One Night with the Boss (2 page)

She wasn’t tall and willowy or classically beautiful, but her smile always brightened the room on a cloudy day. And there was something about her voice, a huskiness that wasn’t quite a lisp but tapped into his devilish streak and made him bait her into saying
S-
words.

She was staring at the rubber ball in his fist. “You’ve clearly been giving the interviews some thought.”

“Sort of. In a manner of speaking. But only because you forced me into this.”

She rolled her eyes, then looked at the yellow legal pad in her lap that she used for notes. “Okay, then. Let’s start with candidate number one. Shannen Dow.”

The corners of his mouth curved up. “I like her name.”

“That’s a good start. The recruiter says she’s one of their strongest applicants.”

“Of course they would. Commission is their revenue stream.”

Olivia ignored that. “I thought she was very bright, with a solid background in computers and business. That’s really important so she can hit the ground running. The sooner you hire someone, the more training I can do before my last day.”

The
last day
part hit a nerve. “She was okay. But it has to be said—not a fashion plate.”

Her blue eyes narrowed on him. “I didn’t list accessorizing as a qualification you were looking for. Since when do you care about that?”

“Since always. She’ll have to meet clients and there will be meetings.”

“Not often. When I interviewed, you told me that since your corporate office is in your home, I could wear jeans to work.”

Because jeans look good on you,
he thought. But Shannen Dow was skinny and her voice wasn’t the least bit gravelly or interesting.

“But you never did go casual and that’s set a very high bar for your replacement.”

“So take her to the mall.”

Brady ignored the sarcasm. “Didn’t you find the tone of her voice to be like fingernails on a chalkboard?”

Olivia’s expression was wry. “Not until you asked her to make a pot of coffee.”

“Really? I thought the pitch was on the shrill side. Too much of that would give me a headache.”

“No one wants to work for a male sexist pig,” she pointed out.

“She needed to know I’m missing the sensitivity chip,” he defended.

“Making coffee isn’t a skills requirement for this position.”

“Says who? It’s important to me and I’m the one who signs the paycheck.”

“Okay then. Moving on.” She made a note on the legal pad. “Let’s talk about candidate number two.”

“What’s her name again?” he asked innocently.

“Shelly Shows.” She met his gaze. “Did you approve of her outfit?”

“It was lovely.” He added, “But I wasn’t wowed by her, even in plaid.”

“Her letters of reference are glowing. At her current place of employment she’s very well-liked and efficient.”

“Then why does she need this job?”

“It’s closer to home. She’s been working as executive assistant to the administrator of the hospital, which, as you’re aware, is about seventy miles away. Currently she rents a room near work then comes home on the weekends.” Olivia met his gaze. “So, what are your thoughts?”

He thought it would be possible to sympathize if the best assistant he’d ever had wasn’t leaving him. Instead of answering, he asked, “Speaking of distant towns, where are you moving?”

She blinked at his rapid change of topic. “What?”

“When you abandon me, where are you going to live?”

“That’s not information you need in order to hire my replacement.”

Why was she being so stingy with details? “The least you can do is tell me his name.”

“You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

He leaned back in his chair and grinned. “See how well you know me?”

“All right. It’s Leonard,” she finally said. “There, go ahead and make fun.”

“Would I do that?”

“In a heartbeat.”

“That’s harsh.” But accurate. He’d almost said it was marginally better than Aloysius. “So, where did you meet Leonard?”

“Out of town,” she said vaguely.

“That goes without saying. If you were dating a guy from Blackwater Lake, it would be all over town.” For a to-the-point person, she was being uncharacteristically difficult. This was frustrating and Brady felt his curiosity picking up momentum. “Where specifically did you meet? On vacation?”

“Vacation?” She laughed. “What’s that? When you’re in the office I am, too. And you’re always in the office. There’s no such thing as time off.”

“Point taken. I’m a workaholic. Would you consider a leave of absence instead of resigning? I could spare you for that.”

“No.” Primly she folded her hands in her lap. “Not everything is about you.”

“So you keep reminding me. And now it’s about Leonard.”

“Exactly.” She brushed imaginary lint from the leg of her slacks.

“If you didn’t meet him on vacation, it must have been a trip for work.”

“Remind me not to try and put anything over on you.”

Sarcasm was one of his favorite things about her. “So, was it in Austin? L.A.? Chicago?”

“I definitely went to those cities. You should know. We were there together.”

She was right about that, but when business hours were over they’d gone their separate ways. He’d picked up women and if Olivia had met men she never said anything to him. Until now. He’d never thought to ask how she filled her time away from work. Clearly she’d found Leonard, and the sense of betrayal Brady felt was out of proportion to the situation. He was being unfair. Not to mention completely irrational.

As crazy as he knew it was, he wanted to know everything. “Do you have a job lined up in Leonard’s neck of the woods?”

“I have an offer.”

“I’d be happy to give you a glowing recommendation.” Well, not happy, exactly, but he’d try not to be spiteful, what with his festering bitterness about her jumping ship.

“But I’m planning to take some time off first.”

“What are you going to do with yourself?”

“Anything that strikes my fancy,” she said, a little defiantly. She stood and walked to the doorway of his office. “Any other questions?”

Why are you leaving me?

Brady didn’t say that out loud, even though the idea of it had preoccupied him way too much since she’d dropped her bombshell. Besides his mother, sister and niece, he had no personal attachments—yet somehow he’d become attached to Olivia. He wouldn’t be making that mistake with his next assistant.

She looked over her shoulder on the way out the door. “Think about Shelly. And I’ll be lining up more candidates to interview. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll approach this process more seriously than you just did.”

“I conducted those interviews very seriously.”

She ignored that. “You need to ask yourself what’s wrong with the two women you saw today.”

“I don’t need to ask myself anything. I already know what’s wrong.”

“Care to share?” She put a hand on her hip.

“Neither of them is you.”

Chapter Two

A
fter work, her boss’s words sent Olivia to her best friend’s house. A friend who just happened to be Brady’s sister. Now she sat on Maggie Potter’s comfortable sofa in the cozy, spacious log cabin home where Maggie lived with her infant daughter, Danielle, after her husband was tragically killed in Afghanistan. Danny had built this place for her and it was where they’d planned to spend the rest of their lives and raise their family. That was before his Army National Guard unit had been called up and deployed to Afghanistan, where he was killed by a roadside bomb, leaving his pregnant wife a heartbroken widow.

Maggie was a petite brunette with big brown eyes that now always seemed a little sad. After Danny’s death Olivia had tried to be there for her friend as much as possible and had insisted on a weekly girls’ night out. After baby Danielle was born, Olivia brought dinner to the house so the little girl wasn’t left out of the female ritual. But tonight the toddler had gone to bed early, worn out from a play date.

Olivia scooted forward and took her glass of Merlot from the coffee table where it sat by the pizza box. “I have something to tell you,” she said.

“Gossip?” Maggie’s brown eyes gleamed with undisguised feminine interest. “Please tell me it’s juicy. There hasn’t been any good buzz since Emma Robbins came to town, got a job as nanny to Justin Flint’s little boy, then announced she was the long-lost daughter of Michelle and Alan Crawford.”

Olivia grinned, remembering the sensational events. “Don’t forget the part where she and Justin fell in love and are now engaged to be married.”

“I couldn’t have said it better.” Maggie put her paper plate with the half-eaten slice of pizza on the ottoman in front of her. “So, what’s the scoop?”

“This isn’t gossip or even buzz. If you haven’t heard about it already, you will soon and this news should come from me.”

“You’re not sick, are you?”

“No.” She hadn’t meant to be so melodramatic. This woman had lost the love of her life and didn’t need another scare. “I’ve never felt better. Have you talked to your brother?”

“Not for a few days.” The frown eased, but only a little. “Just spit it out. What’s going on and how is Brady involved?”

“I gave him my notice. I’m quitting and moving away from Blackwater Lake.”

Maggie looked shocked, but not alarmed. “Where are you going?”

“California. A friend from college is going to start a tech business and offered me an upper management job.”

“I see.” Maggie smiled sadly. “So you’re really going to quit this time?”

“Third time is the charm.” Olivia wasn’t sure she could pull off a this-is-good-news face, so she took a sip of wine instead.

“What makes you think Brady can’t talk you into staying? Just saying...past history and all.”

Cradling her wineglass in her hands, Olivia said, “That’s the thing. I didn’t plan to say it. The words just slipped out.”

“What words?”

“He was so smug. So confident that I didn’t mean what I said.”

Maggie’s full lips curved up. “So, my brother’s management style remains exactly the same and he’s taking you for granted.”

Maybe it was guilt about the lie, but Olivia felt compelled to defend him. “He’s a really good boss. Generous compensation and a comprehensive benefits package for his employees. Bonuses. Working conditions are good.”

“And yet you’re determined to leave,” her friend pointed out, looking puzzled.

“I have to.”

Olivia shared everything with Maggie—except about Brady. Once after a night out with Sydney McKnight she’d had her friend drop her at Brady’s house and had every intention of confessing that she cared for him. Two glasses of wine later, she’d fallen asleep on his couch without spilling the beans. Later, she’d realized that was for the best. If he couldn’t return her feelings honestly, she didn’t want him to know how she felt.

Maggie sat forward in the chair. “So, what were the words that just slipped out?”

Olivia met the other woman’s gaze. “I told Brady I met a man, fell in love and I’m quitting. That I have to move away to be with him.”

“Wow, that’s a pretty big lie. I hope it wasn’t National Honesty Day or anything.”

“Me, too. That would probably send me deeper into the pit of hell than I already am.” Olivia took another sip of wine. “I feel awful about it, Mags, but like you said, he has this way about him. Some kind of powerful charisma that completely obliterates a person’s will even when they’d made up their mind about the best thing to do.”

“A person.” Maggie slid back and tucked her legs up beside her in the chair. “Hmm...”

“What does that mean?”

Instead of answering the question, Maggie said, “Did you notice that I never asked
why
you’re leaving Brady?”

It must be a sibling thing, she thought, remembering his all-about-me response to her two weeks’ notice. “I’m not leaving
him.
I just won’t be working for his company any more.”

“Okay.” Maggie used her exaggeratedly patient voice. “I didn’t ask before, but I am now. Why did you quit?”

“It’s time. This job offer came up...” She shrugged.

“Maybe it’s because you have feelings for him.”

“Of course I do,” she said, trying to make light of it. “He’s a terrific boss. And sort of like an honorary brother, through my association with you.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it,” Maggie scolded. “You think I don’t see the way you look at him when you think no one’s watching? A woman who’s known that feeling can easily see it in someone else.”

Olivia recognized the knowing expression in her friend’s eyes. “You never said a word.”

She lifted a shoulder. “It’s your business. As your good friend, I stood ready to help if and when you wanted to talk about it.”

“I wanted to tell you.” She reached over and squeezed her friend’s hand. “But I was afraid it would put you in the middle and didn’t want to chance that Brady would find out. You wouldn’t mean to say anything, but stuff has a way of slipping out. Then things get awkward. If you didn’t know, everyone is protected.”

“Everyone but you, Liv.”

“So you and I are okay?”

“Of course. Pinkie swear.”

Olivia held up the correct finger and hooked her friend’s. “Thanks, Mags.”

“Don’t mention it. I’m on your side. I know that you haven’t been happy lately.”

“Is it that obvious?”

“Only to me. My brother is oblivious and charming in equal parts. He also has this annoying habit of getting everything to go his way. I’m not at all surprised you made up a boyfriend as a way out.”

“You’re not?”

Maggie shook her head. “A self-made man as prosperous as my brother didn’t get where he is without being determined. And having good people around him.”

As Olivia was one of his people, she said, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. He also doesn’t like change and will do anything he can to prevent it.”

“No kidding. Today he interviewed several women who applied for my job and found deal-breaking flaws in all of them.”

“Because he doesn’t want to lose you.”

Olivia nodded. She knew she was good at her job. “The only reason he could come up with for not hiring either of the qualified applicants was that none of them were me.”

“Wow.” Maggie’s eyebrows rose. “So he does care.”

“It wasn’t personal.” But the words had had her heart going for a minute. Then reality had set in and she remembered the last five years of impersonal behavior. He was always friendly, but never asked her to dinner or a movie. There was never even a flicker of awareness or any sign that he’d wanted to kiss her. It was time to face reality. She had feelings for her boss that wouldn’t stop and the only way to go after the life she wanted was to ditch the job.

“I don’t think he believes that I’m serious about quitting,” Olivia said.

“So you had to do what you had to do.”

“Yes.” She sighed. “I hope you know that I’m not normally a liar.”

“You’re the most honest, straightforward person I know.” Maggie smiled.

“Thanks for understanding.”

“I understand more than you know. It’s not easy to let go.” Maggie glanced at a framed picture sitting on the end table beside her. The Tiffany lamp highlighted her handsome, smiling husband in his camouflage uniform and her eyes filled with a wistful, sad expression. “This isn’t making excuses for my brother, but you know that he took our father’s death pretty hard.”

“Who wouldn’t? I can’t even imagine losing my father.”

Maggie’s remote expression indicated she was remembering. “Brady had just gotten home from college for Christmas break and we were all looking forward to being together for the holidays. Dad had a heart attack and literally died in his arms.”

“I remember.”

“He was different after that. More aloof. Driven.” She shrugged.

Olivia hadn’t really seen that much of him then. They never talked or hung out and he went back to school. She only knew the now Brady, and he showed no sign of ever seeing her the way she wanted him to.

“He is the way he is, Mags, and I finally realized this isn’t about him. It’s about me and my life. If I don’t make the break now, I never will.”

“True enough. So, not only do I get why you fibbed, I will help you pull this off. I’ll back up your story.”

“You will?”

“Absolutely.” She raised her arm and curled her fingers into her palm. “Girl power.”

Olivia bumped her fist. “Females unite.”

“Brady will ask me about this and I’ll tell him how deliriously happy you are with...does he have a name?”

“Leonard.”

“Really?” Maggie’s lips twisted as if she’d sucked a sour lemon. “Not Lance? Stone? Or Indiana Jones?”

“Like I said...didn’t plan this. The falsehood was in no way premeditated or I would have come up with something romantic like...Jean Luc.”

“Okay. Leonard it is.” Maggie laughed, then turned serious. “Stay strong, Liv. Stick to your guns if it’s what will make you happy.”

Olivia wasn’t sure about future happiness, but she knew for a fact she wasn’t content now. The clock was ticking and she wasn’t getting any younger. Doing nothing wasn’t an option.

* * *

Ever since Olivia had left for the day, Brady had been battling the urge to go through her computer files and get more information on Leonard.

“The loser,” he muttered.

She’d left him no choice what with her tight-lipped lack of details. He was hurt, really. They were better friends than this. He would give her data about a woman if he got serious. Then again, he made it a point not to get serious.

Olivia was different. She deserved all the best things that life had to offer and it was incumbent upon him as her boss,
and friend,
to find out about this guy and make sure he was on the up-and-up.

Like a dieter looking at a seven-layer death-by-chocolate cake, he paced back and forth in her office, fighting the itch to search her files for Leonard-related information.

“What can it hurt? Who will know?” When his damned annoying conscience pointed out that he was better than this, he said out loud and with self-righteous defiance, “No, I’m not.”

He sat in her chair and hit the power button, then waited impatiently for the machine to boot up. It seemed to take forever. She should have told him she needed a faster computer. This was a waste of time and money. Finally it was ready and he clicked on the first file, which was data on her out-of-town trips. Where she’d met Leonard.

“The loser.”

She kept copious notes on everything work-related and her travel was no exception. He’d hoped to hit pay dirt right away, because the less time he spent digging, the less dirty he would feel. A man had to cover his backside, too. On the off chance his poking around was found out, there was plausible deniability. She wasn’t here; he needed a file. It was his story and he was sticking to it. But he was getting frustrated. Everything he saw was budgets, meetings, cost projections and troubleshooting.

The next step was her email, if he decided to go there. It wasn’t an easy choice, because that crossed into her personal life. Although now he knew that was probably where information on Leonard would be found. None of his business. Then again, she’d quit for personal reasons and was leaving him. That kind of made it his business.

“Okay, then. My motivation is quantified.” He clicked on her work email, which was password protected.

In case he ever needed files, she’d given him her core code word and the system she used to change it, one she could remember: her mother’s maiden name with the number of the current month and year. This was January, so he hit the one key, and it was an even-numbered year, so he entered it after
Clark.
In an odd-numbered year, it would have been before the name.

“I’m in,” he said triumphantly, even as he felt his conscience protest.

Patting himself on the back seemed a little excessive, since it wasn’t even a challenge. There was nothing the least bit stealthy or surreptitious about Olivia. She was open and honest, completely incapable of seeing the dark side to people. Otherwise she’d have seen Brady’s dark soul a long time ago. That also meant she couldn’t see anything bad in Leonard if it was there, which was why he was scanning her emails.

“Hmm. That’s weird.”

“What would that be?”

He looked up and Olivia was standing in the doorway.
Crap and double crap,
he thought. What would James Bond do in a situation like this?

Charm his way out of it.

“Olivia.” He stood up and gave her the smile that had always kept his mother from taking away his computer when he was in teenage trouble. “You’re looking especially lovely this evening.”

“Really?” One of her perfectly shaped eyebrows lifted. “I look exactly the way I did all day and you never said a word about my appearance.”

“Speaking of that...” He walked around her desk and assumed a casual pose, leaning a hip on the corner. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

“I used my key and the disarmed security system chirped the way it always does. You must have been really wrapped up in something.”