She’d invested everything in this one option—with no backup plan. That alone was proof she still wasn’t thinking straight when it came to Lincoln Curtis.
It had to be the pregnancy hormones. Otherwise, why was she making such hasty choices?
“You have no plans to develop the program?” she said.
“I’d love to…someday.” His gaze went to some far-off place, and he didn’t say anything for a second, before he returned his gaze to her. “Why?”
Someday?
She needed someday to be now.
She buried her attention in the menu. “No reason.” Then she gave up studying the list of pastas and insalatas. “It’s just…you sounded so excited when you talked about that program. It was as if
that
was the company you owned, not this one. In fact, that’s what I thought when I met you. When I arrived in Vegas, I was surprised to find out you made security systems.”
He sighed, and pushed his menu to the side. “A long time ago—”
He didn’t finish.
“A long time ago, what?”
The waiter returned and took their orders. Molly had barely looked at the menu, and just ordered one of the specials. Linc, who had clearly been here before, ordered a chicken and pasta dish.
“You started to say something before we were interrupted,” Molly said, once they were alone again. “What was it?”
Linc took the green paper wrapper off his napkin and folded it into a triangle, then popped the triangle out. “Know what this is?”
She laughed. “No.”
“To a kid, it’s a boat. A hat. A Christmas tree. The possibilities are endless.” He tipped the green cone onto the top of the salt shaker. It teetered, then balanced. “When I was a kid, I used to be like that. Everything I saw, I imagined into something else. My parents complained that I was always in my head, and never out in the world.”
“I bet you read a lot.”
He chuckled. “Everything I could get my hands on. I was a total bookworm. Still am.”
“Me too.” She grinned. “I love books.”
A smile whispered between them. “Something we have in common, then?”
“I’d say so.” Oh, she could feel that thread, that tenuous tether connecting them, just as it had that night. She tried to push it aside, to ignore the feeling. She didn’t want to build a bridge. Not between herself and Linc. She was here for the baby. Only. “Go on with what you were saying.”
“Well, my parents got tired of seeing me with my nose buried in a book twenty-four hours a day, so they shipped me off to a summer camp. One of those long, eight-week ones. My brother was there, too, but he was always the outdoorsy one. He took to camp like a duck to water.”
“And you didn’t?”
Linc snorted. “God, no. Took me seven of the eight weeks to fit in. But then one day a counselor noticed me reading instead of joining the other kids. He got me involved in a project, a camp diary thing. Creating a kind of written and photographed collage about camp that could be left behind for other campers. Sort of an intro to the best parts of camp.”
His eyes lit up with the memory, his features became more animated. “You must have loved it.”
He took a sip of his drink, then nodded. “I did. It was a brilliant idea on the counselor’s part. A way to force me to go outside, collecting information and finding out about camp, in order to get back to my first love—books. In the course of doing that, I found out I loved being outside.”
“And is that where the idea for the software came from?”
“Pretty much. My brother…he was the more adventurous one. Never met a challenge he didn’t want to tackle. He loved the book. For him, it was a way to go back to camp over and over again, and…” Linc’s voice trailed off and he paused for a long second. Then he cleared his throat and continued. “Anyway, he was the one who had the idea of taking the book and combining it with a computer program. Back in those days, of course, games and software were a long way from what they are now, and we were just kids, so we didn’t know what we were doing. That first idea spurred the bug for the two of us later working together, forming the company, and our first project was always going to be that software, but…” He toyed with the green paper hat on the top of his straw.
“What happened?”
“The market research I did said the money wasn’t in software for children. It was in security software. So we went with the better financial decision.” He plucked the green triangle off the straw and crumpled it.
A practical man. She should be happy—it was, after all, the kind of commonsense decision that spoke to Molly’s own practical nature. Instead, disappointment settled in her gut. What had she expected? The same wild spontaneity she’d seen in Linc that one night?
“Have you ever regretted that decision?”
“No. I did what was smart for the company. For the people who invested in it. The people who…believed in it from the beginning.”
Even though he spoke with conviction, she detected a note of regret in his voice, the echoes of lost chances. “Now that you have the company to mega status—” at that, she smiled “—surely you have time to indulge a few of those earlier dreams. I mean, you are the boss. You and your brother could start building birdhouses and hula hoops if you wanted. Who’s going to stop you?”
His face tightened. “I don’t make decisions like that.”
“Spontaneous ones, you mean?” Molly arched a brow.
His gaze met hers, and in that moment the two of them connected again, with a shared thought.
That night.
That amazing, spontaneous, heated,
insane
night.
“Well, I don’t
usually
make spontaneous decisions,” Linc said, and fire lit his blue eyes for just a moment before subsiding. “In business, every decision is based on research, numbers, financial projections.”
“Where’s the fun in that?”
He considered her words. “There is no fun in that. But it’s reality. As you saw in the car, I’m an extremely busy man, which explains why my entire life revolves around work. Except for that one night, I pretty much live at the office, making all those non-fun decisions.”
If anything screamed “not looking to be a family man,” that did.
“So, it’s not a matter of not wanting to create that software,” Linc went on. “It’s just about smart business practices. As my team pointed out, this has the potential to be a waste of company resources.”
Clearly, his mind was made up. She would have to find another way to provide for her baby. And as for getting to know the baby’s father—
She would simply tell Linc before she left town that she was pregnant and let him decide if he wanted to be part of the child’s life or not. Maybe he would…or maybe he wouldn’t.
The thought that he would turn his back on her and their child sent a wave of disappointment crashing over her. Regardless of how many times she told herself she hadn’t expected an enthusiastic reaction to her presence—
She had.
She wanted to retreat, go home and lick her wounds. She’d been wrong, so, so wrong, and she needed to regroup, find another way of dealing with the mountain of worries in her chest. What was she going to do? How could she handle this on her own? Without a job, a father for her baby, a plan?
She grabbed her purse and started to slide out of the booth. “I’m sorry I took so much of your time. I thought when I met you that night…” She let out a breath. “I thought you were someone else, I guess.” She rose and took a step, but Linc stopped her with a hand on her arm.
“Wait. Don’t go,” he said.
She hesitated, but didn’t turn around. Beneath his palm, her nerve-endings pinged with awareness.
“Why are you really here, Molly?”
It was the way he said her name, in that same soft, husky way he’d said it that first night, that finally made her yield and turn back. “I told you. To ask about that job.”
“I thought you were a kindergarten teacher.”
“My position was cut for the coming school year.”
“So that’s why you decided to see me?” Linc said. “We only talked about that program for a little while before we…” A smile spread across his face. “Before we moved on to other things.”
Oh, and they had moved on. And not returned from the kissing and touching for several hours. There’d barely been any words passing between them.
She pushed those thoughts aside. She wasn’t here to relive that night in the Bellagio. Even if her mind kept straying in that direction every time she looked into Linc’s blue eyes, or heard his voice or felt his touch. Nope, not going back there. No way.
Stick to the plan, Molly. Be smart. Not foolish again.
Molly returned to the booth, perching on the edge of the seat. “When you told me about that software, I saw a man who was alive, excited. That passion extended into your idea. I wanted to be on board with something like that. Not to mention be a part of developing a program that encourages kids to get outdoors and interact with nature, rather than stay inside, being couch potatoes and playing yet another video game.”
His gaze connected with hers across the table. “You saw passion in me for this? A different person than you see today?”
She nodded.
He looked away for a moment, not at anything in particular, but out into the restaurant. She couldn’t read whatever parade of thoughts was running through his mind. But when he turned back to her, the twinkle that had been in his blue eyes the night she’d met him had returned, and a funny quiver stirred in Molly’s gut. “If we did this…and this is a big if…it would require a team of people to implement. Particularly people who know a lot about children.”
She bit her lip. Dared to hope. “Like former kindergarten teachers?”
He smiled. “Exactly like former kindergarten teachers.”
Molly took a deep breath and voiced the idea she’d had when she’d boarded the plane to Vegas and taken the biggest risk of her life—no, the second biggest risk of her life. “That’s exactly why I came here, Linc. To offer you my services.”
M
OLLY
H
UNTER
…working for him?
It was an insane idea, Linc thought, as the two of them delved into their food and he had a moment to think through what she had said and bring some rational perspective to an irrational idea.
After all, they’d only shared one night together—one incredible, amazing night. A night they’d both agreed not to take any further, to leave firmly in the past.
When he’d woken up the next morning with her in his arms, he had considered—for just a moment—taking this to the next step. Asking her to stay another day, a week, a month, to see him again. He’d been intrigued by the sweet and sassy kindergarten teacher who had seemed as ready as him to shed her ordinary life for something unforgettable, for just a few hours.
Then his phone had rung, and he’d been drawn back to reality. To a world that expected Lincoln Curtis to be responsible. The only logical choice had been the one that had seemed to leave Molly relieved and him back in his comfort zone of no personal relationships.
Hadn’t he learned with Barbara that settling down wasn’t for him? That he was the last man on earth who should be married? And if there was one thing he’d observed about Molly the more time he spent with her, it was that despite their crazy night she was a settling down kind of woman.
So they’d decided in the light of morning to go their separate ways, as if the night never happened. It would just be a great memory, they’d agreed. Since then, he’d been happy with that decision. Yes, he’d thought of her. What man wouldn’t, with that long tousled mane of brown hair and those wide green eyes? But he’d left those thoughts in his memory. Not acted on them.
Did Molly have some hidden agenda for being here? Something she wasn’t telling him? He sensed she was holding something back, but didn’t know if it had anything to do with her wanting to work for him.
He watched her sip her drink, and in her heart-shaped face he saw only earnestness and honesty. Someone who was truly interested in his idea, the same one his best advisors had shot down as impractical.
All these years, he’d kept that idea on the back burner, saving it for some elusive “someday” in the future. The one promise he’d left unfulfilled, thinking he’d find a way to get to it, somehow. Now Molly sat before him, offering him the chance to bring that idea to life.
She’d called him “passionate” about the idea. Said she saw a man who was “alive, excited.”
How long had it been since he would have used those adjectives to describe himself?
Yes, he went to work every day, doing a job he loved, but he had lost that charge, that zest, a long time ago.
No, not a long time ago. He could name the exact date his passion for this company had disappeared.
When he’d lost the one person who made coming into work a memorable, fun experience. The person he had started the company with, built it with, the one that Linc had thought would always be there in the office beside his. From that day forward Linc had poured himself into the company, but being there had never been the same.
And here Molly Hunter came along, opening a door he hadn’t even realized he’d shut.
Until now. Damn.
An odd thrill ran through him, a charge he hadn’t felt in…forever. Since the first days when he’d started the company with Marcus, when every day had been an adventure, and they hadn’t known if they were going to make a dollar or lose a dollar. For a man who kept his entire life on a tightly scheduled leash, the feeling was liberating. He recognized it—
From the night he’d met Molly.
It was a dangerous feeling. An addictive feeling. One he should put aside, as he had the morning after two months ago.
But as his gaze locked on Molly’s emerald eyes, he found himself unable to let go of the idea he’d waited so long to bring to the table.
“You’re really willing to uproot your life for this?” Linc asked her.
She nodded. “I’m at a point where I’m…” She paused. “Ready for big changes.”
Was he?
Molly had certainly sprung a change on him when he’d least expected it. This woman, the one he’d thought he’d never see again, had suddenly popped up in his life—
With an offer to stay.
Albeit as an employee, not a girlfriend.
But wasn’t that the perfect situation for him, really? For all his talk this morning with Conner, what time did he have to start a relationship? He’d stepped away once, thought he could have it all—ditch the schedules and the memos in exchange for some fun and freedom. When he’d done that, Linc had broken the only promise he’d ever made—
To take care of his brother. And Marcus had paid with his life.
No, Linc, decided, now was not the time, no matter how tempting the thought of rekindling that night with Molly might be. Maybe once he took the company public, had placed a board of directors in charge…
And then where will you be?
the little voice in his head asked.
Alone? Old?
Better that than leaving a wife and two kids alone and grieving.
He was better off when his focus wasn’t split, when the company remained his top priority. When his managers below him could have their lives and then come to work, happier and healthier. Someone had to be the captain, and that someone was Lincoln.
But…
Molly’s idea offered him a taste of the dreams he’d once had. The ones he’d shared with his brother, then abandoned so many years ago. He wanted to do this. Wanted it badly—not for him, but for Marcus.
He thought of his schedule, of the relentless, dawn-to-dusk pace he kept, and couldn’t see a way, as Conner had said, that he could fit this into his day, too.
Then a solution came to him. One that might give him the best of both worlds, allowing Linc to stay at the helm of the company while Molly did the work of overseeing the new software.
It wouldn’t be the same as having a family of his own, of course. But it would be something. A legacy, of sorts. One that he suspected he’d have more pride in than all the hacker prevention designs he’d perfected over the years.
It would be enough, Linc told himself. A fitting substitute for the one thing he had decided a long time ago he, of all people, would never have.
Yes, it would be enough.
Linc pushed his plate to the side. “I do have a preliminary program for this,” he said to Molly. “Something that we worked up years ago…” He paused, his mind rocketing back to the time period he tried never to visit mentally. “If you’d be willing to work with me and my designers on it, give us the feedback we need for real-world applications, I think I could have something put together for launching next year.”
She swallowed the bite of food in her mouth, considering. “How long do you think something like that would take? This working with the designers process?”
“At the very most, a few weeks. My team is pretty fast. And, like I said, the preliminary program is already there.”
“Perfect. I just need something to tide me over until the next school year starts. I’ve put in several applications with other school systems, and I’m sure something will come through before September. I’m not looking for a career change, just a…” She put out her hands. “A bridge to my next job. If you’re okay with that, then I think this will be a match made in heaven.”
A flush filled her face. At the double meanings in the words? Or something else?
Once again, Linc was sure he detected an undercurrent of a hidden message, perhaps a secondary agenda, ever since she’d arrived. What it was, he couldn’t discern. But it had him intrigued.
Could she still be interested in him? If so, he would have to make it clear that he had no intentions of starting a relationship, with her or any other woman. Regardless of how beautiful Molly was, or how memorable that night had been, his life was what it was. And that left no room for a woman like her.
A woman he had known, almost from the minute he met her, was the kind a man settled down with. Despite that one wild night. Molly Hunter, kindergarten teacher, had suburbia written all over her.
“I’m okay with that,” Linc said. “Are you sure you are?”
“I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.”
“I meant—” he leaned forward, his gaze connecting with hers, with the woman he had once spent an unforgettable, heated night with, one he had been unable to forget no matter how hard he tried and no matter what he told himself “—are you okay with working side by side with me for several weeks?”
What was more…was he?
Alex Lowell’s squeal of joy could be heard from across the spacious, beautifully appointed lobby of McKendrick’s Hotel. “Molly!” She drew her friend into a tight hug, the two months since they’d last seen each other disappearing in the space of the embrace. “I’m so happy to see you!”
Molly drew back, laughing. “I’m so happy to see you, too. San Diego just hasn’t been the same without you and Serena. Even with all the texts, e-mails and video chats, it’s not as wonderful as seeing my best friends in person.”
Alex gestured toward a pair of love seats, and the two women took a seat. “I bet San Diego is a lot quieter,” she said with a laugh of her own.
“Not quieter. More boring. Jayne and I still go to tea at the tearoom, but we spend most of our time wondering how you two are doing.” She grinned. “We had lots of great times at that place, the four of us.”
The four of them had often gone to the Victorian Tea House, one of San Diego’s favorite Old Town hangouts. They loved the food, the atmosphere, and most of all the opportunity for female bonding over cookies.
“We did have a lot of fun there,” her friend agreed. “So, what brings you to Vegas? Besides seeing me and Serena, of course.” Alex’s sky-blue eyes danced with merriment.
Molly didn’t think she’d ever seen her friend so happy. Glowing even. “Marriage agrees with you.”
“Wyatt agrees with me,” Alex said. “He’s wonderful. I never thought I’d find a man so…” She paused and a smile spread across her face, the kind of smile Molly had read about in novels, imagined some women had for the men they loved, and once wondered if she would someday have on her own face. “So amazing. When he looks at me, I feel loved. He doesn’t have to say a word. Just look at me.”
A wave of envy ran through Molly, the force so strong it surprised her. She was happy with her life, glad she had gotten divorced. Doug had never once looked at her like that, and never, in fact, really taken the time to listen to her or understand her. And with a baby on the way, she had someone else’s life to worry about—not her own.
Then why did she suddenly wish she could trade places with Alex? To have just a taste of the happiness emanating from Alex like sunshine?
Clearly, marrying Wyatt McKendrick, owner of McKendrick’s, had been a good choice for Alex. Who would have thought when Alex had stayed behind after that wild weekend to work for Wyatt as his concierge, that she would have found love with the tall, dark-haired bachelor? Now they were running the hotel together and obviously making their work and personal partnerships work.
“I’m so glad for you,” Molly said, and meant it. “Really. You deserve all that and more.”
“So do you,” Alex said. “One bad marriage doesn’t mean all of them are that way.”
Molly didn’t want to talk about her romantic life—or lack thereof—especially not after just leaving lunch with Linc, when everything inside her was still in turmoil after seeing him. Plus, being back in the lobby of McKendrick’s, the very place where she and her friends had started their wild weekend two months ago, brought back every memory of meeting Linc and ending up in his arms, and later in his bed.
And she was hyper-aware of the results of that night. She felt every one of the changes in her body, even as minuscule as they were now. They all just kept reminding her that she was alone and pregnant, and though she now had a job, she had yet to find a way to tell Linc about the baby. A man who’d made it clear he wasn’t interested in the hearth and home thing.
Molly sighed. “I don’t have time for a relationship right now. I’m too busy starting a new job.”
“A new job? What happened to teaching?”
“Cutbacks. So I’m taking a position here in Vegas until I can find another teaching job back in San Diego. It’s a temporary thing, just a few weeks.”
Alex blinked. Stared at Molly. “You’re…you’re uprooting your whole life for a temporary job in a strange city? You? Of all people?”
“What? It’s not that unusual. People do it all the time.”
“Yeah,
other
people. Not you.” Alex reached out and laid a hand on Molly’s arm. “You’re the conservative one. The one who never does anything unpredictable or wild.”
For a second, Molly wanted to tell Alex all about that night two months ago. To tell her good friend about how, for one moment, Molly had done something unpredictable and wild—
And ended up with very predictable, very serious consequences.
“You’re right, Alex,” Molly said instead. “Think of this as my first step into uncharted territory.”
Except, was it the wisest step? When she’d left San Diego, she’d thought this was a brilliant plan. Now, after agreeing to work with Linc, second thoughts ran rampant in her mind.
Soon, she was going to have to tell him she was pregnant. And when he found out—
God, what if he wanted to marry her?
Then where would she be? Stuck in another bad marriage with a man who was her polar opposite, who’d proposed out of pity, or some outdated sense of honor?
No, thank you. She could handle this on her own. She’d just have to make that clear to Linc, right from the start.
Alex grinned. “Well, I don’t care what the reason is for your trip here. I’m just happy to see you. I’ve missed you and Jayne so much! We’ll have to get together for lunch, dinner, as much as we possibly have time for. And be sure to invite Serena, too. I know she’s dying to see you as well.”
Molly laughed. “I promise, we will. You have my cell number—give me a call anytime. Right now, I’m going over to the Hamilton Towers to get settled in and unpacked.”