One Night with the Boss (8 page)

“No.”

“It’s like she pulled him out of a hat. He’s not from around here or we’d know. She never mentioned him until giving me notice that she was quitting the company. She doesn’t see him. I’d know because she’d have to travel for that. He never visits or everyone here in Blackwater Lake would know. There’s nothing in her email—”

“You didn’t.”

“Of course I did.”

“You looked at her personal email messages?” Maggie stared at him. “That’s an invasion of privacy. Really, Brady, I’m shocked and appalled.”

“That’s interesting. She took it better than you.”

“Olivia knows what you did?”

“Yes,” he said cheerfully. “She caught me in the act.”

His sister shook her head. “You should be ashamed of yourself.”

“I will be. Maybe next week. In the meantime, I need to figure out what’s up. The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that something is funny. Not ha-ha, but weird funny.”

“I don’t think she loves him. Not yet. But she could get hurt.”

“I thought so, too,” he said, ignoring the part about Olivia getting hurt. “This thing she’s got going on just doesn’t seem like it’s on the way to love.”

“How would you know?” his sister demanded. “You’re not a falling-in-love kind of guy. What is that saying? Oh, yeah. Takes one to know one.”

“Not really. It’s deductive reasoning. How can you make plans to move away from family, friends and a really good job for a man you never see? That’s just crazy. Or strange.”

“Why are you convinced there’s skulduggery afoot?”

“For one thing, that’s not a word often heard in casual conversation.” The corners of his mouth turned up. “For another, she didn’t even tell her mom that she’s moving away for Leonard.”

“How do you know?”

“Because our mom is her mom’s best friend and they had breakfast together. Our mom dropped by the house and I told her. She was shocked that Liv’s mom hadn’t said anything, because those two share everything. It’s like he’s a ghost. Like he doesn’t exist.”

Maggie was just taking a sip of tea and started to choke. He jumped up and took her mug, set it on the coffee table. Then he patted her back.

“Are you okay?”

“Fine.” She looked up at him, eyes watering. “I’ll get you another beer.”

“I’m not finished with this one.” He pointed a finger at her. “Don’t move. Not until you tell me what you know about Leonard.”

“What makes you think I know—”

He held up a hand. “Just stop. This is me. You can’t fool anyone, let alone your big brother.”

“Do you hear that?” She looked at the baby monitor. “I think Danielle is waking up. She’s been teething and—”

“Classic deflection. My focus is legendary and you know I’m not that easily distracted. Come on, Mags. Give it up.”

“Okay.” Guilt was written all over her pretty face. “But you cannot tell Olivia that I’m the weak link.”

“Promise. Now spill it.” He sat back down on the couch and waited.

“Okay.” She blew out a long breath. “But remember that Olivia gave notice that she was quitting twice before.”

“It was her way of asking for a raise,” he defended.

“No. It was her way of asking for
more.
”

“More of what?”

“From life.” Maggie shook her head. “I only say that because she needed Leonard to help her go through with leaving her job this time.”

“I don’t get it.”

“For a smart guy, you can be awfully dense sometimes. She made up a fake boyfriend so you wouldn’t give her a hard time about quitting and talk her into not doing it.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” he defended.

“Really? Now who’s being weird?” his sister said sarcastically.

Brady thought about the interviews Olivia had set up, all the lame excuses he’d used to avoid hiring her replacement. “Maybe I would a little. She’s the best assistant I’ve ever had and I’ll be lost without her.”

“Well, get used to it. Leonard might be a figment of her imagination, but she really does have a job offer out of state. A terrific one.”

He was surprised at the wave of relief he felt knowing that there wasn’t a man she cared enough about to move for, but that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be retribution for trying to trick him. He just hadn’t decided yet what form payback would take.

“Do you know where the job is?”

“California. It’s in upper management in a start-up company. Someone she knows from college.”

Damn. He could deal with an imaginary boyfriend, but this was about a professional opportunity that by all accounts was a really good offer. “I could promote her to upper management,” he decided.

Maggie gave him a pitying look, as if he were dumb as dirt. “I know you’d like to make this about her career, Brady, but it’s not. This is personal.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“All right. If that’s the way you want to play this.” She sighed. “She has no life here—”

“How can you say that? She has a home. Family. Friends. You,” he said holding out his hand to include her. “She has a terrific way of life.”

“Brady, she’s lonely. All I’m saying is give her a reason to stay.”

“That’s not a good idea.” He knew what she meant and resisted with every fiber of his being. “Then everything changes. It gets complicated. I’d never do anything to hurt her. I already slipped up once and kissed her—”

“What?” Maggie’s voice was sharp with attention. “You kissed Olivia?”

“It was nothing.”

“How can a kiss be nothing?”

“She made a remark.” He shrugged. “It was something about my reputation as not being much in the kissing department.”

“Way to go, Liv,” his sister murmured.

“What?”

“So the way to go was to kiss her and prove she was wrong?”

“Of course.”

But he was the one who’d gotten it wrong. It had been a colossal miscalculation, because every time he saw her he wanted to kiss her again—upstairs in his bed.

“And it meant nothing to you?” Maggie’s tone challenged him to deny the truth. “Kissing Olivia was like kissing the wall?”

“No. If I’m being honest—”

“Please.”

“It was pretty awesome.” There, he’d said it. Now he waited for Maggie to tell him he was seven ways a fool.

“So you didn’t hate it.” Maggie nodded thoughtfully. “Okay, I say again—give her a reason to stay. A seduction. It doesn’t have to be complicated, just two consenting adults enjoying each other. No one has to fall in love or anything.”

“Do you really think Olivia would go for that? She’s a traditional woman.”

“She is traditional. But she’s a
woman,
if you get my drift. Take her out to dinner. A movie. Romance her. And before you bring up the L-word, look up the meaning of romance. Synonyms are story, tale, narrative.”

“How do you know that?”

“I read a lot,” she said wryly. “My point is, give her a great story. The two of you get it out of your system and move on just as you were before.”

“I’ll think about it.”

The truth was that Brady liked his sister’s point. Maggie was telling him that Olivia wanted a seduction. What a happy coincidence.

He would very much like to seduce her.

Chapter Eight

“S
o almost everyone in the company has RSVP’d and attendance at the employee weekend looks to be around eighty-five percent.”

Olivia sat in the chair on the other side of Brady’s desk as they discussed the upcoming company-wide event just a few weeks away.

“That’s better than last year,” he commented.

“It is.”

And right after it ended she would be out of here. The thought evoked more sadness than exhilaration. She was going to miss this job, this office. The jade monkey on the bookshelf behind him caught her eye. He’d brought it back from a trip to China. The thing was ugly and she’d told him so, but she would miss that, too.

“Is something wrong, Liv?” Brady leaned back in his chair, squeezing the orange foam ball.

She looked out the window, where it was below freezing and the pewter-colored sky threatened snow. “It’s gray and cloudy.”

“I didn’t think that bothered you.”

Normally it didn’t, but today that was her story and she was sticking to it. “I’m a little gloomy. Sorry about that. I’ll try to perk up.”

“Not on my account. You’re allowed.” He tossed the rubber ball from one hand to the other. “You still haven’t told me where you’re moving. Where the new job is. Where Leonard lives.”

Was it her imagination, or was there just the slightest edge in his voice? If she were reading those last three words, would
Leonard
be italicized?

Then again, what did it really matter? And so what if he knew where she was going, because she’d still be gone.

She decided to ignore the opportunity to lie yet again about Leonard and focus on the truth for a change. “The job is in California. My friend from college, Colin Buchanan, is starting up a tech company in Santa Clarita, a suburb north of Los Angeles. It’s not competition for you. Don’t worry.”

“I wasn’t.” He squeezed the orange ball until his knuckles turned white. “And what does Leonard do in California?”

She knew Brady was taking advantage of this momentary melancholy, a slight opening of the weakness window, in order to get the information she’d peevishly withheld. It was good strategy in business, but this strayed into personal territory. Even though Leonard wasn’t real, this subject fell squarely under the heading “None of his concern.”

“You know, Brady, we have a lot of work to do and not much time. Keeping busy is the best cure for my mood. I have a list of things that need to be done for the company’s big weekend. At the top is a reminder to you. The employee of the year is your decision. Then there are bonuses. And also important is who you want to replace me. Do you need more interviews? I can expand my search parameters—”

He held up a hand to stop her. “Let’s start with who’s going to fill your shoes. I’d like the notes and work histories of your top three recommendations from the interviews I already conducted.”

“All right. I’ll get the file for you.”

Finally, he was being a grown-up about this. Just as he’d promised. He was a man of his word. He meant what he said. So when he said marriage wasn’t in his plans, one would be wise to take the message seriously.

Call her fickle, but Olivia liked it better when he was nitpicking job applicants and trying to talk her out of leaving.

She stood and walked through the doorway into her office, where the information he wanted was in with her active folders. She grabbed it and was ready to return when there was a beep from the security system indicating that someone had opened the front door.

Brady must have heard it, too, because he said from just behind her, “Do I have an appointment I don’t know about?”

“There’s nothing on the calendar. And your mom dropped by this morning with Danielle. As far as I know there’s no crisis in my family. I have no idea—”

Then a tall, stunning redhead walked into the room. Shrugging out of her black quilted jacket, she said, “Hello, Brady. It’s been a long time.”

“Tiffani Guthrie.” He didn’t say more; he didn’t move to greet the woman. He kept Olivia between them, almost as if he was taking cover behind her.

Beautiful cinnamon-colored eyes settled on Olivia for a moment, then apparently gathered enough visual data to determine she wasn’t a threat worthy to address.

Without a word, she returned her gaze to Brady. “How are you? You look well.”

“I’m great. Heard you were back in town.”

“Good news—and bad—travels fast in Blackwater Lake. It’s nice to know some things don’t change.” She folded her jacket over her arm. “I’m not sure where I fall in the gossip spectrum. But I can guess. You didn’t look me up.”

It was a statement without whine or pout. Olivia really didn’t want to be positive at all about this woman, but she had to give her a point for that.

“I didn’t think we had anything more to say.” Brady’s voice was neutral, giving no clue about his feelings.

“I deserve that.” Her sad smile drew attention to the fact that her lips were perfect, her mouth worthy of a magazine cosmetics ad. “Didn’t you at least want to see how I held up? If the years had been kind? Whether or not I got fat and frumpy?”

On the surface, the question was designed to be self-effacing, but in reality it did two other things. Drew one’s attention to a killer body that was flawlessly showcased in brown leather boots with four-inch heels, skintight jeans and a snug powder-blue sweater. The second thing she wanted to accomplish was hearing Brady pay her a compliment about her killer body. And if Olivia was being honest, the other woman deserved one. She was gorgeous.

Olivia braced herself, waiting for him to tell this woman that she was as beautiful as the last time he’d seen her. When she dumped him. His mother had directed her, Olivia, to run interference for him, but the order was unnecessary. She was feeling protective all on her own.

“So, Tiffani,” she interjected before he could say anything. “Apparently Texas agrees with you.”

“You’re right, Liv. Well said.” There was amusement in Brady’s voice.

“It didn’t turn out like I’d hoped.” His old girlfriend didn’t appear amused as she glanced around the richly decorated room. “But you’re certainly doing all right for yourself. Everyone I talked to made sure to let me know how successful you are.”

“I’ve been lucky.”

When he moved closer to Tiffani, Olivia wanted to put out an arm to stop him, the instinctive reaction a driver had to protect the front-seat passenger when suddenly braking. She came close to telling him to stay behind her for his own safety, but managed to hold those words back.

Instead she said, “It’s not all about luck when you have a good product, superior work ethic and make smart business decisions.”

He glanced at her beside him, a united front. “I didn’t do it by myself. Sharp, loyal employees make all the difference.”

Tiffani’s mouth pulled tight for a moment, then she glanced at Olivia. “You look familiar. Didn’t we go to high school together?”

“Yes. I’m Olivia Lawson. You were two years ahead of me in school.”

“Right. Now I remember. We took a business class together and you were adamant about finding success in the big city. I’m surprised you’re still here in Blackwater Lake.”

“And I’m surprised you’re back in town,” Brady said. “It seemed like you couldn’t get away fast enough.”

“I was young,” she said. “And stupid, I admit it. I didn’t see much future here after we broke up.”

“That was your idea.” Olivia kept her tone as calm and impersonal as possible, considering that inside she was shaking with anger. “And it didn’t take you long to find someone else.”

“Not my finest hour,” she admitted. “But I thought I’d found what I wanted. It didn’t work out. My only consolation is that I tried. I didn’t just settle for a job here in Blackwater Lake. I wasn’t mousy.” Although it appeared the comment was self-directed, she was looking straight at Olivia when she said it.

Olivia wanted to fire back with “Who are you calling mousy?” but Brady went on the attack first.

“Olivia is the best executive assistant I’ve ever had and makes solid, proactive decisions.” He took a step forward and the tension in his shoulders was obvious. “She’s bright and beautiful and not dependent on a man who moves her to South Armpit, Texas, then proceeds to fall on his face.”

“That pretty much sums up my life. And I wasn’t putting Olivia down. Although you have no reason to believe that.” Tiffani took a deep breath. “You’re right about everything. I made a stupid decision going with Wes. The truth was I wanted to get away from Blackwater Lake, but I was afraid to do it on my own. Now I’m back. I’m here because I didn’t want to run into you in public and have this conversation. It seemed better to do it in private.” There was deep sadness in her eyes. “I’m sorry about the way I broke things off with you and I hope you’re happy. Truly.” She tried to smile. “There. The air is cleared and if we pass each other on Main Street, I hope we can be friendly.”

“I’m sorry about going off like that.” Brady’s shoulders relaxed. “Thanks for coming here, Tiff. I’d like to be friends.”

“Good. You, too, Olivia. Maybe we can go to lunch sometime.”

“Maybe.”

If we make it quick,
Olivia thought, because she was the one leaving soon. This confrontation had not gone as expected, because she’d expected to thoroughly dislike this woman. But she really seemed to have changed.

“I’ll see you out,” Brady said.

He walked over to the other woman, who turned toward the front door. When they were gone, Olivia let out a long breath. The jury was out for now, but Tiffani Guthrie didn’t seem like a complete witch.

The big news flash, though, was the way Brady had defended Olivia. Surely he wouldn’t do that unless he cared. And he’d done it in spite of the fact that he believed she was moving away for a man, exactly what Tiffani had done.

Wait, wait, wait,
she thought. The fact was that she wanted a husband and family and he didn’t. As he’d told her sister, to hang on to a relationship was a waste of time when you had different life goals.

And just before Tiffani arrived he’d begun to take the steps to choose Olivia’s replacement. He was being a grown-up, proving that he was a man of his word. It was wrong of her to wish he wasn’t.

* * *

The words had just popped out of his mouth, Brady thought. Instinct to defend Olivia from Tiffani had kicked in. Everything he’d said was true: she was bright, beautiful and the best assistant in the history of assistants.

Since Tiffani had left, he’d been staring at his computer monitor and not focusing on it. That in itself was weird, because he could always focus and computers were easy to understand.

Unlike women.

He was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that there was no Leonard. It was surprising how happy he was about that. Still, Olivia didn’t know he knew she was lying. There must be a way to use it and get what he wanted, which was for her to stay. She’d made up a fake boyfriend so Brady couldn’t talk her out of quitting. That must mean she didn’t really want to go, because if she did she would. Right?

“Women are so complicated.” He dragged his fingers through his hair. When there was a soft knock on his door he said, “Come in.”

Olivia let herself into the room. She was wearing her black coat, leather gloves and a multicolored knit hat with a pom-pom on the top. She looked just about as cute as he’d ever seen her.

“Going home?”

She glanced toward the window. “That was the plan, but it’s seriously snowing.”

“Really?” He glanced outside and in the lights rimming the yard he saw big wet flakes coming down hard. It was practically a curtain of white. “Wow. When did it start? I didn’t notice.”

“Yeah. You tend to do that when you’re involved in work.”

It was a good thing she couldn’t read his mind. “How are the roads? Did you check with the Blackwater Lake Department of Transportation for an update?”

“Yeah. No closures yet, but people are getting stuck. It’s really slippery out there.”

“Then you’re not going out there.” He got an image of her small compact car sliding off the road, down an embankment and into a ravine. “That’s an order.”

“Really?” She gave him a wry look. “I’m quitting in a few weeks and you’re snapping out commands like a pharaoh?”

He grinned. “I like the sound of that.”

“Of course you do. Just keep in mind the toga and sandals are tough for any man to pull off, but especially during a rugged Montana winter.”

“Good point.” He stood and came around the desk. “Make fun all you want, but driving in this when it’s not necessary isn’t the smart thing to do. And I practically just finished telling Tiffani how intelligent you are.”

She looked anxiously out the window. “There’s no way to know how long it will last.”

“Doesn’t matter. Spend the night.” The thought of her in one of his numerous guest rooms had far too much appeal. In his room would be even better, and the thought would never have occurred to him if he hadn’t kissed her.

“I can’t, Brady. I have to get home.”

“Why?”

Two beats later she said, “Good question. There are no pets or people waiting.”

He felt a pang of guilt about that. Being his assistant was tough because he was a demanding boss and that took a toll on a personal life.

“Look, Liv, it’s my fault you didn’t get out of here before the storm. I’ve given you a lot to do and there’s a deadline. So, spend the night here. It’s not like I don’t have enough rooms to put up a small army. You’d be doing me a favor. Living with the guilt if something happened to you would be a crushing proposition.” And here came the final argument. “It’s not like you haven’t stayed overnight here before.”

Sometimes they’d worked late and had an early day the next morning, so she’d stayed over. It was convenient. But there was that one time when she’d showed up on his doorstep and said there was something she had to confess. Something she had to get off her chest. As it turned out, she fell asleep on the family-room sofa and never told him. He was still curious about what had been on her mind.

Olivia glanced out the window where, if possible, it was snowing harder. “Are you sure it’s not a problem?”