His driver was waiting for us when we walked out of the building, holding the door of the Lincoln open. I scampered into the luxurious car and tried not to be intimidated. The only time I’d ever been in a limo was when I went to prom and there were four couples in the vehicle. Now the interior felt cavernous. But the space magically shrunk as soon as Jake sat down next to me, and I found it difficult to breathe. His presence seemed to suck all the oxygen out of the air.
“What do you want to eat?”
“Um…I’m not picky about food.” I flushed as soon as I realized what I said. My plump figure probably spoke for itself.
“Good. We’ll go to my favorite Spanish restaurant near Millennium Park.” He gave the address to the driver and then raised the privacy screen.
The leather gave a slight squeak as he sat back and angled his body to face me. “So tell me Cora. What do you think of the Emerson project?”
I hesitated. “Jake, I’m not sure I’m qualified to give you any feedback.”
“Bullshit. Just give me your gut reaction to what you read.”
“Well…the building will certainly add to the Chicago skyline. And the architect’s renderings of the interiors looked amazing. But…”
“But…” he prompted, his eyes glued to my face.
“But, all the amenities seem to be geared toward young, single people.”
“Yes, most of the residents will be that demographic.”
My forehead wrinkled. “I thought there were several floors with two and three bedroom units?”
“Yes, we figured a few tenants may be married or would want to have extra guestrooms.”
“But married couples have kids. Did you want them to move out of their units or did you want to provide some incentives for them to stay? Wouldn’t lower turnover of units be better for business?” I lost my reluctance to speak out as I worked through the logic, but I clamped my mouth shut at the arrested expression on his face.
“Um… Of course you would know more about this than I would.” I laughed nervously and backpedaled. “After all, you’ve been doing this for years and I’ve been on the job for four days!”
Jake grinned. “That’s brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!”
I inhaled sharply as he leaned toward me until his face was so close I could see the fine grain of his skin. His clean scent teased my nose. Inches away, his eyes were like two liquid pools of paradise and I felt like I would drown in them. They trailed over my face and my insides felt weak and fluttery. A heavy heat sunk into my lower body.
“You’re beautiful and smart, Cora. I’m lucky to have you as my assistant.” His voice was gruff.
The reminder of my job shoved me out of my trance. I broke eye contact and looked down at my lap, ignoring the tingles running through my body. He’s just being polite, Cora. He doesn’t really think you’re beautiful.
“Thank you,” I muttered.
He sat back and I could breathe again.
“Will, this is Jake Weston. Can you meet me at the site at two? I want to make some changes to the plans.”
I realized he was speaking to the architect on his cell phone. Surely he wasn’t going to make changes based on my careless comment?
“Great. See you then.” He terminated the call and turned to me. “Will Garucci did not sound too happy, but he’ll come around.”
“Please tell me you’re not going to change the plans because of what I said. I don’t know what I’m talking about.” My voice was unnaturally high. I was horrified that my big mouth could have derailed a multi-billion dollar project.
Jake looked completely unaffected by my anxiety. “You made an insightful observation and I’m going to run with it. Frankly, I’m disappointed my project manager didn’t see this angle.”
Before I could argue, the car stopped at our destination. I was in such a daze, I didn’t notice anything until we were seated in the elegant restaurant.
“Jake, you can’t just arbitrarily change such a big project based off of my opinion. This is crazy.”
“I don’t want to hear another word about it. It’s done. If you have any ideas of what type of facilities we should add, feel free to share them.”
My lips pressed tightly together. I didn’t want to say anything else that would make the architect’s life miserable.
“That’s too bad.” He was clearly laughing at my discomfiture because his lips kept twitching. “Now, have you ever had tapas?”
I shook my head. On my salary, I could hardly afford to eat out.
It suddenly hit me that things had changed. With my raise, a night out wasn’t out of the question anymore. I smiled as I made plans to take Marcus to eat out this weekend. Maybe we’d hit a steak house. We hadn’t had a good steak for a long time. It would be nice to not have to eat cheap carbs for once. And afterwards, we could pick up some clothes for him. He was growing like a weed and his jeans were already too short for him.
“Penny for your thoughts.”
“What?” I blinked my boss into focus.
“What put that look on your face just now? Were you thinking of someone specific?” Jake looked hawkish, his eyes hard, and I wondered what had irritated him.
“Um…I was thinking of taking my brother out this weekend.”
“Welcome back, Mr. Weston! It’s always a pleasure.” A dark haired mustachioed man beamed at him. Obviously, Jake was a valued customer. He turned to me and although I didn’t think it was possible, his smile grew. “And who is this lovely señorita?”
Whatever affected Jake seemed to have passed quickly because his face was relaxed again. “Luis, it’s good to see you! This is Cora. Cora, Luis is the owner of La Cocina.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Luis. Your restaurant is lovely.”
“The señorita is beautiful and smart.”
Luis’s echo of Jake’s earlier words made my face heat up.
Jake smiled lazily as he stared at me. “Yes, she is.”
My cheeks exploded with color at his look. It felt too intimate and I forced myself to glance away. I dug my fingers into my palms, hoping the pain would help me maintain my composure.
“Would it be okay if I picked a selection of tapas for you today?” asked Luis.
I nodded my assent. I was too flustered to focus on what to order.
“That would be wonderful, Luis.” Jake handed the owner our menus.
“So, you were thinking about your brother. Marcus, right?”
It took me a moment to recall our conversation. I nodded, surprised he remembered my brother’s name. “Yes. I thought it would be nice if we went out to eat tomorrow. We haven’t dined out since…well, for a long time.” Since before my mom died.
“How old is Marcus?”
“He’s twelve. He’s in the eighth grade.” I could tell he wasn’t familiar with school age children and explained. “He’s ahead in school by a year because he’s academically advanced, especially in math and science. He could actually do high school level work, but the counselor said it would be harder for him to fit in socially if the age gap is too large.”
He looked suitably impressed. “Intelligence runs in the family, then. How did you become a guardian at such a young age?”
There wasn’t a way to dodge the question without being outright rude. “My mom died from lung cancer eight months ago and we didn’t have any extended family.”
Sympathy changed his blue-green eyes to dark blue. “I’m so sorry, Cora. That must have been heart-breaking.” His large hands reached across the table and took my hands gently into his.
Something tightened in my chest at his touch. His palms felt dry and hot and every time the pads of his thumbs brushed the top of my hands, I felt twin currents travel up my arms. I had expected his hands to be soft and manicured, but they were pleasantly rough.
“It was. But at least I still have my brother. He’s my only family.”
“Family’s important. What happened to your dad?”
“He died in a car accident. Hit a patch of black ice and spun into a truck coming the other way.” My voice was shaky. My dad’s death was sudden and unexpected whereas I had time to prepare for my mom’s. It wasn’t that my mom’s death was less agonizing, but at least I had time to say goodbye.