"Let's go, Caroline." Kelly gathered the shells and ran to the water's edge.
"You all right?” Allison lay her fingers lightly on his arm as he stood. “You looked a little upset talking about your friend."
Brett nodded. "Fine." He rubbed her hand and pressed it to his arm. "Thanks."
"Here they are." The girls held up their bags. They both frowned at the same time, watching Allison and Brett fold the blanket. "Are we leaving already?"
Brett stacked the cooler and food basket and headed to the boat. "We have a ways to go to get back and I think some of us need to get out of the sun." He nodded to Allison.
"Oh, Dad."
"We'll do it again soon, Caro. Grab some bags."
Brett set the leftover drinks on Allison’s kitchen cabinet.
"Thanks for asking us, Brett. It was nice to get out of the house for a change."
He glanced around the room. "Where's Kelly?"
Allison pointed to the back of the house and whispered. "I think she had too much soda on the way home."
Brett nodded. "Caroline's probably in the same situation out there. I’d better get going."
As she moved out of the kitchen, he clutched her arm, causing her to stop in front of him. "Maybe one day soon we can have more than two minutes alone together."
She shivered as his head came down.
"I'd better be quick." Kissing her lips softly, he eased back just before Kelly came around the corner. He let her arm go and winked. "Just in the nick of time, huh?"
"Glad you could come with us Kelly." He walked to the front door, Allison following slowly. "Talk to you soon, Allison."
She stood at the front door and waved, not making a sound.
"Mom? You've got that look again."
Allison steered Kelly out of the doorway. "Go get a bath."
Allison peeled off her sticky t-shirt and shorts and turned on the shower. Standing in front of the bathroom mirror waiting for the water to heat up, she turned first to the side and then examined herself closer from the front. She hadn't thought about how she looked for a while. Kelly's father had never really commented on her body.
She untied her top, slipped out of the bikini bottoms and threw them in the sink. What would Brett think of her naked? She lightly ran a finger over the stretch marks on her stomach left by a larger than average baby who decided to grow fast.
Frowning she remembered how lonely she’d been during her pregnancy. How terribly frightened.
She was grateful for her family and they’d been so supportive, but she’d dreaded every Lamaze class. No one else had their sister-in-law with them.
Closing her eyes, Brett’s face leaning down to kiss her drifted through her mind, causing her to shiver. What would it have been like to be married to Brett when she was pregnant?
She dragged a towel off the rack and slung it over the shower wall. Maybe he just seemed different. But what did she know? It was almost embarrassing...thirty-two years old and so little experience with men.
She certainly didn't do such a great job picking the first one, what made her think she should even try again?
Did she even want to try again?
Loosening her braid with one hand, she tested the water with the other. Marriage wasn't in her plans and she wasn’t sure she even knew how to have an affair. Heck, she couldn’t seem to even handle a little flirting without turning red or getting tongue-tied.
She climbed in the shower.
Maybe she should just stick with what she already knew she could do. Working and raising Kelly.
That was safer.
CHAPTER SEVEN
"Can you wait a second?" Allison put Brett on hold, punched the button to answer the ringing phone line, and waved in the hovering Susie from her office door.
"Saturday? What time?" Shifting the phone to her left hand, she picked up a pen. "That'll be wonderful." She wrote the name and number on her note pad. "Thanks for calling and for rushing the delivery."
Susie dropped a thick manila folder on the side of the desk and rushed toward the office door as another phone started ringing. “The reports on last months’ investments.”
“That was fast. Thanks.” Allison selected the line where Brett waited and pulled her keyboard closer. "Sorry, Brett. Now what were you saying?"
“More problems?”
"No, it was good this time. The new office furniture's coming Saturday morning." She typed in the details in the notes section of her calendar. "Finally I can store all my files in my office." She’d shave at least thirty minutes off her day just in the time she’d save running back and forth to the central filing area. On the other hand, it’d also cut out the majority of the exercise she managed each day. When the bank finished setting up the paperless system she wouldn’t get any exercise.
“I’ll come by and help.”
Help? Had the man lost his mind? “There's no way you're going to spend your Saturday moving files. Go to the beach with Caroline."
“Caroline’s flying to Virginia to see her mother,” he said, his tone flat.
"Oh.” Caroline’s mother, still in Virginia? Did Caroline see her often? Maybe he was lonely without Caroline. Allison knew how quiet it was when Kelly was gone. “Well...if you're sure you're going to be that bored, come on by around ten."
She hung up the phone and rested her chin on her palm. Wonder what the story was with Caroline’s mother? His ex-wife. What did she look like? Where did she work? Was she perfect...beautiful...petite?
Allison’s shoulders sank forward. A man like Brett would be married to a gorgeous woman.
But...she sat up straight. She couldn’t be too perfect, they were divorced after all. Of course, Brett could have been an awful husband. But he wouldn’t have custody of Caroline if he was that bad.
She rubbed the back of her neck, her hand hitting her thick, unruly hair. The image of Caroline’s good looks and sleek blonde hair told her the woman had to be gorgeous.
She dropped a fist to her thigh and pounded. It doesn’t matter. It’s not important. She can have an hourglass figure, be Miss America, Homecoming Queen, president of her own company, and volunteer for the homeless.
I don’t care.
"Allison, you here?" Brett yelled as he came into the office Saturday morning.
"In here." She smoothed her hair off her forehead and tucked in the tail of her shirt before sticking her head out of the walk-in supply closet behind Susie's desk. "I'm trying to organize some of the stuff to move it."
"How about some coffee?" He set a paper bag and large thermos on Susie's desk. "Got any cups?"
Coffee. Thank goodness she wouldn’t have to drink the office swill. "Sure."
After finding two mugs in the closet, she moved into the office. The smell of vanilla crowded the room as he twisted the cap off the thermos and poured the hot liquid.
"Cream? Sugar?" Brett dumped cream, real cream, into his cup from a carton, a splash popping out and landing on the back of his hand, nestling between the coarse brown hairs. He wiped haphazardly at his skin with a napkin, then stuck it in the back of his jeans, shoving aside the tail of his t-shirt that hung loosely around his waist. She glanced up his chest, where the material clung a bit tighter around the chest and the sleeves were just short enough to show off those muscles. Muscles that would no doubt flex nicely as he lifted box after box.
"No, black’s fine." Sipping the coffee, she closed her eyes briefly, appreciating the beverage and the thought of a good-looking man here to help her. "Heavenly. I supposed you brewed it at home."
"Yep." A wide grin covered his face as he pulled a bagel out of the bag. "Hungry?"
"No." She held up a hand. "And before you start. I did eat breakfast today." Although she barely had time after the hour she spent primping in the mirror. And all to move furniture.
Leaning against the closet door, she watched Brett consume his food in a minimum number of bites. He eats fast, she thought, but seems to take everything else in his
life slowly. I wonder if he's fast or slow...
"Allison."
She jerked away from the door, sloshing her coffee over her fingers. When did he move?
"Are we alone?"
He was very close now. Only inches away.
She shook her head and slipped sideways down the wall away from him. "One of my co-workers is in his office," she whispered, nodding her head to a partially open door behind Brett. “And he has super hearing.”
"Damn." He turned away just as Allison clasped the corner of the desk to steady her knees.
"Got some furniture here." A forty-something man in baggy jeans and sweat-soaked blue shirt appeared in the doorway, Coastal Furniture stitched over Junior on his chest pocket. "Right place?"
"This is it." Allison pointed to her office.
“You sure do have a lot of files.” Brett groaned, his head barely visible over the boxes he carted into the office.
“I told you to go to the beach.”
“Next time I might listen.“
“Set them there.” She pointed to the floor by the new cabinets lined up against the paneled wall. “We’ll have to wait until they bring in the rest of the furniture before we get anymore.”
He sank to the floor, resting his back against her mahogany desk. Pulling up the tail of his t-shirt, he swiped his forehead, his jaw and the back of his neck.
He dropped the shirt back over his flat stomach, Allison silently cursing him and thanking him for the brief view of his body.
“Sit and tell me what you do around here.” He patted the space next to him. “And it better be important since I’ll be aching for days from all this manual labor.”
“I’ll buy you an ace bandage,” she said, collapsing next to him, but a safer foot or two away from the spot he’d indicated, not trusting her hands that wanted to sneak under his shirt and see if his skin sizzled to the touch. There must be heat radiating from that body.
“You are so kind, boss.” He patted his heart. “So what’s the big job?”
“I work for the Chief Financial Officer.”
“Sounds exciting.” He drew his legs up and rested his arms over his knees. “Did you major in finance?”
She nodded. “I always wanted to work in a large financial institution and they had a management training program here that I joined out of school.”
Luckily they’d had one open slot by the time she was able to work after Kelly was born. If she’d been able to apply like every other college senior, during the interviews the last few months of school, there would’ve been a lot of choices, especially with her grades.
But, her choices were limited by then.
“So you plan to stay here?”
“I plan to be CFO one day.” She sat up straighter, stretching her tight back muscles. She really did need to exercise.
“If that’s what you want, I’m sure you have a plan to get there.”
Was he being sarcastic? She snapped her head up, ready to be defensive, but his eyes were serious, intent on her face.
“So what’s the next step in achieving this goal?”
She shifted her body around to face him, still unsure where he was coming from. Used to skepticism and dubious comments about her goals, she seldom talked about them anymore. “Are you making fun of me?”
“Not at all. I’ve seen how organized you are about everything. I’m sure you have your career plotted out too.” He reached over and smoothed the ends of her ponytail laying on her shoulder. “Tell me.”
“Well...” She looked down at her lap and then back at his face. He did seem interested. “I need my MBA first, so I’m working on it now.“
His hand dropped, brushing her thigh as it fell. “When in the world do you have time to go to school?”
“I’m in a distance education program and most of the work’s done over the Internet.”
He raised his eyebrows, nodding in approval.
“In fact all my classwork is done and my thesis should be complete before Christmas.”
“Very inventive, Allison.” He shook his head. “I should’ve known you’d find a way to work it into your already tight schedule.”
“You are making fun of me.”
He laughed. “No I’m not. I’m impressed with how you manage to find a way to go after everything you want. Stay in control, organized...”
“It’s the only way to get things done. To meet your goals,” she said, repeating her mantra for when life got out of control. And she was repeating it a lot lately. With her feelings running amok. Out of control. All since meeting Brett.
“I just couldn’t be that disciplined, that’s all.” His head dropped back against the desk. “I guess I’m just too laid back.”
His face was relaxed. Not a care in the world. His feelings completely under control.
“We’re different,” she said softly.
“Yes we are.” He reached over and touched her chin. “Opposites in a lot of ways.” He leaned in closer. “And exactly alike in others.”
She leaned back. “Brett, we’re in my office.”
“But we won’t always be.” His eyes twinkled.
"Put that cabinet against this wall." Allison motioned to an area on the left side of her office. Sinking against the corner of her desk, she sighed. "Thank goodness that's the last of it."
"Now what?" Brett stood next to her, folding his arms across his chest, his elbow grazing her shoulder.
"Well." She peered around the office and shifted away from his touch. He was always so close, crowding her thoughts, distracting her.
"I...uh...need to go through some of the files we just put away. They should be organized according to...” She placed a finger over her lips. She couldn’t think with him in her office, most less organize files. "But not today."
"You tired?” He gazed at her profile. “I was beginning to think you never quit work."
His head inched closer. Her heart beat faster.
“Maybe we can take a little break and...
She slid to her right. "I need to get home and meet Kelly."
"Where's she been? With a friend?"
"No." Allison knelt behind her desk to retrieve her purse. "With her father. He picked her up yesterday after school and he's dropping her off this afternoon around five."
"So, he lives around here?"
"No.” She dug through her bag, wasting time. “He flew in from Raleigh."
“Hmmm. Another missing parent.”
He paused.
What was he thinking about? He so seldom looked serious. His ex-wife? Is she a missing parent, too?
“Does Kelly see him much?"
She hesitated, not used to talking about James. It opened the door to so many questions. Uncomfortable questions, with awkward answers.
Brett stood in front of her desk, watching her every move, his hands stuck in the back pocket of his jeans, waiting patiently.
He might not push today, but he’d ask again. Most people didn’t ask much about James, but Brett would. She couldn’t avoid talking about him forever. And Brett was raising a child alone, too. They did have that in common, even of there was little else.
"He thinks he spends a lot of time with her. But he doesn't really." She sank into her chair, rubbing the sides of her neck with her fingers. "He'll see her every few weeks for several months straight and then not at all for...I don't know. I guess the longest time was around six months." Six months of her agonizing over Kelly’s feelings, trying to decide whether to make excuses for him or let Kelly decide for herself about her father. "He really does love Kelly and she loves him. He's just different and ..."
"What?" Brett encouraged.
“Well, the two of us just don’t...” She stopped. Not sure how to explain.
"The two of you don’t agree on how to raise Kelly."
"Yes.” She raised her head in surprise. Perceptive man. “How did you know?"
"I'm divorced too, remember. With a child. With an ex-spouse." His mout
h formed a thin line. "An ex-wife who I disagree with on almost everything."
"Oh?" So maybe she’s not so perfect after all.
The ringing phone erased her wonderings about Brett’s ex. It could only be Kelly calling. And that wasn’t good.
"Hello."
She slung her purse over her shoulder as she jumped out of her chair. "Don't worry, sweetie. I'll be there in a few minutes. Be sure to lock the door."
She slammed the phone down. "See. That's just what I mean." Surging from behind her desk, she pointed to the phone. "Kelly said they were having a fine time until he got a call and suddenly he needed to bring her home early." Her voice grew louder. "Some emergency. He's always on call. Volunteers for it. Even while he’s here visiting Kelly."
Brett moved his outstretched legs as Allison sped by.
"His job will always be first with him." She twirled around and stopped in front of Brett, her chest heaving. "But he's always been that way, I don't know why I keep hoping he'll change and want to spend more time with Kelly. Can't he see how much she needs him?"
"Calm down.” Capturing her arms, he held her still. “She'll be fine until you get there."
Her nerves relaxed at his soothing voice. Oh god, she’d been ranting and raving like a lunatic. "I'm sorry. You're right." She unclenched her hands. "It was so rude of me to go on like that."
"Don't apologize for honest feelings, Allison.” He ran his hands down her arms. “It was inconsiderate of him to do this. You have every right to be mad."
She stared at his concerned face. Did he really understand this?
"Sometimes it helps to talk to someone," Brett continued. “And believe me I can sympathize with how you feel, especially about the selfish ex-spouse part.”
He stood, “but you need to get home now," and squeezed her arms. "Why don’t you let me take you and Kelly out to dinner.”
“Dinner?”
“Yes. Dinner.” He directed her toward the office door. “In a restaurant.”
Stopping, she turned around and spoke before she could think through what she was saying. “I was going to grill hamburgers. Why don’t you join us? I certainly owe you for helping me today.” She looked at her watch. A shower, straighten up the house, calm down. “Just give me a couple of hours.”
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