He nodded. Took a deep breath. Let it out. “Okay. Let’s start fresh. Your idea for how to continue with the project does sound like it would work. Your business case was well thought out. So let’s see if we can do it.”
She grinned. “Okay.”
“We don’t need to be friends to work together,” he said. “But we need to be honest with each other.” He met her eyes and she nodded her agreement.
“I agree.”
“I’m sorry you felt like you had to lie to me about having a boyfriend.”
More hot embarrassment washed over her at that. What could she say? “Well. I’m sorry I did it.” She rolled her eyes. “You have no idea how sorry. Are things okay with you and your wife?”
His eyes shadowed. “I don’t know.”
Anger at Jake spiked again. “Jake’s an asshole for doing that. He shouldn’t have used me to get back at you. To try to steal your wife away from you.”
“He wasn’t trying to steal my wife away from me.”
Her chin dropped again. “He wasn’t?”
“No. Though maybe he could have. She wouldn’t talk last night, but after I saw Jake this morning, I went to her office and we had it out. She was the one who instigated that. She says she’s confused. After she saw Jake at the company barbecue, she started to wonder if she’d made a mistake.” He looked like someone was squeezing his testicles, but he kept going through gritted teeth. “I guess I should have known that someone who’d ditch one guy for another would probably do the same to me.”
“I’m sorry.”
He grimaced. “Anyway, Jake didn’t rat her out. He was going to let me keep thinking he was the one who’d done it. And for what it’s worth, I don’t think he was using you either.”
“Y-you don’t?” Her thoughts ground to a halt yet again.
“No. He also told Gianna…” He stopped, shook his head. “You should talk to him.” He gave her a crooked smile. “How about you take the rest of the afternoon off and we’ll start fresh tomorrow morning?”
She swallowed through a dry throat, gave a short nod and rose to her feet. “Thank you, Andrew.”
“Shelby.”
She paused with her hand on the door, looked over her shoulder. “Yes?”
“We can talk more about this tomorrow, but I think I know who the consultant should be to work on the project.”
“Oh. Okay. Who’s that?”
“Jake.”
She went very still. “But he’s…not a consultant.”
“Yes, he is. He quit his job yesterday.”
She didn’t move. Tightened her fingers on the door knob. He’d quit his job. Joy swept over her, joy for him that he’d finally done it. All her insides quivered with excitement. “And you’d hire him?”
He smiled. “Hell yeah. I can’t think of anyone better.”
Oh. Her heart almost exploded out of her chest. Maybe things would be okay between him and Jake too. Or maybe not. Lots had happened. But this made her pulse leap with excitement and feel a little giddy.
“Thank you, Andrew.” Their eyes met in a brief connection. He nodded.
Well. She still had her job. She still had her project. Her relationship with Andrew might take a little while to rebuild, but it sounded like he didn’t want to get rid of her. In fact, it sounded like he really liked her. Liked her work, she amended in her mind. He’d never been after anything else. Relief blossomed and spread through her, but then her heart tripped as she remembered Jake.
She’d put on her big-girl panties and come back to work and dealt with the problem. But thinking about Jake still hurt. A lot.
She almost ran a red light on her way home, she was so preoccupied thinking about him and what had happened. Once safely inside her apartment she changed her clothes once again, back into her comfy yoga pants and T-shirt. She sat on her bed.
Andrew didn’t think Jake had been using her.
She rubbed at the tightness between her eyebrows as she tried to make sense of it all. He and Gianna had been in love. Andrew was his best friend. Then Andrew and Gianna had fallen in love with each other.
She touched her fingertips to her lips and closed her eyes as she imagined how that must have hurt Jake. She knew about his past, about his mother, and how he didn’t do relationships. He’d gotten involved with Gianna though, and although it hurt her to think about, it hurt even more to think about his pain when Gianna had fallen in love with his best friend. How much that must have hurt Jake.
Her throat constricted. So when he’d run into them that day at the picnic, it must have been like getting slapped in the face yet again.
He’d told her about his and Andrew’s plans to go into business together and she knew how disappointed he’d been about that even though he hadn’t told her the whole story. So not only had he lost his girlfriend, he’d lost his best friend and his business plan. That was a lot to lose all at once.
She wanted to hug him, to kiss him, to tell him she understood. Then she remembered that he’d used her and anger rose again. Except…Andrew didn’t believe he’d been using her. And thinking back over the last few weeks, and all the time they’d spent together, it didn’t feel like she’d been used. She remembered laughing with him, crying with him, bike riding, walking Wayne, baking cookies with Taylor, and all the things he’d done for her and for her friends when Adam died.
No. That wasn’t using her.
Maybe her stupid optimism was going to be her downfall yet again, but she just couldn’t stop the buoyancy that rose up inside her. He did care about her. He might not want to admit it, probably because he was afraid of getting hurt again, and okay, she got that, given his history, but she was suddenly, absolutely positive that he did care.
What had he said to her? Don’t let the past mess up your future? Something about dragging crap around with her?
Yes. That was what she’d done. All her life, basically.
She’d known she shouldn’t get involved with her boss at RBM but she’d done it anyway. She’d tried to learn from it. And yet, she’d brought that hurt with her, and it had colored everything, made her think that Andrew wanted more from her than he really did. She’d made a mess of things when she should have just had a conversation with Andrew.
So she knew what it was like. She knew what Jake was dragging around with him. And he needed to realize that too. He needed to know that everyone he cared about wasn’t going to leave him.
She rose to her feet. She had to see him. She looked at her watch. Would he still be at work? She didn’t want to go see him there. She’d wait until he was at home. And she knew what she’d do to keep herself busy until then.
He opened his door to her, his hair messed, shadows darkening the skin below his eyes. He must have just gotten home, hadn’t even changed, his usually impeccable business clothes rumpled—tie loosened, top button of his shirt undone. He’d taken off his suit jacket and rolled the sleeves of his shirt up, revealing his big strong forearms. He looked so sexy and handsome and sad, it made her heart squeeze.
Wayne came rushing at her, tail swishing with fond recognition, and she put out a hand to rub his head, looking briefly away from Jake to greet the dog.
“Lay down, Wayne,” Jake said abruptly. Wayne went to the tile floor and laid his chin on his front paws, looking up at them with big dark eyes.
Jake turned his gaze back to her. “Hi.” She heard the question in his tone.
“Hi.” Her stomach tightened with nerves, despite her conviction that she was right about him and his feelings for her.
“Everything okay?” he asked. “With you and Andrew?”