“Do you need me to get the nurse?” he asked.
Crystal wiggled in Amber’s arms, emitting a few more subdued cries.
“Maybe you should,” said Jade, holding out her arms to take Crystal. “I want to try to feed her again. You should go home,” she said to Amber.
“No way.”
“Get some rest. Take a shower.”
“I don’t need to rest.”
“Yes, you do.”
Amber hesitated.
“I can drop you,” said Tuck.
“I have my car.” She stood to hand the baby to Jade. “Okay, but I’m coming back.”
“I would hope so.”
Tuck started for the corridor to find a nurse.
Amber’s voice followed him. “Goodbye, sweetheart.”
He knew she was talking to the baby, but he loved the word anyway.
He located a nurse and then met Amber in the hallway.
“You look exhausted.”
“I am so relieved.” She pulled off the gown, revealing last night’s dress. “Her heart actually stopped.”
Tuck automatically reached for Amber, pulling her to him. “How can I help?”
“I’m fine. I was terrified, but I’m fine now.”
“Let me take you home.”
“There’s no need.”
“It’ll make me feel better. I need to do something useful.”
“You’re very useful. You signed up four new accounts last night.”
“I mean useful to you.”
“You’re keeping the company afloat, keeping me in a job, helping me pay my bills.”
Tuck drew back, a bolt of comprehension lighting up his brain. “Twenty-eight thousand, two hundred and sixty-three dollars.”
“Huh?”
“Jade was already in the hospital when you came back. That was the amount on her bill. You asked for a signing bonus. You agreed to help me. You did it all because of her.”
He could tell by Amber’s expression that he’d hit the nail on the head. Then he wondered what else she’d done because of her sister.
He backed off. “Is that why you’re helping me with the company?”
“In part, yes. I need a job right now, Tuck. More than I’ve ever needed a job in my life.”
He loosened his hold on her and drew back. “And the rest?”
Her expression narrowed. “The rest is the rest.” She didn’t elaborate and he didn’t jump in. “I hope you’re not asking if I slept with you to protect my job and support my sister.”
He was. No, he wasn’t. He wasn’t, but he couldn’t help but worry that her behavior with him was laced with complexities.
“Don’t worry about it,” she said.
“Don’t worry about what?”
“I’m going home to change.” She glanced down at her dress. “I look ridiculous. I’ll see you at the office tomorrow.”
She tossed the hospital gown in a nearby bin and turned for the elevators.
He wanted to call her back. He needed to understand where she was coming from, what she was feeling for him, what last night had meant to her. But he couldn’t let himself be selfish again. She’d had a rough night. Jade needed her. And Tuck was simply going to have to wait to find out where he stood among everything else in Amber’s life.
* * *
They might have spent the night together...well, half the night together. But everything Amber knew about Tuck remained true. No matter how tempting it was to let him drive her home and comfort her, she couldn’t let herself pretend they were in a relationship. He was her boss, not her boyfriend. At best, they were having a fling. At worst, she was a two-night stand.
She had Jade and she had her new niece, Crystal. They were her family, her personal life, her emotional support. It wasn’t Tuck.
In the office Monday morning, she steeled herself to see him. She dropped her purse into her desk drawer and plunked down on her chair. She told herself they’d worked the party together like a practiced team, picking up on each other’s cues, making clients laugh and agree and, most important, closing the deal.
That had to be enough. It was going to be enough. She scrunched her eyes shut and gritted her teeth. She wasn’t going to allow herself to want more.
“Good morning, Amber.” Dixon’s voice nearly startled her out of her chair.
“Dixon?” she squeaked, her eyes popping open.
He looked tanned and toned and totally relaxed.
“I’m back,” he said simply.
“Where? How?”
Dixon wasn’t the hugging type, so she didn’t jump up to embrace him.
His smile faded. “I heard about my dad. I flew straight to Boston yesterday and then I came here.”
“Welcome back.” She was happy to see him.
She told herself it was an enormous relief to have him here. Things could get back to normal now. She could stop juggling so many problems and Tuck—
She swallowed. Tuck could get back to normal, too.
“He in there?” Dixon cocked his head to Tuck’s closed office door.
“I think so.”
“Great.” Dixon’s intelligent gaze took in the clutter on her desk. “Looks as if you’re busy.”
“It’s been busy,” she agreed.
“But you’ll move back to my office?”
“Of course I will. Right away.”
“Good.”
“How was your trip?”
“Enlightening.”
“You feel better? You look better.”
“I feel better than ever. I can’t wait to get back to it.”
“Great. That’s great.”
Tucker Transportation would be in experienced hands once again.
Just then, Tuck’s office door opened. He appeared in the doorway and instantly spotted Dixon.
From behind her desk, Amber could feel Tuck’s shock. His expression seemed to register disappointment. But then it quickly went to neutral.
“Dixon.” Tuck’s tone was neutral, too.
“Tuck,” Dixon answered evenly.
“You’re back.”
“You’re about the twenty-fifth person to say that.”
Tuck glanced at Amber.
“I said it, too,” she said into what felt like an awkward silence.
“You know about Dad?” Tuck asked.
Neither man moved toward the other, and she was struck by the wariness of their attitudes. Dixon had to be wondering if Tuck was angry. She couldn’t tell what Tuck was thinking.
“I saw him yesterday,” said Dixon.
“But you didn’t call? Didn’t think to give me a heads-up?”
It was Dixon’s turn to glance at Amber and then at Tuck. “Should we step inside your office?”
Tuck crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t know why. You seem to like to keep Amber more informed than you keep your own brother.”
Dixon seemed taken aback.
“She didn’t give you away,” said Tuck, finally taking a step forward.
Amber found herself glancing anxiously down the hall, worried that other staff might overhear their argument.
“I fired her,” said Tuck. “And she still wouldn’t tell me your secrets.”
Now Dixon looked confused.
“Where you were,” Tuck elaborated. “Where’d you go?”
“Why would you fire Amber?”
“Insubordination.”
“No way.”
“To me, not you.”
Amber couldn’t stand it any longer. “Tuck, please.”
Tuck gave a cold smile. “The loyalty’s returned just like that.” He snapped his fingers. “I
guess it never really went away.”
“Amber’s as loyal as they come,” said Dixon.
She moved from behind her desk. “I’m going to let you two talk.” She nodded at Dixon. “Maybe an office or the boardroom?”
“Good suggestion.”
“She’s full of them,” said Tuck.
“Has he been treating you like a jerk?” Dixon’s question was for Amber, but he stared at Tuck as he asked it.
Amber met Tuck’s gaze. “Not at all.”
Tuck stared back. “Except when I fired her.”
Dixon seemed to pick up on the tension between them. “How’d you get her back?”
“Money,” said Tuck.
“A signing bonus,” said Amber.
Dixon grinned at that. “Well, there’s no doubt she’s worth it. If she’d been permanently gone, you’d be answering to me.”
Tuck’s jaw tightened. “As opposed to you explaining to me where the hell you’ve been for two months?”
“I suppose I owe you that.”
Amber moved again, determined to leave. “You have a ten o’clock with Lucas,” she told Tuck.
“Maybe,” he responded.
What did that mean? Was he heading out the door before 10:00 a.m.? Now that Dixon was in the office, would Tuck simply walk out?
Good.
Great.
It really didn’t matter to her either way.
With the two men sizing each other up, she quickly made her way down the hall. She’d set herself up outside Dixon’s office once again. Tuck could come and say goodbye or not. It was entirely up to him.
* * *
Tuck stared at his brother across the table in the meeting room.
“I told him I needed to get away,” said Dixon. “He wouldn’t listen.”
“I heard.” Tuck didn’t see any point in hiding anything. “I overheard the two of you talking in the library. I heard what he said about me as a vice president.”
“Were you surprised?”
Tuck hadn’t been surprised. But he had been disappointed. “Nobody wants their father to have such a low opinion of them.”
“We’re talking about Jamison Tucker.”
“He likes you just fine.”
“Yeah,” Dixon scoffed. “Well, we all know why that is.”
“Because you’re the anointed one.”
“I mean the other.”
“What other?”
Dixon stared at him in silence and obvious confusion.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” said Tuck.
“The affair.”
“With Margaret?”
Dixon drew back. “Who’s having an affair with Margaret?”
“Dad.”
“What?” Dixon was clearly shocked. “What on earth makes you say that?”
“Because it’s true. Margaret gave it away to Amber.”
“It’s not like Amber to gossip.”
“She wasn’t gossiping. Wake up, man. Do you know what you’ve got in Amber? The woman will practically take a bullet for you. She has more character than you can imagine.”
Dixon’s intelligent eyes sized him up. “Got to know her pretty well while I was gone?”
Tuck was not about to give away anything that might embarrass Amber. “Got very frustrated with her at one point.” Then his mind jumped back in the conversation. “What affair were you talking about?”
“Mom’s.”
“Whoa. No way.”
“You knew about it.”
Tuck knew no such thing. “Who thinks Mom had an affair?”
“Dad.”
“What? When? And he’s living in a glass house, by the way.”
“Three decades ago.”
“Clearly that’s relevant.” Tuck knew their father’s affair had gone on right up to his heart attack.
Dixon carefully enunciated his next words. “Thirty years ago. In the months before you were born.”
Everything inside Tuck went still. “Are you saying?”
“How do you not remember that huge fight we overheard?”
“Are you saying I’m not Jamison’s son?”
“You are his son. He did a DNA test years ago.”
“Then, how is that the thing? Why would it make him hate me?”
“He doesn’t hate you.”
“He has no use for me.”
“My theory,” said Dixon, “is that he looks at you and remembers you could have belonged to someone else.”
“That’s really messed up.”
Dixon scoffed out a cold laugh. “Up to now, you thought we were a normal, functional family?”
Tuck came to his feet as everything became clear. He’d never had a chance. He’d been fighting for something he couldn’t possibly win. He had to get out of here, leave the company, maybe leave the city. Maybe he’d leave the state and the money behind and find his own life and career.
There was a brisk knock on the door before it opened to reveal Lucas.
Lucas didn’t miss a beat when he saw Dixon. “You’re back.”
“I’m back.”
“Good. Tuck, Gena wants to join us at ten.”
“Who’s Gena?” asked Dixon.
“Our new finance director.”
“Why do we have a new finance director?”
“Harvey quit,” said Tuck.
“Why?”
“He missed you.”
“What did you do?” Dixon’s tone was decidedly accusatory.
“Nothing,” said Tuck, heading for the door. “Hasn’t that always been the problem?”
“I’ll try to get him back,” said Dixon.
Tuck halted, a flash of anger hitting him. Dixon intended to reward Harvey for his disloyalty?
Tuck opened his mouth to protest, then decided not to waste his breath. Dixon was back. Tuck’s father was never, ever going to accept him. And what Tuck liked or didn’t like no longer had any relevance.
“Whatever,” he said without turning. To Lucas he said, “Dixon can take the ten o’clock.”
Twenty paces down the hall, he came to Amber at her old desk outside Dixon’s office. She was setting out her things, settling in.
“So that’s that?” he asked, struggling to come to terms with his life turning so suddenly and irrevocably upside down.
“My boss is back.” She didn’t pretend not to understand.
“You bailed quick enough.”
“He asked me to move here.”
“And what Dixon wants—”
Amber glared at Tuck.
He wanted to tell her she couldn’t, that she should march back to her desk at his office to work with him, not with Dixon. He wished he had the right. He wished he had the power. Against all reason and logic, he wished his brother had never come home.
“What about you?” she asked, adjusting the angle of her computer screen.
Unlike her, he did pretend to misunderstand. “My office has been in the same place for years.”
“And what are you going to do in it now?”
“Nothing.”
He could take a hint. Well, maybe he couldn’t take a hint. But he could understand the bald truth when it was thrown up in his face. He wasn’t wanted here. And there was nothing he could do to change it. He might as well have been born to a different father.
Two months ago, it probably wouldn’t have mattered. But it mattered now. Maybe it was pride. Or maybe he liked the sense of independence and accomplishment. Or maybe he just liked Amber.
He was going to miss her.
He wasn’t sure he could leave her.
“You’re walking away,” s
he said.
“I am.” He had to stifle the urge to explain.
He knew she understood dysfunctional families, and he knew she’d understand what he was going through. But he couldn’t presume they had a personal relationship. She’d made that clear enough at the hospital yesterday morning. She was his brother’s assistant, and that was all.
“I won’t be your boss anymore,” he said, determined to give it one last shot.
“We both knew that would happen.”
That wasn’t a hint one way or the other. She wasn’t giving him any help here.
“We could,” he said. “You know...”
She raised her brows and looked him in the eyes.
“Date,” he finally said, wondering what the heck had happened to his suave, sophisticated style.
“Each other?”
Okay, now he was just getting frustrated. “Yes, each other.”
“Is that a good idea?”
“I’m suggesting it, aren’t I?”
“You’re free now, Tuck. And you’re practically running for the front door. And that’s fine. I understand. You never said or did a thing to suggest otherwise. And you don’t need to now. Dixon’s here. You have your life back.”
Tuck stared at her in silence.
That was how she saw him? Well, at least he knew the truth. Even after all they’d done together, how hard they’d worked to save clients and accounts, she thought he’d only been biding his time until he could go back to the party circuit.
“I’m free,” he agreed between gritted teeth.
“Then, no reason to linger.”
He stared hard into her eyes. “No reason at all.”
Unless he counted how he felt about her, how much he wanted to be with her, how hard he wished she’d see something in him besides an irresponsible playboy.
“I’m going to be busy with Dixon,” she said airily. “And with Jade, and with Crystal.”
“I’m going to be busy getting my name back in the tabloids.” As he said it, he willed her to call his bluff.
She didn’t even hesitate. “Good luck with that.”
“Thanks.”
There was nothing left to say. But the last thing he wanted to do was leave.
He wanted to hug her. He wanted to kiss her. At the very least, he wanted to thank her for the help and for the amazing memories.
Instead, he left without a word.
A Bargain with the Boss Page 17