Just My Luck (A Shamrock Falls Novel) (Entangled: Bliss) (6 page)

She noticed a small mole by his collarbone. The light dusting of fine, blond hair on his chest. And…wow…hello! That was a nice six-pack.

“Oh,” she said again. Little creases of concentration formed around his eyes as they studied her. It was enough to snap her out of her Jace-trance and jerk away. “I’m…I’m so sorry.”

It wasn’t the fact that he was in a towel and nothing else. Or that he still had little droplets of water on his shoulders that glistened. Shy or not, uncomfortable or not, and, yes, slightly embarrassed or not, she could handle accidentally running into him when he wasn’t completely dressed.

What really got her was the fact that she hadn’t wanted to let him go. While not completely surprising, that definitely wasn’t part of their agreement.

“I’m so sorry,” she said again, having no idea what else
to
say. So instead she turned and tried to walk away.

Jace’s hand on her shoulder stopped her. “No harm, no foul. It’s my fault for walking around like this. I bought new razors and forgot them in a bag in the living room. I thought I could run and grab them before you came out.”

Deep breath. Take a deep breath, Betsy, and try to forget Jace is holding onto you while he’s half naked.

She couldn’t get his bare chest out of her head.

“Okay…well, I’ll let you…” She tried to twist free, but for some reason he hung on. “Get back to dressing. I mean shaving. You probably finish shaving before you get dressed…” Why couldn’t she stop talking? Betsy almost bit her tongue just to make herself shut up. Her hands shook and she wanted to melt into the floor.

“Yeah, I do usually shave before I— Hey. Are you okay?” Suddenly Jace let go of her and took a step backward. “I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable, B. You know that, right?”

Oh great. Now she made him think, what? That she felt like he was hitting on her or something?

“I’m fine. I didn’t think. I mean, I know.” Betsy still had her back to him. She took a couple deep breaths to calm herself.
I need to relax. There’s no reason to be so embarrassed. It’s not that big a deal.

After repeating the words a few times, she managed to settle her shaking hands. To make her heart slow again. It was hard, but she made herself turn to face him. “I’m okay.” Pride pumped through her veins as she looked him in the eye. She could do this.

“That’s good.” Jace studied her. Watched her in a way she’d never seen from him before. As though he was trying to find out some secret she didn’t know she held. “I guess I better go get dressed so you don’t beat me to the office by much.” He watched her for a few more seconds.

“See you soon…” It felt like a silly thing to say, since he’d only be in his room getting ready. She didn’t even have to wait for him. It was just something they did—go to work at the same time.

“See you.” Jace stepped around her, stalled, and she sent up a silent wish that he would stay. But he didn’t. Jace walked away, stopped, but didn’t turn around before he started moving again.

“What do you mean? Why would the doctor want to change her medication? Mom’s been on this regimen for a while.” Betsy sat at her desk, twisting the phone cord around her finger. Jace was out meeting with a possible witness who could corroborate a client’s story, so she’d decided to take this time to call and check on her mom.

Shame curled inside her. She shouldn’t hide her mom—it wasn’t her fault she was sick. But it felt so good to have people in her life who didn’t know all her baggage. Betsy had been good at keeping it a secret when she was younger. It made things easier on them both and when things did get bad enough where she couldn’t hide it, when people looked at her, it had been with pity. There were times her mom almost lost custody of her. It hadn’t been easy on either of them.

She couldn’t stand the thought of Jace looking at her with that same pity.

Or Sidney, Rowan, Breck, or Kade.
It’s not just about Jace
, she reminded herself.

“Excuse me? Ms. Harris?” The soft voice in Betsy’s ear startled her. Jeez. How could she have forgotten she was on the phone?

“I’m sorry. I missed what you said.” She needed to keep her head on straight and stop focusing on Jace.

“She’s doing okay, but I think you’ll admit there’s room for improvement. That’s part of the reason I called. We had an…incident this morning with one of the staff.”

Oh no
… Betsy closed her eyes. So not only had she been experiencing increasing problems with her mom, but the staff had too.

“We nipped it in the bud before it could get out of hand, Ms. Harris. It was only verbal, and if this were the only incident like it, her doctor wouldn’t be suggesting this. But the truth is, it’s not. Your mother does well for periods of time, but once she starts having problems, it usually increases in frequency. If there’s a way to get her on even leveler ground, we’d like to try it.”

Betsy gripped the chair as though it would somehow collapse at any second. She felt like it actually might. Every time things seemed to be okay, something else happened.

“Yeah…that makes sense. I’d like to speak with Dr. Lane first, though.”

“Of course.”

After they scheduled a time for Betsy to meet with the doctor the next day, she was about to say her good-byes when Jace walked in. He tossed his briefcase on her desk and fell into the chair across from her. When he loosened his tie, she knew something was wrong.

It also took her breath away.

“Thank you. I’ll speak to you soon.” Betsy struggled to keep her voice even so he wouldn’t know she was upset.

“Oh, wait. I forgot Dr. Lane is coming in late tomorrow. Can we change the appointment to one o’clock?”

“Yes. Of course.” Which meant asking for time off from Jace. He wouldn’t mind. He never did, but she still hated doing it.

He cocked his head from the chair across from her. Watching. Studying. Jace always took everything in.

“Thank you, Ms. Harris,” the other woman said.

“You too. Bye.” She hung up the phone before their conversation could go any further. “How—”

“What’s wrong?” Jace cut her off. He crossed his arms over the sculpted chest she’d just admired this morning.

“Nothing. Why would you think something’s wrong?” Betsy looked at the phone. Her computer. Picked up some paperwork and moved it to the other side of her keyboard.

“I can hear it in your voice. See it in the set of your body.”

Hear it in her voice? See it in her body? Could he possibly know her as intimately as she did him?

“Plus, you won’t look me in the eyes.”

“I don’t look people in the eyes half the time,” jumped out of her mouth. So much went on in her brain that she didn’t let past her lips, but when she did, it almost made her feel…free.

But she’d just snapped at Jace. Because he was trying to be nice. “I’m so sorry! I’m…”

“Upset? Having a bad day? I can see that, not that you’d admit it. Be sorry for that, not for snapping at me. Have you been sharing a house and an office with me? I do it too. We all do it, B. It’s okay to be human.”

Betsy’s eyes began to sting. His words were so simple. So true and easy and normal, but they did something to her. Moments like this were when she struggled to keep her feelings at bay. To separate just the fact that he was a gorgeous man who made her hands itch to touch him, with the sweet, caring man who was so good to her.

Betsy sighed. She picked up a pen and stupidly studied the black ink inside. “You’re right. I’m having a bad day. You shouldn’t worry about that, though. That’s not what our arrangement is about.”

“Our arrangement? Come on, one has nothing to do with the other.” He sighed. “I’ll be in my office. Don’t send anyone through unless it’s an emergency.” Jace pushed to his feet, grabbed his briefcase, and left the room.

Um…what was that? She had no idea why he was so upset.

Betsy turned to her computer. Closed her eyes and breathed. Then she pulled up a document and got to work.

…

Jace pretty much did nothing but stare at his screen for the next two hours. He couldn’t even handle a fake wife; he had no idea how people handled marriage with love behind it.

Which shouldn’t be what he was thinking about. He needed to get his mind on his case and stop worrying about his friend, since she obviously didn’t want him to.

It was the end of the day and he was no closer to figuring this out than he had been. Their witness probably wouldn’t stand. He’d dug and dug for someone who could confirm his client’s side of events, but he hadn’t known until now that his so-called witness had been pulled over after the crime he’d seen. And that the guy had gotten a public intoxication charge. Intoxicated people didn’t make good witnesses. Which about killed him, since he knew to the marrow of his bones that his client had been wronged.

Yet he couldn’t keep his head on the task at hand.

Why didn’t Betsy trust him? They were friends, right? He’d never done anything to make her think he would betray her, so he couldn’t figure out why she’d hide so much from him. And he could tell she was hiding a lot: hushed phone calls, her refusal to get mail at his house, and those times she looked so lost in herself. It made him, for the first time, want to reach out to someone. She helped him enough that he should be able to do that for her.

But she locked him out. It might make him sound like a jerk, but Jace wasn’t used to women snubbing him, and with Betsy, that’s how it felt.

And the fact was, with each minute that ticked by, it bothered him more. He expected her quiet knock on the door. Where she’d hand him a doughnut and they’d figure out what the hell he was going to do about this witness.

He shouldn’t think of her that way. Depend on her. He’d never really let himself depend on anyone. He’d counted on his parents, but they died. Not that he could blame them for that, but it still hurt. When Wallace came to live with him, Jace wanted to count on him too, but quickly realized depending on someone emotionally and financially were two different things. Even with his friends, he didn’t let them in. During a bar night with Breck months before, it had been a big deal for him to even acknowledge that his grandfather was dying, when everyone knew it.

But here at work, he did that very thing with Betsy.

Plus, there was the fact that he couldn’t get her gaze out of his head. The way she’d looked at him with those gold flecks in her eyes when she’d seen him in the towel. How he’d liked the feel of her hand on his chest and wondered what it would be like for her to touch other places—or for him to touch her, too. He’d actually almost gone back to her this morning. Took a few steps, but knew he had to stop. Still, the urge to feel her hands on his skin again had been so strong. Jace was definitely in trouble.

At five o’clock the knock on his office door came. It was probably a good thing she waited until now. He’d be staying late, but she could go home, and he’d get some space to think about what was important here: his client.

He paused to see if she ducked her head inside like he’d asked her to. When she didn’t, he called out, “Come in.” The second her dark hair peeked around the corner he added, “I asked you to knock and just come in when you know I’m here alone, Betsy. You don’t have to wait for me to call you.”

“Sorry,” she mumbled.

He hadn’t meant for her to feel the need to apologize. He just wanted her to know this office was as much hers as his.

“Are you heading out? Home?” Jesus, calling his home hers felt weird. But maybe not as weird as he would have imagined.

“I was going to.” She kept her hand on the doorknob as she stood there. He noticed she’d painted her nails a pale pink. He didn’t think she usually painted her nails.

“Are you going too?” she asked.

Jace shook his head. “I need to stay here and get some work done. Go over Arthur’s file and statement a few million more times until I can figure out what the hell I’m going to do. I’ll probably be late.” Jace pondered those last words for a second. He hadn’t checked in with anyone since his parents died. Wallace wasn’t the type who wanted or needed to know where he was at all times and most of his nannies hadn’t been either.

“Oh…”

He expected her to shyly say good-bye and be on her way, but she stood there for a minute. It was on the tip of his tongue to ask her what she needed or to tell her she shouldn’t worry about what happened earlier. Her life was her business and he needed to remember that. Instead Jace waited…watched, because curiosity called for him to hear what she had to say without his prompting her.

“About earlier. When I apologized it wasn’t because of how I felt, but because I shouldn’t take it out on you. Or maybe it had been for how I felt, but after what you said—well, I guess you’re right. And…thank you. I was having a bad day, but I’m trying to get over it now.”

She looked proud, strong for saying how she felt. He respected the hell out of her for it. The same heat singed through him that he’d experienced when she’d run into him earlier, her hand on his bare skin. Like in her room, his eyes were drawn to her lips.
Get it together, Macnamara.

“Anyway, work helps. If you’d like, I’ll stay with you. There’s probably not much I can do, but whatever you need, I’ll do it.”

Jace’s thoughts immediately pictured her mouth on his. Wondered what she tasted like and how it would feel to lose himself in her body. That’s what he needed—sex. It always got his mind off things, but holy shit. What was he doing thinking those things about Betsy? Sweet, quiet Betsy who wore clothes to hide her figure and was only recently getting to where she didn’t keep her hair blocking her face all the time.

The women he took to his bed wanted attention, yearned for it, but for Betsy, it was like she did everything she could not to draw attention to herself. And that, in turn, caught his attention. He respected it, which made him respect her more.

And what was he doing thinking anything that would hint at Betsy and his bed in the same sentence?

“Jace? Do you need me tonight?”