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The Boss's Urgent Proposal
SUSAN MEIER


Olivia Brady was head over heels in love with her breathtaking boss, Josh Nicholson…but he had no idea. And four years of loving the eye-catching executive from afar had taught her that it was time to move on. But when Josh learned that his ace secretary was leaving town, he demanded she stay…under his roof!Now with the blond beauty at arm's length, Josh suddenly realized that he wanted her for more than her excellent organizational skills…but a commitment was out of the question. Would Josh ever put his doubts of love aside and allow Olivia's steamy kisses to touch his hardened heart?







“Are you afraid of me, Josh?”

He gasped, seemingly shocked she would think that. “No!”

“Yes, you are,” she said, stepping closer.

“Liv, don’t do this,” he said, backing away.

The nickname cheered her, spurred her on. She wet her lips and asked, “Why?”

“Because you might not like the result.”

“The result of what? What are you hinting at, Josh?” She smiled devilishly, sliding her hands on to his shoulders. “Are you planning something?”

“No.” His voice was a strangled whisper, and Olivia would have declared him a wimp, except his hands suddenly came around her waist…and he hauled her up against him.

“Actually…” And she noticed that his voice wasn’t strangled, or confused, or wary. Every ounce of his masculinity came through. “I am planning something. I’m planning this….”


Dear Reader,

What are your New Year’s resolutions? I hope one is to relax and escape life’s everyday stresses with our fantasy-filled books! Each month, Silhouette Romance presents six soul-stirring stories about falling in love. So even if you haven’t gotten around to your other resolutions (hey, spring cleaning is still months away!), curling up with these dreamy stories should be one that’s a pure pleasure to keep.

Could you imagine seducing the boss? Well, that’s what the heroine of Julianna Morris’s Last Chance for Baby, the fourth in the madly popular miniseries HAVING THE BOSS’S BABY did. And that’s what starts the fun in Susan Meier’s The Boss’s Urgent Proposal—part of our AN OLDER MAN thematic series—when the boss…finally…shows up on his secretary’s doorstep.

Looking for a modern-day fairy tale? Then you’ll adore Lilian Darcy’s Finding Her Prince, the third in her CINDERELLA CONSPIRACY series about three sisters finding true love by the stroke of midnight! And delight in DeAnna Talcott’s I-need-a-miracle tale, The Nanny & Her Scrooge.

With over one hundred books in print, Marie Ferrarella is still whipping up fun, steamy romances, this time with three adorable bambinos on board in A Triple Threat to Bachelorhood. Meanwhile, a single mom’s secret baby could lead to Texas-size trouble in Linda Goodnight’s For Her Child…, a fireworks-filled cowboy romance!

So, a thought just occurred: Is it cheating if one of your New Year’s resolutions is pure fun? Hmm…I don’t think so. So kick back, relax and enjoy. You deserve it!

Happy reading!






Mary-Theresa Hussey

Senior Editor




The Boss’s Urgent Proposal

Susan Meier





www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)


Books by Susan Meier

Silhouette Romance

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† (#litres_trial_promo)Bringing up Babies #1427

† (#litres_trial_promo)Oh, Babies! #1433 His Expectant Neighbor #1468

† (#litres_trial_promo)Hunter’s Vow #1487

Cinderella and the CEO #1498

Marrying Money #1519

The Boss’s Urgent Proposal #1566

Silhouette Desire

Take the Risk #567




SUSAN MEIER


has written category romances for Silhouette Romance and Silhouette Desire. A full-time writer, Susan has also been an employee of a major defense contractor, a columnist for a small newspaper and a division manager of a charitable organization. But her greatest joy in her life has always been her children, who constantly surprise and amaze her. Married for more than twenty years to her wonderful, understanding and gorgeous husband, Michael, Susan cherishes her role as a mother, wife, sister and friend, believing them to be life’s real treasures. She not only cherishes those roles as gifts, she tries to convey the beauty and importance of loving relationships in her books. You can visit her Web site susanmeier.com (http://susanmeier.com).


Dear Reader,

A few years ago when I attended my first writer’s conference, I heard the term “woman in jeopardy” used to describe a book, and I have to admit I was confused. Not by the idea that a woman could find love while facing danger, but because there was no category called “man in jeopardy.” I thought that was very sexist.

Then I realized that there were plenty of “men in jeopardy” books. In fact, most romance novels are about men in jeopardy…men who are in danger of never loving again as a result of the pain of a past experience, or men who are in danger of never being able to love at all. They might not lose their physical lives, but it’s clear they will never know joy. Some will never know peace.

These heroes intrigue me because they are usually the sweet, sensitive men that most of us long to find, now emotionally closed by a life struggle they couldn’t win. Not because they weren’t strong, but because that loss was part of their destiny. More than that, though, these men call to me because their pain is real or it wouldn’t be debilitating.

In The Boss’s Urgent Proposal and the two books that will follow, I’ve taken up the challenge of exploring the lives and loves of three broken heroes, wonderful men struggling to survive a life tragedy and love again. All three suffered an enormous loss, all three go at the challenge of finding love differently, but each will work his way into your heart.

I hope you enjoy their stories.









Contents


Chapter One (#u87a73359-7ab7-5d3e-b124-9256635ebcb8)

Chapter Two (#u002ff44f-e21a-5fab-a1bb-803117727980)

Chapter Three (#u1b3e5728-2712-51dc-8330-9d36452ac34b)

Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)




Chapter One


“Goodbye, Josh.”

For thirty seconds Olivia Brady stood by the door of Josh Anderson’s office, hoping the real meaning of her words would sink in, but they didn’t. If her boss had caught what she said, he didn’t give any thought to the “big picture,” only heard what he wanted to hear, or maybe what he expected to hear.

“Goodnight,” Josh called, not looking up from the paper he was reading, hardly paying attention to his own mumbled farewell, let alone Olivia’s very clear, very distinct, very permanent goodbye.

“I have a long drive ahead of me in the morning. So once I pack my car tonight, I’m just going to find a hotel and get right to bed,” Olivia said, providing a less-than-subtle clue with her hint about the long drive and praying he would finally grasp what she was telling him. “I said all my other goodbyes last night at my going-away party.”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah, I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Olivia began, but for the first time since she’d come to his office door, Josh glanced up from the report he was reading. His sharp brown eyes caught her gaze and, as always, Olivia was overwhelmed by how attractive he was. Not only were his eyes clear and direct, but all of his other features were striking and distinct. His nose was straight. His cheekbones were high and angular. His chin was perfect. Thick black hair framed his flawless face and emphasized his dark eyes. The black suit, white shirt and red print tie he wore added to the drama of both his coloring and attractiveness. The only word to describe him was breathtaking.

“I’m sorry, Olivia, but I really don’t have time to chat tonight. Since Mr. Martin ordered me to come up with a strategy to combat the movement of Bee-Great Groceries into the territory of our food-store chain, I haven’t had two minutes of peace. I don’t mean to be rude, but I do have to get this work done.”

“Yeah, I see that,” Olivia said, though tears stung her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“Good. Great. No harm done,” Josh said, bending his head to his work again. “I’ll see you Monday.”

Olivia turned toward his door. “No, you won’t,” she whispered, then left his office. Forever. For good. She wasn’t coming back on Monday.

Not ten minutes after he had finally been left alone, Josh’s cousin Gina, director of human resources of Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods, a grocery store chain owned by her father and his family, came barreling into Josh’s office. This time, he didn’t bother to hide his irritation.

“Gina, you above everybody else should know that your father will skin me alive if I don’t come up with a halfway decent proposal for keeping our market share when Bee-Great is trying everything under the sun to steal it from us.”

Shoving wayward strands of her thick, sable-colored hair off her face, Gina glared at him. “Josh, you’re an idiot. As if it wasn’t bad enough that you’re so ill-mannered you didn’t have twenty seconds to say goodbye to a secretary who’s been more loyal to you than you deserve, now you’re refusing to help me find someone new!”

“Whoa! Whoa! Slow down,” Josh said. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play stupid, Josh. We thought it was pompous and rude enough that you missed Olivia’s going-away party, but I sent you three memos reminding you that she was leaving and that you would have to help me find you another secretary. Olivia might have covered for you last night by telling everybody you were working, but I don’t have time for your antics.” She leaned over his desk and glared at him. “I need help finding her replacement, and whether you like it or not, you’re going to help me.”

As Josh stared at his cousin things began to sink in, and the conclusion he drew threw him into shock. “Olivia quit?”

“Oh, come on, Josh, I sent you three memos.”

Sweat beaded on his forehead and his chest tightened. Olivia quit? He would never get through this assignment without her. “I swear, I didn’t get them.”

Without so much as a cursory glance at his desk, Gina reached for the top documents in his in-box. She handed them to Josh. “Not only did you get the memos, but it appears Olivia went out of her way to try to make sure you would see them.”

Josh sagged in his seat. “Oh, my gosh. I was just so rude to her.”

“I can only imagine.”

He sent his cousin a withering look. “I didn’t say anything nasty. I just told her I didn’t have time to chat. That I’d see her Monday morning.”

“You didn’t have time to go to her party. You didn’t have time to say goodbye. Yeah, you’re a dream boss. You make me wish my dad didn’t own controlling interest in this company so I could work for someone as wonderful as you.”

“There’s no need to be facetious, Gina,” Josh said, rising from his seat. “I’ve been very busy. I forgive myself.”

“Well, good for you. I’m glad you’re emotionally well balanced,” she said sarcastically.

But Josh let her comment slide. He had been busy, and because it was her father who had overwhelmed him with work, Gina knew it, too. He just wished he would have come up for air long enough to see that his very faithful, very talented, very hard-working secretary was leaving him.

“But that doesn’t get you out of finding Olivia’s replacement.” Gina set a stack of résumés on his desk. “I’ll add more to these Monday morning, then I want your recommendations and a calendar of when I can schedule interviews.”

“Consider it done,” Josh said.

Gina sighed with disgust and strode out of the room, and Josh went back to work. But when he was completely sure she couldn’t see him, he slumped over his desk. How had he missed Olivia’s resignation? He had been rude. Inconsiderate. He’d failed to attend Olivia’s going-away party, for Pete’s sake! Sure he had been inundated with work, but deep down inside he knew he owed Olivia an apology. Unfortunately, she was already gone and he wasn’t going to get the chance to make one.

Worse, he realized, glancing around at his cluttered desk and the rows of filing cabinets that lined the wall of Olivia’s cubicle, there was no way in hell he could train her replacement. Two years ago, she had taken over little things like his minor chitchat correspondence. Only she knew the filing system. Only she knew the names, addresses and phone numbers that he needed and when he needed them.

He was in big trouble!

Of course, if he went to Olivia’s house on the pretense of seeking her help to train her replacement, he could also edge in an apology without looking completely desperate. Not only would they both feel better, but also, once he explained that he hadn’t understood she was quitting her job, he could probably persuade her to come back for a week or two until they found a replacement and trained him or her.

He was sure he could persuade Olivia. She was a levelheaded, sincere woman, and a good sport. A champ. A woman among women.

And he was also director of marketing and advertising. He knew how to get people to see his point and do his bidding. Combining Olivia’s respectful disposition and his skill at illustrating the obvious, he was positive he could have Olivia back on her office chair Monday morning without so much as a ripple of unease.

All Olivia had to do to dry her tears was remember how many times she had covered for her boss, how many times he had taken advantage of her and how many times he had behaved as if she were a convenience, not a person.

As she strode to her car, she didn’t even see the celebrated blossoms of spring in Georgia, feel the warmth of the March sun or smell the fresh air that signaled new life. All she could think of was how poorly Josh had treated her, and how foolish she had been to let him.

With every mile she drove on her way to her apartment, huge chunks of grief and sadness dislodged from her soul, but more than that she got angry. Furious. She was so damned glad to be moving on with the rest of her life that she hoped she never saw Josh Anderson again.

She was grateful—thrilled—he had been obnoxious when she tried to say goodbye. It was painful to think she had wasted four years of her life being head over heels in love with the guy. This rude awakening was exactly what she needed to force her to face the truth and assure that she didn’t change her mind or have any regrets. After the way he had treated her, she was absolutely certain she wouldn’t have to worry about being nice to him again, let alone falling back in love with him. Let alone reversing her decision and staying in Georgia one minute beyond her deadline!

When there was a knock at her apartment door only a few minutes after she arrived home, Olivia peered up from the final box she was packing and wondered who the heck it could be. Positive it was a well-wisher, hopefully somebody with takeout dinner, she answered the door with a smile.

When she saw Josh, her smile faded and she said, “What do you want?”

“Hey, is that any way to treat a guy who is here to apologize?”

She only stared at him. It was odd. Now that she had faced the truth about him, and now that he was no longer her boss, she didn’t have the butterflies in her stomach that she usually got. They were equals. On even ground. He didn’t hold her future in his hands anymore.

Heck, she didn’t even like him anymore.

She could talk to him any way she wanted.

“I’m going to take a wild stab at this and guess that you’re here because Gina finally got you to understand that today was my last day.”

Josh shuffled his feet. “Yes and no. Come on, Liv, I’ve been busy. You know that better than anybody else. And I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry. I feel like a heel for not realizing you were going.”

“They had a cake for me sitting by the coffeepot. You ate three pieces, but didn’t see the Good Luck in Florida decoration? You’re a marketing whiz who graduated from Princeton. I’m just about certain you can read.”

“Come on, Liv,” he groaned. “I’ve been preoccupied. Florida? You’re moving to Florida?”

“My mother lives there.”

“Oh, so you’re moving to be with family?”

She almost told him she was moving to get away from him, but thought the better of it. Not that he didn’t deserve it, but she didn’t want him to know she had spent the past four years desperately hoping he would notice her, desperately wishing he would fall in love with her. He had embarrassed her enough for one lifetime—or maybe she had embarrassed herself by not waking up sooner. But she was awake now and she wasn’t letting her guard down.

“Look, Josh, I’m busy. I’ve got to pack these things in my car. And then I need to find a hotel and go to bed early so I can be on the road first thing in the morning to avoid some of the traffic.”

“What part of Florida?”

“What difference does it make?” Olivia said, getting angry. Now that she wanted him out of her life, it appeared he wanted to camp at her front door.

“I’m just curious. We’ve been together three years—”

“Four,” she interrupted him.

“Four years. Four long years,” he said, ambling into her living room, which was empty except for boxes. “And now you’re just going. It doesn’t feel right.”

For the first time since his arrival, Olivia began to weaken. He finally got it. Her leaving didn’t feel right. It felt forced and awkward.

Still, it was too late.

This time she shuffled her feet. “Yeah, it feels weird.”

“And it’s the worst possible time for Hilton-Cooper-Martin.”

Olivia swallowed. That was the one part she regretted. And her only Achilles’ heel. She hadn’t intended to leave when all hell was breaking loose for the company that had employed her and paid her generously for four years. But she had set a deadline of one year to get him to notice her, and she had promised herself she would leave if he didn’t. In the past twelve months she had tried everything under the sun to get Josh to see her as a woman, to ask her out, or even to hold a more personal conversation with her, but he hadn’t. So, keeping the deal she made with herself, she gave up what was clearly an unrequited love and turned in her two-week notice. She had actually resigned before Gina’s father, Hilton Martin, gave Josh the assignment that buried him with work. But in spite of the gravity of the situation, she wouldn’t let herself take back her resignation. She couldn’t. Forcing herself to admit that her life was stagnating and it was time to move on had been difficult enough the first time. She never would be able to do it a second time.

“Sorry.”

He caught her gaze and gave her the sweet, sheepish smile that always made her melt. “You could salve your conscience and save my career if you would stay another week and help me train a new person.”

She shook her head. “Can’t.”

“You already have another job?”

She shrugged. “An interview.”

“We can reschedule an interview,” he said, as if he still had the right to plan her life, and Olivia straightened her shoulders.

“There is no we, Josh. This is an interview scheduled between me and a new company—”

“What new company?”

Josh had never been this curious about her life. She knew part of his inquisitiveness stemmed from his natural gift for digging into a situation and finding a way to work it to his advantage. But she also sensed something else. He stood in her empty living room, gazing at her boxes as if they were strange, wonderful things he should explore, and Olivia got the feeling something was wrong. She knew he regretted losing her. She knew he regretted being rude. But the poor guy seemed like he was going to have a stroke or something.

“It’s a law office,” she mumbled, answering his question.

He looked at her. He really looked at her…and smiled. Olivia genuinely believed it was the first time that he was seeing her as a person, not just an employee.

“You’re going to be a legal secretary?”

“That’s actually what I trained to be.”

His smile grew larger. “No kidding.”

She shrugged, keeping her eyes downward because she was weakening. Really, really weakening. She had fallen in love with Josh Anderson because he was a workaholic who wasn’t any nicer to himself than he was to the people around him. Olivia knew he needed somebody in his life who would smother him with affection. She had fallen in love with him because underneath all that Princeton business knowledge was a simple, nice guy who took great pleasure in the most common, ordinary things when he finally got around to noticing them. To him everything was special and wonderful, because in an odd way everything was new to him.

“You ever work for a lawyer?” he asked suddenly.

“Yeah. When I first got out of college.”

“I hear they’re awful.”

“I’m sure Ethan McKenzie will be thrilled to hear that,” Olivia said with a laugh, referring to Hilton-Cooper-Martin’s in-house counsel.

“Hey, Ethan can be a barracuda when he wants to be.”

She smiled.

Josh smiled.

“Just give me one week, Olivia.”

She shook her head, feeling the weight of her shoulder-length golden blond hair as it shifted around her. “I can’t.”

Josh tried to argue, but she held her hand up to stop him. “It’s not something you can fix. I don’t have electricity,” she said, then hit the switch to prove it. “I told my landlord I would be out today and I have to be out today. I have to find a hotel room for tonight. Forget about finding a place to stay for an entire week.”

“Stay with me,” Josh suggested as if it were the most simple, most obvious solution in the world, but heat shivered through Olivia.

Stay with him…at his house…All alone with him when she was weakening toward him again. Oh, that would be wonderful.

“That’s not a good idea.”

“Why not?” Josh asked innocently.

Unless she wanted to confess the truth, Olivia knew she didn’t have an answer for him. He had the perfect argument and his next words proved it.

“I have a huge house. You would have your own bedroom and bathroom. And it would give me a chance to make everything up to you. Every insensitive, inconsiderate thing I’ve done in the past three…four years,” he said, correcting himself, “I could replace with something good. I like you, Liv. I feel terrible about the fact that I didn’t treat you better. And I want to fix this.”

Olivia couldn’t help it. She smiled. There was no way he could “fix” what had happened between them unless he married her. For a silly second she wondered how he would react if she told him that, but decided it wouldn’t be wise to mention it.

“I hope you’re not planning to spend this week trying to convince me to change my mind about leaving, because you can’t ‘fix’ the reasons I’m leaving.”

“Okay, so I’ll respect your privacy,” Josh said quickly. “I won’t ask why you’re leaving, I won’t try to get you to stay. I will keep to the letter of this bargain.”

Though she had already begun to weaken, she wavered even more. She did feel guilty about leaving at such a bad time. Not just because Josh was busy, but because everyone was busy. Before Josh was through he would have everybody working, helping to ward off the competition, saving the company from the new grocery store chain that was trying to infringe on their territory. While she, the one person who should have been there to support Josh and to pay back Hilton Martin for all the good things he had done for her, would be hundreds of miles away.

“I’ll get Ethan to write up an official agreement if it will make you feel better,” Josh coaxed.

But his proposal had exactly the opposite effect. All the girls in the office knew why she was leaving. They had helped her to forge her declaration of independence. They would laugh at her if she came back. Even for a week. Even to help him.

Especially if she came back to help him.

“I can’t.”

“What do I have to do to change your mind?”

Knowing Josh would see right through a lie and would also see a little too far into the meaning if she told him the truth, Olivia wrapped her arms around herself and turned away from him so he couldn’t look at her face.

“I already told everybody I was leaving. They had a party and a cake. I can’t just show up Monday morning.”

“So, don’t,” Josh said in his usual I-can-find-the-answer-to-anything voice. “Train me at night.” He snapped his fingers. “I know. Train me tomorrow and Sunday. That way if anybody sees you at the office, you can still say you’re leaving Monday.”

He had a point. And she did regret deserting him. And she did feel awkward about putting Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods in a bind when there was so much work to do.

“Okay,” she said, but the minute the word was out of her mouth she regretted it because Josh gave her his beautiful smile again. And he was looking at her as if he really appreciated what she was doing. And they were about to spend at least a weekend in the same house, probably across the hall from each other. Undoubtedly staring at each other over Cheerios.

Boy, this didn’t feel right at all.

If anything, Olivia got the sudden, distinct impression she’d jumped from the frying pan directly into the fire.




Chapter Two


Josh glanced around Olivia’s empty living room, desperately wishing she still had a chair, because the second she opened her door he felt he needed to sit. But without furniture in the room, he was forced to stand on legs that didn’t seem to want to support him.

Olivia had knocked him for a loop dressed in jeans and a cute little green top. With her blond hair hanging past her shoulder blades instead of pulled back in the usual ponytail or neat chignon, she didn’t look at all like a secretary, but a woman. For the first ten seconds he actually felt dizzy and sort of weak-kneed. He would have wisely sat for a bit to give himself time to get his bearings, but she didn’t have a darned chair!

“So,” he said, trying to sound casual and knowing he was failing. But it didn’t matter because he had accomplished the real goal of his mission. She had agreed to help him get organized so he could train her replacement. No matter how silly or how shaky he sounded, the victory was his. And the sooner he got her out of this house and into his, the less chance she would change her mind.

“I appreciate your doing this, Liv,” he said, then wondered why he had the sudden inspiration to give her a nickname when he had never used one before. “But, since it’s already late, I think we should get going.”

Olivia turned to face him and Josh found himself caught in the gaze of her unusual green eyes. They weren’t green like grass, or green like moss, but more the color of the ocean. Sort of an aqua. He’d never noticed them before.

“To your house?”

“Well, yeah. We’ll get you settled and then maybe we’ll even have time for you to give me some background information about your job before we call it a night.”

“I guess,” Olivia said, but she stammered and stumbled over her words, as if she were having second thoughts about her agreement. Josh nearly panicked until she added, “The thing is, Josh, I have to be out of here tonight. That means I have to have all my boxes out of here.”

A rush of relief poured through him. For a minute there, he thought she might have changed her mind. Or, worse, that she was recognizing the layers of complications involved in spending the weekend at his house. After all they were both single, good-looking adults, and in spite of the fact that he was more than ten years older than she, he was suddenly attracted to her. Maybe she had noticed and wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to stay overnight with him…. Or maybe after seeing him in another context she was feeling an attraction to him….

Nah. That was nothing but his over-active imagination traveling into the land of wishful thinking.

“That’s simple enough. I’ll help you get the rest of these boxes into your car and then you can follow me home. By the way, where’s your furniture?”

“I sold it. I’m going to be living with my mother and stepfather until I get on my feet. Once I do, I would rather buy new things than use what I had here, because I want to make a whole new life.”

He knew there was significance in that statement. She hadn’t said it with any extra inflection, but Josh instinctively knew that selling her furniture or maybe starting over again meant something to her.

“Well,” he said, not quite sure why a simple statement would leave him with a hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach. “New furniture is as good a way as any to make a declaration of independence.”

She nodded, and her blond hair floated around her like a billowy cloud. In the thin light of the early evening, her complexion was smooth and edged with shadows that gave her a mysterious, sultry countenance, again feeding the notion that he didn’t really know this woman at all, and again making him feel tongue-tied and stupid.

He glanced around at her boxes to get his eyes off her. “What do you say we get started?”

“Okay,” she agreed, but now her voice sounded uncertain. Almost as if she didn’t know how to treat him anymore.

Josh understood that feeling perfectly. He hadn’t necessarily missed that his former secretary was an attractive woman, he had just never noticed that she was drop-dead gorgeous. Not that that influenced how he felt about her. He had always liked her. True, he didn’t show her any affection. Sometimes he wasn’t even really friendly. But he was busy. He was always busy. It wasn’t easy to work for family. First, he didn’t want to take advantage of the generosity of his uncle. Second, he didn’t ever want anyone to accuse him of not pulling his weight. If he worked harder and longer than everyone else, it was because he had to.

And if that meant his personal life suffered, then so be it. The problem was, though, in one ten-minute encounter out of the office, with roles reversed, or perhaps in some respects completely nonexistent, watching Olivia’s hair shifting around her every time she moved, and her nice little butt outlined in her jeans, Josh was considering that maybe—just maybe—his life was out of balance.

“Josh?”

“Huh? Oh, I’m sorry,” Josh apologized quickly, then hoped she hadn’t caught him staring at her, pining for something he couldn’t have. Because that was ridiculous. Hormones. An unexpected wash of testosterone. That’s all. His goals, his lifestyle, his dedication to a man who had rescued him from a job he hated, couldn’t be overturned merely from seeing a pretty girl in jeans that fit as if they were cut to cling to her curves.

“Tell me what box to move and where to take it, and I’ll start toting and storing.”

“Okay,” she said, chipper and happy again.

Josh nearly breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t want to be attracted to her. He didn’t want to be attracted to anybody, but he especially didn’t want to be attracted to her. She worked for him. Any move he made or inadvertently flirty thing he said could be construed as sexual harassment, but more than that she was vital to his plans right now. He needed her to be his teacher…and maybe his friend. But that was it.

Comfortable that his resolve was in place, he took a quick peek at her to see if the sight of her disrupted his reinforced conviction. When it didn’t, he knew he was back to normal. It was for both of their benefit that he didn’t see her as anything other than a secretary, and if it killed him over the next few days, he would treat her as impersonally as possible.

They stepped into Josh’s foyer a little more than an hour later and Olivia gasped with appreciation. Pale oak trimmed the three-tiered stairway that led to an open second-floor hall. Ceramic tile glistened beneath her feet. A sparkling chandelier hung from a glittery chain.

“Oh, gosh, Josh, your house is fantastic.”

“Thank you. I like it,” he said, taking her summer-weight jacket when she handed it to him.

“Did you do this yourself?” she asked, peeking around the corner at a comfortable room that was furnished in Southwest American decor. Earthy greens, hazy pinks and muted browns in the accent rug, sofa, and chairs came to life as soon as Josh turned on an overhead light.

“Gina helped. But the truth is I know what I like, and when I see what I like I…” He paused, and his face scrunched with an odd look before he slowly added, “I usually go after it. Not always, though, because some things aren’t meant to be. Or aren’t meant to happen.”

When he said the last, Olivia got the distinct impression he wasn’t talking about furniture anymore. For a fleeting second she worried that he had somehow caught on to the fact that she was unreasonably attracted to him and was warning her off, but that couldn’t be it. He hadn’t in four years figured out she had a crush on him. It was a stretch to think he saw it now. Besides, she hadn’t succumbed to his magnetic pull yet. Her resolve was in place. He might be good-looking and sexy, but even if she loved him to pieces, he didn’t love her. She was done pining over unrequited love.

But as he led her from the homey living room, through a formal dining room and into a cheerful kitchen decorated with a red-and-white tablecloth, curtains and chair pads, Olivia had second thoughts about her resolution. In fact, being in the room felt downright spooky. All her girlhood she had dreamed of a kitchen exactly like this one, and though she hadn’t precisely envisioned the living room, she loved it. She could live in this house as comfortably as he could, and that seemed to point out that they were more alike than they realized and might even be a sign that they were made for each other.

She stopped that conclusion. Immediately. Her decision was final. The man didn’t love her. She needed to go. She was going. There was a big, wide wonderful world that she had missed while longing for him to notice her. She wasn’t missing another minute of it.

“So, is there anybody expecting you in Florida?”

“Oh, my gosh! Yes. My mother,” Olivia said. “I need to call her and let her know I won’t be arriving tomorrow.”

He smiled. “My thought exactly. Why don’t you use the phone in the den while I see if I can find something to make for dinner? If I can’t find anything, I’ll order out for pizza. Anything special you like on your pizza?”

“No. I’m sort of a cheese-and-sauce girl. Nothing fancy for me.”

“You don’t even like pepperoni?” he asked quizzically.

She grimaced. “I don’t mean to be difficult, but no. If you don’t mind, I hate pepperoni and I hate picking it off even more.”

Josh’s expression changed so rapidly, Olivia couldn’t follow it. “I hate pepperoni, too.”

They looked into each other’s eyes for about thirty seconds, and though Olivia knew she was digesting the significance of yet another thing they had in common, she also knew he was not.

He didn’t like her.

He wasn’t attracted to her.

Heck, he hardly realized she was a woman. She had to remember that!

“I’m going to go call my mom,” she said, then turned and fled the room. At least this time, she not only left as she planned, she actually made it away from him without him changing her mind.

She followed a logical path through the downstairs until she found his den. Walls paneled in rough wood greeted her when she opened the door. She walked to the utilitarian computer workstation, turned on a brass lamp and found the multiline phone under a stack of Hilton-Cooper-Martin marketing reports. Even at home the man worked.

Olivia got a tug on her heartstrings. He desperately needed someone to care for him, to bring love into his life, to make his world warm and filled with simple pleasures, and she wanted so much to be that person.

But she also knew she had wasted enough time. Josh didn’t want her. If she were truly the woman who could bring joy to his world she would have figured out a way to do it in four years.

“Hello, Mama?” she said, when her mother answered the phone. “It’s Olivia.”

“Oh, Liv, thank God it’s you,” her mother said, and though Olivia had heard that nickname a million times it suddenly struck her that only her mother ever used it. But, tonight, Josh had. “When you didn’t call from your hotel, we were worried sick that something happened.”

“Well, something did happen,” Olivia said, leaning back in Josh’s office chair and twisting the phone cord around her finger. “Since my job doesn’t really interface with anyone else’s, and they haven’t found a replacement for me yet…”

“Oh, my Lord, you’re staying aren’t you?” her mother said, sounding discouraged. “Liv, honey, I thought—”

“It’s not what you think,” Olivia said, interrupting her mother in a rush. “I’m staying the weekend. I’m going to explain my job to Josh and tell him where to find things, so he can train a replacement. We might have to go into the office tomorrow,” she said, realizing that unless she actually showed him her filing system Josh would never understand it. “But then I’ll be on my way.”

“Good. Good,” her mother said, her tone indicating that she was trying to be understanding and supportive.

“Mama, don’t worry,” Olivia said to alleviate her mother’s fears. “I’ve learned my lesson.”

“It isn’t that I don’t think Josh is a nice guy. When I met him at your company picnic, I thought he was a great guy. A very sweet, polite boy who seemed to focus too much on work. But, Liv, you have to start thinking about yourself and you have to stay in the real world. Remember what happened to me?”

Olivia bit back a sigh. “Yes, Mama.”

“After your father died I waited ten years for Greg Ruppert to marry me, but he never did. And two weeks after I came to my senses and broke up with him I found the right man. I’ve not only been happy as a clam since then, I’ve found peace, and joy, and a purpose in life.”

“I know,” Olivia said softly, realizing it was true.

“And I honestly believe your right man is just around the corner,” Olivia’s mother continued. “I can feel it. I can feel it in my heart and soul in the way only a mother can feel these things. I just know you’re about to find your real Prince Charming.”

At that, Olivia smiled. Her mother relied on instincts and what she called lessons from history to make some fairly accurate predictions. If Karen Brady Franklin said she believed with her mother’s heart and soul that Olivia was about to meet her Prince Charming, then Olivia also believed it was true. She felt a surge of regret that Josh Anderson wasn’t the man of her dreams, but put that feeling down as old habit. She had wanted him to be the man of her dreams for so long, it was hard not to think of him in that context, and she supposed that was really what her mother was worried about. She was afraid that Olivia wouldn’t be able to break the ties. And if she didn’t she would miss out on her real destiny.

Looking at the big picture of her life, and the four wasted years, Olivia had to agree that was probably true. Even if her Prince Charming was around the corner, if she didn’t get away from Josh Anderson, Olivia would never see him.

“Thanks, Mama,” Olivia said. “I’ll call before I leave.”

“Okay, Liv. I love you.”

“I love you, too, Mama.”

Olivia hung up the phone with the satisfied, warm feeling she always got after talking with her mother. Though Karen Brady Franklin was definitely opinionated and didn’t hesitate to give voice to her ideas or render her predictions, she had never been a pushy mother. She listened with warm-cookie sympathy to Olivia’s troubles in grade school. She taught Olivia to stand up for herself in middle school. And in high school she taught her to like herself exactly the way she was and to choose the career Olivia wanted, not the one offered by the expert of the moment.

She guided, she didn’t dictate. She listened. She led by example. She let Olivia make her own mistakes and then helped her pick up the pieces with a lesson learned. In Olivia’s eyes she was the perfect mother. And she was also the reason Olivia wanted to have kids herself. She wanted to give the benefit of the same experience to her own child. Both Olivia and Karen knew that if Karen hadn’t waited around for Greg Ruppert, she would have had more children upon whom to lavish love, but because she had waited Olivia didn’t have a sibling. Olivia lost out, Karen lost out. One more reason to heed the advice of a woman who had suffered losses waiting for a man who didn’t want her.

“So, did you talk to your mother?” Josh asked as Olivia stepped into his spotlessly clean red-and-white kitchen.

“Yeah. You were right. She had been a little worried, but I explained the situation to her and she won’t be expecting me or a phone call for a few days.”

“Always good to keep your mother informed,” Josh said. “I ordered pizza. It should be here any minute.”

She smiled. He smiled. For Olivia things began to fall comfortably into place. As long as she remembered her mother’s life, her mother’s warnings, she would get out of this with both her dignity and her sanity.

As they ate, Olivia began to detail her duties, most of which Josh had once performed himself but had forgotten, given that he hadn’t had much contact with them in at least two years. She rattled off a list so long, Josh began to get nervous. But when she described her system of filing documents in her computer and also the hard copies in the cabinets that lined the wall beside her cubicle, Josh felt light-headed. This time he couldn’t blame the feeling on being unreasonably attracted to Olivia. This time the feeling was overwhelm.

He didn’t realize how much work she did and wondered if he wasn’t going to have to replace her with two people.

“Wow,” he said, leaning back on his chair and tossing his paper napkin to the table. “I’m never going to learn all this stuff in a weekend.”

“Sure you will,” Olivia said confidently. “In fact, while I was on the phone with my mother I realized we could make this a lot easier if we just do the training in the office tomorrow. That way I can show you the filing cabinets, show you what’s in the drawers, show you the color-coding system for the different grocery stores, show you the document system in the computer.”

Josh heaved a heavy sigh. “Okay, makes sense.”

“Yeah,” Olivia said, then she yawned. “It does.”

“I’m sorry. You’re tired,” Josh said, rising from his chair. “I’m not a very good host. I hardly ever have people over…especially overnight,” he said, recognizing he was tripping over his tongue to make sure she knew he didn’t have women over often. Actually, he didn’t have women over at all. First, he worked too much. Second, if he was going to sleep with someone he usually preferred her turf. He didn’t like people invading his sanctuary, yet he had invited Olivia without hesitation or consideration. And he wasn’t uncomfortable with her being here.

Puzzled by that notion, Josh led Olivia upstairs. He carried her small suitcase and she brought her overnight bag. He tossed her luggage onto the bed, and then immediately pivoted and left the room, telling Olivia he was going for clean sheets.

He really was going for clean bedclothes, but the truth was he was confused by how intimately he felt about a woman he hardly knew. He wasn’t so blind or so foolish as to dismiss four years of working together for eight hours a day as meaningless, but they’d rarely held personal conversations. He hadn’t told her his deepest, darkest secrets. She hadn’t told him hers. Yet, he felt comfortable letting her into his house. Even reminding himself that he should be more wary if only because of their age difference, he still wasn’t getting qualms of conscience or darts of fear.

Josh liked Olivia a lot more than he realized, but more than that, all this ease had to mean that he trusted her. Pushing himself to the limit on the issue, as he stretched to the top shelf for new—he wasn’t letting her sleep on old—sheets, he realized he would trust her with his life.

That took away some of the incredulity and replaced it with simple curiosity. The only other person he trusted like this was his uncle, Hilton Martin. He didn’t even trust Gina this way.

When he entered the room, Olivia had already stripped the bed of the old linens. The sheets and pillowcases were wadded in a ball on the floor. The blankets and floral comforter lay on the cherry-wood cedar chest at the foot of the bed. She stood with her back to him, staring out the window, waiting for him, and Josh felt a hundred strange sensations. The one that seemed to clamor for more attention than all the rest was an intense desire to kiss her.

Just the thought of kissing her made his lips tingle. All his blood surged to his chest and his heart beat wildly.

He cleared his throat. “Here are the sheets.”

She turned with a smile. “Thanks, you can go. I’ll get this.”

“You sure?” He knew the polite thing to do would be to help her, but red lights and warning signals were flashing in his brain. The polite thing might be to help, but the smart thing would be to run.

Her smile grew. “Of course I’m sure. I’ve made the bed a hundred times.”

He almost asked for whom, as irrational, unwarranted jealousy swept through him. He tried to stop it. He tried to reason it away. In the end, he tossed the linens to the bed and grabbed the fitted sheet and snapped it open.

“Josh, really, I can do this,” Olivia protested, but she giggled as if seeing him doing housework appealed to her.

He gritted his teeth. “I’m fine.”

“Josh, I want to make the bed and take a shower,” she said, then walked over and tried to yank the sheet from his hands. “If you go I can have this done in two minutes.”

“What? And with me here, it will take longer?”

“No,” she said, but she laughed again. At his stupidity, no doubt, because Josh knew he was acting stupid. But whatever her reason for laughing, Josh recognized he couldn’t remember the last time he had heard her laugh. More than that, though, he liked the sound. It warmed him all over.

With that thought, he realized he was staring down at her. She turned her beautiful green-blue eyes up at him, and he noticed that they were standing so close that with one lift of his hand he could be touching her. If he lowered his face just a couple of inches he could be kissing her.

He swallowed.

Two minutes ago he had his first ever thought of kissing her. Now, suddenly, he felt he would die if he didn’t.




Chapter Three


When his gaze stayed on her mouth, Olivia realized Josh was going to kiss her and her breath froze in her throat. Her blood tingled through her veins. Her knees weakened. For four long years she had been waiting for this man to kiss her. Now that the moment had arrived, she savored every second of the exquisite torture of anticipation, stunned that her dreams were about to come true.

But when he returned his gaze to hers, she also saw from the look in his eyes that he was confused about why he wanted to kiss her—confused enough that he didn’t follow through. He didn’t kiss her. He took two paces back and spun away so quickly, Olivia felt a breeze.

“Well, I guess you can handle putting these sheets on by yourself. Good night, Olivia,” he said as he bent to grab the old linens from the floor, and nearly sprinted out of the room.

Olivia collapsed on the bed, wondering what the heck had just happened. He seemed to be seeing her differently, but since he didn’t follow through it also confirmed that he was fighting the fact that the way he saw her was changing. Which meant she couldn’t let the near miss with kissing cloud how she felt about him or her decision to leave. She might have had twenty seconds of glorious anticipation, but for him that “almost kiss” was nothing more than a fleeting, confusing thought.

If she were a silly woman, she might be insulted that he was rebelling against viewing her as anything other than a loyal employee. But she wasn’t a silly woman. She was a realist, on her way to a new life and only detained in her old one because she didn’t want to leave any loose ends. It would be horrible if Josh called her for assistance a few weeks after she was gone, on a day when she was homesick, because she might be lonely enough to return. Then she would be right back where she started. She needed to teach him her job, so she could move to Florida knowing they would have no more contact. She wanted to go and not look back.

The next morning, Josh peered over his bowl of cereal at Olivia as she entered the kitchen. Though he had tried to cover his mistake, he wondered if she realized he had considered kissing her the night before. That in and of itself would have made facing her hard enough. But much to his consternation he had dreamed about her while asleep.

The dream, more than the near miss with kissing, was what really made this first encounter difficult, because in his dream Olivia was dressed in something filmy and sexy, close enough to touch, but always eluding him. That was the good part of the dream. The bad part, the part that woke him with shock and a feeling of bewilderment, was that she also told him that she was leaving him because he didn’t love her. Which was ridiculous. Completely ridiculous.

Actually it was wishful thinking. Every time they talked last night, first at her apartment, then at his house over pizza, he discovered there was more to like about her beyond her good looks, which were sufficient reason to grovel at her feet in most male circles. He could understand himself wishing she were interested in him. Any normal man would want this woman yearning for his affection. But given that she was leaving, it was fairly obvious that she wasn’t longing for his love, so the second half of the dream was pure fantasy.

“Hi, Josh.”

Glancing up, Josh swallowed hard. Olivia stood in the kitchen doorway with her voluminous hair pulled into a ponytail and her body encased in cute jeans and a fitted top, both of which were perfectly innocent. But when he looked at her, he imagined her dressed in the red filmy thing from his dream. In his mind’s eye, he saw the swell of her breast caressed by what appeared to be see-through chiffon. He saw the curve of her hip shift against the lightweight material. He saw the long length of her legs.

He would have been mortally embarrassed, except Olivia didn’t know about the dream and he certainly wasn’t going to tell her. Particularly since her chipper greeting proved she wasn’t holding that “almost kiss” against him.

“Hi.”

“You got any Frosted Flakes?” she asked, ambling into the room like they were best friends who always had sleepovers. As if she wasn’t troubled or titillated by the fact that they’d spent the night under the same roof.

“Turntable below the microwave. Bowls are in the cupboard by the sink.”

“Thanks.” She walked into the room, her ponytail swishing around her.

Josh rubbed his hands across his face as if he was attempting to awaken himself, but, really, he was stifling a groan. It was pretty damned hard to miss the fact that this woman was gorgeous. He blamed her conservative work wardrobe for his not seeing any of this before, but even that excuse only went so far. She never hid her hair, those eyes or that soft-looking skin. He had to have had his head in a cloud. God only knew what else he missed about her in the past four years. But that didn’t worry him as much as the fact that he couldn’t seem to be in the same room with her without having thoughts that were definitely inappropriate. Some even bordered on downright lusty.

“What time are we going in to the office?” she asked, bringing a bowl to the kitchen table.

Josh leaped out of his seat. “As soon as I shower,” he said, and chuckled a little nervously. “That’s why I just jumped up like that…I need to go shower.”

“Good.” She poured Frosted Flakes into the bowl. “You go shower and I’ll eat while I catch the morning news.”

“Good.” He began backing out of the kitchen. “Let me know if anything interesting happened while we were sleeping.”

For some reason or another that comment struck her as funny and she started to laugh. Josh took advantage of her preoccupation with giggling to get out of the kitchen, but also to remind himself that that was the kind of relationship they had. Buddies. Friendly coworkers. Gumbas.

Otherwise she would have noticed and reacted to the fact that he was only wearing a robe. Sure, it was a long, commonplace—all right, ugly—robe, but it was only one layer of material. She could have at least tried to peek around in an attempt to see if he wore other clothes beneath it. Instead, she acted as if she wouldn’t care if he were stark naked, sitting beside her.

He frowned. Now that he thought about it, that really rubbed him the wrong way. He might be older than she was but he wasn’t unattractive. Ignoring him shouldn’t be so easy. In fact, since she made it look like such a cakewalk, Josh had to wonder if she wasn’t somehow faking. Maybe the real deal was that she was attracted to him, but pretending not to be since he had never seemed to be attracted to her?

He knew that was reaching, but the truth was it felt out of balance to be this captivated by her when she didn’t even notice his handsomeness, his innate goodness or his sexuality. Women were always telling him he was handsome, or kind, or sexy.

Surely something about him appealed to her.

He considered the situation in the shower, while pulling on his jeans and sliding into dock shoes, and he decided he needed a test of some kind. He couldn’t come right out and ask if she was interested, but he could most certainly hint and see where that led them.

As he locked the house and, with Olivia, walked through the connecting garage, no good opportunity presented itself, and no obvious test popped into his mind. So in the car he asked, “Did you sleep well?” if only because he ultimately concluded that was at least a way to open the door of communication. If she said she hadn’t slept well and gave him a flirty little smile, he would know he wasn’t crazy.

But she didn’t even look at him when she said, “Hmm-hmm.”

“No restlessness?” he prodded, telling himself not to be discouraged because his first question was vague. This one would get much better results.

“No.”

Hmmm…

“No bad dreams?”

For this she did at least look at him. “Bad dreams?”

“Odd dreams, strange dreams,” he said, hoping she would finally get the drift so he didn’t have to buy a blackboard and spell it out for her. “Dreams you didn’t expect to have?”

“Josh, I’ve lived by myself for almost five years. I learned not to be afraid of the dark a long time ago.”

Okay, that was clear. She hadn’t been restless. She had slept well. She didn’t have any “dreams.” Maybe the person who needed the blackboard lesson was he. The woman wasn’t interested.

He pulled his car into his reserved parking space at the Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods building. She didn’t wait for him to come around and open her door, further confirming that she didn’t see him as a gentleman friend from whom she expected courtesy, but as a former boss and an acquaintance.

All right. No big deal, he could handle this.

Though Josh had seemed peculiar all morning, when they got into the office building he calmed down, slipping into his work persona as if he had never left it. Olivia, however, started to feel strange. It had been a long time since she had worked on a Saturday and she had forgotten how peaceful and quiet the building was.

“Now, this is weird,” she said when they stepped into the elevator to go to his third-floor office.

“Oh, staying at my house where you have never been is perfectly normal, but coming to the office where you’ve worked every weekday for the past four years is suddenly weird.”

“You know what I mean.” She punched his arm lightly, and when her knuckles touched his solid flesh, she got another spark of recognition. He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt. She had spent so much time ignoring him in his robe that she continued to pay as little attention as possible to him in the car and hadn’t noticed he was dressed casually. And he looked good. Darned good.

“No. I don’t know what you mean.”

“It’s darker than normal, for one,” Olivia said, counting things off on her fingers to occupy herself and get her thoughts off his body. Especially off of how approachable and sexy he looked in more comfortable clothes. “And the whole place is quiet when it’s usually buzzing with people.”

The elevator door opened, they stepped out, and Olivia added, “And that makes it spooky.”

“I’ll protect you,” Josh said, but he rolled his eyes and walked away.

Olivia followed him to his office. He strode inside, flicked the switch for the overhead light and went directly to his desk. He sat on his tall-backed leather chair.

“You’re going to have to be the boss here, because I don’t know half the stuff you do. So, go ahead. Take the lead.”

Olivia stood uncertainly, halfway between her office and his. It was quiet. He looked different. Now their roles were reversed. Everything was off sync.

“If that’s how you feel, Josh, you’re in the wrong place to learn my job. My job’s out there.”

“Okay,” he said, and bounded out of his seat, as if her every wish was his command, confusing the situation even more.

Steeped in her own bewilderment, Olivia stood frozen in the doorway. Though Josh had reverted to a light tone, and though it had taken her twenty minutes to realize why he had been acting so strangely in the first place, she’d finally figured out what he was getting at in the car, because now she was feeling it, too. In these unusual circumstances they weren’t merely seeing each other differently, they were also gathering new information about each other, and those two developments were shifting them out of their comfort zone. He was having trouble relating to her because he was only for the first time seeing her as a woman. And though she’d always known he was a man, a very attractive, very sexy man, she realized that in this situation where the tables were turned, she would be relating to him in a different way, too. Which meant there was a very good possibility she would discover things about him she didn’t know.

Even as that piqued her curiosity, it also frightened her. What if he said or did something that made her like him again? No chance. If she could get beyond him begging her to stay, an almost kiss and ignoring his naked legs beneath a robe—while she fought off wondering if he wore anything on beneath—she could survive seeing a new side of his personality or uncovering a few pieces of his past.

“Let’s go then.” She pointed to her workstation, the cubicle in front of his office, turned and walked toward it. He happily followed her.

“This is my computer.”

“I never would have guessed.”

“I’m serious, Josh,” she said, but she giggled. Now that she was putting all this together, she had to admit this was the first different thing she had picked up on. The real Josh Anderson seemed to make a lot of stupid jokes. Unfortunately, she found most of them funny, which didn’t say a lot for the caliber of her sense of humor.

“If you don’t pay attention and we don’t wade through everything I do, I’m going to leave without you knowing all of my job.”

“Okay, I’ll be serious, too, because I know our time is limited and I’m going to respect your deadlines.”

“Good. Like I said, this is my computer. I have form letters in here for all the routine things you do. Like when you send information to the shareholders.”

“And all Hilton’s family members’ addresses are in there?”

“They’re the only shareholders.”

“Okay, that’s a good thing to know.”

“Here’s another good thing to know.” Olivia walked to the five filing cabinets beside her desk. “The first cabinet contains press releases and anything to do with public relations. The second cabinet holds advertising things. The third cabinet has family information and correspondence…otherwise called shareholder relations. The fourth cabinet is the special projects cabinet. These are hard copies and notes on the projects that you do for Hilton Martin personally. The fifth cabinet is interoffice stuff.”

“That’s fairly straightforward.”

“Well, before you say that, let’s open a drawer.”

She yanked on the top drawer of the first cabinet and showed him that press releases were broken down by category and filed by year and color-coded by store.

“I can handle that.”

She opened the second drawer and showed him that it was full of pictures that were broken down into hanging folders containing photos taken for distribution, advertising purposes, the annual report, and when something unusual or interesting happened. She then pointed out that each group of photos was categorized and color-coded by store. Each store had advertising photos, distribution photos, annual statement photos and general interest photos.

“We have this many pictures of the stores?”

“That’s only a one-year sampling.”

“We’re certainly stuck on ourselves, aren’t we?”

“Haven’t you ever wondered how and why we always had just the picture you needed when you needed it?”

He caught her gaze. “I thought I was lucky.”

Olivia giggled again, but quickly caught herself. “Okay. You thought you were lucky. Very funny.”

He shuffled his feet, seeming pleased that he could make her laugh. “I knew we took pictures. I knew we took a lot of pictures. I just didn’t know this was how you kept them.”

“Now you do.”

He nodded. “Now I do.”

When she finished explaining the contents of the drawers, Josh stared at her. “You did a lot of my work.”

“Yes, I did.”

“And do you know what I’m thinking?”

“Not a clue,” she said, but inside she was secretly hoping he would offer her a huge raise to stay. She knew it was wrong, but she wished it, anyway, if only because the proposition would be a nice boost for her pride.

“I’m thinking that a regular secretary isn’t going to be able to do half this stuff, and at least for the first year or two I better take over some of it again.”

Because that was a very good idea, Olivia refused to let herself be disappointed that he hadn’t asked her to stay, mostly because she wasn’t going to stay. And her ego was fine. Her self-esteem was fine. She didn’t need his praise. “Probably.”

“Which also means I should get most of these files into my office.”

“We can move them now. We’re wearing jeans, and after tomorrow I won’t be around to help you.”

“Okay,” he said amicably, but Olivia noticed that he gave her another one of those odd looks he had been giving her since breakfast. With his dark eyes he reminded her of a sad puppy, and Olivia almost panicked, thinking that he was again feeling the sense of loss and was on the verge of asking her to stay. But not for purely professional reasons, as the request would have been a few seconds before when they were talking about how much of his work she did. Those sad puppy eyes turned everything around and made the request personal. Very, very personal. They seemed to be telling her he knew he would miss her.

I don’t want to stay. I don’t want to stay. I don’t want to stay. Olivia repeated the quick litany in her head. Particularly since the only new thing she had learned about him was that he could make stupid jokes. And that wasn’t a basis for everlasting love. Or even changing one’s mind.

“Okay,” he said again, shaking his head as if to lose the melancholy mood. “But I only have one empty cabinet.” He took a handful of files from the first drawer. “So, today we can only move the public relations things. I’ll call maintenance before we leave and have them bring up two more cabinets. That way, we can work on this again tomorrow.”

Stifling a sigh of relief, Olivia said, “Good idea.”

They worked quietly while they carried files into his office and set them on his desk. But when all the folders were in four tall stacks, and he started handing them to her to organize in the cabinet behind his desk, the silence felt awkward.

Reaching for any topic to break the sad, oppressive mood, Olivia said, “You know, Josh, I’ve never heard the story of how you got your job.”

“My uncle Hilton came to my house and told me that he needed me.”

“Wow.”

“Don’t be impressed. He didn’t need me, but it took me a year to realize that because I never caught on to all of the coincidences. The real deal was that I was spending the weekend here in Atlanta with my mother…”




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