Spring River Valley: The Winter Collection (Boxed Set) (30 page)

“That’s ridiculous.” Jared’s jaw clenched. He’d seen the intimate whisper between Emerson and Archer, but it hadn’t meant anything. She certainly wasn’t playing him and Archer against each other. He knew that.

“It wouldn’t be the first time this sort of thing has happened—it’s a ruthless business. Look, Eckert is trying to protect his people. I’ve got to protect mine. Whatever you do, stay away from this woman until the project is awarded. Play it however you have to play it, but remember, your job is on the line here, and if we lose the campaign because she’s mad at you, or she’s screwing around with Archer, or TCL thinks someone’s playing some kind of game here, you’re not the only one who goes down.”

Jared rose. Every muscle in his body was wound tighter than a spring. Part of him wanted to deck his boss, but he held back. If Ed said one more word about Emerson, though, Jared might not be able to control himself. “I did my job, Ed. I’m going to keep doing it. You should know me well enough to know I’m above all this.”

“I want to believe that, Jared, but you said yourself, you’re seeing this girl. The two of you shouldn’t be fraternizing right now.”

“Maybe you’re right.” Jared grabbed his coat and headed for the door.

“I know I’m right. You know what you have to do.”

“Yes, and I’m going to go do it.”

Emmy was about to dial Jared’s cell phone for the fifth time when his car pulled up in her driveway. She tossed her phone on the sofa and waited for him at the open door.

His grim expression made her heart sink. “Sorry I didn’t pick up the phone. I was on my way over here.”

“Don’t tell me,” she said as she stepped aside to let him in. “They picked Metro.”

“Not yet.” He came in and sat on the edge of her couch but didn’t move to take off his coat. “Everybody is talking…your boss called my boss and reamed him out about me supposedly trying to manipulate you. He also insinuated Dan Archer was doing the same thing.”

Emmy cursed. “Archer is— He tried to get me to go out with him, but I refused. He made eyes at me during Metro’s whole presentation.”

“And apparently he’s talking about you too. He wants everyone to think you’re going to play favorites.”

“Well, if I was, it wouldn’t do him any good. You’re my favorite.” She offered a half smile, but Jared wouldn’t meet her gaze. She sat down next to him. “What else is wrong?”

“Ed Reese just told me to stay away from you until the decision is made. I could lose my job if TCL picks Metro because everyone will assume it’s because I was screwing around to get the account. Not to mention, Ed also implied maybe you were the one playing both ends…flirting with Dan to get a better deal from Metro, flirting with me for the same reason.”

“How come you look like you aren’t a hundred percent sure that’s ridiculous?”

Jared kept his gaze on his clasped hands.

“You are a hundred percent sure that’s nonsense, right? Do you think I was out having sex with Dan Archer in between breakfast and dinner with you when we were in New York?”

“No, of course not.”

“Then why do you look like that?” She put her hand on his arm. “Look at me, Jared.”

He finally did. His eyes had darkened to brown in the dim light, and there wasn’t even the hint of his natural smile on his lips. “This is my fault. I shouldn’t have invited you to stay in my room. I did that because…I thought you were hot and I wanted to be around you.”

“I don’t hold that against you.” She tried to inject some levity into the conversation, but her attempt fell flat.

Jared rose and paced the living room. “No, but my boss does. This is the biggest campaign of my career, the first one I took the lead on, and if I lose the account…it’s going to be the last one. No one will ever believe that DenMar didn’t get the job because Metro was better, they’ll just assume it was because I made advances to TCL’s ad manager.”

Emmy sighed. Wasn’t the same true for her? No matter which campaign TCL ultimately went with, there would be questions as to why. If she and Jared had to work closely together on the campaign, it would become clear fairly quickly that they were attracted to each other. She had no doubt Dan Archer wouldn’t look twice at her no matter what happened, but the insinuation would still be there. “So what are you saying? We don’t see each other?”

“If DenMar gets the account—”

“Then you keep your job and everything is okay, but if they don’t, then what?”

“I’m looking for another job.”

“No time for a girlfriend then, I suppose.”

“You’re not my girlfriend…you’re—”

That arrow stung. Of course he was right. They weren’t dating. So far all they’d done was have a couple of meals together and a couple of energetic sessions in bed. That really didn’t make a relationship. Emmy stood and headed for the door. “You’re right. I’m not your girlfriend. The way it looks right now, I’m your problem. So maybe you should go
. Stay away from me until this all settles. I don’t want you to lose your job, Jared. You’re good at what you do. Everything you do.”

He stood and finally met her gaze. “What’s that supposed to mean? Do you think I did manipulate you?”

“No. You wouldn’t be here if you had. But I think you’re afraid of what everyone will say about us, and maybe you’re right to be. I know I won’t get any professional respect if it gets around that I give corporate favors in exchange for sex. And we all know that’s what everyone will say about me when this trickles down to the water cooler.”

“You think
I’m
going to talk about it?”

“You won’t have to. Dan Archer will, and it’ll get back to DenMar. You may not lose your job, but I think no matter how the decision goes, I might lose mine. So it’s probably better if we stay the hell away from each other.”

“Emmy…”

She opened the door. “Bye, Jared. Good luck with campaign. Your presentation really was the best.”

He headed for the door. “I’m sorry. I never thought you and me being together would cause so many problems.”

“Well, we both made a mistake. Now all we can do is damage control.” She fixed her gaze on the streetlight down the way and made no move or sound until Jared’s car pulled out of the driveway. Then she slammed the door and collapsed on the couch in a heap.

* * * *

“Man, you look like hell. You don’t have that stomach flu again do you?” Max’s face appeared over the arm of the sofa where Jared lay, staring down the long neck of a beer bottle. He’d planned on getting drunk but found the task of getting up for a second drink too much to bear. He’d been on the couch, zoning out to reality TV for
several hours when his roommate came home.

“
I wish I felt that good.”

Max settled into the chair across from the sofa. “It’s got to be serious. You left your jacket on the floor. Your shoes aren’t lined up next to the door, and the bottle cap is lying on the rug. What happened to you?”

“I broke up with Emerson.”

“The girl from New York?”

“She’s from…yeah. Her.”

“Sorry. Didn’t work out, huh?”

“I’ll never know.”

“I can call my cousin Cassie. She could fix you up with someone.”

“I don’t want someone. I want Emerson.” Jared sat up. His head spun a bit, not from the beer, probably from the reality TV. He felt like crap. “Tell me something. How long before you knew you were in love with Audrey?”

Max laughed. “So you’re in love?” His blue eyes lit up at any mention of Audrey Desmond, the nurse he’d been dating for just about a month now.

“I don’t know. Sure as hell hurts like love. How long before you knew?”

“Five minutes. It sounds stupid, but you know the saying. She had me at hello.”

“So you get it. I’m not just obsessed with her because we’re sleeping together. This girl…she’s something. I could lose my job over her, and I don’t care.”

“Your job? What the hell did you do?”

Jared explained what had been going on, leaving Max whistling and shaking his head. “I don’t see an easy way out of it. Until you know if you have the account, your hands are tied.”

“The thing is, I don’t want her to lose her job. She didn’t do anything wrong.”

“You know how people are. They like to believe the worst.”

“So there’s nothing I can do? I have to let her go so a bunch of corporate idiots don’t think we somehow cheated, even though the campaign speaks for itself? Even if we get the account, I can’t go near her. Everyone will be wagging their heads saying I slept with her to get the account.”

“I learned one thing from Audrey…well a lot of things, but one thing in particular. She doesn’t care what other people think. It gets her into trouble sometimes, but she’s got the moxie to handle it. My advice, don’t worry what everybody says. They’re going to find something to say no matter what. If you think you’re in love with her, don’t let her go.”

“Too late. I just told her we shouldn’t see each other, and she agreed.”

“Of course she agreed. She’s not going to beg you to stay with her if she thinks you don’t want to.” Max rose and collected Jared’s shoes from the corners of the living room where he’d thrown them when he came home. He pitched them at Jared’s stomach. “Pull yourself together and go back and get her. Tell her to hell with what everyone thinks of the two of you. To hell with your jobs.”

Jared caught the shoes. He let out a pained chuckle. “And to hell with the rent! Right? We’ll live on love.” He rolled his eyes.

“You work like a dog; someone will hire you.”

“That’s not the point.”

“The point is, you have to figure out if this girl is worth it. If you’re going to take the chance on her, then do it. Don’t wait around, because she won’t if she thinks you don’t really care about her.”

Jared put his shoes on and stood up.

“It’s the middle of the night. You’re going to go get her now?” Max asked.

“Not yet.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to work.”

Emmy didn’t care if everyone in the office heard her yelling. She figured they’d be talking about her anyway, so why not give them a really good show?

Frank sat in his chair, stunned into silence, as she outlined the reasons why she was done working for TCL, the least of which was his lack of faith in her abilities.

“I know yesterday you said you respected me professionally, Frank, but I’m not sure you do. If you had to call DenMar and Metro and accuse Dan and Jared of trying to manipulate me, it really sends a message about how you feel about me.”

“I was angry, Emmy, and I was actually trying to protect you. A woman in this business—”

“A woman in any business has to put up with this kind of crap, the idea that we can’t take care of ourselves. It’s the twenty-first century, Frank, time to get over the idea that I need someone to fight my battles for me or shake his fist at the bad guys on my behalf. If Dan or Jared was anything but honest with me, it’s my job to figure that out for myself. I don’t need you making ultimatums.”

“I was insulted by their behavior on your behalf.”

“
While I appreciate where that comes from, it’s not necessary. And in fact, it’s actually a little insulting. I’ll be packing up my things today, and I’ll have a resignation letter on your desk within the hour. I’ll stay for two weeks if you want me to, but we both know it might be better if we forego that formality. You’re going to need someone right away to start working on this campaign.”

“Emmy…”

She opened his office door and took note of the sea of heads that suddenly turned away—people everywhere shifted out of their office doors and went back to busily typing, copying, and filing. They’d have plenty to talk about at lunch today.

She closed Frank’s office door and headed for her desk, too ramped up to let any tears fall. She wouldn’t give anyone that satisfaction. Besides, she’d spent most of the night crying over Jared. She hated that he might lose his job over their relationship and that he wasn’t even sure what their relationship was. Well, it wasn’t anything anymore. They were done. There was no other way.

The main office remained dead silent for the next hour while Emmy packed her things and prepared her resignation letter. A million times she second-guessed her decision. Was she overreacting? Did she really want to throw away all the years she’d worked at TCL over this?

If her boss really didn’t trust her enough to make a professional decision despite her personal feelings, then yes, it was time to move on.

Thankfully Frank wasn’t in his office when Emmy finished her resignation letter. She left it with Terry, his secretary, who looked closer to tears than Emmy was. “You’re not really leaving, are you?” the woman asked.

“It’s for the best.”

“I’m so sorry. If you need references, give my number. I’ll be happy to tell anyone what a good job you do.”

Emmy smiled and patted Terry’s hand. “Thanks. I’m heading out. I’ve got all my things.” On her way to the lobby, she passed a couple of people who expressed their shock and horror that she was leaving. Not wanting to get into any long good-byes, she hoisted her box of personal belongings on her hip and made a beeline for the door, hoping to bypass the knot of people congregated by the reception desk.