, do you have an answer?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged, trying to remain committed to the idea that I was better off staying as far away from him as possible, even while working overtime to try and prove his innocence to keep him out of jail. “I’m not really in the mood to be going out anywhere.”
“That’s fine.” He smiled warmly. “I was actually wanting you to come back to my place, and we could make some dinner or something. You know, stay out of the public eye.”
“Oh…” I stammered again. He just kept on surprising me, but if I wasn’t sure I even wanted to be in his presence when I didn’t have to be, then I definitely didn’t want to be alone with him alone at his place. In the back of my head, I knew I wouldn’t be able to control myself and the next thing I knew, I’d find myself on my back in his bed with my bare stomach exposed. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Come on,” he pleaded. “I’ll be a perfect gentlemen.”
“Look—”
“If I try to make a move on you, if I try to turn this dinner into anything else other than eating food together, then I’ll gladly let you kick me in the dick as you march out the door.”
“Seriously? This is only dinner?”
“It’s only what you want it to be.”
“Fine,” I finally relented with a playful sigh. “But I’m not driving. I need to get out of these heels as soon as possible.”
“I’ll walk you downstairs and then I’ll pull the car around?”
“One more thing: I’m not staying the night or anything.”
“That’s fine,” he insisted and I hoped that he was being sincere and wouldn’t put me into a position to jeopardize my place with him.
# # #
The first thing I did when he pulled the car around was jump into the passenger seat and kick off my heels. I wanted to massage my feet, but thought better of it for sanitary reasons. Literally, right as we merged into the nighttime traffic of the downtown area, and just when I was about to break through the awkward silence, his cell phone began to ring over the Bluetooth speaker.
“I’m sorry,” he said sheepishly as he glanced down at his phone, “but I need to take this call.”
I smiled at him flatly, signaling that I didn’t mind.
He accepted the call but made sure to pay close attention to the road as his phone sat on his lap. “What’s up, buddy?”
Buddy? I thought to myself. Who is he talking to?
“I’m fucking done with school,” a young man said through the phone; at least he sounded young, like he couldn’t be older than thirteen or fourteen. His voice hadn’t changed yet into that of a man. “Dad’s going to kill me.”
Did he have another brother? That’s what this was seeming like. Did he ever tell me he had another brother before? Not that I could recall. I listened intently to the call while trying to remain inconspicuous. His character over this phone call was going to tell me a lot about this man I hardly knew.
“You need to calm down, Jessie,” Caleb said with a light, warm laugh. “It can’t be that bad.”
The kid—the younger brother—had a name: Jessie.
“It’s bad, dude,” Jessie said, still
in a state of hysteria. “Final grades are coming out soon, and there’s no way I can bring my grade up from a D.”
“Seriously, Jess? How did you manage to get a D in Science? That’s always been your favorite subject.”
“I know that, Caleb,” he said, a little testier than before. “I know I’m an idiot. You don’t need to push that down my throat.”
“Nobody said you’re an idiot. I was just confused.”
“Well there’s nothing to be confused about. There’s no way I’m going to get into a decent college now, and there’s no way I’m going to ever be able to get away from dad. That is if he doesn’t kill me first.”
“Seriously, bro, relax. You’re going to be fine. One bad grade isn’t the end of the world, and even if you failed out of college, you know you’ll always have a job here with me at the firm.”
“Even if I dropped out?”
“If you drop out of school before you graduate, you’re not going to have to worry about Dad killing you. I’ll do it myself.”
“Whatever, Caleb.”
“Look, buddy,” Caleb said softly, “I’m a little busy right now, but I’ll tell you what, I’ll come visit soon and I’ll doctor your report card so dad doesn’t have to see this.”
“Really?” Jessie said with a burst of excitement. “This is why you’re such a kickass brother.”
“Jessie,” Caleb scolded his young brother. “We’ve talked about your language before. If you say something like that again, I’m going to still doctor your report card, but you’re going to be failing more than just science.”
“I’m sorry,” Jessie said sheepishly. “I won’t curse anymore.”
“You’re such a good little shit.” Caleb laughed. “And yes, I’m allowed to say whatever I want. I’m an adult.”
“Whatever.”
“I’ll call you tomorrow, buddy.” Caleb said. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
There was a short moment of silence before the line cut. Caleb reached down and ended the call before shuffling his phone into the front console. He cocked his head over to me to find me smiling, but when he noticed, I cut my smile in half. I didn’t want him to see me admiring him the way I had been during the phone call.
“What?” he questioned.
“Nothing.” I shook my head gently and craned my head to stare out the window. I was being quiet inside but my head was spinning. I had just seen a side of him I didn’t even know existed, and it kind of melted my insides—my heart specifically. He was so good with his little brother and I had an undeniable gut feeling that he would be a great father.
I turned back to him with an inquisitive frown. “Do you want kids?”
He batted his eyes at me and I instantly regretted the decision to ask him the question, but only for a split second. “Hell yes, I want kids.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Caleb
I was trying to remember the last time I had went grocery shopping with a girl and settled on the answer that I had never actually went grocery shopping with a woman before in my entire life. That sort of thing was best left to actual couples, I thought, and I was never too serious about any of the girls I had dated. For the most part, I was always a hit it and quit it guy.
So, to say it was weird and awkward would be an understatement. I held the basket in my left hand as we perused the aisles, gathering all the ingredients for shrimp tacos. We had decided on that after the kids conversation. That conversation came out of nowhere, and I had the gut feeling that the conversation that followed, about my dietary habits, was a way of deflecting from the prior conversation.
Eh. I wasn’t too worried about the how’s or why’s. I was more interested in just going with the flow for the night because I finally had the chance to right all of the wrong’s I had put Lindsay through.
Finally, after tossing a head of lettuce into the basket, we had all the ingredients we needed and we made our way to the front of the store. I felt something in my bones as we shopped, something that I had to force myself to admit that I may have been wrong about. Lindsay didn’t seem money-hungry to me at all, and that was a welcome relief to the cesspool of women I had been previously attached to. I had seen my father go through too many women who seemed to want nothing more to do with him than his vast fortune. That wasn’t a future I wanted for myself.
Once all the groceries were rung up and I was digging for my wallet, I noticed that she was digging for her clutch from the inside of her purse.
“What are you doing?” I questioned inquisitively.
“Uhm,” she said as she searched through her oversized purse, “I’m trying to find my card.”
“Why?”
She glared upwards at me, her petite frame standing before me. “I’m going to pay for half.”
“Seriously?” I furrowed my brows and shook my head. “No, that’s not going to happen.”
“Are you sure?”
“As sure as the night is dark.”
“That’s kind of poetic.”
“Right?” I chuckled. “Maybe it’s time you realized that I’m not exactly who you think I am.” My words were double-edged, because it was apparent to me that perhaps we both had serious misconceptions about each other, and that was a dangerous combination. The fact that she wanted to pay for half of our dinner told me so much, and melted my heart at the same time. There was no way this girl was after my money and I felt terrible about the way I had treated her. Even more terrible than I was already feeling.
# # #
I loaded the groceries into the backseat before climbing back into the driver’s side. When I turned the key in the ignition, I caught her staring at me out of the corner of my eye. If my eyes weren’t too focused on the road ahead, I would have been smiling right back. Something told me we were going to have a great night. If someone had told me a year prior that I would be having such a good time doing nothing more than making dinner with a beautiful lady, I would have thought they were crazy. After all, the Caleb from a year prior would have been too busy looking for a piece of ass in a bar or club. I was changing after years of playing the part of an adult frat boy. In the back of my mind, I couldn’t shake the thought that I could soon be in prison garbs and all my work in evolving into a better man would be for naught.
Once we hit Broad Street, I shifted my attention from the road to her. “Are you close with your family?” I questioned, seemingly out of the blue, but I was in a rush to learn more about her and I figured the best starting point would be to learn more about her and her family. That seemed like the best way to learn about somebody.
“I’m an only child,” she said. “And I’m very close with my family even though we’re separated by distance.”
“That’s awesome, the fact that you’re so close to them.”
“Yeah,” she sighed. “Their anniversary is coming up and they’re having a big party.”
“You excited for that?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said and bowed her head.
“What’s that crazy talk about?”
“Unfortunately, the party coincides with the final presentation for Lance’s new project.”
That was terrible. I thought to myself how I would never miss any family events for business matters—assuming I’d even want to go to said family events. Then, I also realized that at least I had that power. I could choose when and where I wanted to go anytime. “Fuck that project,” I said firmly, offering her my support that she could take the requisite time off to go visit her parents for their special occasion. “You’re going to see your family, period.”
She looked up at me with sad eyes and a slight hint of tears pooling at the corner of her eyes. “Thank you,” she said simply and softly.
“Yeah…” I reached my hand out and grabbed hers. And then I held her hand, and it was the most comforting feeling in the world, and when she didn’t pull away, it was just another chip against my heart. I knew I should have ended the embrace, but
I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I couldn’t bring myself to end it. There was nothing sexual about our touch. It just felt as right as possible and I didn’t want the moment to end, but I knew that it had to eventually.
# # #
Lindsay was marinating the shrimp as I chopped away at the lettuce and tomatoes on a cutting board. I wasn’t the greatest cook in the land, but I had acquired some skills from watching the occasional Food Network show while I drifted off to sleep over the past few weeks. My life had changed drastically, and instead of going out drinking in the past few weeks, I had become somewhat of a homebody.
At first, it really bothered me, but as the weeks wore on, I was more comfortable with my own company. The only thing better than my own company at that point was the more than welcome company of Lindsay. She truly was a breath of fresh air and I was so fucking happy she agreed to give me a second chance. I knew I had to play my cards right or she’d never talk to me again.
“So, I looked into those receipts we talked about,” she said as she stirred the bowl of shrimp with a wooden spoon. “Upon closer inspection, I’ve come to the same conclusion as before.”
“That they don’t look legitimate?”
“Exactly.” She placed the spoon on the counter and twisted on her feet to face me. “I need to do some more digging, but I just don’t have the right amount of authority to see all the details.”
“Right,” I nodded contemplatively. I didn’t want to believe that there were forged receipts or documents in the company files, as that would most certainly mean that someone was double crossing me. It would mean that someone who I trusted wasn’t a friend, but instead was an enemy. The mere thought of someone setting me up was enough to make both my mind and my stomach ill. At the same time, if someone was screwing with me, then that knowledge could greatly improve my chances of avoiding the slammer. “I’ll check into it and it will get resolved one way or another.”
