Her client had been turned down by various firms because they lacked the finances to launch a lawsuit that was bound to be long and contentious and therefore expensive. The partners in her firm had been leery of taking on the case, but she had convinced them to pursue the action on a contingency basis. She had persuaded her firm’s partners into taking on quite a number of cases like this one, small clients who might not otherwise have been able to obtain the kind of representation needed for their legal issues. Luckily, her hunches and hard work had paid off for those clients and the firm. Looking at the settlement agreement with the nice eight-figure payment, she smiled at having accomplished yet another satisfactory outcome.
“Don’t you look like the cat that ate the canary,” said Alfonso Perez as he swaggered into her office without knocking and took a seat.
Her smile chilled, and she closed the file on her desk, since she didn’t like or trust her colleague. They were both in the running for a partnership position, and she didn’t doubt Perez would do just about anything to get the spot.
“Good morning, Fonzie,” she said, using the nickname she knew he hated. With his gelled hair and cocky attitude, the name fit him.
Some of his earlier swagger deflated, but he tried to recapture it by stretching his legs out and crossing them casually, as if he were in someone’s living room and not her office.
“Heard you were working on something big and might need some help,” he said and motioned to the thick file on her desk. “Is there anything I can do to assist?”
She shook her head. “I appreciate the offer, but no help needed, thanks.” As much as she detested the man, she reminded herself she had to keep it civil between them.
Perez narrowed his gaze and almost sneered as he said, “I know you don’t want my advice, but I’ll offer it anyway. You should recognize that it’s still an old boys’ club here. I could help you once I make partner.”
Even though he’d managed to slip past her armor with his remark, she shrugged it off. “I guess it remains to be seen which one of us will make partner.”
Perez likewise shrugged, but he sat up and leaned toward her. “Rumor has it one of our biggest clients has decided to acquire another equally huge company.”
“Who doesn’t know that?” she said. The office had been abuzz about the news since Monday morning when the client had called to discuss the possible acquisition with the partner handling their cases.
A sly smile crept onto his face. “Guess who they already asked to be on the team?”
If he’d managed to stick the knife into her before, this question twisted it around painfully. She prided herself on how well she could manage all aspects of mergers and acquisitions, having assisted with several since joining the firm.
Attempting to deflect his hit, she said, “Congrats, Fonzie. But since they’re a smart old boys’ club, it should be obvious to them to include me on the team as well.”
To avoid continuing the discussion, she rose and grabbed another file from the cabinet behind her desk. “You’ll have to excuse me. I have clients who are waiting for my advice,” she said.
Luckily, her colleague took the hint, but not before trying to supposedly be helpful again. “You might want to try and not be such a hard-ass, Reyes. We both know the old guys like that in men but not women.”
Rage rose up in her and had her almost shaking as she replied, “You may think that being a man is enough, but that’s no substitute for hard work and intelligence, two things with which you’re not acquainted.”
Perez stormed out of her office, leaving her to her work, but she was just too wired to sit there. She needed to dispel some of the angry energy. Locking away the file that had snagged his interest, she slipped on her suit jacket and grabbed her wristlet. A quick walk to get some food before heading back to eat lunch at her desk was just the thing to wipe away the slimy feeling of a visit from Perez and forget his insinuations.
She hurried out of the office and jumped on the elevator but was surprised to find it slowing to stop at another floor. Since they’d installed a new system a year ago, it was rare to ride either up or down with anyone else. She wasn’t sure the antisocialness of it was a trade-off for the supposed efficiency of the system. Although as the doors opened and Jonathan Pierce stood there, she suddenly wished for greater efficiency.
That he was as shocked was proven by the fact that the doors started to close on his face, but instinct had her reaching out to hit the “Door Open” button. As the doors jerked to a stop and popped wide, he stepped on with a wary smile.
“Connie. I totally forgot this was your building,” he said, surprising her again. She hadn’t thought he’d kept track of her, and she battled the pleasure that brought.
“And you? I thought your company was downtown,” she said and winced, hating that she’d likewise given away that she’d been following the news about him.
As the elevator doors shut and they began to move, he motioned toward the floor they’d just left. “My bean counters are here. I had a meeting with them about financing something new.”
“Anything interesting?” She covered her mouth with her hand, a little too late, since the words had burst from her before she could control herself.
A dimpled grin erupted on his face, and his eyes, as blue as the Sea Kiss ocean, glittered with amusement. “I assume that’s the gearhead asking,” he said.
She was grateful for the out he had provided. “Of course. Who wouldn’t covet a car like the Lightning?”
* * *
Jonathan wanted to tell her that all she had to do was say the word and he’d have one built and delivered to her, but he knew Connie’s pride would never let her accept such an extravagant gift. She had worked hard for everything in her life, and if she wanted a Lightning, with its nearly $200,000 price tag, she’d pay for it herself.
“Thanks. We’re stoked about how it turned out,” he said as the elevator doors opened and they stepped into the lobby of the building. She hesitated, almost as if she might actually want to extend this chance encounter, and he’d never been one to not seize the moment. “I was just going to grab a bite. What are you up to?”
She fiddled with the wristlet in her hands. “I had planned on working through lunch.”
He grinned and pinned her with his gaze. “And that would be more fun than lunch with me because?”
She met his gaze directly, the green of her eyes looking more blue today thanks to the deep midnight color of the suit she wore. “You really are sure of yourself, aren’t you?” she teased.
He wanted to say that he was never sure of anything around her, but he wasn’t ready to give her that kind of power. At least not yet. “How about it? I promise it will be quick and good—”
“Two words that don’t seem well suited together,” she shot back, and a becoming stain of color erupted across her cheeks.
“Why, Reyes. Are you flirting with me?” he said, which upped the color on her cheeks exponentially.
“Never. But I did need to get out of the office, and I hate eating alone.”
He clasped his hands together and brought them close to his chest. “How could I refuse an invitation like that?”
“You invited me, remember?” she said and jabbed him playfully, the way a guy would jab another guy. A defense mechanism, but he wouldn’t pass up this opportunity, because he had to restore order to this relationship. For Owen and the relationship with Maggie that was still blossoming nearly two weeks after the dinner they’d all shared in Sea Kiss. For himself, because he felt like this part of his life was incomplete.
“I did invite you first. So is that a yes?”
Chapter 4
The Italian restaurant was only half a block away on Forty-Second Street. It was a place for business lunches and special occasions with colleagues. Definitely not a romantic venue, especially at midday, and Conn
ie was thankful for that.
The eatery was on the busy side, but the host quickly seated them at a corner table in the large, noisy back portion of the restaurant. The ambient chatter toned down the intimate feel of the cozy corner location. The host held the chair closest to the wall out for her, and Jonathan took the spot across from her, but even with that, the table was so small that their knees bumped. She shuffled her chair back until it hit the wall, ending the contact, which, despite its innocence, was way too distracting.
She hid behind her menu while she gathered herself, but when she put it down, she found herself staring into Jonathan’s too-intense gaze.
“You seemed a little…angry when I first got on the elevator,” he said.
Shrugging, she averted her gaze. “A little. Just some typical office bullshit.”
“Care to share?” he asked, but luckily, the waiter came over at that moment to take their orders.
As soon as the orders were placed and the waiter walked away, she shifted the topic to Jonathan, because most men she dealt with were generally more interested in talking about themselves. “What projects were you discussing with your accountants?”
He wagged a finger and shot her a lopsided grin. “Not until I hear what pissed you off.”
She’d give him points for that, as much as she didn’t want to share. But she shared anyway. “A male colleague who thinks his dick and ethnicity should move him up the corporate ladder.”
“Totally wrong on both counts. Besides, you have more balls than he does,” Jonathan said as he snagged a slice of focaccia from the bread basket the waiter placed on the table.
She arched a brow, examining him, but he clearly had meant it as a compliment. “Thanks,” she said, but just in case, she tacked on, “I think.”
“Just telling the truth and definitely a compliment. I know that whatever you want, you’ll work hard to get it. Right?”
She nodded, and it made her wonder about him. Whether he had changed despite her comment days earlier to Emma. “What about you? Have you been working hard or hardly working?” she said in a tone that was half-kidding, half-serious.
He broke off a piece of the focaccia and munched on it thoughtfully, scrutinizing her features. It was long moments before he finally said, “Working hard, even though you might doubt that.”
She hated that he could read her so easily. Grabbing her water glass, she took a sip before she replied uneasily, “I don’t doubt it, but…”
He made a face and looked away for a moment before returning his attention to her. “You’re confused, right? Maybe because you don’t want to admit that I’ve changed a little?”
“Maybe,” she said quickly and decided it was time to move away from the personal, since it could only bring hurt. “But the gearhead in me definitely wants to know what you’re working on.”
* * *
Jonathan saw through her ploy but didn’t challenge her. Despite what she might have thought, he was a patient man, and it would take time to break through the barriers Connie had erected against him. If he even wanted to move past those walls, because being with her was a risky proposition. One that could bring them both a lot of pain.
“I’ve been talking to an AI company about buying them.”
“AI? Artificial intelligence?” she asked to confirm.
He nodded and dipped a piece of the bread into the olive oil he’d poured onto his bread plate. “They’ve done some epic work, and we need to up our game in that department. I like programming, but it’s really not my thing.”
“What is your thing? I mean, how did you get into what you do? School was never something you liked,” she said.
Her words brought back memories of how they’d parted and the many times his father had chastised him about his grades, which had always been middling but not failing. He clenched his fist on the tabletop, fighting back the pain and anger the memories brought. To his surprise, she laid her hand over his, the gesture comforting. Soothing.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it to be accusatory or condemning. The last time we talked, you were working with cars. I really want to know how you decided to do such amazing things with them.”
Pleased that she had remembered a bit of that talk after Hurricane Sandy, he decided to accept the olive branch she had offered. He nodded but slipped his hand from beneath hers, because her touch was rousing too many emotions. Too much need.
The waiter whisked in at that moment with their meals. She had opted for a traditional piece of lasagna while he had gone for a less predictable white pizza with prosciutto and a baked egg nestled in the center. The differences spoke volumes about their personalities.
After he had taken a bite and swallowed, he answered her. “School didn’t do it for me. All I had to do was look at something and I understood it. So I decided to bail.”
* * *
“Because you were bored to death,” Connie said. As long as she had known Jonathan, he had always been all action guy, and now, she kind of knew why.
He nodded. “It was like sitting in the ocean when it’s glassy and you’re just stuck out on your board, doing nothing but waiting. I couldn’t wait anymore.”
“Why cars? There are so many companies out there already,” she said and ate her lasagna while she waited for his answer.
With a nonchalant kind of shrug, he said, “Why not? I loved souping up my Jeep, and for some reason, I understood them—how they worked or didn’t.”
“The car whisperer,” she teased and was surprised when he blushed.
“I guess you could say that. After I got back from SoCal, I got my hands on as many books as I could find and started tinkering with various models, trying out different things. I figured out a way to reduce heavy metals in catalytic converters—”
“I know you sold that idea for big bucks,” she jumped in.
He nodded and smiled. “With that money, I lined up people who knew more about things like fuel cells, and that blew my mind open to all these sick ideas. The next thing I knew, we were going into business together.”
She swallowed the last little bit of her food and said, “And the rest is history, as they say.”
With a reluctant bob of his head, he said, “History and the future. We want to improve what we’re doing and maybe even expand into other areas.”
“Expand?” she wondered aloud, worried that his constant search for new things was Jonathan’s way of not staying put.
A hesitant shrug greeted her. “You know what I’m like—a rolling stone. Always on the move. Always chasing something new—”
“So that you won’t get bored,” she said, which confirmed her earlier fear. She hated the reminder that he wasn’t one to stick around. That she shouldn’t allow him to get close again, because he’d just get tired of her and move on. Just like her father had moved on time and time again.
Tension crept into the laugh lines around his lips, and shards of ice glittered in his blue gaze. “It makes it easier for you to think that, right? That I’m like your dad? That I’m going to bail on you.”
Her heart stuttered a beat, and her throat choked tight. Somehow, she managed to draw a breath and then another. Her voice thick with emotion and her gut chilled with fear and anger, she said, “Does running away make your pain disappear, Jon? Does it make you less afraid of being left behind the way your mom left you?”
She didn’t wait for his answer because she didn’t want to hear it. No matter how he responded, it would only confirm that any relationship between them was doomed from the start.
* * *
Jonathan gripped the tabletop to keep from going after her as she dashed out of the restaurant. It would do no good. Worse, it would only make things harder when Maggie and Owen became more involved. He had no doubt now that that was going to happen, and if it did, he’d have to keep a neutral, if not civil, de
meanor around Connie, because his brother was too important for him to stay away. Contrary to what Connie thought, he was done running. He was staying put this time.
With a sharp wave at the waiter, he requested the check, paid quickly, and hurried out to Forty-Second Street. It was a lovely early August day, and even if lunch had ended on such a sour note, he intended to make the most of the beautiful weather. Jaywalking across the street, he handed the hotel valet his parking ticket, and within a few minutes, a young man wheeled around his vintage Willys Jeep. He had lovingly restored the vehicle and added a few improvements in the engine and suspension based on the work they had done on the Lightning prototype.
To take advantage of the sunshine, he rolled down the canvas top and secured it. He hopped into the Jeep and took off into Manhattan traffic, tires squealing on the cement. With a quick turn onto Second Avenue, he maneuvered his way to FDR Drive, intending to ride it to his loft in Chelsea. But as his exit neared, he found himself pushing onward, needing to put distance between himself and the city. In no time at all, he was traveling through the Battery Tunnel and into Brooklyn. From the road, he caught sight of Governor’s Island and later the Marine Terminal. Farther along, he switched over to the Belt Parkway with its amazing views of the Upper Bay and, in front of him, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. As he climbed up and over the bridge, he finally acknowledged that he was escaping to the one place where he always felt at ease: Sea Kiss.
The wind blew in and around the open Jeep, and the sun was strong. Too strong, and he fumbled beside him for his sunglasses and slipped them on. With every mile that he got farther and farther away from the city, the tension left him, and contentment crept in. He reached forward to the tablet he’d worked into the dash of the Jeep, and with a swipe of his finger, music spilled out of the speakers.
He tapped his fingers and sang along to “Losing My Religion” by R.E.M. That song segued into Billy Joel’s “Piano Man.” The rest of the mix that followed during the hour-plus drive to Sea Kiss was as eclectic but apropos, especially as the sounds of the Beach Boys blasted into the ocean-scented air the second he turned off the parkway. He lowered the volume while he cruised past the edge of Sea Kiss and onto Main Street with its many shops. Thanks to the beauty of the day, the sidewalks were teeming with pedestrians going in and out of shops and toward the beach.
What Happens in Summer Page 4