She gazed across the table at him, sympathy shining in her wide eyes. “That doesn’t make work fun, when you’re not working for a good boss. Even with the problems I’ve had with Andrew, I have to say he’s actually great to work for.”
“Really. I got the impression you don’t like him.”
“Oh no! It’s not that I don’t like him. He’s very smart and knowledgeable. He really goes to bat for his staff, I’ve seen him.”
Jake didn’t really want to hear how great Andrew was. “But you said his attention was causing problems for you.”
“Yes. That’s true.” Her smile faded. “I don’t know what it is, he seems like such a fair-minded man, but he seems to be treating me differently. Well, you know all about that.”
She hitched one shoulder, and the thin fabric of her loose shirt slipped off again, exposing one pretty, smooth shoulder. Did she not have a bra on underneath? His gaze dropped to her chest, but he couldn’t really tell. Focus, man.
“Did we convince him the other night? That you’re not ah…available?”
“I think so.” A tiny furrow wrinkled her forehead. “He was a little cool yesterday. And not very happy that I couldn’t work late tonight.”
Hell. He didn’t want to make things worse for her. But still, it was good that she hadn’t had to work late with him. Who knew what could happen?
He wanted to ask what she knew about Andrew’s marriage, but couldn’t think of a casual way to throw that out there. “Well. We should order.” He didn’t want to talk about Andrew anymore. He was the last thing Jake wanted to talk about to Shelby. Or maybe the second last. Luckily she hadn’t even mentioned Gianna.
They looked over the menu then gave the server their order. “Tell me about the project you’re working on,” he invited Shelby. They worked in similar fields and had a lot in common, and talk flowed easily, moving on to other topics like Jake’s training schedule for his triathlon and Shelby’s friends.
When Jake had paid the bill and driven Shelby back to her place, heated memories of Saturday night had him swelling in his jeans, but this time he was gonna be a nice guy and leave her at her door. This time.
“How did your cookies turn out the other day?” he asked as he walked her to her door.
“Oh.” She smiled. “Good. Taylor was very excited to take them to school.”
“That’s nice of you to do that.”
“I guess.” She lifted one shoulder and her top slipped a little again. “Her mom’s a single mom. She goes to school all day, works two part-time jobs, so Taylor’s on her own a lot. She’s at that in-between age where she doesn’t really need a babysitter, but she’s not quite old enough to be on her own all the time, so I ask her over sometimes. I know how it feels to be alone.”
He studied the faint shadows in her eyes as she said that, remembering what she’d said about her parents. “I’m sure they appreciate that.”
She just smiled.
“’Night, Shelby.” He kissed her mouth, a soft and gentle kiss though he wanted to shove her up against the wall and devour her. “Mmm.” Her long eyelashes fluttered.
He kissed her again, just because she was so soft and sweet. “Wanna do lunch on Thursday?”
Her eyes opened and she straightened. “Oh, Jake.” She touched her fingers to his cheek and smiled. “You don’t need to do that. I appreciate your help—coming to the picnic. And thanks for dinner tonight. But it really wasn’t necessary.”
Damn. He flipped through some thoughts in his mind, the first one being, she was saying no to him, the next that she didn’t want to see him again, and the next was—what the hell was he doing? He wasn’t looking for any kind of relationship. He should just walk away from this too.
But he wanted to see her again. “I’ll come pick you up at the office for lunch. Andrew will see us. It’ll just help make it more convincing.”
She eyed him for a moment, lips pursed as she thought. “Okay,” she finally said.
He smiled. “Great. I’ll give you a call Thursday morning.” He brushed a kiss over her mouth, turned and left.
Thursday morning at work Shelby had to determinedly push away thoughts of Jake and lunch with him and what a potentially bad idea that was, for her meeting with the two business units involved in her project. The meeting didn’t go well, and back in her cubicle she pressed her fingers to her temples. Then she got a call from Riley.
“It’s Adam,” Riley said, referring to their friend Kiara’s husband. “He’s in the hospital.”
“Oh no.” Shelby dropped into her chair and stared across her cubicle. “Is it bad?”
“Yeah.” Shelby could sense Riley’s struggle to get the words out. “This is probably the end.”
“Oh lord.” They’d known this was coming. “We’ll go visit him tonight.”
“Yes. We should. Kiara says he may be able to come home, but if he does, it will be…” She couldn’t finish the sentence, her voice catching.
“Yeah.” Shelby rubbed her forehead, her eyes burning. “I know. I’ll pick you up after work.”
“Okay.”
Shelby put down her phone and bit her bottom lip, fighting back the tears. The office was no place for tears. She had a hard enough time being taken seriously without sitting there sobbing, but damn, it was hard. Adam was a great guy, a talented lawyer, a faithful, devoted husband, fun to be around. He and Kiara were so much in love. It was so not fair, and Shelby hated the helplessness of not being able to do anything to stop this tragedy from happening to her friends.
“Shelby? You okay?” Once again Andrew appeared in her cubicle at the worst possible moment. She quickly swiped the moisture from her eyes and faced him.
“Yes. I’m fine.”
“How did your meeting go?”
She sighed. “Not that well.”
“Are you that upset about it?” His brows jerked together.
“No, no. I just got some bad news from a friend.”
His frown eased into concern. “Oh. Is everything all right?”
“No, not really.” She gave a small sigh. “I’ve mentioned my friends Kiara and Adam. He’s just been hospitalized. This might be the end.”
“Oh.” His face softened even more. “I’m so sorry. Do you need to go?”
“No.” She shook her head and lifted her chin, pressing her lips together. “We’re going to see him tonight.”
“Okay. But if you need anything, let me know.” His eyes fastened onto her intently, and she sensed the sincerity of his offer and once again was seized by guilt at the act she was putting on.
“I will. Thanks. So, um, the meeting this morning was a bit difficult. The new payment system has to meet the needs of both Short Term Benefits and Long Term Disability. Davis and Bram were almost coming to blows when I was trying to determine what their needs are.” She shook her head. “Why is there so much competition between them?”
“Always has been between those two departments,” Andrew replied, leaning one shoulder against her cubicle wall and crossing his arms over his chest. “Come to my office, and we can talk more about it.”
“Sure.” Trying to put aside her thoughts and worries about Kiara and Adam, she followed Andrew to his office. There was no privacy for sensitive discussions in cubeland.
Andrew shut the door of his office behind her and held a hand to the chairs at the round table. “Have a seat.”
She lowered herself to a chair.
“Sure you’re okay?” Concern shadowed his eyes. “You know you can take off if you need to.”
“I’m fine. I will probably need some time when…” And she, too, wasn’t able to finish the sentence. Geez, this was hard.
“Of course.”
She was grateful for Andrew’s understanding and flexibility.