For Kicks (2 page)

Great. He’d come here expecting the promotion would fail. She couldn’t let that happen. “But if you pull the agreement now, you’ll risk bad publicity. People might think it has to do with the shoe design.”

He shrugged. “Depends on who has the better PR team, I suppose.”

“It won’t come to that. Mendelssohn’s is an asset to you in service and distribution. We’ll make this happen, Logan.”

He studied her for a moment and then gifted her with his amazing smile. “Would you mind driving since you know where all the stores are?”

“That’s fine,” Breeze replied. “I like driving.”

Logan nodded and rose from his chair. When he walked away he seemed to favor his right leg for the first few steps, but then walked normally. Breeze took a deep breath to clear her mind as she gathered her things. She had to spend the whole day with him. Ogling was not an option.

Six managers stood just outside her office door. They surrounded Logan like shoppers around a clearance rack. From the look in his brown eyes she could tell he needed rescuing. “We’d better get going. There’s likely to be a lot of traffic this time of the morning.”

“I was just telling Logan I’ll accompany the two of you today,” Nancy said, forcing the closest thing to a smile in her repertoire. Breeze had thought she’d find an ally in the newly transferred district manager, but Nancy seemed to only want to promote men. So much for sisterhood.

“Okay.” Breeze surrendered, not sure if the emotion she felt was reprieve or vexation. “But you’ll have to drive. My car only seats two.”

“Oh.” Nancy’s expression went blank. “I rode with Roger.”

Relief was noticeable on Logan’s face.

“I’m sure we’ll meet up with you later,” Breeze offered.

“Of course,” Nancy said through pursed lips.

Breeze stepped to the door, aware Logan was following close on her heels. Once they were on the sales floor she began to outline their day, what he could expect to see at each store.

“Doesn’t that woman scare you?” Logan asked once they made it to the parking garage adjacent to the store.

“Why?” Breeze asked, suddenly all too aware of her nervousness. She knew how to handle Nancy. It was Logan who made her uneasy. She hadn’t had the best luck with men, downright rotten luck in fact, so she tended to avoid them whenever possible. Except Anthony, but he played for the other team.

“She’s huge.” Logan laughed, slowing his pace so he walked beside her. “She’s taller than I am.”

“Really?” Breeze turned to look at him. That smile. The man should do toothpaste commercials. “I hadn’t noticed. Everyone is taller than me.” She pushed the button on her key ring to deactivate her alarm with the gratuitous headlight flash.

“A BMW. Mendelssohn’s must pay pretty well.”

Hardly. A Z4 was the smallest and least expensive BMW on the market. “I commute to other stores a lot, so I decided I deserved a nice car to do it in.”

“It suits you. It matches your eyes.” He opened the door and slid in the passenger seat, cramming his legs inside.

She stood still, stunned for a minute. He’d noticed her eyes? She pushed the button on the keypad to put the top down. Don’t flatter yourself, she thought. The icy blue color was exactly what had drawn her to the car. That and the convertible top.

She locked her purse in the trunk and then climbed into the driver’s seat. Even with the top down the entire car smelled like him. Not cologne really, maybe soap? She’d be sniffing every cologne bottle in the store until she figured it out.

“Thanks,” he said, rubbing the top of his blond head. “I don’t think they had me in mind when they designed this thing.”

Breeze smiled and started the car. When she went to shift into reverse, she cursed herself for not opting for the black pantsuit. This skirt rode far too high on her thighs when she sat. To heck with Anthony, she needed to get
her
mind out of the gutter.

With the temperature outside, she’d be far more comfortable in the skirt, she reasoned. Or would be if her companion would stop staring at her legs, thereby causing her body temperature to rise by the minute. Putting the car in gear, she slid on her sunglasses and hoped they would cover her nervousness.

This was exactly why she didn’t date. This out-of-control feeling, constantly wondering just what the other person was thinking. Wondering what they’d say about you to their friends. She shuddered. It wasn’t worth the mental energy.

“Why have you worked in every store?” Logan asked, seeming cramped and uncomfortable in her car.

“I go where my skill set is needed. I was in the Galleria for the remodel, Tanasbourne to cover a medical leave, and Westside for training back in the day.”

“When was that?”

“Management training? Five years ago.”

“Really?”

She felt the weight of his stare on her face and knew what he was thinking. She barely looked out of her teens. And she knew her youthful appearance wasn’t likely to disappear anytime soon. Her mother barely passed for thirty.

He cleared his throat and she smiled. He must be dying to know how old she was, but didn’t ask the way most people did. It made her want to tell him, to show her pride in making it so far so fast. She delighted in knowing that fleeing the high school drama of her hometown had been her saving grace, even if her parents still thought it had been a mistake.

“So, how is it you were the only person at the store today who knew about the Kicks promotion?”

“Everyone is very excited about it. They’ve just been focusing their energies elsewhere. Now that you have demanded a higher standard, I know we’ll rise to the occasion.”

She was relieved to be able to talk business. She knew the floor plans by heart. It was easy to sound confident and in control talking about work, a reprieve since she felt anything but.

She explained the pluses and minuses of the different store layouts. But every time she snuck a glance, she caught him staring at her hands, legs, body—everywhere but at the road.

When she finished explaining, Logan leaned back in his seat. “Where have you been the last three months? I’ve been banging my head against a wall trying to figure all this out, and you explain it in ten minutes.”

Breeze allowed a closed-mouth smile to escape her. She was good at her job and she knew it. And if she talked about work enough she could almost ignore the jumping jacks her stomach was doing.

Almost.

The woman never stopped. Not even for lunch as she toured him through not three, but four different stores. Every person they encountered treated her with respect and a little reverence. She was a shining example of non-stop high performance.

He’d never met a woman so smart and loaded with energy. She walked at top speed, and even with their height difference he struggled to keep up with her pace.

His stomach grumbled in protest and his feet throbbed from all the walking, every break and scar a sharp stab of pain, but he kept pace with her as they made it back to her car.

“That’s amazing.” To the west, reds and oranges painted the sky in a perfect exhibition of raw beauty. It took Logan’s breath away.

“Yes, Galleria is a well-oiled machine.” She deactivated her alarm and retracted the convertible top without missing a step. “I think Hannah may be on to something. The managers in this district may not be as excited about the program because Nitrous is so prevalent in our market due to having the world headquarters here. Nitrous is an Oregon brand, so all we need is to have it in stock to have great sales. I’m sure stores in other states are more eager to put the plan in motion so they can reap the sales boost.”

“Breeze, stop for a second.” He put both hands on her shoulders in the quiet parking lot and turned her towards the sunset. “Look at that sky.”

He left his hands on her shoulders, the tension radiating through his palms. Her anxiety was palpable. But why? They’d spent the entire day together. And while she seemed to have an allergy to talking about anything but work, they’d gotten along well.

There was an undeniable chemistry between them. He knew better than to explore it when they had work to do, but work was over for the day.

She shrugged out from under his grasp and stepped away, quickly putting the car between them. “Would you like me to drop you off back at the store?”

He leaned his hands on the door and watched her climb in. “How do you measure your days, Breeze Cohen?”

“Excuse me?” Her big blue eyes widened in surprise. Tired curls had slipped from her clip and softly framed her round face.

“Is a day just a number on a calendar or a chance to see a breathtaking sunset?”

“Are you making fun of me?” Her eyes narrowed and she sat up as tall as she could manage.

“No, I wouldn’t do that.” He climbed into the car before she had a chance to take off without him.

How to get out of this one.
“I’ll warn you next time I make a joke so you can fall over with laughter.” He smiled at her hopefully.

“Do you always go for the punch line?” She grinned and started the car.

“Every time.”

“Your girlfriend must love that to pieces.”

“She will.” Breeze turned to look at him, but the second their eyes made contact, hers were back on the road. As if he hadn’t noticed the spark of interest there. “What about you? Boyfriend?”

“Not at the moment.”

“Good. Then I can take you to dinner to thank you for your help today.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why? Don’t you eat? You’re robotic, aren’t you? That’s why you never fed me lunch.” He rolled and stretched his feet, alleviating some of the cramping and ache.

“I’m sorry.” She bit her lip, keeping her gaze on the road. “I never stop for lunch when I’m working, so I didn’t think.”

“Make it up to me by joining me for dinner.”

“I don’t think that would be appropriate.”

“Why?”

“Because you have a very important decision to make about the partnership between Mendelssohn’s and Nitrous, and dinner shouldn’t be part of your decision-making process.” Her hands gripped the steering wheel so hard her knuckles turned white.

“I agree. You’ve shown me store readiness and tomorrow I’ll meet with the VP of stores about training and then go over the findings with our marketing, retail and distribution teams. Your role is over. So we’re free to do as we please without that looming over us.”

“Have you made any decisions?”

“If I tell you, will you have dinner with me?”

“Why do you want me to?”

“Because a beautiful woman fell into my arms this morning and I haven’t been able to get her out of my mind ever since.” He felt her weighing his words in her hurried glances from the road, but it didn’t matter. He told the truth. “Look, Breeze—”

Breeze’s phone chimed to life from where she’d plugged it into the dash. She jumped at the sound and then became increasingly grateful for the distraction. Until she hit the button and realized who it was.

“So, what’s the deal with this guy?” Nancy’s voice blasted into the car. Breeze wanted to grab the phone and switch it from speaker, but the car was so small it was likely he’d hear everything anyway.

“What do you mean?” She downshifted for traffic. Great, just what she needed. No escape for him to hear her conversation with her boss.

“Why is he busting our balls over this deal?” Breeze felt her skin prickle with the heat of a blush. Nancy was so eloquent.

“I think we came off well.” Breeze kept her eyes on the red taillights in front of her. “We’ll have to make product training a focus, but that was our plan all along.” She tried to smooth things over, the peacemaker like the middle child she was.

“Good, good. You’ll have a report ready by morning?” Was that a question or a command?

“Of course,” Breeze replied, thankful the conversation was nearly over.

“Great. Hey, at least you got to follow him around all day. Did you check out the ass on that guy? Yummy.”

“Nancy, you are so naughty,” Breeze chided, wishing the last two minutes had never happened. Of course, Nancy would go there. Breeze shook her head, noting Logan’s gaping jaw from the corner of her eye.

“Please, the guy is eye candy and you know it.”

She wanted to die but had to settle for choking the steering wheel. “If he needs help with anything else, I’ll take him from here.”

Breeze ended the call before further damage could be done.

“I’m sorry. I don’t want you to think—”

“Is that how women talk?”

“No,” she lied, thankful traffic moved again. “Nancy is just, well, very direct.” His silence was agonizing as she drove them down the freeway.

“Why didn’t you tell her I was here?”

Because you shouldn’t be.
“She didn’t give me much of a chance.” And if Nancy knew he wanted to go to dinner, she’d have snatched him up for herself.

“What’s with your name?” He turned as far as he could towards her in his seat.

“Excuse me?” As if being teased unmercifully as a kid wasn’t enough.

“Breeze isn’t exactly Jane or Mary. There must be a story there.”

“You really want to know?” No doubt the truth would get her out of a dinner she shouldn’t be having. Watching him nod, she decided to go for broke. “My mother named us after her pregnancies.”

His eyebrow rose quizzically.

“You’d have to know my parents.”

“Tell me about them.”

“My parents?” She shifted in her seat. “My mom is a midwife and my father is an obstetrician. They’re really into childbirth. Anyway, my mom thought her pregnancy with me was a breeze.”

“Do you have brothers or sisters?”

She couldn’t tell if he was genuinely interested or just being perfunctory. Either way, tales of her freaky family would end it. It wasn’t as if people hadn’t asked about her name before.

“Two brothers. Sky is older. Mom was on bed rest with him, so she was always looking up at the sky. The complications with Sky were probably what made me a breeze. Then came my younger brother, River. So named because sometimes things went fast, sometimes slow, but always moving ahead.” Traffic came to a stop and she turned to look at him, challenging him to mock her.