Thoughts of Andi nibbled at his mind, of course. The office seemed empty without the sound of her voice or the click of her sensible black pumps on the floor. He kept expecting her to give her perfunctory knock before throwing his door open to tell him where he needed to be.
Instead, he had a neatly typed-up schedule from Laura—with no notations like be on time written in red ink in the margins. His office was running along and he had to admit they seemed to be managing without him fairly well.
Tim would be back next week and, meanwhile, phone calls between Laura and him were keeping everything going while Mac was gone. He didn’t know how he felt about that, to be honest.
Finished signing the stack of papers, he tossed his pen onto the desk and leaned back in his leather chair. He swiveled to look out a window at the spread of McCallum land and told himself that he should be pleased. Work was getting done. Clients were happy. Papers were being filed. It seemed his company didn’t need his 24/7 dedication after all. Exactly what Andi had been trying to tell him.
So had he just been wasting his life locked away here in this building? He’d devoted himself to his job, to the exclusion of everything else only to find that the business ran just fine without him. What the hell did that say?
To him, it said that he couldn’t sit here anymore. Why the hell did he agree to take this time away from Andi when all he really wanted was to be with her?
Disgusted with his own company, Mac picked up the contracts and carried them out to the main office. Dumping them all on Laura’s desk, he said, “These are ready to go out.”
“I’ll take care of it right away,” she assured him.
Mac noticed she still looked wary of him, so he made the effort to drop the brusqueness from his tone. “You’re doing a great job, Laura. It’s appreciated.”
Surprised, she blinked up at him and a shy smile curved her mouth. “Thanks, Mr. McCallum.”
He nodded. “Call me Mac. And if you’ve got any questions, you give Tim a call, all right?”
“I will.” As he pushed open the door, he heard her call out, “Have a good day, Mac.”
Not much chance of that.
* * *
“Thanks for coming out with me today, Violet.”
“Are you kidding?” Vi held up several bags. “I love shopping here.”
The Courtyard was just a few miles west of downtown Royal. It had begun as a ranch, then was taken over and renovated to become a bustling collection of eclectic shops. There were antiques, yarn and fabric stores, an artisan cheese maker and most Saturday mornings there was a farmer’s market. You could get all the local produce you wanted, along with fresh flowers, not to mention the food stands that popped up to feed the hungry shoppers.
Since it was a long drive from Royal into the big city, having the Courtyard here was a real bonus to everyone for miles around. But as popular a spot as it was, Andi hadn’t had the chance to really explore it as much as she’d wanted to. Working nonstop for Mac had kept her from doing a lot of things. But how could she regret time spent with him now that it was over?
“Anything in particular you’re looking for?”
“Well, I do have a house to finally furnish,” Andi said wistfully.
“Fun,” Vi said. “And I’d like to stop in at the soap makers, then pop into Priceless. Raina’s holding an antique rocking chair for me.”
Raina Patterson Dane ran the antiques store, but she’d made it so much more by also offering craft classes in the back. Still, the furniture and wild mix of decor items had made Priceless the place to find different kinds of things for your house. Plus her new husband, Nolan, was opening his law office in the loft space above Priceless, so it really was a family affair.
“Sure,” Andi said, turning to head over there. “I wanted to look there for the furniture, anyway.”
“Good idea,” Vi said as they walked side by side. “Priceless has so many nice things, I always need a truck to haul it all home when I’m finished in there. I swear every time I tell Rafe I’m going shopping, I can almost hear him thinking, Please, not Priceless.”
Andi didn’t believe her for a minute. Vi’s husband was so in love with her, he supported everything she said or did. “Rafe wants you happy.”
“He really does,” Vi said, and ran one hand over her belly. “And I am. Completely. God, I didn’t think I’d ever get to this place, you know? Things were so muddled with Rafe for a while, I was afraid we were going to lose what we’d found together.”
Andi knew just how she felt. The only difference between them was that Andi knew she was going to lose what was most important to her. It was just a matter of time. Less than two weeks now, to be exact.
“I’m really glad,” she finally said, trying to keep that twinge of envy she felt to herself.
“Oh man.” Vi came to an abrupt stop and stared at Andi. “I’m so insensitive, I should be horsewhipped. There’s something wrong, isn’t there? That’s why the spontaneous shopping invitation today. What happened?” Her shoulders slumped and she winced. “Did Mac do something? Should I have him horsewhipped?”
“Thanks for the offer.” Andi laughed and reached out to hug her friend. “But no, you don’t have to go after your brother. I swear, Vi, I don’t know what I’d do without you and Jolene.”
“Well, you don’t have to know, do you?” She frowned. “Speaking of Jolene, why isn’t she with us on this expedition?”
Andi had called her sister first thing that morning and told her everything—about her amazing night with Mac and then how it had ended not in joy, but with a whimper. Naturally Jolene had been thrilled, then sad, then furious on her behalf. How did people live without a sister to bitch to? Since Jolene hadn’t been able to join Andi and Vi today, she’d made Andi give a solemn promise to come by later with more information. “She couldn’t come. Jacob had a ball game.”
“That’s so nice.” Vi’s eyes went misty as she rubbed her belly again. “We’ll have ball games, too, won’t we, baby?”
“What if it’s a girl?”
“Well, we’ll find out soon,” Vi reminded her, “And if it is a girl, I’ll have to say that I was the starting shortstop on my Little League team.”
“I stand corrected.”
“Okay, but can we do it sitting down for a minute?” Vi pointed to several cushioned iron tables and chairs positioned close to the bakery. “Maybe get a scone and some tea?”
“Great idea.” Once Andi had Vi sitting down comfortably, she said, “You stay here and watch our bags. I’ll get the food and drinks.”
It wasn’t long before Andi was carrying a tray with two iced teas and two blueberry scones back to the table. The minute she set it down, Vi snatched at a scone. “Sorry I’m so greedy, but the baby’s hungry all the time.”
Wistful, Andi sighed a little. She had nieces and a nephew she loved. She could watch her best friend hurrying toward motherhood. But the chances of Andi ever having a child of her own were slim to none, since the only man she wanted to father her children couldn’t be less interested.
“Now that I’m sitting down—thank you for that—and baby’s getting a scone...tell me, what’s got that puckered-up look on your face?”
“My what?”
“You know.” Vi wrinkled her brow and pursed her lips.
“Oh fine,” Andi muttered and deliberately evened out her features.
“It’s Mac, isn’t it?” Vi set down the scone and took a sip of tea. “No one can wrinkle a woman’s forehead like my brother.”
“Sad, but true.” Andi took a quick look around to make sure no one was close enough to overhear. But there were only a few other people taking a break and they were seated a couple of tables over.
Shoppers wandered, a toddler whined for a toy and a busy mom pushed a stroller at a fast trot
while she kept a tight grip on a five-year-old. Everything was so ordinary. So normal. But Andi’s world had been knocked completely out of whack.
She looked at Vi. “I slept with him.”
“Mac?” Her friend’s eyes popped wide and her mouth dropped open. “You slept with my brother?”
Hunching her shoulders a little, Andi whispered, “Could you maybe not shout it loud enough to spread it through town like a brushfire?”
“Sorry, sorry.” Vi winced and leaned in over the table. “This is so great, Andi. I mean really. I’ve hoped and hoped you two would get together and finally it’s happened. Tell me everything. Well, not everything, but you know. When? Why? No, never mind why. I know why, you’re nuts about him, which could just make you literally nuts, but never mind. When?”
“Last night and yes, I probably am nuts.” She was glad that Vi was so happy about the situation. Andi only wished she could be. Breaking off a tiny piece of her scone, she nibbled at it. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“If it’s like what happened with Rafe and I, you weren’t thinking at all.” Vi sat back, took another bite of her scone. “I don’t think you’re supposed to think about something that big. You’re supposed to feel it.”
Oh, there had been lots of feeling. Sadly, it had been all on her side. “Well, fine. But I have to think now, don’t I?”
Violet sighed. “Yes, being you, I guess so.”
“Thanks,” Andi said wryly.
“Oh, honey, I love you, but you really do think too much. Couldn’t you just relax and enjoy it for a while?”
“No, because he doesn’t want what I want.”
“Not yet, anyway.”
“Not ever, Vi.” Andi had to remember that. No point in setting herself up for more crushing blows. She had to take what was left of their two weeks together and then turn her back on the past and force herself to find a future. A future that wouldn’t include Mac. Damn it.
“What he wants,” she said, “is to get me back into his bed and back to my job. I’m not even sure if that’s the order he’d prefer it in.”
“He just doesn’t know what he really wants.” Vi reached across the table and took Andi’s hand. “It was the same with Rafe, I swear. Men can be completely clueless about this stuff. It’s as if they can’t admit to feeling more for a woman because it tears little chunks of their manhood off or something. But love, to most men, is a terrifying word. The big dummies.”
“I don’t know that Mac is scared of love, Vi,” she said after a moment’s pause. “I just know that he doesn’t feel it for me. He talked about being a great team. About how when I go back to the office, we can each have our own places and meet up for sex and nobody has to know.”
“Oh, God.” Vi’s chin dropped to her chest. “I’m related to an idiot. It’s mortifying.”
Andi had to chuckle and it felt good, letting go a little of the misery crouched in the corner of her heart. Knowing Vi was on her side helped a lot. It just didn’t change anything.
“I can’t go back to work for him. And I’ve agreed to keep spending time with him until the two weeks are up, but how am I going to be able to stand it? It’s not as if I can sleep with him again.”
“Why the hell not?”
Andi laughed. “That’s exactly what he said.”
“For once, my brother was right. So why not?”
Andi took a drink of her tea to ease a suddenly desert-dry throat. “Because it’ll only make it harder on me when it ends if I keep getting drawn into a fantasy that will never come true.”
“You could make it true.” Vi took another bite of her scone and moaned softly in appreciation.
“Fantasies, by their very definition, are just that.”
“Doesn’t mean you can’t do something about them.”
“Really?” Intrigued, Andi watched her friend’s sly smile and felt only a small niggle of worry in reaction. “How?”
“Easy.” Vi shrugged. “You have to dump him.”
Andi blew out a pent-up breath. “Dump him? We’re not together—how can I dump him?”
“You said it yourself. You spend time with him, but you don’t let him close. Do exactly what you were going to do. Don’t sleep with him again. It’ll drive him crazy.”
Andi would like to think so, but Mac had an amazing ability to rebound from women. Why should she be any different from the legions he’d moved on from in the past?
“Think about it,” Vi said. “What did Mac do when you quit your job?”
“Argued with me.”
“Well, sure, but then?” She picked up her scone and gestured with it. “Mac went after you. Went to your house. Talked you into this two-week thing.”
“True.”
“Dump him and he’ll come after you again,” Violet pronounced. “I know my brother. And he won’t be able to stand you walking away from him.”
That did sound like Mac, Andi admitted. But coming after her because he didn’t like to lose didn’t mean anything, did it? That would just be him responding to a direct challenge. It wouldn’t mean he cared. Briefly, she remembered how it had been between the two of them the night before and she felt a flush sweep over her in response. But letting herself be drawn into a wave of hope only to be crushed didn’t sound appealing.
“I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head and breaking off another piece of her scone. “I’d be tricking him.”
Violet gave a long, dramatic sigh. “And your point is?”
Andi laughed.
“All’s fair in love and war, right?”
“He doesn’t love me,” Andi said.
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Vi replied thoughtfully.
* * *
The Royal Diner was bustling with the usual lunch crowd, plus a handful of tourists thrown into the mix. Conversations flowed fast and furious, orders were called into the kitchen and the cook stacked finished meals on the counter, waiting for them to be picked up.
The place smelled like hamburgers and good, rich coffee and felt as comfortable as Mac’s own living room. Which was why he didn’t mind getting there early enough to snag a booth and people-watch until Rafe arrived.
Mac knew mostly everyone in town, really. It was nice to see Nolan and his wife, Raina, laughing together in a booth on the far side of the room. Then there were Joe Bennet and his foreman talking business over apple pie and coffee. And Sheriff Nathan Battle getting a kiss from his wife, Amanda, before taking his to-go lunch out the door with him.
Rafe came in as Nathan left, and Mac waved a hand in the air to get his friend’s attention.
Sliding onto the bench seat opposite him, Rafe leaned back and said, “Thank you for the lunch invitation. I’ve been working since five this morning and really needed to take a break.”
“Five?”
“Calls to London, Shanghai. You know how it is, dealing with international businesses.”
“I do, but you know what? I’ve discovered something recently that you should try. Relaxing.”
The other man laughed, set his phone on the table in front of him and signaled Amanda for a cup of coffee. “You are going to teach me how to relax? This is a joke, right?”
“No joke. Ironic, maybe. But not a joke.” Mac glanced at his friend’s phone. “You don’t see me checking my phone, do you?”
Rafe frowned. “No, I do not. Where is it?”
“In the truck.” Mac shrugged it off. “I’m learning to put the damn thing down. You should, too.”
“Here you go, Rafe,” Amanda said as she set the coffee in front of him. “What can I get you two?”
They ordered and when she moved off into the crowd again Rafe asked, “Just who is teaching you how to relax? Would it be Andrea?”
Mac nodded.
“It would. Funny, but in the last few days, she’s taught me a lot.” Especially last night, he thought but didn’t say. There were some things a man didn’t talk about, even with his friends. What had happened between Andi and him was private and would remain that way.
“So Violet tells me. You’re painting now? Repairing sinks and tile floors? Have you decided to go into the home construction business as a sideline?”
“Not exactly.” Mac smiled when Amanda set his turkey sandwich in front of him and grabbed a french fry. Shaking it at Rafe, he said, “I’m helping her get her house into shape.” And stealing time with her. “But being there with her, working alongside her, she’s got me thinking.”
“Please. Don’t keep me waiting.” Rafe took a bite of his fish sandwich and kept quiet.
“Okay. The way I see it, Andi and I are good together.” He took a bite of his own sandwich, then added, “We’ve always worked well together and it turns out we’re a great team...outside of the office, too.”
Rafe lifted a dark eyebrow. “Go on.”
“I want her.” Three simple words that seemed to suddenly be filled with a lot more meaning than he’d expected. Yes, he wanted her back at the office, he wanted her back in his bed, but the bottom line was, he just wanted her. Period.
That thought was heavy enough to make him scowl down at his sandwich.
“You seem to have her,” Rafe mused. “So what’s the problem?”
“She’s determined to back away, that’s the damn problem.” It irritated him to even say it. “I need to find a way to keep her.”
“Do you love her?”
He jerked back. “No one said anything about love.”
“Maybe you should.”
Mac frowned at him. “You’re feeling awful damn easy with that word. Not too long ago, it was different. You remember that?”
Rafe’s eyes went dark. “Yes, all too well. I almost lost your sister to my own pride and stubborn refusal to see the truth of my own feelings. Will you let that happen to you as well, my friend? Or will you learn from my mistakes?”
“It’s different,” Mac insisted, grabbing a fry and popping it into his mouth. “You loved Violet.”
A Bride for the Boss Page 11