by Tawny Taylor
He didn’t call last night. He hadn’t called yet this morning. How would she get to work?
What was going on?
She lifted the phone and flopped open the phone book. It would have to be a cab. She didn’t dare wait to see if he would show up.
After placing the order, she hung up, gathered her things, and sat on the couch.
Something was very wrong. That familiar dark mood settled over her. It matched the ugly weather outside, gray, chilly.
But then his car pulled into her driveway, and her heart jumped. He’d come. He hadn’t forgotten. Would he explain last night to her?
She didn’t wait for him to knock. Instead, she cancelled the cab and dashed outside. He opened the passenger side door and she sat, waiting until he was in the driver’s seat before speaking, “I wasn’t sure you were coming.”
“I had some important things to deal with last night.” He shifted the car into reverse and backed out of the driveway. “I’m sorry I didn’t call.” He looked at her as he shifted into drive. “I know I said I would, and you have every right to be pissed.”
Donning her “everything’s good” mask, even though her stomach weighed at least a ton, she smiled. “I’m not pissed. But I’d like to know what’s going on. Can you tell me?”
“Alexa got us into some trouble yesterday, filling Bradford’s head with a bunch of bullshit. I had to straighten it out.”
“Oh, no.” She saw the pink slip coming…They were going to fire both her and Gabe. Her heavy-as-lead stomach flamed. “Why would she do that?”
“Because she’s a bitch.” He glanced at her then reached out and squeezed her shoulder. “I have the situation under control. I wrote up a report to prove she’s lying. But I have to move my office. I can’t work with you anymore.”
“Why?” She couldn’t believe it. She was going to miss him. Her office would be so empty.
“Again, to prove she’s lying. We’ll work over the phone. I’ll be in a cubicle out front.”
“Okay.” She nodded, hoping she appeared outwardly agreeable. Inside, she was in turmoil. She believed him, sort of. There was that nagging doubt. Why would Alexa do such a spiteful thing? She had to have a reason.
Jealousy? That made sense. Although two years was a long time to cling to a dead relationship…unless it hadn’t been two years ago.
“Anyway. We’ll probably get a lot more done this way. You know I can’t concentrate when I’m near you.” He glanced at her, his gaze hot.
She swallowed. “It is hard.”
“That’s the truth.” He smiled. “We have to get half of the rough draft of our report done by today if we’re going to have any hope of turning in a reasonably complete project on Monday.”
“Is Duncan going to fire me then?”
“No.” He looked her in the eye. “Trust me. He won’t.”
Her face warmed, and she dropped her gaze. “I just get the feeling I’m on borrowed time, like he can’t wait to show me the door.”
“Not at all.” He drove into the parking lot and shut off the car. “Now, let’s go get that report done and prove what geniuses we are.”
She didn’t wait for him to open her door. But she did accept a hand out. She didn’t miss the way he stiffened as they walked into the building and passed Alexa’s desk.
Alexa gave them both a smile. “Good morning.”
“Good morning.” Fate climbed the stairs and shot Gabe a look before parting ways.
With a tip of the head, he encouraged her on. “I’ll call you.”
“Okay.” She flipped on her lights, took a seat, read through her mail and messages, and skimmed the packet Michael had left on her desk.
It was too damn quiet.
The phone rang, and she snapped it up. “Gabe?”
“Hello, Ms. Doherty? This is Ms. Meyers from the bank. I’m sorry for calling you at work.”
“It’s okay. What’s up?” She held her breath, not sure if the phone call meant good news or bad.
“We have a problem.”
Bad! Oh no. Her heart sunk to her toes, not that it had far to go anyway. After Gabe’s news it was already down somewhere around her knees. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m reading the appraisal. It just came in. It’s much too low.”
“How much?” She grabbed her doodle pad and started scribbling with a pencil.
“About twenty thousand.”
“Oh.” Damn! Where would she get that kind of cash?
“You can get one-oh-five, unless you want to find another house. You’ve been pre-approved for one-thirty.”
“Okay. I’ll have to think about this. Figure out what I can do.”
“All right, then. I’ll wait to hear back.”
“Thank you.” She hung up the phone. “Damn it!” She needed some sanity. There was only one place she would find that. She punched Tracy’s number.
*****
“So, what’s the big emergency this time?” Tracy, looking her cool, corporate self, sat at the table, stirring a cola with a straw.
Fate sat, ordered a diet from the hostess, and rested her elbows on the table. She dropped her chin into her palms. “My life is a mess.”
“That bad?” Tracy smiled.
“I’m serious this time.”
“So, what’s going on? You aren’t going to make me pry it out of you, are you?”
The waitress brought Fate’s drink, took her order, and left. Fate took a long swig. The cool liquid felt good going down.
“Well, let’s see. I think I’ve fallen in love with Gabe—“
Tracy slammed her hand on the table. “I knew it! See? What did I tell you.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“So, what’s wrong with that?”
“I don’t know. He’s amazing. And I won’t tell you how oh-my-God-how-incredible he is in bed.” A smile tugged at her lips and heat shot to her groin and face simultaneously. “But something’s up. He’s acting weird.”
Tracy cocked her head. “Weird? How?”
“Well, we were doing great, granted getting carried away at work. Then we slept together, and he got a phone call, ran out of my house, and now he won’t stay in the same room with me.”
Tracy scowled. “That doesn’t sound good. Has he explained why?”
“He claims an ex-girlfriend from two years ago got us into trouble with the powers-that-be, and he doesn’t want to give her any more ammunition.”
“Do you believe him?”
“I do…I think. I mean, she doesn’t act like a scorned woman.” She took another drink. “So, I have that to contend with, plus I have the feeling they’re going to fire me any day. Gabe says they aren’t, but I don’t think I believe him. Plus, I got a call about the house.”
“Yeah?” Tracy glanced over her shoulder. The waitress set their salads down, Tracy poked distractedly at a tomato.
“The appraisal’s too low. Twenty thousand too low.”
“What’re you going to do?”
“I have no idea. You’re the numbers person. You tell me.”
Tracy chewed, eyeing the ceiling. “What about your sister, Destiny? Can she help?”
“Nope. She’s ‘horny-mooning’ somewhere in Europe. Brian wanted to see the world. It’s kind of strange, if you ask me. He kept saying that finally he was free. No, I’d hate to ruin this for them. Besides, after the wedding and this trip, I doubt they have two nickels to rub together.
“Oookaay, You could take out a loan against your 401K. It’s tax free money. They’ll take it out of your paycheck.”
“I hadn’t thought of that.” A little bit of weight lifted from her shoulders. “Thanks.” She took a bite of her salad. Creamy. Yum. “Wonder how much twenty-thousand will cost me a week.”
“It’ll be a chunk.” Tracy lifted her eyes and blinked, a common thing for Tracy to do when she was calculating. “Almost four hundred a week if you want to pay it back in a year. Of course, there’s another problem.”
“If Gabe’s wrong, and you’re fired, the loan is due within thirty days, or you have to pay taxes and penalties on the money.”
“Oh…” The weight just returned to her shoulders. Full force. “Thirty days? What would I pay in taxes and penalties?”
“Um…about five thousand?”
“Hell!”
“Sorry.” Tracy shook her head. “Maybe you should just give up? Buy something else.”
“I can’t give up. My mother wants to live in her own house. I can’t let her down. Shit!”
“I wish I had the money—I mean, I do, but it’s tied up right now. I’d loan it to you if I could.”
“No, that’s okay. I wouldn’t take a loan from you, anyway. You know that.” She swallowed a sigh and some more salad. “I just have to come up with another idea.” She glanced at her watch. “Better get back to work while I still have a job.”
“Sorry I couldn’t be more help.”
“You were. Just listening to me rave is a help. Gets it out of my system.” She flagged the waitress and asked for a box and the check.
The waitress nodded, handed her the check and then ran off to get a box. Disappointed that Tracy hadn’t handed her an easy solution to her problem like she’d hoped, Fate gave Tracy her share of the tab and tip, thanked her again, and returned to work. Still no better off than she had been when she’d left.
This just plain sucked.
Was there a way?
She half-ran to her office.
“You’re in a mighty big hurry,” Gabe said from somewhere behind her.
She spun around. “Hi.” She wanted to drop into his arms. Instead, she just shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “I had lunch with Tracy, my friend. We were talking about my mom’s house.”
“Did you get some news?”
“Not good news.”
He backed away one step. “I’ll call you in a minute.”
What was he up to now? “Okay.” She went back to her office and read over the work she’d finished that morning. It wasn’t bad. But was it good enough to save her job?
About a half hour later, her phone rang. “Hi, sexy,” Gabe drawled. “So, what has you looking so miserable?”
“My mom’s house appraised twenty thousand dollars too low, and I don’t have the cash to make up the difference.”
“I can loan it to you.”
“No way, but thank you.”
“Why not?” He sounded hurt.
“That’s really sweet. Thanks.” She leaned back in her chair. “But what if something happens and I can’t pay?”
“You’ll pay it back.”
“What if I’m fired? I won’t be able to pay anything if I don’t have a job.”
“Would you quit with that? I told you, you’re not going to get fired.”
God, she wanted to believe him. “How can you be so sure? Duncan said they won’t keep two marketing directors.”
“He was just messing with you. He has a sick sense of humor.”
No way. “Now, I know you’re lying.”
“I can’t believe you just said that! Please, let me loan you the money.”
“Why would you want to do that?”
“Because it would make me happy.”
Oh Lord, he’s going to make me cry. She closed her eyes and rubbed the tension from her neck. He was being so nice about this, still… No, she couldn’t take his money.
“Fate, are you still there?”
“Yeah. Can you call me back in a few?”
“Sure. Bye.”
She scribbled some figures. Mortgage, utilities, food, car payment, insurance… Her budget would be stretched to the upper limits, and she hadn’t included a payment for his loan. Even if she took two years to repay it, she’d have to come up with a whopping eight hundred per month.
Impossible!
The phone rang, and she answered it. “Hello?”
“I’ve written the check.”
“No!” She slumped forward, resting her chest on her desk. She had no energy.
“What’s wrong?”
“I can’t. I won’t.”
He sighed. “Okay, stubborn. Why not?”
“Even if I keep my job, I couldn’t repay you.”
“What if I helped you another way?”
“In what way?”
“A second job.”
Now that suggestion had promise. “What kind of job?”
“Working for a friend of mine. It’s a different kind of place. I’m not sure you’ll like it, but he pays well.”
“Just tell me I get to keep on my clothes.”
He laughed. The sound was so soothing. “Hell, yes! I wouldn’t send you to a place like that. Although, the way you stripped last night—”
Her face heated instantly. “Forget it! Now, tell me more about this other job.”
“Well…what do you think about tattoos?”
“They’re okay, I guess. But I’d never have one. Why? Do I have to get one?”
“No, but my friend owns a tattoo shop in downtown Royal Oak. He does tattoos and body piercing.”
“Oh…” She knew it! Too good to be true. Conservative, squeamish, she’d never fit in at a place like that. “Maybe I’d better look for something else.” Like flipping burgers at a fast food restaurant.
“Come on! Give it a try. You can handle one day, can’t you? It’s not like you’ll be doing any tattooing or piercing. Just taking appointments over the phone, selling jewelry, that sort of thing. Like I said, the pay is great.”
Why was it the man made the impossible sound logical? How did he do that?
She leaned back and tried to imagine the inside of a shop. Dark, smelly, smoky. Weird characters lying on tables. The buzz of tattoo guns—is that what they were called?—in the background. Selling kinky leather bodysuits and jewelry…
Actually, that part was kind of interesting.
“Okay. I’ll give it a try. One day. If it doesn’t work out, though, I won’t go back. You’ll warn him, right?”
“Already did. You start tomorrow morning. Ten sharp. You can thank me later.” He chuckled.
She knew exactly what kind of thank-you he expected.
That sent another rush of heat to her face and between her legs. “Fair enough. And thanks. Seriously. I owe you.”
“Not a problem. I told you, I care.”
“I’m really starting to believe that.”
“It’s about time. Just remember, everything I do is for you. Now, where’s my market analysis?”
“Right here on my desk.”
“Excellent! I’ll be there in one minute. That’s the final section. I’ll compile the whole thing this weekend and give Duncan a copy Monday morning. He likes to tweak things, change a word here and sentence there before it goes to the brass. Nothing major.”
“Okay.”
“You in the mood to celebrate tonight?”
She hadn’t slept a wink last night, not after the way he’d rushed out. And her confusion had morphed into downright disappointment by morning, after hours and hours of stewing. “I’m kind of tired, to be honest.”
“Okay,” he huffed. “We can wait until tomorrow night. But I won’t take no, so be prepared.”
“That sounds great.”
He hung up the phone, and as promised was at her door in two heartbeats. Her insides did a little dance when she opened the door and he flashed that million dollar smile.
“Miss me?”
More than I’d ever admit. “Nope.” She smiled and stepped aside to let him in. “But I think your tippy desk does.”
“Yeah, old Bessy and me, we had a thing goin’ there for a while.” He stroked the desktop, and her insides melted as she watched the way his hands moved. They’d touched her the same way just last night…
She forced herself to walk around her desk, despite her legs being as soft
as butter in the sun. “Here’s the analysis.”
“Great. Thanks, and good work. I couldn’t have done better myself. We make a great team.”
“I hope the suits see that.”
He flopped into the chair on the other side of her desk. “They will. Now, quit worrying about it, would you?”
“Are you sure you don’t need anything else from me? I don’t think we’ve done the sales projections yet—”
“I took care of those. Go ahead, take it easy the rest of the afternoon.”
“But I can’t sit around here and do nothing. That’ll only prove I’m not needed. You know, Duncan’s right. After the company is launched, what would they need two marketing directors for?”
He leaned forward and reached for her cheek, palming it and thumbing her lips. She loved the way he touched her. “Has anyone told you that you worry too much?”
“Yes.”
“Then, listen to them. I gotta go.” Manila folder in hand, he stood and headed toward the door. “Oh,” He stuffed his free hand in his pocket and handed her a card. Their fingertips brushed as the card was passed between them. “Here’s the info on my buddy’s place. Ten o’clock. Good luck tomorrow.”
She watched him leave then glanced down. Original Skin Tattoos. “What is this? The “S” is a snake! She felt herself scowling as she stared at the card. “And look where the tongue is!”
“Yeah, Paul, the owner, has a great sense of humor, doesn’t he?”
“Oh, just great.” What in God’s name was she thinking?
Chapter 10
Sometimes guardian angels dress in camouflage.
The rest of the afternoon dragged by at a lame elephant’s pace, thanks to the almost deafening silence in her office and the total lack of anything constructive to do. She tried to busy herself by reviewing old sales reports and scouring the phone book and newspaper for competitors’ advertising. Michael didn’t once stop in to see her.
He’d abandoned her.
She was a goner.
Maybe the tattoo place would be more of a savior than she’d originally planned. And so, after battling a mountain of reservation all afternoon, evening, night—yes, she couldn’t sleep again!—and morning, she dressed in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and drove to the heart of trendy Royal Oak. The shop was just south of the main drag, Main Street, where all the clothing, furniture shops, and restaurants were located. It sat inches from the road, no parking lot, so she parked around the corner on a side street. Once parked, she sucked in a few breaths and walked to the white house-turned-tattoo shop and headed inside.