As they disappeared up the stairs, Carrie turned to Rob and said, “What the heck just happened?”
Rob shrugged. “I guess they liked what they saw.”
“In that case, maybe it’s a good thing that you made me scream.” She looked down at the cradle, which as far as Rob could see, wasn’t moving at all. Sounding defeated, she said, “It’s not going to do it for you.”
“It might.”
They stood in silence and watched it for several minutes, but nothing happened.
“I swear it was moving,” she told him.
“I believe you. If doors can open by themselves, why would a self-rocking cradle be such a stretch of the imagination?”
“Either that, or I’m losing my mind.”
“It was a little weird that you wouldn’t answer me. At first I thought you were upset about something. And then I thought maybe you were getting sick.”
“Eew,” she said, nose wrinkling.
“But as I got closer, it seemed as if you were in a trance or something.”
“I guess I sort of felt like I was. And when you fell against me, I think I was reaching down to touch it. But I wasn’t doing it consciously. Does that make sense?”
“Not really.”
“I could see my arm moving, but I didn’t feel as if I was controlling it.”
“Are you saying that you were possessed?”
She shrugged. “Maybe I was. I sure didn’t feel like myself.”
If she were anyone else, he would think she was either nuts or looking to get attention, but that wasn’t Carrie. She was one of the most down-to-earth, sane people he’d ever met, despite all her hang-ups. A genuine straight shooter. She looked so damn adorable in her skinny jeans and a UCLA sweatshirt, her hair pulled back in a ponytail that bounced when she walked. And he wanted her just as much as he had in the hotel bar that night. He’d racked his brain trying to come up with a way to make her see that she was wrong. He didn’t deserve better than her, because there was no one better. Not that he’d ever met. The problem was making her believe that.
“I guess we should get back upstairs,” she said.
“You want me to bring the cradle up?”
She looked at all the furniture piled there, then at the forlorn little cradle on the floor. He thought of the children who might have slept in it and actually felt guilty for leaving it down there. It looked so small and lonely.
Small and lonely? Where the hell had that come from? Now he was acting possessed.
“Bring it up,” she said. “I’ll clean it up. Maybe someone can get some use out of it.”
He lifted the cradle off the floor, and as he did, he could swear he felt a rush of cold air brush past him. Clearly he was imagining things.
He followed Carrie up the stairs, holding the cradle, and when they stepped through the door, she pushed it closed behind him.
Just before he heard the knob latch, from the basement below, he could swear he heard the sound of not a baby, but a woman crying.
“They bailed on us.” Carrie held up the note she found stuck to the refrigerator and showed it to Rob.
Went for a drink. Back later.
“I guess Tony forgot that we came here together in his car,” Rob said.
Carrie wasn’t thrilled by the idea of being stuck with Rob, and even though it was a setup, she couldn’t muster the will to be upset with Alice. She’d been cooped up in the house for three weeks. It would do her good to get out and socialize. She needed this. And maybe she and Tony would hit it off. Alice could certainly benefit from meeting a nice guy for a change. Not that Carrie knew Tony all that well. But if he was anything like the rest of his family, she had nothing to worry about.
She had the sudden vision of her and Alice both settling down in Chicago, and a double wedding with Carrie and Rob and Alice and Tony tying the knot.
A double wedding? Seriously? Where the heck had that come from?
She shook away the ridiculous notion.
“I’m sure they won’t be too long,” she said. At least she hoped they wouldn’t.
“Where do you want the cradle?” Rob said, and she realized he was still holding it.
“The living room, I guess, until I figure out what I’m going to do with it. It just didn’t seem right to keep it in the basement.”
“I know what you mean,” he said, carrying it into the living room for her.
“You do?”
He set it down by the couch, then sat down. “Weirdly enough, yes.”
The fact that she’d felt that way was weird, but his feeling it, too? That was downright creepy. Maybe, instead of cleaning it up, she should hire an exorcist.
She sat in the chair. “Do you like old furniture?”
“Not particularly.”
Neither did she. She didn’t dislike it, but her preference was a more modern look. But the cradle, there was just something about it….
“Maybe that’s why the door kept opening,” Rob said. “Maybe whatever is down there wanted you to find it and bring it up. Maybe that’s why it touched you that first night.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you serious or just making fun of me?”
“I heard it, too,” he said.
“The baby crying?”
“Just before you closed the basement door. But it didn’t sound like a baby. It was a woman.”
The hair on the back of her neck rose. “Wow, that’s really creepy.”
“I have to admit that it is.”
“Speaking of creepy,” Carrie said, “something happened at work last night that I thought I should mention.”
“Don’t tell me doors are opening by themselves there, too,” he said, with a grin so adorable she wanted to eat him up.
“This is about a door that wouldn’t open, actually.”
She told him how she had caught Rose trying to break into his father’s office, and how his secretary conveniently called at the last second.
“You think she was lying?” Rob asked her.
“I’m usually pretty good at reading people, and I definitely had that feeling. But that doesn’t mean I’m right. I just thought I should tell you.”
“I’m glad you did. Just between us, there’s something about her that bothers me.”
“Me, too! She’s so quiet—not that quiet people are bad—but it always seems as if she’s up to no good or hiding something. Do you know what I mean?”
“I do. She and my sister have become pretty good friends. Megan bought an apartment and Rose is going to be moving in the end of this month.”
“You’re worried?”
“Yeah. Her mom worked at Caroselli Chocolate for years as Nonno’s secretary, so when she showed up looking for a job, my uncle Leo felt obligated to hire her.”
“In what position?”
“At first, just general office stuff, but then she offered to digitize all our old records, and that’s been her job description ever since.”
“So she has access to a lot of company information.”
“You think she’s a spy?”
She shrugged. “It does happen.”
“I think I’ll do some digging. See what I can come up with.” He looked at his watch. “If Tony ever comes back.”
It was obvious that he didn’t feel like hanging around. She didn’t know if she should feel relieved or disappointed. “I can drive you home.”
“You wouldn’t mind?”
“Consider it my thanks for moving the furniture.” It beat having him stuck there until God knew when, driving her crazy. “I’ll get my coat.”
* * *
It was snowing lightly as she backed out of the garage. She still wasn’t crazy about driving in the snow, but it wasn’t half as bad as she’d expected, and the compact SUV she’d leased totally kicked ass.
“Are we supposed to get much snow?” she asked Rob.
“They said something about six inches tonight.”
“So,” she said, glanci
ng over at him, “average?”
He laughed and shook his head. “That’s what I hear.”
She could really go for six inches tonight. Or in Rob’s case, seven or eight.
What? No! Did she really just think that? She had to get her mind out of the gutter and stop flirting with him. This is why she didn’t like to see him outside of work. She forgot how to behave. And being in such a confined space with him, the scent of his aftershave was doing funny things to her head.
It was making her fantasize about things. Bad things, like what he would do if she took her hand off the steering wheel and laid it on his knee, maybe slid it up his inner thigh…
Don’t even think about it.
This is why it was such a bad idea to see each other socially. She had no self-control.
“Make a left here,” Rob said. “My building is two blocks down.”
They couldn’t have gone more than half a mile from her place. “I knew you were close, but I didn’t realize it was this close.”
“If it wasn’t so cold, I would have just walked.”
The area was an eclectic blend of old restored and new buildings. Rob’s was a converted warehouse. “Beautiful building,” she said. “What floor are you on?”
“I have the penthouse.”
“Sounds nice.”
“It’s open concept. Very modern. Want to come up and see it?”
Hell no. “Um…sure.”
What? No, you don’t!
If she got him alone in his place, she wasn’t sure if she could be responsible for her actions. In fact, she knew she couldn’t.
“Do you have a roommate?” she asked.
“No, why?”
She shrugged. “Just curious.”
She needed to come up with an excuse as to why she couldn’t go inside. But as he pointed out a parking space just a little ways down the street, the car seemed to drive itself there.
This was a really bad idea. But that didn’t stop her from getting out of the car and walking with him to the building. It was as if she was having an out-of-body experience, watching the scene from above but not really participating.
The lobby was clean and modern and even better, toasty warm.
“How long have you lived here?” she asked while they waited for the elevator, hoping that idle conversation would keep her from doing something crazy like throwing herself at him. She’d actually had sex in an elevator before. It wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. But with Rob, there was no such thing as bad sex. Or even mediocre sex.
They stepped off the elevator into a hallway with just two doors. He pointed to the one on the right. “This is me.”
He unlocked the door and gestured her through, and as she stepped inside, what she saw took her breath away.
When he said open concept he hadn’t been kidding. The apartment was one big open space with a gourmet kitchen, a dining space and a cozy living area. A mix of steel and wood beams crisscrossed above their heads, and a winding iron staircase led to a loft-style bedroom. Tall windows that looked original to the building lined one entire side of the unit.
“This is beautiful!” she said.
“Take off your coat.”
“Oh…I can’t stay.”
He shrugged out of his coat and hung it on a hook beside the door. “You in a hurry to be somewhere?”
“Well…no, but—”
“So stay a few minutes.” He held his hand out for her coat. “You don’t have to worry, I’m not going to put the moves on you.”
As if she needed encouragement from him. If anyone was going to be putting moves on, it probably would be her. Knowing that, she slipped off her coat anyway and he hung it beside his own.
“I’ll give you the grand tour.”
He showed her around, pointing out all the unique, special touches, but she was having trouble concentrating. Her eyes kept wandering to his ass, which looked exceptionally nice in jeans. He had his usual afternoon stubble and she longed to feel the roughness of it against her palms and her lips…maybe her thighs. She kept her hands wedged in the pockets of her jeans so she wouldn’t be tempted to use them, and as they climbed the winding stairs to his bedroom, she couldn’t help thinking that she was making a huge mistake.
“The bedroom is my favorite room.”
She didn’t ask why. She didn’t want to know, but as they walked to the window, it was obvious.
The view from downstairs was nice, but from up here, it was breathtaking. She could see the entire neighborhood, and in the distance, the skyline of downtown.
“It’s amazing,” she said, aware that he was standing just a few inches behind her. So close she could feel his body heat and smell his aftershave—or maybe that was just how the room naturally smelled. On an oversize chair beside her lay the clothes that Rob had worn to work yesterday—yes, she paid attention—and she had to fight the urge to pick up his shirt and hold it to her nose, breathe in the scent of his skin on the fabric.
Maybe when he wasn’t looking…
“I can lie in bed and watch the fireworks at Navy Pier.”
“Nice,” she said. She could think of other things they could do in bed, too. They could make their own fireworks.
“Is everything okay?” he said. “You’re awfully quiet.”
She shrugged. “Not much to say, I guess.”
“You always have something to say.”
He was right. She didn’t like quiet. She was always filling the empty space with conversation. Today was different. Today she was terrified that she would say something she shouldn’t, which might encourage him to do something he shouldn’t. Something she would find it impossible to say no to.
She turned to him, looked up into his dark, bottomless eyes. The longing that she saw there, the unmasked need, made her knees go weak.
She never should have turned around.
“I want you,” she said, regretting the words the instant they left her lips.
He nodded. “I know.”
“But I can’t. I can’t want you.”
“I know that, too.”
Did he have to be so damn agreeable?
“The thing is, you’re a lot bigger than me,” she said. “If you were to grab me and throw me down on the bed, there wouldn’t be much I could do to stop you.”
“So you have someone else to blame later?” He took a step back. “Not a chance.”
She blinked in surprise. He was turning her down?
“This isn’t a game,” he said. “Not to me, anyway. Not anymore.”
“I know that.”
“Then you need to make up your mind. Either you want me or you don’t.”
“I do, but—”
“No buts,” he said. “Either we’re together or we aren’t.”
“What about work?”
“Work is work. We keep it professional. It’s no one’s business what we do outside the office.”
No, but they sure liked to make it their business.
“You can’t tell anyone. Not even Nick and Tony.” She paused and said, “Well, I guess it would be okay to tell them. If they ask. I would never expect you to lie to them. But no one else.”
“So I should forget about that announcement I was going to run in the Sunday paper?”
She smiled. He always made her smile. He made her…happy. Why would she deprive herself of that? What reason did she have to say no?
Because you like him, dummy. Too much. In her entire life she had never met anyone she would have even considered seeing long term, yet here she was doing crazy things like imagining double weddings. This was a totally new experience for her. It was exciting and terrifying. What if she got too attached? What would she do when it was over? Did she really want to put herself through that?
But what if this time was different? What if there wasn’t a letdown? What if there really was someone for everyone, and Rob was her someone? Wouldn’t it be worth it to at least find out? To at least give him a chance?
She thought about what Alice said, about what Carrie had to go back to in Los Angeles, and she was right. When Carrie wasn’t working, her life was barren and lonely. Here she at least had people who genuinely seemed to care about her.
“I want you,” she said.
He looked skeptical. “But?”
She shook her head. “No buts. Not this time.”
“You’re sure?”
“Very sure.” She slid her arms around his neck, rose up on her toes and kissed him.
Fourteen
“Is he in there?” Carrie asked, poking her head into Mrs. White’s office.
“He already went down to the conference room,” she said, her tone considerably less chilly than it had been eight weeks ago.
No matter how impersonal or cold the older woman was, from day one Carrie had greeted her with a smile and treated her with respect. It had taken a while to realize that she wasn’t really a bitch, just very focused and private. And one hell of a good secretary. She liked to come in and do her job and she didn’t like to be interrupted, which Carrie could certainly relate to. And she was fiercely loyal to Rob. He told Carrie that when he was a kid she worked in one of the stores and was a totally different person. He said she would always slip him an extra piece of his favorite candy when he came in with his mother to visit. Even if his mother said no more—which was usually the case. Then Mrs. White’s only son was killed in an accident, and she hadn’t been the same since.
So Carrie and she would never be pals, or even friends, but their working relationship was now amicable.
“Did he get my report?” she asked Mrs. White.
“He did. He took it with him.”
She shouldn’t be nervous, but she was. After compiling all the data, Carrie had worked up a rough plan of what she thought was a viable solution to Caroselli Chocolate’s sales drop. Now she would present it to the rest of the team and hoped they agreed she was on the right track and were willing to implement a plan. She was especially nervous about what Rob would think. For the past five weeks, since they began officially secretly “dating,” they had managed to keep their private and professional relationships separate. But if he thought her idea was total crap, her pride was going to take a hit. And her feelings would probably be hurt.
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