Jason glared at her.
Okay, now what? “I’ve been doing some research on our group for tomorrow. They have a similar history to Montgomerys, and Nick Austin, their CEO, is a huge football fan. I bet we can spend some time talking about Lucas to break the ice a little.”
“I’m not using my brother’s former career to schmooze anyone,” he snapped.
That was it, she’d had enough. “Look, I know you’re not happy right now with the way things have gone so far, but none of it is my fault. I didn’t research the people to meet with, you did. I came into this whole thing late in the game and I don’t appreciate having you snap at me for things that aren’t my fault!”
Maggie snapped shut the book she was reading and turned to look out at the sun setting in the sky. The view was spectacular, but it did little to ease the tension she was feeling right now at Jason’s miserable attitude.
Jason knew he was being a jerk and it wasn’t fair to be taking out his anger on Maggie, but he was beyond frustrated. Between the miserable meeting yesterday, and the confusing way she’d made him feel last night, the very last thing he’d needed was another round of miserable meetings today. So far this trip was a complete disaster and it had only just begun!
Not wanting to alert his father to the problem that was brewing, Jason had asked Maggie to wait before sending anything into the office. While he could tell she wasn’t in complete agreement with him, she’d done as he asked and merely saved the information on her computer until he wanted it sent.
How about never, he thought to himself.
They would be landing late in Cleveland and Jason knew there’d be a town car waiting to take them to their hotel. By now, all he wanted was to be alone. His tie was choking him, his head was pounding, and he had no desire to make small talk anymore. Tomorrow would be here soon enough; they’d have to go back into schmoozing mode and do their best to kiss up to another group of potential clients that might be worse than what they’d dealt with in Chicago.
Maggie stayed silent for the remainder of the trip and during the ride to the hotel. When Jason handed her the key to her room, she took it and quietly followed him into the elevator. “Look, Maggie, I’m sorry I snapped at you earlier. I know none of this is your fault. I just had so much hope for this trip and none of it is going like I planned.”
“It’s okay, Jason,” she said meekly. “I know you have a lot on your mind. You don’t need to add worrying about me to the list.”
“Dammit, Maggie, that’s not what I’m saying!” he yelled and then caught himself. “Let’s just meet up in the morning down in the restaurant for breakfast. Maybe a good night’s sleep will help.”
They stepped off the elevator and Jason noted that this time Maggie’s room was across the hall from him. “Good night, Jason,” she said softly, her eyes not meeting his, and Jason felt ten kinds of crappy.
* * *
She had to admit, a good night’s sleep did seem to help. But then again, she hadn’t had the opportunity to speak to Jason yet. For all Maggie knew, her good mood was going to be shot right to hell before her first cup of coffee.
They met up at eight in the restaurant and Jason took great care to be fastidiously polite. He held her chair for her, asked how she slept, what she wanted to order, did she want anything special… By the time he unfolded her napkin for her she was ready to scream.
“Okay, enough!” she said. “Look, we were both on edge last night, but today is another day. Not all of these meetings are going to garner the results that we want, but we can’t let it freak us out. We’ve got another two and a half weeks to get through and we’ll never make it if we get into a funk when things go wrong.”
Jason took a deep breath and then seemed to relax. “You’re right. I know you’re right. I’m just a damn perfectionist and it’s been a long time since things didn’t go exactly as I had planned.”
She reached out, placed her hand on his, and then gasped. Before she could pull her hand away, Jason’s eyes met hers. Had he felt it too? It was like a spark, a warmth that wasn’t there before and now suddenly was. “Um, you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself, Jason. I’m sure there are going to be a lot more successes than disappointments on this trip. You can’t take it personally.”
Pulling her hand away, Maggie scanned the room for their waitress and prayed their food would arrive quickly. She needed the distraction.
“Did you tell your husband what a jerk I was?” he asked sheepishly. Honestly he didn’t want to talk about the man Maggie was married to, but he needed to remind himself of the fact that she was, indeed, married. Especially after whatever has just passed between them.
“You weren’t a jerk, Jason,” she said kindly. “You were disappointed.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” he returned. “Did you tell him?’
“It didn’t come up,” she said, averting her eyes.
Luckily their food arrived and Maggie put all her attention on that. “I have to admit, I don’t normally indulge in a big breakfast but sometimes it’s a real treat.”
Jason nodded. “I don’t normally eat a large breakfast either, but when I’m on the road I try to just in case I end up missing lunch due to a meeting. Back at home, if we’re deep in work mode, Rose makes sure that food comes in. I can’t guarantee the same thing when I’m relying on somebody else’s timetable.”
“I can only hope we don’t have any more mishaps like that meal at Claremont’s. I think I’d rather skip eating all together than have to eat food like that again.”
Jason agreed.
Within an hour they were climbing into a cab and heading for their first meeting of the day. “Remind me again how tight a schedule we’re on today?”
Maggie pulled out her tablet. “Okay, we’ve got a ten a.m. with Nick Austin, a one o’clock lunch meeting with the Smith Group, and then we have to head back to the hotel and change because we’ve got the charity auction at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I’ve got your tux and my gown with the concierge to be pressed and ready to go. We have a limo picking us up at seven so we should have plenty of time after lunch to go over the two meetings and get a little time to relax before heading out for the night.”
Jason was exhausted just thinking about it. “I really packed the schedule, didn’t I?”
Maggie laughed. “Just a little.”
“If it had been you doing all of the planning, what would you have done differently?”
“So far?”
That didn’t sound good. “With the whole trip,” he answered.
“Well, I understand you’re trying to maximize your time and really, you’ve done that with military precision.”
“But…”
“But,” she chimed in, “you didn’t leave a lot of time for incidentals.”
“Like what?”
“Well, let’s say that this meeting with Nick Austin is going well and we need more time with him. We don’t really have it because three hours after the start of our meeting, we’re due to start another one. I would make sure that we worked in four-hour time blocks, nothing less.”
“Okay,” he said slowly. “How often do I give us less than four hours?”
Maggie scrolled through their itinerary and frowned. “Quite often. You have several appointments right on top of each other, and then other times you have up to eight hours between appointments. I realize sometimes that’s all that is available, but it is going to have us in and out of the car a lot more than is effective.”
“I didn’t even think to look at it that way. I was more concerned with getting the appointments made than thinking about how efficiently I was spending my time.” His tone was slightly defensive and he hated feeling like he’d made a mistake.
“It’s okay, Jason. This was something you needed an assistant for. It’s all going to work out just fine; some days it will seem like an adv
enture,” she teased.
They pulled up to their first appointment and Maggie gave him a beaming smile. “Ready?” she asked.
“As I’ll ever be,” he said as he exited the vehicle.
* * *
They arrived back at the hotel at three thirty and Maggie already felt as if she’d run a marathon. The first meeting had gone extremely well, and their lunch meeting was pleasant enough, but the client was going to require a little more time before he signed with Jason. All in all, she was pleased and knew Jason was, too.
“I’ll call the concierge and make sure our clothes are back up to us by six,” she said as they walked toward their rooms. “Is there anything else you need before then?”
“I think we’re good for now. What are you going to do with yourself this afternoon?”
Maggie thought for a moment. “Well, since there isn’t much for me to do with the files for today, I’m going to send what I have to Rose and then maybe catch a nap, then take my time getting ready for tonight. What about you?”
“I’ve got some files I want to look over and a little research I want to do, but a nap certainly sounds appealing.”
Smiling, Maggie took out her key card, turning toward her door. “Listen,” Jason said suddenly. “Why don’t you make an appointment with the hotel salon and go and get pampered for tonight?”
Maggie looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “Excuse me?”
“You’ve been putting in some long hours and have had to deal with an extremely grumpy boss, so why don’t you take a little time for yourself?” His words were spoken lightly.
The thought was both appealing and unnerving at the same time. Was this how it was going to start? Was Jason going to woo her with spa treatments and special favors in hopes that she would feel indebted to him? The thought made her frown but when she looked up at his face, which looked genuine and sincere, she knew he was nothing like her former boss.
“Are you sure?” she asked hesitantly.
“Of course I am,” he said. “You’ve got nothing to do for a couple of hours, so call down and see if they have an appointment and do whatever it is that women do before they have to go to some formal charity event.”
She laughed. “Honestly, I have no idea what that is! I’ve never gone to one before.”
“Seriously? I would’ve thought that with your previous employer or even with your husband that you would have done something similar at some point.”
At the mention of both the fake husband and her disgusting ex-boss, Maggie’s stomach turned. Jason saw the look on her face and instantly stepped forward, concerned. “Maggie? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she quietly lied. “Let me see if they can squeeze me in for something.” She opened her door and then turned back to Jason. “Thank you. I appreciate your generosity.”
As the door closed, Jason wondered, not for the first time, just what went on in Maggie’s mind. There were times she was outgoing and friendly and seemingly full of joy, but it didn’t take much to make her completely shut that side down. He was getting a little tired of not knowing what the trigger was, but he had a sinking sensation that it had to do with her marriage.
And that thought bothered him more than he was willing to admit.
* * *
At six forty-five, Jason knocked on Maggie’s door. His tux had arrived promptly at six o’clock and he was dressed by six fifteen, so he found himself just pacing in his room with nothing to do. The limo would be downstairs in five minutes and he hoped that Maggie would be punctual. He knew her to be so when it was for work, but most women Jason knew tended to take a lot longer to get ready when it was for a social event.
When Maggie opened the door, Jason felt his jaw drop. She was stunning. In a navy blue strapless evening gown that hugged her petite, curvy body, she took his breath away.
“I wasn’t sure quite how formal I needed to be,” Maggie said as she tried to read Jason’s expression. “I thought that this was understated enough to be formal and classy.” She wished Jason would say something, anything.
When they had originally discussed this event, all Jason had told her was to bring “some sort of gown.” That wasn’t much to go on. Maggie had researched previous events for this particular charity and then had done some major damage with her Visa card. The gown was a knockoff of a Christian Dior gown that some actress had worn to the Screen Actors Guild Awards, and though she normally didn’t go for such a bold and sexy look, Maggie had simply fallen in love with it.
Down at the spa she had gotten a manicure, pedicure, and facial before getting her hair done. Gone was the severe ponytail of the workday, and in its place was an elegant chignon with a few loose tendrils that curled along the side of her face. All in all, she had been pleased with the look, but Jason’s hard stare had her second-guessing herself.
“Jason?” she finally asked. “Are you okay?”
He quickly shook his head as if to clear it and then cleared his throat. “Yes, I’m fine, sorry. You look lovely. Are you ready?”
It was the first real compliment Maggie had received from a man in over three years and it made her blush. She ducked her head slightly as she turned and shut the door, then managed to walk a few steps ahead of Jason to the elevators. They rode down in silence and Maggie felt a little in awe of the stretch limo waiting for them.
She turned an inquisitive eye to Jason. “Tell me again why we needed a limo?”
He smiled. “This is a big event,” he said simply. “It required a limo.”
Whether that was true or not, Maggie didn’t know, but in that moment she realized how big a difference there was between her regular, ordinary life and the life of the wealthy Montgomerys. She felt a little inferior, but knew that was of her own doing. The Montgomerys never flaunted their wealth or their position and if anything, they were beyond generous. For this one night she was going to enjoy seeing how the other half lived and pretend it was nothing out of the ordinary for her.
That thought lasted until they pulled up to the venue and she found herself more than a little starstruck by the crowd. As they made their way up the red carpet, Jason stopped and shook hands with many people, always introducing her, but after a few minutes, he stopped and pulled her over to the side.
“I know this is a little overwhelming, but you have nothing to be so nervous about,” he whispered in her ear and felt Maggie shiver.
“I’m not nervous,” she lied and then heard him chuckle as he seemed to pull her a bit closer.
“You’re glued to my side, Maggie. I can feel you shaking and I can hear it in your voice every time you speak. Take a deep breath and relax, okay?”
She lifted her eyes to his and nodded. They were standing way too close; she was plastered to him, but not in an uncomfortable way. It had been a long time since she had let any man get this close to her physically, and she found that with Jason, she didn’t mind it all.
His dark gaze was burning into hers and Maggie licked her dry lips, forcing herself to take a small step back and look away. “So,” she said, expelling the breath she had been holding, “are we ready to head in?”
Honestly, Jason needed another moment before he felt he was truly in control of his thoughts, but he didn’t want to scare her. He simply nodded and took her hand, leading her up to the main doorway.
Soon they were swept into the crowd and drinking champagne, Jason doing his best to meet up with the people that he wanted to while keeping track of Maggie at his side. They sat down for dinner and Jason managed to make some new contacts. Maggie was savvy enough to put all of their information into her iPhone for future reference without being overly obvious about it.
Once dinner was over, the actual charity event presentation began. There were several performances by some big name artists in the music industry and then the actor who had organized the event gave a twenty-minute
speech imploring the guests for their support. By ten o’clock, everyone was back to mingling, and Jason caught Maggie watching the couples dancing with a wistful look on her face.
Unable to help himself, he placed his champagne glass down on the nearest table and intently walked toward her. At his approach he asked, “Would you like to dance?”
Her eyes went wide with delight. “Are you sure? Don’t you have more people to talk with?”
“I think I’ve done more than my share of talking tonight and even came out a little ahead. Besides, what kind of man would I be if I didn’t make time to ask a beautiful girl to dance?”
She hesitated. He thought she was beautiful? This was probably all kinds of against the rules, slow dancing with her boss, but at the moment, it was all that Maggie wanted to do. Another downside to her self-imposed exile: she missed the simple act of human contact.
“What do you say, Maggie?” Jason asked again when she didn’t respond to his initial request.
“I would love to,” she said, placing her hand in his. There was that same jolt she’d felt when they’d touched at breakfast but it didn’t scare her this time; instead, she embraced it.
They joined the couples out on the floor and simply swayed to the orchestra. “I can’t even remember the last time I went dancing,” Maggie said as she aligned herself with Jason. “It may have been my senior prom.”
All sorts of thoughts raced through Jason’s head. What about her wedding? Her honeymoon? Wasn’t that the sort of thing couples did? He thought of his brother Lucas and his new bride Emma and the way they had danced at their engagement party and wedding. Hell, Jason may not be an expert on married couples, but he sure as hell knew that they danced! He was just about to make a comment on it when he felt Maggie snuggle a little bit closer and sigh.
His body was on high alert. She felt very good in his arms, and without conscious thought, he wrapped his arm around her to pull her even closer, surprised when she didn’t resist. Jason rested his head on top of hers and simply enjoyed the feel of her, the smell of her, the way her hair tickled his chin.
Wait for Me / Trust in Me Page 19