by Cat Johnson
Sometimes women couldn’t see what was best for them. Chris would just have to show her. He was good for Darci. Rick might have another opinion on that matter, though.
Chris would cross that bridge when he came to it. So far he hadn’t had to worry about jeopardizing his relationship with Rick by dating his sister, because Darci consistently laughed off Chris’s attempts at flirting with her as a joke.
Yeah, he joked around a lot, but little did Darci know he was dead serious when it came to her. One day he’d figure out a way to prove it to her.
“We’re here already. Let’s just do it here.” Rick answered Chris’s question about working out and yanked his mind off regrets about Darci and back to more immediately pressing matters. “Why don’t you call Brody? If he’s around and wants to work out he can come on over here.”
“I think the team had PT planned for late this afternoon so he’s not going to want to, if he’s even done this early.”
“Okay, so it’s just you and me. We can order a couple of pizzas after if you wanna stay. There’s a game on.”
“A’ight.” Chris sighed at Rick’s plan. Not the workout, or the game after, but the part where he wanted to work out to keep in shape and then fill up on pizza right afterward.
In the old days when he was on the teams, Chris could put away the food. He was younger then and working out hard constantly. Back then he was burning calories faster than he could consume them.
Now, at forty years old, he was starting to have to watch what he ate and work extra hard when he overdid it. These guys in their thirties didn’t understand. They didn’t worry about shit like that.
They’d see, one day.
“We’ve got the makings for salad. I was going to make one for myself. If you guys want, I can throw a big one together to go with your pizza.” Darci’s voice came from where she sat on the sofa.
At her out of the blue generosity, Chris’s gaze went immediately to her. “That’d be real nice. Thank you. I’ll help if it’s too much trouble.”
She waved away his offer. “Don’t worry about it. I can handle a salad.”
He’d see about that. Women liked nothing better than a man willing to help in the kitchen.
Being able to cook was just one of the many talents he’d like to show Darci. At least, it was one of the few talents he could show off in public.
Zane came back to the table after being outside on the phone for a long time. “All right. She’s emailing me the list of the past year’s worth of manifests that were filed. That will tell us where they have ships.”
Chris’s eyes widened. “How the hell did you get that? And who is this she?”
He wouldn’t be at all surprised if Zane had called on one of his former squeezes to get him private corporate records.
“My father’s secretary. She always has loved me.”
Rick chuckled. “No doubt.”
Zane rolled his eyes. “She’s been working for my father since I was a child.”
“Ah, an older woman. So she’s a cougar.” Rick rolled right with that new information, grinning.
Ignoring him, Zane continued. “It’s not a big deal. Those manifests are a matter of record. She’s just doing me the favor of compiling it.”
“All right, then. I’ll wait for your email.” Jon cut off the debate. “Moving on in the agenda . . .”
“We had an agenda?” Rick whispered to Chris.
He lifted one shoulder. “I guess so.”
Jon referred to his ever present notebook. “Office space and staff.”
Zane nodded. “I think we need both. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my father, it’s that appearance is everything. We have to look big even if we’re not.”
“And I think there’s no need to waste the money on stuff we don’t need right now. It’s not like clients need to come to our offices. It looks like we’re doing them a favor by going to their office to make the presentation.”
“And when they call and get you on your cell phone? What kind of message does that send?” Zane asked.
“That they have access to one of the principal partners of GAPS day or night without the hassle of having to go through support staff.” Jon turned to Chris and Rick. “What do you two think?”
What Chris thought was that he didn’t want to get in the middle of this debate between Jon and Zane.
Jon was the one who crunched the numbers and knew exactly how much money GAPS had and how much they needed to operate without going into the red. But Zane was the one who’d secured the start up capital from his rich girlfriend’s daddy.
“Hell, I don’t know.” Chris shook his head.
As if on cue, Jon’s cell rang where it sat on the table. He glanced down at the readout. “Shit. It’s the client.”
Rick let out a snort. “He probably wants to know why Zane’s father’s secretary is pawing through their shipping records.”
Zane rolled his eyes.
Chris’s eyes widened as the phone rang for the third time. “You better answer that.”
He could agree they didn’t need the expense of a full time secretary to answer the calls, but it probably wouldn’t make the client happy to get Jon’s voicemail.
“Ah, jeez. I’ll get it.” Darci stood and strode toward the table.
Good thing it was a small space and she had long legs. She reached the table by the fourth ring and hit to answer the call.
“Guardian Angel Protection Services. How may I direct your call?” Darci answered with all of the professionalism one would expect from a corporate secretary.
The guy on the other end of the line would never know she’d been lounging on the sofa watching some train wreck of a reality show on television when he’d called.
“Yes, sir. Hold one moment, please.” She pulled the phone away from her cheek and hit the screen. She held the phone out to Jon. “He wants to talk to you. Hit the Mute button before you talk.”
Looking as shocked as the rest of them, Jon reached out and took the cell. He touched the screen, and stood, pressing the phone to his ear. “Jon Rudnick.”
As Jon moved to the back of the house, which had apparently become the designated phone area, Darci spun on one stocking foot and headed back to her place on the sofa.
Rick watched her go. “Damn. I’m lucky if she’ll get off her butt to answer the house phone when it rings. Forget about act all professional when she does answer it.”
“But see? I’m right.” Zane hooked a thumb toward Jon, talking on his cell outside on the deck. “Look how much more professional we seem with a secretary answering the phone.”
“I think they’re called administrative assistants now. Not secretaries.” Rick corrected the terminology, which only earned him a raised brow from Zane.
Meanwhile, all Chris could think was that if they did get an office and by some miracle Darci decided to leave her job at the bank and come answer phones for GAPS, he knew exactly where he’d be spending his days.
Jon returned to the table, cutting off any further debate about secretaries or administrative assistants. “The meeting’s confirmed. Tomorrow, their office at four.”
“Good. That’ll give you time to get Zane’s email of super secret shipping routes.” Chris grinned as Zane rolled his eyes at the comment.
Pushing his chair back from the table, Zane braced his palms on the table. “We done here?”
Jon cocked a brow. “Yeah. We’re done. Why? You got somewhere you need to be?”
“Need to be? No, not exactly.” Zane stood. “Somewhere I want to be? Definitely. I’m heading to Missy’s.”
At that announcement, Chris glanced at Darci. Years of training and real world experience had taught him to read body language pretty well. It didn’t take much skill to read Darci’s reaction now. Her back visibly stiffened at Zane’s mention of Missy.
Zane continued unaware of what his talk about his girlfriend was doing to Darci. “I figured I’ll sleep at her place tonight,
since it’s closer to the meeting tomorrow. I can spend the day with her and drive over in time.”
“Oh, okay.” A crease furrowed Jon’s forehead. “I thought we’d be driving together, but I guess I’ll meet you there instead.”
“Sounds good.” Zane glanced at the rest of the men at the table. “See you.”
Chris watched Zane leave, happy to see him go.
Yeah, he’d take a bullet for that man. They were teammates, and if push came to shove he’d always have his back, just as he knew Zane would have his if and when the time came that the situation warranted that.
It had been that way when they’d been together in the DEVGRU unit and it was that way now at GAPS. But there were times, times when lives weren’t on the line that he really had the urge to smack Zane’s smug, self-centered, pretty, rich boy face.
Chris turned back to Jon. “If you need to run over your presentation again tonight, just give me a shout. I’m here for you, bud.”
“Me too.” Rick nodded.
“Thanks, guys. I appreciate it.”
“Anytime.” Rick responded to Jon for them both since Chris was still too busy watching Darci watch Zane.
Even after he was out the front door, her gaze followed Zane’s departure as he came into view through the front windows and made his way to the driveway. There he slid behind the steering wheel of his fancy sports car.
Chris could only hope one day she’d take a closer look at what was right in front of her face, rather than always watching the back of the man who was constantly walking away from her. He sighed and turned to Rick.
“Ready to work out?” Chris sure as hell was ready to sweat out some of this frustration.
“Yeah. Let me grab us a couple bottles of water.” Rick stood and turned toward the kitchen.
Chris took that opportunity to wander over to where Darci sat. “You wanna come get sweaty with us?”
He couldn’t help but laugh at her expression when she raised her gaze to his. “Thanks, but no.”
He shrugged, still grinning. “Suit yourself.”
Rick walked over and handed Chris one of the two bottles in his hands. “Ready?”
“Yup.” Chris nodded.
He was ready to work out, but he was more than ready for Darci to finally take him seriously. Unfortunately, he wasn’t convinced that was going to happen any time soon.
CHAPTER 2
The room seemed to expand, as if somehow, impossibly, the space grew larger when the overwhelming presence that was her brother’s friends left.
Darci realized how quiet the house had become, and how boring her evening had gotten, now that they’d all moved elsewhere.
After their little business meeting was over, they’d fled fast. Like rats leaving a sinking ship. Jon, home to hone his presentation. Rick, down to the home gym he’d set up in the basement to work out with Chris. And of course, the first rat to flee had been Zane, off to be with the love of his life, Missy.
That thought had Darci’s jaw clenching. Her heart too.
She couldn’t think about it or him anymore. It would slowly drive her crazy.
Yeah, she knew Zane had always been a dog when it came to women. That he had dated—to put it nicely—far too many girls. But she had always thought that when Zane did settle down with that one special woman, it would be her.
Why not? They were thrown together so often because of Rick it hadn’t been so farfetched to think that when Zane finally did tire of the steadily revolving door of women in and out of his bed he’d look closer to home. To a friend. To someone who’d been there all along.
She had been right.
Zane had found the one for him, proving he did have it in him to be a one-woman man, but that one woman wasn’t Darci.
She’d been a sucker falling for the bad boy, and she’d paid the price by watching him go through women like water and then settle down with some girl he’d known since childhood. She’d been right about that part too—he had gone for someone he already knew. A friend. Not some bar hook-up that turned serious.
That knowledge should have helped ease Darci’s broken heart.
It didn’t.
It still twisted her insides seeing him stroll through her house, as casual as always, as if he hadn’t crushed her world, her heart, her dreams.
Men sucked. Every last one of them.
It would be far easier to just take a vow of chastity and never have to deal with the males of the human race again. Hell, it had been so long since she’d had any action in that department, it was as if she had taken a vow of chastity.
Was it possible to become a virgin again from lack of sex? If so, Darci was in real danger of that happening to her.
She needed a distraction so she could stop obsessing over her pitiful social life. Television sure as hell wasn’t providing it.
There was one person who was probably as bored as she was tonight. Her best friend, Ali. Since Ali was dating Jon, who was obsessed with prepping for this meeting, Darci figured Ali should be at loose ends tonight too.
She reached for her cell on the coffee table and hit to call Ali.
When her friend answered, she asked, “Hey, what are you doing tonight?”
“Oh, there’s all sorts of fun here. I have to pretend I’m a multi-billion dollar shipping mogul so Jon can pitch GAPS to me and woo me into becoming a client.”
Darci should have known Jon would go to Ali’s place to practice more. The man always had driven himself hard. “I already had a preview of that here today. I had the fun of pretending to be his personal assistant and answer the phone when the guy he’s meeting with called.”
“Lucky you. Maybe you can give me some pointers on what this guy is like so I can, you know, get into character.” There was a definite lilt of humor in Ali’s tone.
Whether it was a serious question or not, Darci answered anyway. “He sounded rich. And kinda mean.”
Poor Jon. No wonder he was nervous.
“Oh, boy. All right. I got it. Rich and mean. Maybe you can come over and we can pretend to be shipping magnate business partners, since I pretty much know nothing about this stuff.”
Darci lifted a brow. “And I do? Maybe you should distract Jon with some kinky sex so he’ll forget about the whole interview. He could probably stand to relax for a little while.”
“That sounds like the best idea I’ve heard all night.” Ali sighed. “Uh oh. Looks like he’s ready with his slide presentation. I better go.”
Darci laughed. “Visuals too, huh? Lucky you. All right. Have fun.”
Ali blew out a breath. “Yeah, sure. Hope you have a good night.”
“Thanks.” Darci’s night would probably be better than Ali’s spent listening to Jon’s sales pitch. Though if the sex as a distraction plan worked, then Ali would definitely be having a better night than what lay in Darci’s immediate future.
Maybe there was something good on the movie channel. She tossed her cell on the table and reached for the remote control.
Lots of scrolling through her favorite channels finally yielded something she could stand to watch.
There was a chick flick on one of the cable stations. She’d seen it at least a hundred times. It was one of those movies she could quote almost word for word, but also one she would watch whenever it was on.
Perfect. Or it would be perfect if she had a gallon or so of ice cream to drown her sorrows in. She grabbed the throw from the arm of the sofa to get comfortable for a couple of hours of mindless entertainment.
Shortly after she had settled in, the basement door opened and closed. That sound was followed by the low grumble of voices and footsteps moving down the hallway, all of which Darci ignored. She was used to the house being overrun by men since Rick had moved in.
Most times they didn’t require her attention unless something went missing, like the cooking oil when Rick wanted to fry something or his sneakers when he was going out for a run. Then Rick would be shouting for her to come fin
d whatever the item was.
It wasn’t Rick but rather Chris who came around the sofa. He plopped down on the chair, water bottle in hand. “Damn. Your brother kicked my sorry ass down there.”
“You two are done already?” she asked, not really caring but figuring she should acknowledge Chris in some way since he’d spoken to her.
“What do you mean already? We were down there well over an hour, but yeah, we’re done. What’s up with you?” Chris asked.
She hadn’t realized it had been an hour, but time did tend to fly when all of life’s problems were wrapped up in two hours including commercial breaks. Darci redirected her attention from the movie, and to Chris’s question. “Nothing’s up. That’s exactly the problem. I’m bored.”
“Well, that’s an easy fix. Come out with me tonight. I promise you won’t be bored.” He shot her his signature devil may care grin.
Darci rolled her eyes. “Always joking.”
His smile disappeared.
“Yup. That’s me. Just a big old joker.” There was a tension beneath his tone. He hoisted himself out of the chair. “When Rick gets out of the shower, can you tell him I decided to head home?”
“Sure.”
“Thanks.” He was out the door without another word or even a backward glance.
What the hell?
It didn’t matter, anyway. Even if Chris had been serious all the times he flirted with her, it didn’t change the facts that he was a forty-year-old man who had never been married.
Now that she thought about it, in all the years since she’d known him, she’d never seen him even have a serious girlfriend. Or hell, any girlfriend at all.
That told her something. Namely that he wasn’t the kind to settle down. Definite commitment issues there, and she wasn’t about to take that challenge on.
Or, maybe it was worse than that. What if there was something majorly wrong with him that he couldn’t get a girl to stick around long enough to commit to?
Maybe Chris was dragging around some major kind of baggage. Something that was a deal breaker for women when it came to a long-term boyfriend.