“I wanted to apologize for last night.”
Jon went very still. His gaze slid to the desk.
“Not for the sex,” she clarified hastily. “For afterward. When you came back and I said I didn’t want to talk. That’s the part I’m sorry for. Not the other bit.”
The other bit?
She winced mentally. She was such an idiot. And she’d even rehearsed this in bed less than an hour ago.
He shifted his weight. “Okay.”
She took a breath. “Also, I wanted to ask how your shoulder is.”
Impossible to stop herself from blushing now.
“It’s fine.”
“Are you sure? Because it looked pretty raw last night.”
“It’s fine.”
She’d never seen him look more serious.
“Well, good.” Her hands found each other at her waist and she clasped them together. “That was… That’s not something that’s ever happened for me before. I’m not really sure what happened—”
“I do. I pushed you. I backed you into a corner.”
She could hear the self-condemnation in his voice, the judgment.
“You didn’t push me anywhere. I gave as good as I got.”
“No.” His voice was very tight, utterly certain.
She studied him, noting the signs of tiredness in his face, the tension around his mouth.
He’d been giving himself a hard time over this, she realized. Convincing himself that he’d been responsible for what happened. In all her obsessive analyses of what had occurred last night—and there had been many as she lay awake into the small hours—the notion that he might think the sex had been anything but a meeting of equals had not even crossed her mind.
“There were two people in this office last night, Jon, not one. And you didn’t do anything to me that I didn’t do to you.”
“Except one of us is six foot two.”
“You’re the one with the injuries, not me. And please don’t even start to tell me that the sex was all your idea or something ridiculous like that. I wanted it. I enjoyed it. Okay?”
He frowned.
“If I’d wanted you to stop last night you would have stopped. At any point.”
“How do you know that?”
She could hear the uncertainty in his voice.
“Because I wasn’t scared. Not once. Not even a little bit. And you knew that. If I’d called a halt, if you’d seen I was scared, you would have stopped.”
“You have a lot of faith in me.”
“You’ve earned it.”
His frown deepened. He looked so uneasy and unhappy. This was a really big deal for him.
“Okay. Fine,” she said. “I get that you’re a man of action, that words aren’t your thing. So if what it takes is a rematch, let’s get down to it.”
She reached for the hem of her T-shirt.
“Whoa,” Jon said, taking a step forward, one hand extended. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
He glanced toward the glass panel in the door. He looked so scandalized she almost smiled. Given what they’d done on her desk, the prospect of the guys seeing her in her bra seemed pretty tame.
“Here’s a deal for you—you stop blaming yourself for something we both took part in, and I’ll keep my T-shirt on.”
That got a small smile out of him. “Do you ever not play hardball?”
“Absolutely—when I figure my opponent isn’t up to it. So, what’s it going to be, Jon?” She tugged her T-shirt up a couple of inches, displaying her belly to him. “Am I going to traumatize the guys for life or are you going to admit it takes two to tango?”
That shocked a laugh out of him. She could tell he still didn’t quite believe she’d go through with it. She arched an eyebrow.
“Well? What’s your answer?” She lifted her T-shirt some more, exposing the lower half of her bra.
“Gabby. Come on.” He shot a worried look toward the window, then took a step forward and grabbed the hem of her T-shirt, tugging it down and holding it there.
They were standing very close, his body almost brushing hers, his hand warm on her belly. She looked into his eyes.
“That fight was an excuse for us to both do what we wanted to do. You know that, right?” she said.
He looked at his feet, his lashes brushing his cheeks. She was reminded of the night she’d caught him sleeping at his workbench. He’d looked so vulnerable then.
He was vulnerable now, too.
She had a sudden flash of insight, a moment of intuitive connection, as she studied his downturned face. Last year, she’d stood on the sidelines as Tyler struggled through his father’s final days. He’d never said anything directly, but she’d understood that there had been a lot of unhappiness in his childhood. Violence, maybe, or some other form of abuse. It hit her now that a man who’d grown up in an angry, violent household might find it difficult to put last night into its proper perspective. In fact, such a man might find it almost impossible to forgive himself for letting his passions get away from him.
It was just a guess, but it felt right. A wave of compassion washed over her and the urge to comfort him was so strong she didn’t even try to deny it. She wrapped her arms around him and lay her cheek against his chest.
“It’s okay, Jon.”
He tensed, his body as unyielding and unbending as concrete. She refused to let go. She knew he was stubborn—it took one to know one, after all—but he had to let go of the crazy idea that he was responsible. She felt his rib cage expand as he breathed in, then all of a sudden his arms came around her and he pulled her more tightly to his chest. She felt his cheek press against the top of her head, could hear the unsteady thump of his heart beneath her ear as he held her.
There was an intensity, almost a desperation to his embrace that touched something deep inside her. Maybe she was being fanciful, but she had the feeling that Jon had experienced precious few moments of compassion and acceptance in his life.
The thought brought the unexpected heat of tears to her eyes.
“You’d better get that,” Jon murmured.
“What?”
His arms loosened and he stepped backward. She realized her phone was ringing.
“Right,” she said. “The phone.”
She moved to her desk and lifted the receiver.
“Gabby Wade speaking,” she said.
“Gabby, it’s Brandon Sinclair from Vibe Interiors,” a voice said in her ear.
“Hi, Brandon, how are you?” She assumed her best professional voice.
Movement caught the corner of her eye and she turned to see Jon heading for the door. She stared at him as Brandon explained why he was calling. For the first time it struck her that being a big man, a powerful man, brought with it its own expectations and prejudices. It was all too easy to assume that a man who looked as solid and unassailable as Jon did never had any doubts or fears. But he was flesh and blood, with all the usual weaknesses and foibles that came with being human.
“So I was wondering if you guys thought you could meet those deadlines,” Brandon was saying in her ear.
She blinked and dragged herself back to the here and now.
“Sorry, Brandon, I was just calling up your file on the computer,” she fibbed. “What were those dates again?”
CHAPTER EIGHT
JON KEPT HIS HEAD DOWN FOR most of the morning, not participating in the chat between the guys, pretending an absorption in his work that, for once, he didn’t feel.
Gabby had floored him with her apology. And that stunt with her T-shirt…
He’d told Ally that one of the things he most admired about Gabby was her willingness to fight her corner even when a smart person would concede defeat. She’d been pretty damned convincing, boldly telling him that he hadn’t scared her, that she trusted him, that their fight had simply been an excuse they’d both used to get close.
But the thing he really couldn’t get out of his head was the way she’d wrapped
her arms around him, so easily and naturally and forgivingly. He’d always thought of her as a small woman, petite and delicate despite her large personality, but her arms had been strong and sure. When she’d rested her head on his chest he’d been powerless to stop himself from returning her embrace.
It was such a small, trusting gesture. More than anything she’d said it had proved to him that she wasn’t afraid of him. That he hadn’t stepped over the line with her last night.
He’d never been comfortable with physical affection. There hadn’t been a lot of it in the Adamson household and as an adult, sex was the only time he felt comfortable getting physically close to another human being. It had always seemed to him that hugs and kisses and casual caresses came with strings attached, and he didn’t want to be forced into the position of disappointing anyone’s expectations.
Gabby’s embrace hadn’t felt as though it had strings attached to it. He hadn’t felt as though she wanted anything from him; she’d simply offered him comfort.
It had scared him how much he’d wanted to accept it, how good she’d felt.
Letting her go had been one of the hardest things he’d done in a long time.
“Mate, Tyler wants you.”
He looked up to find Paul by his workbench, gesturing to where Tyler was standing at the top of the stairs. It was evident from Tyler’s bemused, slightly frustrated expression that he’d been trying to get Jon’s attention for some time.
“Right. Thanks.” Dusting off his hands, he started up the stairs to the mezzanine.
“You had your ears tested lately?” Tyler asked good-naturedly.
“I was concentrating.” Jon could just imagine his brother’s reaction if he told him that he’d been thinking about a hug, of all things.
Tyler gestured for him to precede him into his office and Jon dropped into the chair opposite the desk. To his surprise, Tyler sat beside him rather than behind the desk.
Jon was instantly wary, remembering the conversation with Ally last night. Only an idiot would expect spouses to keep secrets from one another.
“I wanted to talk to you about your salary.”
His shoulders relaxed a notch. This wasn’t about Gabby, then.
“I don’t have one. Remember?”
“As if I could forget. I’ve had Gabby in my ear every five seconds telling me I need to pay you.”
This was news to him. “I didn’t realize she knew.”
“Mate, there’s not much she doesn’t know about this business.”
“Right.”
“I know we talked about this being a temporary role while you worked out what you will do next. But I wanted to ask how you’ve been finding it.”
“If you’re asking if I like the work, the answer’s yes.”
“Does that mean you’d consider sticking around?”
Jon looked at his watch, fiddling with the strap as he tried to work out what to say. Last night, he’d more or less made the decision it was time to move on. He’d planned to ask Tyler for access to a computer to look for airfares. After his conversation with Gabby this morning, some of the urgency had gone out of the decision.
He figured he could give his brother a few more weeks, maybe a month, tops. Anything longer was only delaying the inevitable. As much as he admired what his brother had built up here, he didn’t have it in him to be anyone’s employee anymore, not after years of being his own boss. He might be floating at the moment, but long-term he wanted to be running his own business again.
“How long do you need me for?”
“How about thirty years, depending on when you want to retire?” Tyler asked.
Jon’s first impulse was to laugh—then he saw the bound document in Tyler’s hands.
“These are the company records for the past four years.” Tyler leaned forward and collected another document from his desk. “These are our profit projections for the next five years.”
Jon looked at the proffered documents but didn’t take them from his brother’s hands.
“I appreciate the offer. But like I told you in Woodend, I’m not looking to settle here. I’m happy to fill a gap or take up the slack for you till you find someone permanent, but I’m not interested in a long-term job.”
“I’m not offering you a job. I want you to buy into the business. Become my partner.”
Whoa.
Jon stared at his brother, his mind a complete blank.
“I know it’s out of the blue. And you don’t need to make a decision right now, but I want you to think about it,” Tyler said. “I figure we could do a fifty-fifty split, because I know I wouldn’t be interested in anything else if the shoe was on the other foot, but the details are negotiable.”
He offered the paperwork to Jon again. He took it and stared down at the glossy cover.
He didn’t know what to say. Not for a second had he imagined that his brother would be willing to share something that was obviously so close to his heart. Tyler had built this business from scratch, poured his sweat, blood and tears into it, and now he was riding what Jon suspected was the very beginning of a massive wave of success. And he was inviting Jon along for the ride.
It was incredibly generous. Especially given their long estrangement.
“I wasn’t expecting this,” he finally said.
“Yeah, I got that.” Tyler leaned back in his chair, apparently completely relaxed about the outcome of their discussion. Only the telltale jiggling of his foot gave away that this meant anything to him.
“How would you see this working?”
“Until recently, I’ve been splitting my time between design, production and sales. Gabby’s been stepping into sales more, and doing a bloody good job of it, so I feel we’re covered there. The workshop still needs a lot of my time. Dino’s prepared to step up to a certain point, but he doesn’t want more responsibility or hours than he already has, and none of the other guys has the initiative to make a good production manager. Every time there’s a problem, I get dragged away from design work—and let’s face it, nothing gets made if I don’t design it first.”
Jon could see his brother’s problem. Essentially, there was only one of Tyler, but there were a number of areas where his skill, passion and commitment were required to keep the business driving forward.
“I’m a builder. I haven’t done this kind of thing before.”
“You’ve run a construction team. You’ve made some incredibly ambitious plans a reality. That place you built in the Laurentians was freaking amazing. The way you had to sink those concrete supports into the mountain-side to support that cantilevered roof…”
Jon stared at his brother. He had no idea that Tyler was familiar with his Canadian builds. Then he thought about the times he’d looked Tyler up on the internet over the years. He’d told himself he was simply making sure Tyler was still alive, but he’d been pleased to see Tyler’s growing success.
Tyler moved to the edge of his seat. “Look, I know the work won’t be as challenging for you here, but there are still lots of areas for us to branch out into. High-end bespoke kitchens, for starters.”
It was on the tip of Jon’s tongue to assure his brother that he’d gotten a lot of satisfaction out of the pieces he’d built since he’d come on board, but he didn’t want to mislead him or get his hopes up. It was a good offer—a great one—but that didn’t mean it was an offer he would accept.
He flipped open the cover on the financial report, scanning a few lines while he tried to word the question in his mind. Finally he realized there was no polite way to say it.
“Why?” he asked, meeting and holding Tyler’s gaze.
“I told you. I need a partner to make the next step forward.”
“You could find a production manager if you looked hard enough. You could even offer him a smaller cut of the business if you wanted him to have an investment.”
“It wouldn’t be the same. You’re my brother.”
“So, what? Blood is thicker th
an water? We both know that’s bullshit.”
Tyler’s gaze was steady. “I don’t think it is.”
Jon couldn’t maintain the eye contact. He fought the urge to remind his brother of all the times he’d let him down in the past. But that would mean getting into a bunch of stuff he had no intention of exhuming. “Can I have some time to think about it?”
“Take all the time you need.”
Jon stood, reports in hand. He turned to leave, then paused. “Does Gabby know about this?”
Had she known about this when she spoke to him this morning? Was that little speech about keeping him around?
“I haven’t spoken to her yet. I figured I should sound you out first.”
He was relieved, and he realized it was because he’d wanted this morning to have been about him and Gabby alone.
“I’d better get back to it,” he said.
He glanced at the reports in his hand on the way down the stairs. He still couldn’t quite believe that his brother was prepared to put so much trust in him. To share his future.
Gabby was talking to Dino about a delivery. Jon studied her profile, wondering how she was going to feel when she learned about Tyler’s offer.
Happy? Uncomfortable? Indifferent? He asked himself how he’d feel, being tied to a business that included her.
Gabby laughed at something Dino said then gave him a little encouraging punch on the arm. Smile firmly in place, she headed for her office and it hit him that he could think of worse fates than having to see Gabby every day.
GABBY WAITED NERVOUSLY TO SEE what would happen when quitting time came around that night. One by one the rest of the crew cleaned up their workstations and said their goodbyes, heading home to their partners and families. By five-thirty it was down to her and Tyler and Jon.
She eyed Jon’s back as he bent over the campaign desk he’d been working on the past couple of days. She knew it was pointless to try to convince him that he didn’t need to hang around for her. For whatever reason, he had a real thing about her being alone here at night. She didn’t know any way of getting him to respect her wishes on the subject, short of seeing him off the premises at gunpoint—and even then he’d probably wait in his truck the way he had last night.
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