Her New Boss: A Rouge Erotic Romance (22 page)

‘What did she lie to you about?’ Jackson asked.

‘I wouldn’t say she lied so much as she wanted to lie. Instead she blushed profusely, babbled a little incoherently and quickly changed the subject.’ Constance smirked, again lifting her tray to carry it inside.

‘What was the question?’ Jackson asked, getting up to follow his mom.

‘What exactly it was she felt for you.’ Constance grinned, sliding the door shut in her son’s face. He reached for the handle, but his mother latched it, smirking at him through the glass.

‘Momma?’ he yelled as she walked away, leaving him in torment on purpose. He knocked on the door. ‘Mother?! Mother! Get back here. Why did you ask her that? What happened?’

She didn’t come back.

‘
Mother!
’

‘I’m here to pick up a pie.’

Zoe glanced up from the recipe book Constance had lent her, surprised to see someone standing in the kitchen who wasn’t Sheryl, who pointedly ignored her anyway. The voice had the soft Southern charm expected of any belle, delicate and very feminine with a quality that made it impossible to tell the owner’s age. The lady who carried it was young, thin and utterly debutante-perfect in her pink dress suit with white trim and matching high heels. Her
dark
hair swept up at the sides to fall in large curls down her back. Wide brown eyes looked bigger with the shading of eyeliner along the outside corners and her full lips bowed in a permanent pout. Zoe half expected to see delicate white gloves in place of the perfectly manicured hands. Two diamond rings graced her fingers, their gold bands as delicate as the lady wearing them.

‘There is pie for me, isn’t there? I don’t know what I’ll do if there isn’t pie. Connie didn’t come, did she? I thought she was running behind, that’s why I’m here. Though, honestly …’ The woman had an unladylike laugh, a wild look coming to her eyes as she crossed deeper into the kitchen toward Zoe in the back. Her hands began to move frantically. ‘I don’t know what I’m doing here. I shouldn’t be getting pie. I should be in some loony bin. Have you ever had one of those days?’

Zoe was almost afraid to answer. She was saved as the woman continued.

‘I’ll bet not. You look so collected. I’ve heard you’re very collected. I’m a mess.’ Suddenly, the woman’s eyes welled with tears. ‘Please tell me there’s pie. I can’t think straight and there has to be pie tonight. It’s been planned for months.’

‘Ah.’ Zoe stood, grabbing a tissue from the box on the desk. She handed it to the woman. ‘Do you need me to call someone?’
Like a psychiatrist?

‘What? No. I’m sorry, you’re Zoe, right? I’m Maddy.’ The woman looked at her like the name should mean something. It didn’t.

‘Let me check the walk-in for you,’ Zoe said, thinking that maybe Sheryl had left something for the woman to pick up. It would be in character for the waitress not to tell her, just to make her look incompetent.

‘Oh, thank you, shug,’ Maddy said, following her. She toyed with her diamond earring, turning it slowly. ‘I am normally not this frazzled, but I’m …’ Her eyes welled up again. ‘I’m having one of those months. I’m supposed to be happy, but I – I don’t need to bother you with this.’

‘Found it,’ Zoe said, uncomfortable with the situation. ‘Found two, actually. Cherry crumb and strawberry rhubarb, is that right?’

‘Yes, perfect! Thank you.’ Zoe carried them out to the front of the diner, hoping the woman would take the hint and leave. ‘Would you like me to carry them to your car?’

‘Would you? You are such a peach.’

Zoe forced a smile, concentrating on making it look polite, but the truth was she was too tired to deal with some lady who’d forgotten to take her happy pills that morning. Maddy held the door open and led the way to a pink sports car parked out front. Zoe put the pies on the passenger seat.

‘It’s too bad you couldn’t have gotten off today like Sheryl or I’d invite you to the party too.’ Maddy waved, unaware of the bombshell she’d just dropped, and slipped into the driver’s side of the car. As she pulled away from the curb, Zoe frowned. Sheryl was at a party? The waitress had told her she had to go to a doctor’s appointment today.

‘That bitch,’ Zoe swore under her breath as she went back inside the quiet diner. It was Friday, one of their busiest nights, even though at the moment the streets were really quiet. Sheryl had left after the lunch crowd, abandoning Zoe to man the entire restaurant by herself for dinner. She wasn’t looking forward to it, but she would manage. Most of Sheryl’s customers were used to filling their own drinks anyway. They probably would have no problem picking up their own orders from the window.
Either
that or she’d send Travis out to work the floor.

She headed to the back of the kitchen, sat down at the desk and picked up her pencil, preparing her orders for the following week. As she wrote, running her finger down the recipe for split-pea soup, she whispered, ‘Parsley, celery, bay leaf, dried split peas …’ Next, she flipped to the earmarked page for potato soup and began the process again. ‘More celery, more parsley, lots of potat –’

‘Zoe?’ Jackson’s voice startled her and she dropped her pencil.

‘Jacks – on.’ Her breath caught as she looked at him. A bouquet of what looked to be two-dozen pink roses rested in one fist along his thigh. She slowly stood. Her gaze traveled down to the flowers and then up over his fashionable dark suit and silk blue shirt to his perfect eyes. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘Did Madelyn stop by?’

Zoe’s eyes again went down to the flowers. Pink. Just like Maddy’s dress, like her car, like her shoes. Jealous, she snorted softly, before turning back to her list to pretend to write. ‘You mean the crazy lady? I hope you brought a straitjacket. You’re going to need it.’

‘Are you joking?’ he asked, unsure.

‘Look, if you like her that’s great, but she is either on drugs or insane.’ Zoe wrote the words ‘drug,’ ‘insane’ and ‘bitch.’ Anger boiled inside her. How dare he come here to meet up with a date? How dare he flaunt roses in front of her? ‘Unless you like that sort of thing.’

Jackson stared at Zoe’s back, unable to believe how mean she was being, and without cause. Sure, Madelyn had been a little upset and scattered lately, but she was a bride-to-be and that was normal under the best circumstances. He
looked
down at the flowers in his hand. The florist had only had pink because of his brother’s wedding this weekend. Whatever Madelyn had ordered for decorations, Jackson had doubled it, slipping the florist cash in private to give his brother the fanciest wedding possible. He’d done the same for his sister and knew the man wouldn’t tell. Jackson wasn’t looking for acknowledgement; he merely wanted the best for his siblings. And Madelyn had had such a rough time of it, especially lately, that he wanted his new sister to feel like a true princess on her wedding day. Even now workers were at his house, setting up banquet tables along his stone porch and a gazebo in his backyard for the couple to get married under.

Now, looking at Zoe’s turned back, hearing her horrible words, he gripped the flowers tighter. Irritation rolled through him at her words. He’d planned on giving the roses to Zoe and asking her to go with him, on a real date, to his brother’s wedding. He wanted to show his family, the most important thing in his life, that he was serious about Zoe. And he wanted to show her that he wanted her in his life.

‘She’s had a rough time of it lately,’ Jackson said through gritted teeth.

‘If you say so.’ She didn’t look up as she continued to write on the yellow legal pad in front of her.

‘I’ll kindly ask you to stop speaking about my future sister-in-law like that and to show a little sensitivity if you happen to be around her again. Not only is she suffering normal wedding jitters, she just discovered she can’t have children.’ Jackson didn’t know why he was telling her. Maybe because he knew she wouldn’t tell anyone else. Her shoulders stiffened, but she didn’t answer, didn’t look at him. ‘When she was thirteen her drunken stepdad ordered
her
to pick up something he’d dropped on the ground. To get it, she had to walk behind his stallion. It kicked her in the stomach and nearly killed her. I think this news is only the latest development of that long-ago accident.’

Zoe still didn’t move.

‘She told me a week ago that she wanted to have eleven kids, enough for a whole football team, with my brother. She dreamt of a large family and so did Jeff.’ He sighed, tossing the pink roses into the trash can. ‘So maybe you can muster up a little understanding.’

‘Jackson,’ she began, setting her pencil down.

‘I came by to tell you I need you to run the kitchen at the wedding on Sunday. It’s an all-day event. The food’s been ordered. Staff are coming down from Columbia to work it.’ Jackson didn’t stop the lie, even as he knew he was telling it. Family was everything to him and he wanted her to be part of that, but she had insulted his future sister, a woman with a good heart. Her cutting comments reminded him of the first time he’d met her in the bar. No matter who he was, what he did, Jackson felt as if he’d never be good enough for her. Was it because he wasn’t a New Yorker? Was it his accent? His clothes? His manners? He’d been all over the world and the person he was never offended other people, never put anyone off. Or was it something more, something he didn’t want to admit? Was it just the fact that Zoe could never come to care for him? To love him?

Love.

The word echoed through him, making it hard to breathe. The pain ripped him in two and left his heart for dead. He loved her. And knowing she didn’t feel the same way, not even close, left him numb.

‘I’ll send someone to give you a ride tomorrow night so
you
can go over the menus and schedule and make your plans. Do you think you can handle that?’

‘Yes.’ The word was soft, but he heard it clearly.

‘Lock up and go home. Everyone’s at the party. There’ll be no customers tonight. Sheryl should have told you.’ Jackson left, not really feeling like a party, but as the best man he needed to be there for his brother. He walked away, not knowing why he was tormenting himself. This time he couldn’t blame liquor for the rash decision to bend her to his will by using cooking.

‘Kat, I need you,’ Zoe said into the phone, not knowing why she was whispering but afraid that Marta might be lurking outside her bedroom door, listening. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I open my mouth and these words just spew out. Every time I look at Jackson I get upset. I try to play it cool, try to act like a modern woman, but I can’t do it.’

‘You really care for him, don’t you?’ Kat answered. ‘You did the same thing in high school whenever Bobby Henison came around. You had a crush on him so you ignored him and treated him like he was a nuisance if he said anything to you.’

‘Bobby? I didn’t have a crush on –’

‘Oh, please,’ Kat drawled. ‘You so know Megan read our diaries.’

Zoe gasped. ‘How did she find mine? I had it hidden beneath a floorboard under my dresser.’

Kat laughed. ‘I’m convinced she hid in our closets and watched us with that little notebook of hers.’

Zoe sighed. ‘Fine. I liked Bobby Henison, but this isn’t about Bobby. I don’t ignore Jackson, I yell at him – twice already. The first time I told you about, when I said he
didn’t
treat me very well because he hadn’t called me after we spent that weekend together.’

‘Did you call him?’ Kat asked, her tone light.

‘We’ve been over this.’ Zoe grimaced. ‘It was his place to call me.’

Kat chuckled. ‘Ah, sorry, babes, but this isn’t some historical romance. Girls are allowed to call boys. Did you ask him to call? Indicate that you wanted to see him right away?’

‘No,’ Zoe mumbled in dejection.

‘There you have it. What about the second time? What did you get mad about? You didn’t say anything that would cause permanent damage, did you?’

Zoe cringed. ‘I got jealous and called his future sister-in-law something along the lines of a crazy escaped from an asylum. And I never make fun of people with mental problems.’ A tear slid over her cheek. ‘I was just so frustrated.’

‘You were jealous of his sister-in-law?’

‘Future sister-in-law,’ Zoe corrected. ‘And it was before I knew who she was. I saw him holding these pink roses and he asked about her. I just assumed he had a date.’

‘He brought you flowers?’ Kat gave a girly sigh.

Zoe rolled her eyes before resting her gaze on the pattern of the comforter. She traced her finger along a wrinkle, kicking her feet in the air as she rested on her stomach. ‘He never said who they were for. He just threw them in the trash and left after telling me I was in charge of the woman’s wedding this weekend.’

‘He brought you flowers,’ Kat repeated, this time as a definite statement. ‘Did you take them out of the trash and keep them?’

‘No.’ Zoe glanced over to the single pink rose on her
nightstand
. ‘Anyway, it’s at his house. He’s sending a car around tonight to pick me up.’

‘OK, so you’re going tonight. That’s perfect. More than likely, at least part of the wedding party will be staying out there too. It’ll give you a chance to either get in good with his brother the groom or to become best friends with the bride.’

‘But I’m not charming like you are,’ Zoe protested.

‘Shut it!’ Kat demanded. ‘Listen to me. You are going to go in there and pretend it’s like one of those benefits you used to go to for your job. You’ll wear that pretty blue dress I sent you and an even prettier smile. If you think of it like work, you’ll make the effort to talk to everyone. I’ve seen you in the zone. You can do this.’

‘And how do I handle Jackson?’

‘I don’t know him, but I do know men. If he brought you roses, it means something. You two fought before that, so he must have been trying to make up. It’s unfortunate you didn’t listen to what he had to say, but it’s not unfixable. The ball is in your court. You’re going to briefly apologize and then drop it, instantly changing the subject so it’s in the past and can’t be dragged out into another argument.’

‘Then what?’ Zoe asked.