When It Hits You (The It Series Book 1)

by Nicki Elson

  “Yep, so far. This is something else. Do you remember my friend Trish from the Field Museum party at Christmas?”

  “Tall, luscious lips, gorgeous?”

  “That’s her.” Lyssa leaned back into the corner where the counters joined, forgetting all about the coffee. “You made a good impression on her, too, and well, she and her boyfriend broke up—though I’m pretty sure they’ll eventually get back together—and she’s up for dating around in the meantime. If you’re interested in going out with her, I could probably arrange that.”

  “Arrange it?”

  “You know, give you her number or something.”

  “Hm.” He nodded and walked toward her. “That’s an interesting proposition. I’m pretty sure Trish and I could have a lot of fun together. You’d be okay with that? It wouldn’t be weird or anything?”

  Lyssa shrugged. “It would be a little weird, but I’d get over it.”

  He continued closer and was now only about a foot away, placing his hand on one of the counters near her hip. His enticing musk surrounded her. “Why would it be weird?”

  She shrugged again and shifted her gaze off of his face. It landed on his shoulder. She didn’t want to look directly at him, yet she didn’t want to look entirely away either. “Because you’re both my friends, and it’d suck if one of you hurt the other. But if you both know you’re only in it for the short-term, I guess that wouldn’t happen.” She let her eyes wander back to his. “Are you interested?”

  He pursed his lips, pausing for a moment before answering. “Normally, this is something I’d be all over, but I haven’t been feeling normal lately.” His gaze intensified, almost burned.

  “Is that something you should talk to your gynecologist about?”

  He grinned. “You’re extra sassy today, which means you’re using humor to divert your discomfort. I think maybe you’re not as okay with this as you claim to be.”

  “You’ll have to take my word for it, but the offer isn’t going to stay open forever. Are you in or out?”

  “I’ll take a pass.”

  Lyssa struggled to keep a poker face. She didn’t want him to see any trace of the unexpected relief that flooded through her.

  “I’ve been going about this girlfriend business all wrong,” he continued. “I’ve put too much emphasis on instant attraction, but that only goes so deep. If I really want to find the woman who’ll be it for me for the rest of my life, I think maybe I ought to try starting with friendship.”

  “Oh. You want to become friends with Trish first?”

  “I wouldn’t mind becoming friends with her, but that’s not what I mean. What I’m saying is that I’ve got another perfectly wonderful candidate, literally, right in front of my face.” He stared at her, raising an expectant eyebrow. There was no escaping his intent.

  “Hayden…”

  “Did we not have a fantastic time Friday night doing basically nothing? Do we not always have fun together, and have we not proven that we’re willing to be there to support each other when we need it? Our luau kiss proves that we have hot physical chemistry, too. Admit it, Bates—what we’ve already got is better than what ninety percent of other couples have, and it could be even better if we take it to the next level.”

  She was drowning in Hayden. She wished she could just chill and let herself be carried away in his current, but giving in so easily wasn’t her nature. She paddled toward shore. “You want me to aim higher for myself, right? Well, I’m holding out for someone who wants more than a playmate. I don’t want to be a friend with a benefit.”

  “Good. Because that’s not what I’m offering.”

  He moved in closer and laid his free hand on the other counter, trapping her. Jamie stepped into the room, drawing the conversation to a halt. Hayden stood rooted in position, keeping his intense blue eyes on Lyssa. She stayed still, silently staring back at him. Jamie’s footsteps ambled to the fridge, but instead of taking his lunch to a table, he left the room, more than likely to get away from the tension rolling off the couple in the corner.

  “I want to be more than friends with you, Bates. When I look at you or think about you, I feel a lot more than friendship. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think you feel the same.”

  Her eyes flicked away from his beautiful, earnest face, and she breathed through the heaving in her chest as it filled with so much more than feelings of friendship for him. She and Hayden could be great together…for a while. Until his attentions were inevitably drawn elsewhere. It had only been a little over a month since he’d had his heart smashed by those other two women, and he was obviously still hurting. He trusted Lyssa, which made her a safe choice during this vulnerable time. But what about her vulnerability?

  “Do you want to know the quickest way to ruin a beautiful friendship with a woman?” she asked. “Start dating her.”

  “So you’re not saying you don’t feel the same.”

  “I’m saying I think it’s a profoundly bad idea.”

  “Doesn’t every romantic relationship start out as a profoundly bad idea?”

  She smiled but bit at her bottom lip. She couldn’t get swept away in this banter and end up saying something she’d be sorry for later. Lowering her gaze, she pulled her lips tighter, working up the willpower to flat out reject him.

  “Don’t say it,” he said. “Don’t say anything right now. I didn’t plan to bring this up until after we’d finished on Pineapple, and I can see that I should’ve waited. But now that you know where I’m at, take some time to think about it. In the meantime, I won’t push.”

  “I don’t think time is going to change my mind.” She slowly lifted her eyes to him.

  “But you haven’t made up your mind.” His gaze flicked back and forth over her face. “I can see it. Let’s handle it like this—proceed as normal for the next two weeks, no more talking about us until after the final Pineapple presentation. After that, I’ll accept your answer no matter what it is.”

  “No matter what?” Lyssa arched a skeptical eyebrow.

  “No matter what.” He pushed back from the counter. “And now we’d better get back to business as usual before the lunch crowd pours in. I was going to eat at my desk, but do you want to go grab—”

  “Yeah, no. I’ve got a lot of work, and I was going to do the same.”

  “All right…so we’re good?”

  She nodded, and they exited the lunchroom, though Hayden still looked doubtful.

  Before they went their opposite ways, he said, “I’ll see you in my office on Wednesday to review the report.”

  “See you then.” Lyssa returned to her desk but had trouble concentrating on the numbers and notes in front of her. Hayden’s declarations hadn’t been a complete surprise to her—she wasn’t ignorant of the growing affection between them. Although she’d truly been chalking it up to friendship, now that Hayden had said it out loud, it was so obvious that they’d been hurtling toward something more. She forced her mind onto the report and kept it there until she’d completed a satisfactory amount of work for the day and then went home.

  That night, as she heated up a quick dinner and cleaned her apartment, she asked herself the obvious question: Why the hell not? Why not dive into a relationship with Hayden and see where it went? The only thing that’d kept her from entertaining the notion before was his perceived lack of interest. Now that he was on his knees for her, why resist?

  She returned to a thought that had niggled at her earlier—the timing. It couldn’t be a coincidence that he’d only started feeling this way about her after getting dumped by Roni and Sabine, two women at the furthest end of the spectrum from Lyssa. They were in Hayden’s league, his sport, and now he sought solace in badminton. Someone gettable, as Sean had put it.

  Or maybe the reason for his sudden attraction was the opposite—what better challenge than a woman who’d given up on men? Hayden certainly did like a challenge. Wasn’t that why he’d kept his sights on Sabine for so long? And who knew what kinds of
hurdles he’d cleared to conquer Roni. Lyssa had turned down his friends-with-benefits offer the other night, so maybe he was taking a different route to getting her in his bed. Once conquering Vibrator Girl, would he immediately lose interest? No. Hayden wouldn’t do that to her, not consciously. But what if the evil plan was buried in his subconscious and he didn’t realize it?

  This mental torture was giving her a headache and getting her nowhere. She needed a break from real-life drama. Stowing her bags for the laundromat near the door, she turned off all the lamps, leaving only the glow of buttons and numbers from her electronics to cast illumination. Stripping down and unfolding the futon, she soothed herself with the familiar hum and gentle, pulsating ministrations of her steadfast friend.

  Before her imagination found purchase on a solid fantasy, however, her thoughts returned to Hayden. He’d indicated that he was ready for a new approach, hoping that starting out as friends would make the relationship last longer. That was a good sign. But as his exact words ran through her mind—If I really want to find the woman who’ll be it for me for the rest of my life, I think maybe I ought to try starting with friendship—she zeroed in on a few words in particular: if, I think, maybe, try. The whole thing was experimental, and Lyssa was his test subject.

  “Ack!” she shouted into the darkness. They weren’t even officially a couple yet, and she was already driving herself batty with second-guessing his motives. Clearly she needed more time as the Vibster’s mistress before she’d be ready to venture back into the dating jungle again.

  “Sorry, baby,” she said to the electronic device. “No more thinking about anyone else tonight. It’s you and me as soon as I give you a little pick-me-up, eh?” She reached over to the drawer where she kept extra batteries and pulled out the last two, setting them on the mattress while she popped out the old ones. The worn batteries slid from her grasp and clunked onto the wood floor before rolling away in an uncertain direction. It was too dark to hope to see where they’d gone, so she decided to leave them until morning. She had a date with the new recruits.

  When she scooped the fresh batteries from the mattress, one of them fell from her hand to the floor. She instinctively bent forward to see if she could track it, and the other slipped out. “Gah!” Leaning over the side of her bed, she patted the floor in as wide of a circle as her arm span would allow. The tip of her finger bumped against something and more rolling ensued. She groaned and buried her face in her mattress. Even if she crawled around bare-assed to find the batteries, she had no way of knowing which were new and which were spent and would have to go through a series of testing to identify the right combination.

  Blowing out a huff, she clicked Vibby’s cover back into place. “Sorry, sweetie pie, I’m not in the mood to deal with this right now.”

  After pulling on her flannel pants, she lulled herself to sleep with a new source of comfort: Hayden had said it would be business as usual until the project was finished. That gave her almost two full weeks before she’d have to make her decision. Two weeks in which most of her work could be completed away from Hayden. Even when they’d be together, it’d be for short periods in the office and wholly focused on business. She’d be free to clear her head and craft a coherent and sensible response to his proposition—assuming he’d still be interested in two weeks.

  She was put in a room with Hayden sooner than expected when Beecher called them both into his office the next morning.

  “Just got off the phone with Randall Shepherd,” Beecher said. “You know he’s been a proponent of adding L.T. Bell’s company to DH’s wild card stable, and you also know he’s not been able to make enough progress with her to satisfy the board. Well, he called with a top-priority request.”

  Hayden sat forward and Lyssa leaned back.

  “It appears Miss Bell is willing to expose more about her process, but only to you two.”

  “Us?” Lyssa said.

  “Why us?” Hayden asked. “Did she give any reason?”

  “Does she ever?” Beecher responded. “That’s all she told Shep—she’ll provide the requested insight to the process, but only to the two from F and K who visited her last fall. Needless to say, this has to be done before the final presentation at the end of next week. You two will get on a plane tomorrow and spend the night at her farm.”

  Lyssa opened her mouth to question the necessity of an overnight, but the resolute, unflinching eyes of her boss fixed on her in a way that told her not to bother. She’d have to spend the night with Hayden.

  Chapter 19

  LYSSA AND HAYDEN arrived at the Indiana farmhouse to find a note from Lula on the bulky oak table in the kitchen. The investor said to show themselves to the same bedrooms as last time and she’d be back around four o’clock. Hayden grunted and stomped up the stairs to where he’d slept last time.

  Lyssa took the opportunity to situate herself in her designated room at the back of the house. While she pulled a few things out of her overnight bag and set them on the tall dresser, Hayden appeared in the doorway.

  “Oh, sorry, do you two want to be alone?” he asked.

  She glanced down at the thick, black tube of plastic in her hand. “Hey! This really is a flashlight.” She flicked it on and shined the bright beam straight into his eyes. “This place gets freaky at night, so I’m prepared to do battle with the ghouls.”

  “All right, all right.” He squinted and held his hands up in front of his eyes. “Can you shut it off so we can talk business?” She complied, and he lowered his hands. “We need to present a unified front with Lula. Judging by that note, she’s up to her old tricks, and we’ve got too much to do before the DH board meeting next week to let her waste any more of our time. This place has a surprisingly good Internet connection. If she won’t talk, we’ll have to ignore her, plug in, and get as much other work done as we can.”

  “Agreed.” Though Lyssa didn’t relish the idea of being outright rude to the eccentric portfolio manager. “And since we have a couple of hours before she comes back, we can finish going over the draft right now.”

  “Meet you in the kitchen. I’ll give you a few minutes to finish fondling your new toy.” He was gone before the next beam could attack his pupils.

  Hayden kept his word and didn’t broach the topic of becoming more than friends. They focused strictly on the report, and everything felt back to normal between them, causing Lyssa to consider once again whether this was where they should leave the relationship. Why mess with a good thing?

  They shut down their computers and discussed ideas for the format of the final presentation until Lula T. Bell came in at precisely four o’clock. If Lyssa hadn’t been sitting in the woman’s kitchen, she wasn’t sure she’d have recognized her—the portfolio manager wore a pair of dark, pinstriped slacks and a crisp, white button-down shirt. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail like before, but it was brushed to a silky sheen with a simple black scarf wound neatly around it instead of the gauzy pink bow.

  “Glad to see you made it here okay,” Lula said. “I hope you won’t mind diving right in.” She handed them each a glossy folder. “I figured we could spend today on the what of the investment process, and then tomorrow, I’ll show you the how.”

  Hayden appeared too stunned to move, so Lyssa cleared the papers from in front of him and added them to her small pile. Then she rose to shake Lula’s hand. “Nice to see you again.” Hayden recovered and offered his own greeting.

  “That’s where it all begins,” Lula said, pointing to a stack of newspapers and magazines in the corner and walking over to them. “I read everything I can.” She hoisted an armload and plopped it onto the table, letting the periodicals slip off one another and spread out while she took a seat on the opposite side of the table from the F&K employees.

  Her collection was eclectic: The Wall Street Journal and Forbes, of course, but also People Magazine, The National Enquirer, the local newspaper, beauty magazines, sports journals, literary quarterlies, and science
publications. Everything.

  “I look for trends,” Lula continued, “and I pay attention to marketing strategies. People are the most important factor on both sides of the investment equation—those running the company and those buying what they’re selling.” She went on to explain the qualities she looked for and gave examples of companies she’d discovered through scouring newspapers and magazines. When dinnertime came, she pulled out a tray of cold cuts and salads from the local deli. She openly answered all of Hayden’s and Lyssa’s questions as they ate. Lula was a woman who knew when to play coy and when it was time to give it all up.

  After they’d finished eating and cleaned up the dinner dishes, she concluded with, “So that’s how I build my list of potential investments. I’ll show you how we decide who actually gets our money tomorrow. Now, who’s interested in seeing my baby chicks?”

  Hayden chuckled. Apparently the deluge of forthright information had increased his threshold for his hostess’s quirkiness. “Sure. Let’s go see some chicks.”

  They threw on their coats and went outside. From the first moment the door to the small coop next to the barn swung open, Lyssa couldn’t stop cooing. Dozens of fluffy, yellow chicks chirped and scurried under the glow of a heat lamp. “How old are they?” she asked.

  “Hatched last week. You can pick them up. Here.” Lula reached in and snatched one, handing it to Lyssa, who immediately cupped her hands together to give it a nest. The chick’s warm feathers tickled her skin while its tiny claws poked like gentle pinpricks. Lifting it up to nose level, she held it close. The fuzzy little guy looked directly at her and squeaked.

  “Aww.” Hayden stepped behind Lyssa and leaned forward, lightly stroking the top of the chick’s head with the tip of his index finger. “How long before we can eat him?”

  Lyssa nudged him with her shoulder as best she could without disturbing the chick.

  “Roughly five months,” Lula answered. “But these, I think, I’ll keep. I miss having chickens about.”