With Alexis, he’d always had to guess what was really going on behind her icy-blue eyes. All the years he’d been with her, he’d chalked it up to her job. You can’t choose a mate whose entire career is based on scheming and deceit and then be shocked to find out they’re a liar and a manipulator.
“Hey,” he spoke when he got within a foot of Jane.
Gasping audibly, she jumped and spun around. Placing one hand over her heart and the other over her stomach, she looked up at him with wide eyes. “I didn’t hear you.”
“Sorry.” He’d attempted not to scare her by alerting her to his presence, but that had backfired.
“Oh, it’s fine.” She blushed as she pulled a large ring of keys from her purse and unlocked the door, her hand shaking.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yep,” Jane answered, nodding without looking at him.
She could have been trembling from the adrenaline from having been surprised by him, but he’d noticed how flustered she had been when she was talking to Eli, and he had a feeling that it had more to do with that.
They made their way inside, and as much as he wanted to push to find out what she and Eli had been talking about, he didn’t ask. It truly was none of his business. Still, it was driving him crazy.
Luckily, just as they were settling back into work, the door flew open and Vivien from the coffee shop rushed in right past his desk that sat just to the side of the door. Without sparing a glance in his direction, she stalked directly to Jane’s desk, speaking so fast that Adam thought she’d give John “Motormouth” Moschitta, Jr. a run for his money.
“Audrey said that she saw Eli talking to you. Did he ask you out? Are you going to the benefit with him?”
Shit. Eli had been asking her out. Of course he had. Jane was gorgeous, smart, sweet, and, from what he learned, available. Why wouldn’t Eli ask her out? Why wouldn’t every single guy in Hope Falls ask her out? If his circumstances were different, he’d do the same thing.
His shoulders tensed as he waited for Jane’s response.
She stared up at the redheaded speed-talker like she was in shock. Shaking her head and blinking twice, she said, “No.” His shoulders relaxed—until she continued clarifying. “I mean…yes, he did. But, no…I’m not.”
“Why not?” Vivien asked. “He is a fireman and he is haaawwwt.”
A blush crept up Jane’s cheeks, and her eyes quickly sliced to Adam for the first time since Vivien had barged in. “I’m just… We already have a table…”
“Table, shmable! When a man like Eli asks you out, it’s buy-new-panties time, chickadee.”
Jane’s eyes widened.
That was it. Hearing Vivien encourage Jane to “buy new panties” caused something to snap in Adam, and he heard himself saying, “Jane and I are going to the fundraiser together.”
It was the truth. On Monday, Nikki had basically engineered their agreement to attend the benefit together. Neither of them had brought it up since then though, and Adam had been trying to figure out what to do about it. Spending more time with Jane wasn’t a good idea for more reasons than he could count. So why was he hoping that, even though they’d been set up, she was going to go along with it and let him take her to the event?
Vivien spun around in shock. It was obvious that she’d had no idea he was there before he’d spoken.
“Oh, I see. My bad.” A smile spread across her face as she glanced between Jane and Adam and lifted her hands in mock surrender. “I didn’t know.”
Adam had heard the expression about silence being louder than words, but he’d never experienced it until this moment. Jane sat quiet as a church mouse looking like she wanted to disappear while Adam tried to rationalize his knee-jerk reaction.
Popping her lips, Vivien clapped her hands together. “Okie dokie… Well, I guess I will see you guys tomorrow night, then.”
“See you tomorrow,” Jane said sweetly.
When the office door shut, Jane’s eyes met his.
Instead of asking if she even wanted to go with him or not, Adam asked, “Pick you up at seven?”
“Okay,” Jane said a little breathlessly.
Adam nodded once and then turned his attention back to his computer. Now, he wasn’t just living across the street and working with Jane. He was going on a date with her.
Apparently, keeping his distance had flown out the window.
Chapter 8
‡
Do. Not. Panic.
Jane turned side to side in front of the full-length mirror and sucked in her belly, hoping that would be the magical missing piece to complete the what-to-wear puzzle. It wasn’t.
Ten dresses and none of them are working! How is that possible?!
Since she’d moved to Hope Falls over a year ago, Jane had put on about, hmmm, roughly ten pounds. She hadn’t noticed it in her regular clothing because she’d never worn form-fitting garments. Sure, her pants were a little snugger around her hips and she’d had to buy new bras because she’d gone up a cup size, but other than that, she hadn’t paid much attention to her body’s changes. They’d seemed insignificant.
Until now.
She owned ten formal dresses. Ten. All of which had fit her before her move. None of which fit her now. Hope Falls was like Olive Garden—when you’re here, you’re family…and there are unlimited breadsticks.
Her eyes darted to her nightstand, where the red LED light mocked her. It was six fifteen. Adam was going to pick her up in less than an hour. In the almost decade since she’d been obligated to attend black-tie dinners and events, she’d never put much thought into what she wore. Her weight hadn’t fluctuated so drastically before, either. If it had ever been an issue, she would’ve tried these dresses on before the last minute.
Now, she was screwed.
What was she going to do?
Cancel! her inner voice screamed.
No! she screamed back, as if her inner voice were an actual person. She couldn’t cancel.
It would be rude and irresponsible. This was not a social event. It was business. She needed to be there to represent Gowan Enterprises and the Latch Key to Success program. Investors were everywhere, and she believed in this program with all of her heart. Dress or no dress, she was going to the benefit.
Her mind started flipping through the female population of Hope Falls like a mental rolodex. Jane was desperately trying to think of anyone she would share a dress size with. Now that she was a little curvier, she had no idea.
And moreover, she had no time.
Looking down at the nine discarded dresses that were lying across her bed, she figured that she was going to have to go with the lesser of all the evils. Four of the dresses were out of the running because she couldn’t get the zipper up. So she threw those tight offenders over the chair beside her bed. Then she looked at the remaining candidates.
There were three metallic-colored dresses that, although they technically fit, emphasized every single dip and curve. Tonight was already going to be uncomfortable enough without having to worry about a flash of light hitting her dress and highlighting an unfortunate roll or unwanted bulge. She eighty-sixed those without a second thought.
With her choices narrowed down to the two garments lying on her bed and the one she was wearing, she did a quick pro/con of each dress. The tea-length, black cocktail dress was snug, but the zipper closed. Thank God for small blessings. Yet, she hesitated to declare the LBD the winner. But the reason for her hesitation stemmed from the fact that it was just so plain. There was no va-va-voom factor.
This is not a date.
The same mantra Jane had repeated in her head yesterday at Sue Ann’s during lunch was playing again and again in her head now. Nikki had finagled this whole situation, and Adam was a stand-up guy. That was it. End of story.
Still. Maybe Adam was only following through on escorting her to the gala because he was a gentleman, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t try her best to look good on his arm
.
Did she have a ridiculous crush on her new coworker-slash-neighbor? Yes. She did.
Did she feel guilty that she’d let her grandparents think she was in a relationship with him? Yes. She did.
Did she wish that this were a real date and the lie she was perpetrating to her nana and papa were, in fact, reality? Yes. She did.
Disappointment, guilt, and a sprinkling of shame washed over her. However, Jane did her best to ignore it. There was no time to wallow. Although a good wallowing sounded just lovely right then.
Shaking her head, she blinked her eyes hard and reminded herself to focus. A dress decision needed to be made, and then she had to dry her hair and attempt to put some makeup on. Luckily, her skin was practically glowing from her time outside today.
Her afternoon had been spent working in the garden she’d planted when she’d moved in last summer. It hadn’t fared well over the winter, but it had come back to life in the spring. Now that they were smack-dab in the middle of summer, the vegetables she’d planted months ago were finally coming to fruition.
For the past week, a particularly sexy distraction whose name started with A and ended with M had occupied her mind every second of every day. There’d been no losing herself in her work, her reading, or her shows.
Nope. Not only did she know where she was every second of every day, but she was pretty aware of where Mr. Adam Dorsey was, too. But, today, in the garden, the impossible had happened. For a few precious hours, she’d been so totally engrossed in planting, pulling, and plowing that she’d actually had a brief reprieve from her new obsession.
The downside of that mental pardon was that she’d lost track of time—a feat she would’ve thought impossible. When she’d finally gotten thirsty, she’d gone into the kitchen and noticed that it was twenty past five. After stripping out of her clothes while racing into the bathroom, she’d jumped in the shower, hoping to be in and out. But then she’d realized she had dirt beneath her nails, behind her knees, and even in her toes—which was quite an accomplishment, considering she’d been wearing socks and sneakers.
After a thorough washing, she’d immediately moved to wardrobe selection so that she would know how to style her hair and which makeup would go best with the dress she chose. This was where things had gone from bad to worse, and she’d found herself in an unprecedented predicament.
Two options remained. The red, off-the-shoulder dress she had always mentally cataloged as her Pretty Woman dress but was now referring to as her “Jessica Rabbit” dress, or the floor-length Breakfast at Tiffany’s dress. Basically, it boiled down to going with either Marilyn or Audrey. Ginger or Maryann. Angelina or Jennifer. Sexy or wholesome.
Jane had always felt aptly named. The fact that kids had called her Plain Jane while she’d been growing up hadn’t bothered her. She hadn’t had any desire to be anything else. At least, she hadn’t until tonight.
If she were being honest with herself, she would admit that, just once, she wanted to be the girl who walked into the room and turned heads. She’d never been that girl. Part of her, a large part, had serious doubts that she could pull off Marilyn, Ginger, or Angelina. But another part of her wanted to try. Just. This. Once.
In two weeks, she would turn thirty. The big three-zero. When was she going to get another opportunity like this? When was a man like Adam Dorsey going to escort her to a black-tie affair again? When was a man like Adam Dorsey going to take her anywhere again?
Probably never. That’s when.
Pulling her self-confidence up from a deep, buried place, Jane grabbed the “Jessica Rabbit” dress and rushed into the bathroom, peeling—yes, peeling—the safer Audrey, Maryann, Jennifer dress off as she went. As she stepped into her tiny bathroom, she picked her hair dryer up. Then she plugged it in, leaned down, and flipped her thick hair over, pointing the barrel at her scalp. Her hair was so dense that, if she didn’t start at the root, it wouldn’t dry completely.
The blood was rushing to her head, but she did have a great view of her legs, which had tanned to a golden brown thanks to her outdoor gardening. Normally, she tended to lean to the fair side of the skin-color spectrum, mainly because she didn’t get outdoors much. Thankfully, her new hobby had bonus benefits of giving her skin a radiant glow.
Lifting her head so that she could see the counter, she grabbed her large, round brush, and just as she pulled it through her hair, the house went silent and dim.
Shoot. Shoot. Shoot. Not now.
Jane’s stomach dropped. She didn’t have time for this. But that was the thing about old houses; they tended to have shoddy wiring. The electricity had a habit of going out at the most inopportune times.
Grabbing her robe, she prayed that Adam wouldn’t be out in his front yard—the box was on the side of the house that faced his yard.
After making sure to slide the bolt over so she wouldn’t be locked out if the door shut—which happened on more than one occasion—she stealthily scanned the area. No Adam. In fact, she hadn’t seen him all day.
This only made her anticipation of seeing him tonight that much stronger.
Oh, who was she kidding? Her anticipation would have been this high even if she’d spent the entire day with him.
Yeah, she really needed to shut this whole schoolgirl crush she had going on down.
Flipping the breaker, she was happy to see the kitchen light go on. She wished her emotions were that easy, that she could flip a switch to turn them off and on.
Maybe some people were built that way. She was not one of those people.
*
“I don’t know, man.” Levi stood shaking his head as he lifted his phone to his ear. “Let’s call Shelby and get a woman’s opinion.”
“No, don’t do—”
“Hey, babe. Can you come up here for a minute? We need a second opinion,” his cousin spoke into his cell phone before Adam could stop him.
“—that,” Adam finished in vain. Damn, he’d heard of speed dial before but that was ridiculous.
Levi grinned. “She’ll be right up.”
Actually, his grin was more like a satisfied smirk. His cousin was picking up on his nerves, and that made Adam want to punch a hole in the wall. Which was strange. Adam had always believed that that kind of testosterone-based reaction, which was prevalent in Dorsey men, had skipped him.
He didn’t get particularly emotional about things. Even all the stuff with Alexis, yes, had been a little difficult to deal with, but he hadn’t been devastated. Or furious. Or heartbroken. He’d just packed up and moved on.
The difficulty of the situation was more about the logistics—and also the fact that she was making things as impossible as she possibly could. She was “fun” that way.
When the door flew open and Shelby stepped into the room, his cousin’s eyes lit up the way they did every time he looked at his new wife.
Pursing her lips together, she let out a whistle that would’ve made a construction worker proud as she wagged her eyebrows up and down. “Lookin’ good. Looking real good.”
Adam nodded as a bit of relief filled his chest. He turned and faced the full-length mirror. For the entire time he’d stayed in the apartment over the bar, he’d never once used this mirror in more than just passing. Now, he found himself studying his reflection.
“You have my stamp of approval. Now, if you boys are all good, I have to get back to beautifying myself.” Shelby was wearing sweats, but her hair was piled on the top of her head and her makeup looked like she could have been going to the Oscars.
Women were funny that way. Adam couldn’t count the times he’d seen Alexis transform herself when they’d had an event to attend. It always amazed him how different she could look. What a chameleon she was. Which, for her job, worked well.
For their marriage, not so much.
Trust never came easily for Adam. It didn’t surprise him with his upbringing. Somehow, Alexis had gotten a pass. He’d ignored every red flag he’d seen—and there were m
any—yet had still gone all in.
“You’re already beautiful.” Levi pulled Shelby into his arms.
She let out a high squeal. He teasingly kissed her neck as she laughed and disentangled herself, quickly making an escape before her over-amorous husband could grab her again.
“Meet you outside in fifteen. Be prepared to be impressed,” she said with a wink to Levi before disappearing out the door.
Levi stared at the door for a moment after Shelby had left, then shook his head. “Man, I don’t know how I got so lucky.”
“Me either,” Adam said, joking around.
Levi smiled. “What about you? Does your needing to borrow a shirt and tie have anything to do with the fact that I heard you were taking Jane tonight?”
“No,” Adam lied. “It had to do with the fact that I have to go to a black-tie dinner and all of my boxes haven’t gotten here yet. In case you haven’t noticed, Hope Falls isn’t exactly a mecca when it comes to shopping.”
Levi nodded, but it was clear he wasn’t buying what Adam was laying down. Levi’s bartending skills far exceeded making drinks. He’d become an amateur therapist.
“But Jane is your date,” Levi stated.
Also, his cousin seemed to be making a run for the title and crown of Queen of Gossip.
“Nikki suggested that we go together since neither of us had a plus one,” Adam said.
While that wasn’t the whole story, it was the truth. Part of the truth, anyway.
“Oh, so, you’re not even the slightest bit interested in Jane?” Levi crossed his arms once again.
“When did you become a seventh-grade girl?” Adam shook his head, a smile lifting on his mouth.
Levi shrugged, not taking the bait. “Answer the question.”
“No. I’m not interested in Jane.” Thank God he wasn’t Pinocchio. Otherwise, his nose would be so long that he wouldn’t be able to see the end of it.
Secret Kiss Page 7