by Stacy Finz
Darcy suddenly felt like she was the odd person out here.
“You meet my partner in crime?” he asked after finally prying himself away from Madison and acknowledging Darcy with a nod.
Madison lightly touched Darcy’s arm and grimaced. “I thought she was the van driver. I’m sorry, Darcy.”
Darcy could feel her face burning. “No problem.”
Apparently, Madison’s apology was halfhearted because she immediately tuned out Darcy as if she were invisible and turned to Win. “We have so much catching up to do.”
Again, with the bosom buddy thing. Catch up on what? Darcy wanted to ask. It was a freaking group trip. Seven days out of a lifetime. What news could they possibly have to share with each other?
“Yeah, so FlashTag, huh?” Win scooted next to her in the booth, leaving Darcy in the single chair on the aisle.
“I think I was still at Instagram back then.”
“That’s right.” Win nodded his head and Darcy had to stifle an eye roll. She was pretty sure he was winging it. “And now you’re the CEO. Way to go.”
“What about you?” Madison turned in her seat so her head was only a few inches from Win’s.
“I’m in charge of corporate accounts at Garner Adventure. I hope we’ll be working together.” He turned on the signature Win smile and Darcy could’ve sworn she heard a chorus of sighs echo through the restaurant.
“Me too.” Madison put her hand on top of his.
And that’s when Ricki came to the table to take their orders. “What’s everyone having today?” She smiled but it looked forced.
Win got a waffle with everything on it. For a guy who lived on kale drinks he sure had a sweet tooth. Darcy needed to remind herself of that. Madison got fruit salad and dry wheat toast. Big shocker there. Just to outdo her, Darcy got coffee and plain yogurt with muesli. Not that anyone noticed. Win and Madison were too busy reliving their significant seven-day history.
Halfway through the meal, Darcy excused herself to go to the bathroom. When she came back they were still engaged in a conversation about their whale watching trip, the one Win had gone on with another woman. Darcy felt a little like an empty coatrack just taking up space in the corner.
When the bill came Win paid it and they went to tour GA. At least they were sticking to her agenda. At the office, TJ, who’d shown up on a Saturday, introduced himself. While they talked, Win pulled Darcy aside.
“I think it’s going pretty well, don’t you?”
Before she could get two words out Madison returned. “It’s a great building.”
“We used to be in something smaller, off the beaten track,” Win said. “But we outgrew it with all the corporate accounts we were getting.”
She’d give Win credit. He was working it. Darcy just wasn’t sure if it was to get Madison’s business, to get in her yoga pants, or both. She supposed she should be thankful. Her promotion relied on a grand slam and Win was pitching them right down the middle of the strike zone. But instead of being thankful she was hurt—and jealous.
All morning long, she felt a stabbing pain in her chest. When Win decided they should do a bike ride by the lake like they’d done last time, Darcy used the excuse of paperwork to bow out. Win didn’t even try to persuade her to come along.
Darcy could hear laughter drifting from the storage room as they gathered up helmets and water bottles. The pain moved down to her stomach and her eyes blurred as she pretended to stare at her computer monitor.
“How do you think it’s going?” TJ stopped by her desk on his way out.
“Good, I guess. You know, the old Win charm.” She tried to swallow but there was a lump in her throat.
TJ looked at her closely. “Why don’t you go with them?”
Great. Now TJ was witnessing her humiliation. Either that or he thought she was shirking her responsibilities. Neither was good.
“The truth is I can’t keep up.” It wasn’t a lie, she couldn’t. “I don’t think it’s a particularly good image for GA to have me chugging behind them, out of breath.” And heartbroken.
TJ tilted his head. “Suit yourself. But it seems to me that you’re giving up without a fight. See you Monday.”
She wasn’t sure if he was talking about her lack of athletic prowess or something else entirely. And honestly, she didn’t want to examine it too closely. She just wanted to spend the time sulking.
Three hours later, a sweaty Madison and a not-so-sweaty Win came back to the office in time for their lunch reservation. Darcy couldn’t bag out of that too unless she wanted to come off as pathetic. So she tagged along, which is exactly how it felt. Darcy Wallace, the third wheel. Not surprising, Old Glory was full of tourists. More and more, the bar was attracting guests of the resorts, who came down from the mountain for some local flavor and to sample the many microbrews Boden had on tap.
“Hey.” Boden waved from behind the bar. “I’ve got you set up in the back corner.”
He led them to a table and for what seemed like the first time ever, Boden acknowledged Darcy’s existence by casually draping his arm over her shoulder. She chalked it up to the fact that she’d made the reservation personally. Then he ruined the whole effect by ogling Madison. Even bedraggled from a bike ride, she still turned heads.
Darcy took the chair in the shadow of the restrooms, figuring it served as a metaphor for her crappy day. “How was the ride?”
“Fantastic,” Madison said.
“Really good.” Win smiled and Darcy was sure anyone in the bar with a good vantage point of that bright pearly grin of his melted. Women, men, small children, big dogs, it didn’t matter.
“Sorry I missed it.” About as sorry as she was for not having anal cancer.
A server hadn’t come yet so Win got up to get them some drinks at the bar. Madison obviously thought it was a good time to check her messages because she whipped out her cell phone and started scrolling through the screen. That was fine, Darcy could just study the American flags on the wall.
Madison gazed past their table, presumably looking for Win, and spotted one of the oak barrels. “Ooh, peanuts. Darcy, would you mind? I’m kind of pinned in here.”
There was a chair behind her. All she had to do was move it. But Darcy got up to get the silly peanuts. It was better than staring at red stripes and white stars all afternoon, not that she wasn’t patriotic.
She returned with a basket. “So did Win tell you much about our corporate team building program?”
“He did.” She tossed the phone back in her bag and snapped open one of the peanuts. “It sounds phenomenal. But as you know we’re also talking to Mountain Adventure down south. We have a campus in Los Angeles so that might be more convenient and more cost-effective. But so far I’m partial to Garner Adventure.” She turned her blue eyes on Win as he made his way to the table with three pints in his hand.
“The great thing about Glory Junction is it’s super accessible.” It really wasn’t unless you had a private plane but pretty soon the only thing that would keep Darcy warm at night was her promotion.
Madison had already forgotten she was sitting there, now that the man of the hour had returned. Win handed Darcy her beer and winked. Then he completely ruined it by giving Madison a little shoulder rub. Darcy’s heart sank and she spent the rest of the meal pushing her chicken Caesar salad around on the plate.
After lunch, they went to the river for a kayak cave tour. Before Darcy could stop it from happening, Madison claimed the second seat of Win’s kayak, leaving Darcy to go it solo. The problem was she had never been in a kayak in her life, had no idea how she was supposed to paddle the thing, or steer it.
Win was so busy tending to the life jackets, the helmets, and the other details of their trip that he couldn’t see she was panicking. She toyed with the idea of faking an illness—appendicitis, food poisoning, a torn rotator cuff—but she wasn’t going to abandon the ship. She’d worked too hard to give up now. Besides, how hard could it be?
An hour later, she was seriously thinking of drowning herself.
“You okay there, Darce?” Win maneuvered his kayak and grabbed hold of hers to get it moving in the right direction. For the last fifteen minutes, she’d been paddling against the current and her arms felt like spaghetti.
She hissed at him and he gave her one of those hopeless looks as if to say, What do you want me to do?
I want you to kill Madison and throw her in the river so I can get in the back of your boat.
Madison turned around and waved, forcing Darcy to paste a phony smile on her face and say, “I’m having the time of my life.”
“Ready to go inside?” Win pointed ahead at a series of limestone caves and Darcy had a sudden vision of thousands of bats roosting in the caverns and wondered whether it was painful to die from rabies.
She followed behind as fast as her limp arms would paddle. At least the water was fairly still in this part of the river. When they entered the mouth of the cave, instead of bats there were hundreds of stalactites dripping from the ceiling. According to the literature they gave to their clients, the icicle-shaped tubes were actually mineral formations and to Darcy looked straight out of a sci-fi movie. She found them oddly beautiful and creepy at the same time.
Madison oohed and aahed and took pictures with her phone, the phone she hadn’t taken out once since she’d been with Win. The two of them took a selfie together underneath the stalactites and Darcy felt a tightening in her chest. They were gorgeous together. The kind of couple people whispered about as they passed by on the street. “Can you imagine how beautiful their babies will be?”
Darcy could imagine. And the band around her chest got snugger.
She took one last look at the mineral formations dangling like crystals in a futuristic fairy tale and paddled out of the cave. It and the day served as a wake-up call. It was time to stop playing before she got hurt.
Chapter Nineteen
Win took Madison to the hotel. All evening he’d counted the minutes until he could drop her off. Despite the day being an undeniable success, it had blown chunks. Madison had looked for every opportunity to hang on him and he’d looked for every opportunity to plug Garner Adventure, which had been exhausting.
And to think he had one more day of her incessant clinging. But his desire to prove himself, buy a house, and get Darcy her promotion overrode any impulse to flat-out tell her he wasn’t interested.
“You want to come up?” Madison asked innocently enough but Win had been down this road enough times to not misinterpret what was going on here. Turning her down was going to take some finesse but no way in hell was he going back to her room.
“We’ve got an early morning, Madison.”
She ran a finger down his shoulder. “One drink wouldn’t keep us out past curfew.”
One drink, his ass. But even more than not wanting to lose her business, he didn’t want to hurt her feelings. She was a nice woman, extremely attractive, fun to be around, and at one time he would’ve been into her. But not now … not since Darcy. The revelation sort of knocked him for a loop. He’d had plenty of girlfriends over the years but commitment had always been an elusive term for him. Until now. The Britney fiasco had changed his consciousness and made him vow to be more responsible. But Darcy had changed his heart and made him want to be a better man. It was a shift he wasn’t prepared to look at too closely because it scared him to death.
“Come on,” Madison urged. “I’ll make it worth your while.”
Taking her chin in his hand and looking deeply into her eyes, he did what he did best and turned on the old Win Garner charm. “You’re too tempting, Madison. One drink?” He made a get-real face and let the corner of his mouth slide up into a half grin. “That’s some dangerous territory you’re talking about. Don’t you think we should keep this professional?” She was the CEO of a major company, she had to know what kind of minefield she was walking through here. It might be chickenshit but Win thought it would be better for everyone involved to let her be the one to walk away.
She arched one perfectly shaped brow. “We’d be good together. But, yeah, you’re right. Let’s get this deal done first. If things go as well tomorrow as they did today … well, let’s just say I’ve been very impressed.” Madison’s eyes glided over him, leaving no ambiguity about how she wanted to celebrate.
“Good night.” She leaned over and kissed him. But before it could get really started, he shut it down and walked her to the lobby.
“Get a good night’s sleep. Today was strictly sightseeing. Tomorrow, I’m gonna show you what team building is all about.” He intended to kick her ass so hard that by the time she limped to her hotel suite, she wouldn’t have any energy left for him. Unfortunately, that would involve chucking Darcy’s itinerary into the circular file.
She’d thank him for it later.
He drove to Darcy’s house but all the lights were out so he sat in his Jeep for a while, staring up at her bedroom window. He was no authority on women but he knew when they were angry with him. And Darcy had been throwing some serious shade at his ass throughout the cave tour. He hated that he’d hurt her but he was only trying to get the account.
His cell phone sat in the console next to his seat and despite being the king of self-preservation, he dialed her number anyway.
“I’m in your driveway,” he said. “Come sit in the car with me for a little while.”
Her response was a loud click. She’d hung up on him.
Fifteen minutes ticked by while he contemplated his next move. He was just about to drive away when he saw her emerge from the shadows. All five-feet-whatever in pink fuzzy slippers and a nightshirt that said, SAVE THE CHUBBY UNICORN.
She opened the door, slid in, and said, “I don’t want to hash this out now … or ever. Go home and go to sleep.”
Yep, he was screwed.
*
Darcy started to get out of the Jeep when Win took her arm. “Don’t,” she warned.
“Bullshit! We’re talking about this.” He rested his back against the driver’s door, his mile-wide chest heaving, his large, capable hands moving in the air. Sex on a stick.
“No, we’re not.” She was probably acting childish but she didn’t care. “Where’s Madison?”
“The hotel. I dropped her off after dinner. You should’ve come, Darcy, instead of leaving me holding the bag.”
It had been a cruddy thing to do, especially because she wanted the promotion as badly as Win wanted his house, not to mention the acknowledgment of being able to land a big account. But she’d also wanted to save her dignity and watching Madison make a play for Win while she treated Darcy like the hired help … well, it was humiliating.
“She has no interest in doing business with me, only you.” She glared at him. “And my gut tells me she wants to do a lot more than business. Unless you already took care of that?”
He drilled her with a look. “So, automatically you think the worst of me? That’s just great, Darcy.”
“Look, I really don’t want to talk about this.” She huffed out a breath. “It was a long day and we have to do it all over again tomorrow. Though I don’t know why I’m even participating. You two are great all on your own.”
“Give it a rest. This is business, nothing more. You’re acting like a jealous high schooler so cut the crap.” His bark took her aback. Win never shouted. In the year she’d known him, she’d never even seen him angry. It made her defensive.
“You didn’t even act like you wanted me around.”
“What are you talking about? The bike ride? I know you didn’t like it last time and I didn’t want to put you through it again. I was trying to be considerate. If you noticed I didn’t change one of your damn plans. We kept right to the stupid schedule.”
“Thanks for being so sensitive.” She rolled her eyes because it was more civilized than punching him.
“You really think I wanted to be alone with Madison?”
She turned aw
ay from him and stared out the passenger window. “Not on purpose because I know you’d never intentionally hurt me. You’re a good person, Win, just emotionally stunted. I knew that from the beginning and I don’t blame you.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that.” His voice was thick with sarcasm. “It’s really heroic of you.”
They sat, filling the cab with silence until Win asked, “You can’t truly believe anything happened between Madison and me?”
She hitched her shoulders, trying to appear indifferent. “Why not? Beautiful women are your thing. And you and I”—she waved her hand between them—“that was just sex, you helping out a friend. It was fun but I never expected . .. wanted … it to last.”
“That’s a shitty thing to say.” He actually sounded wounded. She suspected it was a shock to his system to hear a woman say she didn’t want him. “And for the record, I considered you a hell of a lot more than a friend. I’ve got plenty of those. You were … different.”
Different. She’d always been different.
Darcy grabbed the handle on the door and started to open it. She couldn’t deal with this now. She had too much on the line, including her self-respect. It was just supposed to have been sex. A good time. But somewhere along the way, the lines had blurred and this thing between them had become much more. Win had become too important. Her feelings for him too strong. And if she let him, he could break her heart.
“I’m leaving now and tomorrow we can go back to being coworkers. I’d say ‘friends’ but you already have plenty of those. You’re free, so you and Madison can go crazy if you want. No hard feelings.”
He got out and followed her up the path to her grandmother’s house. “You are not breaking up with me.”
She spun around, nearly tripping over her slippers. “Don’t worry, you can tell everyone it was you. No one would believe it’s me anyway.”
“Give me a break, Darcy. You’re acting ridiculous.”
No, she was doing what any sane woman would do: She was protecting herself.