BRIAN (The Callahans Book 1) (67 page)

Joey

“You’re going to what?”

I dropped a bag filled with groceries on the kitchen counter, quickly shoving the fresh vegetables into the fridge, trying to find a safe place to put them around the cakes that were waiting for Rosie to decorate.

I had three jobs. JB Graphics. A bar called Nico’s—an odd name for a honky-tonk, I know, but the owner was a bit of an egomaniac. And a cake decorating business with my sister. I baked the cakes, she decorated them. But, lately, she’d been letting the business slide a little because she’d been spending too much time with her boyfriend, Jackson.

“I’m going to a party,” I repeated, as I grabbed a carton of eggs from the grocery bag and mumbled something a little indelicate when I found fondant in the egg compartment of the fridge.

“With whom?”

I shook my head, not really in the mood to get into the whole thing with Rosie. I was so worried about what I was going to wear. I had nothing that was really appropriate to wear to a huge party like this one. And I didn’t want to disappoint Jason. I’d been going over my wardrobe in my head all day, such as it was. I haven’t gone clothes shopping in two or three years because I was using my money to buy books at school and to pay off the loans that paid my tuition.

My goal was to be debt free by the time I turned thirty. At the rate I was going, I wasn’t quite going to make it. But it would be close.

But that left me with an old, chiffon dress my mother once gave me, or a black shift I wore to work all the time. Not great choices for evening gowns.

“Jo,” Rosie said, reminding me that she was still there. “What about the bar?”

“Kelly’s going to take my shift tonight, and I’m taking hers on Sunday.”

“But I thought you got the majority of your tips on Fridays.”

“I do. But Sunday isn’t awful. There’s a few…”

“This guy must be really important.”

I shoved a new bag of flour into the cupboard and wiped my hands off on a dishtowel.

“It’s an important party, and I have no idea what I’m going to wear.”

“Well, maybe the box that was delivered a while ago will help.”

I looked over at her. “What box?”

She shrugged, but there was a big smile on her face. “A box arrived a couple of hours ago from Nordstrom’s.”

I stared at her for a long second, then I raced for the stairs. She followed, just slightly slower than I. The box was sitting on my bed, a huge, white box with Nordstrom’s written across the top in bright gold letters. I’ve gone into Nordstrom’s a dozen times, touching some of the lovely fabrics of the dresses they sell there, but I’ve never bought anything there. Way too far out of my price range.

I ran my fingers over the top of the box, felt each letter as it was embossed into the cardboard. I knew it was from Jason; I knew he’d guessed I wouldn’t have anything to wear. It was thoughtful of him to arrange for something. However, it was also a little embarrassing that he had so accurately guessed that I didn’t have a half dozen evening gowns sitting around in my closet.

“Are you going to open it?”

I hesitated. I wanted to open it. But once I did, I couldn’t take it back. And I wasn’t sure I was ready to accept such a gift from a man I hardly knew. A man who found me asleep inside a wooden cake in the entryway of his house. A man who’d probably never would have been interested in me if I hadn’t been half-naked in his house.

But then…

I was so curious about what was inside the box.

“Joey, he wouldn’t have sent it if he didn’t want you to have it.”

“What makes you think it was a man who sent this?”

“Because only a man would make you blush like that.”

I touched my cheek. I hadn’t even realized I was blushing.

I tugged the lid from the box and slowly pulled the tissue paper out of the way. My breath caught in my throat when I saw the first few wisps of fine blue material. Rosie gasped as she reached out to touch, but I slapped her hand away. This was mine.

I gently tugged the dress from the box and held it up against my body as I went to the full-length mirror nailed to my bedroom wall. It was a pale blue dress with an empire waist and a sweetheart bodice. The material was like a spider web, so thin and delicate. It was like nothing I’d ever owned before. I couldn’t wait to put it on, but a part of me was afraid that I would soil it in some way. I carefully put it down on my bed and just stared at it, overwhelmed.

“There are shoes,” Rosie said. “And a purse and a jeweler’s box.”

“What?”

“There’s jewelry in here.”

I tugged the bigger box toward me and, sure enough, there was more inside. A shoe box with a pair of blue pumps that matched the dress perfectly, a delicate blue purse, and a long, flat box like you’d get from a place like Jared’s or Tiffany’s.

I held the jewelry box in my hands for a long minute, thinking I should call Jason and tell him this was too much, that I couldn’t wear these things. But I felt like a kid on Christmas morning. I so desperately wanted to see what was in that box.

“Open it,” Rosie said close to my ear.

I glanced at her. “You’re more excited than I am.”

“Yeah. Isn’t that a shame?”

I threw an elbow at her, but she managed to get out of the way just in time.

I carefully slid the top from the jewelry box. Inside was a simple pair of diamond earrings and a diamond pendant. I bit my lip to keep the gasp that wanted to escape from doing so. But Rosie wasn’t quite as self-contained.

“Oh, my God!” she cried. “That’s got to be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Why can’t Jackson buy stuff like that for me?”

“Because he’s a college student.”

I ran my fingertip over the cool of the diamond pendant. Was this the kind of thing the women in Jason’s life normally wore? Is this the sort of thing women in his world took for granted? Something like this…I could pay off the remainder of my freshman year loans with the price of this necklace alone.

I carefully set it back down in the larger box.

“I can’t keep any of this.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s too expensive. What would he think if I accepted it?”

“That you were gracious for all the time effort he put into getting it for you.”

I tried to imagine Jason going to a mall and purchasing stuff like this. I couldn’t. But I
could
see Shelly doing it.

Rosie moved up behind me and wrapped her arms around my waist. She’s actually a little taller than I am—despite the fact that I’m the older sister. She pressed her lips against my ear and said, “You work hard. You never take time off. You deserve this.”

“Maybe.”

“You do. And, whoever this guy is, he deserves kudos for figuring that out.”

“Do you really think that’s what this is about?” I glanced back at her, wishing I could be as naive as she was. However, as she was nodding her head, assuring me that was exactly what she was thinking, a different thought raced through my mind.

He simply doesn’t want to be embarrassed by me.

He’s seen me around the office. It doesn’t take much to see that most of my clothes have seen better days. He probably guessed I wouldn’t have anything decent to wear, and he didn’t want me to embarrass him by showing up in last year’s fashion.

But was that reason enough to refuse to accept these things? To turn down the date at the last minute?

Didn’t I deserve this?

I was still waffling back and forth when I climbed into the shower, worrying over the idea as I shaved my legs and exfoliated so that my skin would be silky soft should he chose to take me into his bed tonight. And then my thoughts moved to other places and…I wanted to go, I wanted to spend time with Jason. I wanted him to look at me the way he had that night in his house, when he couldn’t take his eyes off of the way that bikini barely covered my breasts, my ass. I wanted the gentle caress of his hand on my jaw, the soft brush of his lips on mine.

I was quickly falling under his spell, and I knew that was dangerous. He was my boss. He was from a world that was as different from mine as it could get. How long would we have anything in common? How long before we were forced to actually converse? How long until we discovered we had nothing to talk about?

But I really wanted to enjoy the moments that came before that.

In the end, I put the dress on. And I twirled in front of the mirror, watching the way the skirt flared out around my ankles. I felt like a little girl playing dress up. I wore the shoes—surprised by how comfortable they were despite the high heels—and filled the purse with the few essentials I thought I might need. But I hesitated over the jewelry. It was all so beautiful. But what if I lost an earring? Or the clasp on the necklace broke? What if all those thousands of dollars disappeared and I couldn’t give them back tomorrow?

Instead, I chose a simple set of pearl earrings my parents gave me on my graduation from college and left my neck bare.

I could hear Rahul laughing at something Rosie must have said as I headed downstairs. Rahul, Rosie’s bodyguard-supervisor-prop builder, was watching her decorate a cake at the kitchen counter. Rosie spotted me first and her wide-eyed expression forced him to turn. He immediately stepped off the stool where he’d been sitting.

“Wow,” was all he said, but the look on his face said so much more.

I felt like a princess.

“Perfect,” Rosie said, coming around the counter, her hands covered in icing and food dye. “Whoever he is, he’ll be over the moon.”

“Thank you.”

Rahul was silent, as he watched me move around the room, nervously dropping a few more things into my purse and straightening pillows that didn’t really need it.

“How late are you going to be?” Rosie asked.

“Late, I’m sure. What about you? Do you have a gig tonight?”

Rosie delivers singing telegrams, which is how I ended up in Jason’s house, dressed in a bikini, inside a cake. She was supposed to do the job, but her boyfriend wouldn’t let her, so I got talked into doing it for her. For which I was grateful. Sort of.

“Not tonight.”

Rahul sort of cleared his throat. “I’m just hanging out,” he said.

I started to nod, but then there was a knock on the door. My heart jumped into my throat.

Jason was here. And Rosie was running for the door.

Jason

I was nervous. I don’t think I’ve been truly nervous to pick up a date in a very long time. Not since high school. But I was nervous standing outside Joanne’s door.

And then it burst open and this tall, thinner version of Joey was staring up at me with what looked like Play-Doh all over her hands.

“Hi!” she said, nearly bouncing on the balls of her feet like some sort of cheerleader.

“I’m here for Joanne,” I said, smiling because her enthusiasm was catchy.

She nodded, her eyes taking in everything from the overcoat I was wearing to the single, long stem rose in my hand.

“Come in,” she said, stepping back out of the way.

The first thing I noticed was the man standing at the bar separating the kitchen from the living room. I recognized him immediately as the same guy who’d kissed Joanne at that honkytonk where she worked the night before. My spine stiffened and my hold on the rose tightened so much that a thorn I’d been careful to avoid since the flower shop suddenly pierced my index finger.

But then Joanne slipped around into my line of vision, and she was all I could see.

The dress fit perfectly—thank goodness!—hugging all the right curves. When Shelly showed it to me, I’d known it would be perfect. But seeing it on her took it to a whole new level. As beautiful as it was on, I couldn’t wait until the moment it was a puddle at her feet.

There was hesitation in her smile. I crossed the room to her and offered her the rose. Her hand shook as she took it from me, the smile widening slightly.

“You’re so beautiful,” I said, brushing my fingers over the curve of her jaw.

“Thanks to you.”

“You’d be beautiful in a muumuu.”

There.
The nervousness, the hesitation, just melted. And when I kissed her, I felt the pleasure dance between us in the soft sigh that slipped from between her lips.

And then someone behind us cleared his or her throat.

Joanne took my arm and turned me.

“Jason, this is my sister, Rosie.”

The girl who’d answered the door came prancing up to us. “It’s lovely to meet you,” she said, extending one of those colorful hands.

“Roseanne,” Joanne barked.

She giggled as she pulled her hand away. “Sorry. I was decorating a cake.”

I glanced at the kitchen bar where I’d seen the cake earlier. It reminded me a little of the night I found Joanne sleeping inside a giant cake in my house. It almost seemed appropriate that there would be cake here, too.

“It’s nice to meet you,” I said, inclining my head slightly.

“And this is Rahul,” Rosie said, taking the man’s arm and dragging him into our little circle of introductions.

I offered my hand, but he hesitated. I could see the jealousy radiating in his eyes, and that made me wonder if Joanne was a little naïve when it came to her assessment of this guy. What was it she’d told me? He might have a crush on her? I would say might was a
huge
understatement.

As soon as the introductions were done, I slid my hand over the small of Joanne’s back.

“We should go.”

Her sister leaned in and said something, making Joanne slap her on the arm. And then we were making our escape, slipping out the door to the limo waiting at the curb.

“It’s kind of a requirement for these things,” I said as I helped her inside. “My parents have a certain reputation.”

She just nodded, her eyes wide as she took in the full bar and the television hanging from one corner.

“It must be interesting, attending these sorts of things every weekend.”

“Not every weekend. Just most.”

She slipped her hand over mine and intertwined her fingers with mine. I turned into her and brushed my lips along the curve of her jaw just below her ear.

“You look amazing.”

“Thank you for the dress.”

“Of course. I invited you last minute. The least I could do was help out with the details.”

She blushed and turned away, her eyes moving to the window.

“What?”

“I just…I don’t want you to think that I expect stuff like this.”

“I don’t.”

“I mean, I didn’t have anything to wear, and I probably couldn’t have bought anything quite like this, but I don’t want you to have to buy me clothes every time we go out.”

“I wouldn’t mind.”

“I would.”

“Okay. I won’t do it again without talking to you first.”

“Thank you.”

I kissed her jaw again. “But you do look amazing. You’re making it so hard for me to concentrate on anything other than you.”

She blushed. “I’d apologize, but…”

I kissed her, drawing her bottom lip between my teeth and nibbling on it just a little before deepening the kiss, pulling her close to me as I explored territory that should seem familiar now, but really wasn’t. I ran my hand over her hip, letting it slide down over the silky material of her dress, searching for a place that would offer a little more access to the gorgeous turn of her thigh. But there was no slit in this skirt and the length was too much for a discrete touch.

And her touch…she slid her hand under my overcoat and my dinner jacket, sliding her fingers around the buttons until she finally slipped one inside that little gap, her fingertip creating designs against my abdominal muscles. I wished I hadn’t worn an undershirt. I wished her skin could touch mine. And then, as her hand began to slide downward again, I wished we weren’t in the backseat of a limo, but in the privacy of my bedroom.

But we weren’t. We were on the way to a very important charity event for my parents’ foundation—and I needed to remember that. Unfortunately.

I broke our kiss, but drew her body in closer to mine, wrapping my arms around her as I cradled her to my chest.

“I should warn you. This thing is going to be something of a circus.”

“Yeah?”

“There will be press all over the place. When we arrive, it’ll be a little like a mini-red carpet event. Then, inside, there will be reporters watching everything we do.”

She nodded her head where it rested against my shoulder.

“My brother and his wife will be there. And a huge number of my parents’ friends, clients, coworkers…whatever. A lot of people my parents would rather not offend. And we want all these people to donate tons of money to the community center, so we have to play nice.”

“Are you saying that for my benefit or yours?”

I chuckled a little. “Mine, maybe.”

She straightened up and ran her hands over her skirt. “I know how to behave.”

“I know. I just want you to be prepared. From the moment we get out of the car until we get back inside, people are going to watch our every move.”

“Okay.”

“So no more of this,” I said, tugging her jaw and stealing another kiss. She melted into me, her body molding against mine. I loved the way she did that, the way her body fit mine so perfectly. I wanted to tell the driver to turn around and take us back to my place, but it was too late. We were there.

The car slowed to the side of the road and joined the line of other limos vomiting their passengers. I tensed, and Joanne felt it. She straightened a little and glanced out the window at the chaos going on just ahead of us.

“Is it always like this?”

“A lot of the time.”

“It must have been hard when you were a kid.”

I loved that her mind automatically went there. Any other woman I’d ever dated would have been excited by the whole thing. They would have been thinking about the potential for themselves, how they might appear in the newspaper and the internet gossip pages. They would have had stars dancing in their eyes. Joanne thought about me and how living like this affected me. That told me volumes about her.

I kissed her temple.

“Are you ready for this?”

A little tension came into her expression, but she nodded. “If you are.”

The door was wrenched open a second later. I stepped out first, lifting a hand to the sudden sound of my name coming from half a dozen reporters’ lips. “Where are your parents?” they wanted to know.

“How much do you hope to raise tonight?”

“Where will the bulk of the funds go?”

“Are you planning to take over as chairman of the foundation?”

All questions I’d heard a dozen times in the last few weeks already, questions I’ve already answered. Questions I really didn’t feel the need to answer again.

I turned and reached back into the car for Joanne’s hand. She gripped mine and stepped out of the car, careful to keep her skirt out of the way of her feet, but down around her ankles. It was a process I’d seen dozens of women complete, but never really understood how they did it without tripping over their own toes. Joanne did it with as much grace as any of them, maybe more so.

I tucked her arm into my elbow and we made our way up the steps to the hotel that was hosting the event. I didn’t answer any questions despite the rising volume of the more insistent reporters. I felt Joanne’s hand grip my upper arm a little harder as we turned toward the glass doors and were greeted by half a dozen more reporters taking our pictures along with another half dozen hotel employees trying to keep the doors clear. I was practiced at this, able to keep a relaxed smile on my face. But I could feel her tension growing with every step we took.

Once inside the hotel lobby, we were directed toward the ballroom at the very back. I’d been here earlier in the day to check on the arrangements with Shelly. The decorations had come out well and the caterer was already setting up the centerpieces and the long buffet table where refreshments should be set out. The room looked different as we paused in the doorway and shed our outerwear. There were so many people, too many people.

“Take a deep breath,” I whispered into her ear. “Don’t worry about remembering everyone’s name. Just smile and pretend you’re taking in every word that falls from everyone’s lips.”

“Easier said than done.”

“Yes, it is.”

And then it began.