One Night with the Boss

by Teresa Southwick

  “Really?” He blinked at her. “Olivia disappeared. Why am I the bad guy?”

  “Oh, please. This is me.” She looked at him as if he was the most pathetic human being on the face of the planet. “This behavior is uncharacteristic for Olivia. She’s organized and responsible. She’d never take off without notifying work and especially without telling her parents where she’d gone. Clearly she doesn’t want to be found.”

  “How do you know all this?” They stared at each other for several moments before he realized it was a stupid question. Maggie had already told him she’d talked to their mother.

  “So what made her go?” Maggie persisted.

  “You’re not giving up on this, are you?” Brady wasn’t really asking. He took a drink of his beer, then set it on the coaster beside him. “Okay. Just remember you made me. Because it’s really bad form. A gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell—”

  Maggie’s eyes widened and she nearly choked on her wine. “You had sex with Olivia.”

  He angled his head toward the toddler. “Little ears. Language.”

  “She’s not even two yet. She doesn’t know what sex means.” Maggie set her wineglass down on the coffee table. “Finally! You and Olivia did the wild thing.”

  Wild wasn’t the way Brady remembered it. Being that close to her had been intimate and sexy and powerfully moving. It was a moment, with a capital M. And now everything was messed up.

  “Yes,” he admitted. “Saturday night after the employee weekend officially ended, I took her to my suite at Blackwater Lake Lodge and we—”

  “Did the horizontal hokeypokey.”

  “Maggie—” His voice rose and the baby stopped playing to stare at him wide-eyed. “Sorry, sweetheart. Your mom is exasperating.”

  “One of my best qualities,” she bragged. “What I don’t get is why you’re so peeved. Obviously you two have some chemistry going on.”

  Brady couldn’t deny that. It was by turns the best and worst night of his life. Now he was two parts miserable and one part really ticked off.

  “I want to unring that bell and I can’t. Everything has changed and I want it back the way it was. Damn it—”

  “Language. Little ears,” she said, pointing at the baby, who looked up. “Tone makes her pay attention and I’d prefer she not blurt that out at next week’s play group. If she does, I’m blaming it on you.”

  “Might as well add that to my list of sins.” He dragged his fingers through his hair. “I really messed up, Mags.”

  “Oh, Brady.” She leaned forward and put her hand on his arm. “I’m sorry I teased. I’ve never seen you like this. What happened?”

  “She confessed all to me about Leonard, told me that she’d made him up. Then she admitted why, that it was to help her stick to her guns and leave the company.” In for a penny, in for a pound. Might as well give her the whole truth. “She said she’s in love with me and has been for a long time.”

  “Hip, hip, hooray and hallelujah. It’s about doggone time.” Maggie’s smile faltered when she noticed he wasn’t feeling the joy. “What did you say to her?”

  “Nothing. I was stunned.” Did he look as miserable as he felt? It was probably best not to reveal that this conversation had taken place in bed while they were naked. But he would never forget the hopeless, unhappy expression on Olivia’s face before she’d grabbed her clothes and left. He would never forgive himself and hated that he was responsible for making her look that way. “The next thing I knew she’d walked out.”

  “You didn’t go after her?” There was a note of astonishment in his sister’s voice.

  “I thought she needed space. I didn’t know what to say to her.”

  Maggie pressed her lips together, clearly disapproving. “This is why you needed a shaking up. And that’s why I played my part in Olivia’s lie.”

  “You were manipulating me.”

  “That’s kind of a harsh word,” Maggie said. “Let’s call it helping you see the light.”

  “About?” He stared at her. “What the heck are you saying?”

  Maggie tapped her lip thoughtfully. “More importantly, what are you going to do about Olivia?”

  “Even if I wanted to—”

  “Oh, you do.” His sister smiled knowingly. “Otherwise you wouldn’t have gone to her parents. But please feel free to continue digging yourself in deeper.”

  “I repeat, even if I wanted to, there’s nothing I can do because I don’t know where she is.”

  “There are so many things wrong with that statement I don’t even know where to begin.”

  “Give it a try, because I don’t have a clue.”

  “That’s pretty clear.” She drew in a deep breath. “Let’s start with this. You’re a computer genius, Brady. If you can’t find her, she can’t be found.”

  He hated to admit it, but Maggie was right. He should have thought of that, and would have if he hadn’t been thrown off balance by everything. It was a state that had started when Olivia got his attention with a boyfriend that wasn’t even real.

  “I knew that,” he said sheepishly.

  “Here’s the thing...I love you and want to see you happy. The last thing I want is for you to end up unloved and alone. For years you’ve been pushing away anyone who had even the slightest chance of getting close to you.” She met his gaze. “Then you hired Olivia and I thought given enough time you’d realize that the two of you are perfect for each other.”

  “You think?”

  “Duh,” she said. “But you kept the cone of detachment firmly in place until I wanted to shake you myself. I wanted to tell you that Dad would be really upset and angry if you passed up a chance at love, especially because of him. He and Mom loved each other so much. You know as well as I do that from the day she lost him she always said she’d rather have had one day with him than not to have been with him at all. And since I’m speaking my mind here, it’s time to stop punishing yourself for not dying in that accident with Henry.”

  “Olivia said the same thing.”

  Maggie smiled and tapped her temple. “Great minds...”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “We’ll talk about that later. The thing is, when Olivia told me about the lie, it was obvious that you’d finally noticed her in a different way. Of course I helped her. And you.”

  “It doesn’t feel like it. Feels like hell,” he grumbled.

  He missed Olivia in every way it was possible to miss a woman. Nothing was right—and he somehow knew that without her it never would be again.

  “Only you can fix this,” Maggie said. “The ball is in your court, Brady. Tell her what’s in your heart. She’s not a mind reader. Put up or shut up.”

  “I can’t shut up. I love her.” Lightning didn’t strike and the earth didn’t shift on its axis. But suddenly the truth of his feelings for Olivia was as vivid and clear as a Montana sky the day after a storm.

  Maggie grinned as if he was her star pupil. “Don’t tell me. Tell her.”

  “Right after I find her,” he agreed.

  * * *

  Olivia had hoped being in Miami Beach would make her forget she was completely miserable. There were palm trees and the beautiful Atlantic Ocean, and the city hummed with excitement. She was stretched out on a luxurious beach towel with fine grains of sand between her toes as the balmy breeze blew over her. Winter in Montana was far away and the sound of waves lapping on the shore should have been peaceful, but it wasn’t.

  In reality, she was warm on the outside and freezing inside. This was her fourth day and so far there was no sign of that changing any time soon.

  She fished her phone from her beach bag and checked the display. The first day she hadn’t been at work, Brady had called her repeatedly. His voice mails had grown increasingly frustrated and angry. Th
en he’d stopped trying to reach her. When she looked now, the words zero messages mocked her. Wow, he’d gotten over her really fast.

  “I’m such a loser.”

  The beach was filled with people, most of them probably taking a break from cold weather, which had been her plan as well. But she’d brought winter along in her heart.

  At the start of the new year, it had seemed critically important to get away from Brady in order to have a life. Now that she was away, the flaws in the plan were immediately apparent. She missed him more than she’d thought possible. Maybe it would be better to apologize, ask for her job back and stay in Blackwater Lake. Although she’d insisted he hire her replacement, so she wasn’t sure how it would work. Maybe there would be a job when the corporate headquarters was completed. She could find something to tide herself over and wait. Wouldn’t it be better to at least see him every day, even if he couldn’t love her? Friendship could work, right?

  A shadow fell over her but didn’t move on. She was too crabby for this, crabby enough to ask the inconsiderate bozo to get the heck out of her sun. When she finally looked up, she recognized the inconsiderate bozo.

  “Brady?” Maybe it was just because she’d been thinking about him. Or had she been out in the sun too long?

  “Hi, Liv.” Sure sounded like his voice.

  He had on cargo shorts, a white T-shirt and aviator sunglasses that hid his eyes. A beach towel identical to the one she’d borrowed from her hotel was rolled up under his arm. “I like your bikini.”

  Oh, God. She’d never pictured herself in a two-piece bathing suit for this conversation. Even a tasteful but flattering one-piece tank would have been better, although not especially professional or appropriate for Montana in the waning weeks of winter.

  “Do you need sunscreen on your back?” he asked.

  That really didn’t seem important at this particular moment, so she ignored the offer. “How did you find me?”

  “Really?” His tone dripped with the infamous O’Keefe confidence. “This is me.”

  So he’d used his computer skills to track her down. Did that mean he cared just a little?

  She expected a cocky grin and was surprised when there wasn’t one. “Are you taking a break from winter? Or, since technically I still had one more week to work, did you come to fire me in person?”

  “Neither.”

  “Then I don’t understand.”

  “Do you mind if I sit?”

  “I don’t own the beach. Suit yourself.” Where did that attitude come from? She might look relaxed on the outside, but inside she was a quivering bundle of nerves and pounding heart.

  Without comment he arranged his towel next to hers. She faced the ocean and he stretched out beside her with his back to the waves. She sat up and their thighs brushed, creating a man-made heat that had nothing to do with the sun. He was close enough to kiss her. If he wanted.

  “Well?” she said. “I didn’t expect you to go to so much trouble.”

  “Funny thing about expectations.” He rested a forearm on his raised knee. “I never expected you to disappear without a word.”

  “There was nothing left to say.” The humiliation of that night was still fresh. After she’d declared her years-long love for him, he hadn’t responded. If there was a God in heaven, she would never go through an experience like that ever again.

  “You’re wrong about that. I never had my say. You dumped all your feelings on me, then took off before I had a chance to process anything.”

  “My bad. It never occurred to me that my words were encrypted.” Funny thing about embarrassment. It tended to make her resentful and defensive—and just a tad sarcastic. “I forgot the legendary Brady brain needed to organize and filter data through microchips and circuit boards. That’s your personal default operating system.”

  “I don’t do knee-jerk reactions.”

  “That’s just an excuse. We’ve known each other for years. It seems a sufficient amount of time to know how you feel. At least for me.”

  “Your life experience lets you be more open to that sort of thing. Mine was different.” He looked down for a moment. “You like to joke that when I found computers, I found a friend, the subtext being that I don’t have a heart. Because I do. Computers are safer than people. They’re less messy and there’s always a way to fix a broken one. I tend to compartmentalize everything. Even more after losing my father and best friend. It hurt a lot, so I put the people in my life into manageable subsets. I love my family and there’s nothing I can do to change that. Even if I could I wouldn’t.”

  Olivia couldn’t see his eyes, but the rest of his body spoke loud and clear about his inner conflict. The way his mouth pulled tight. The muscle jerking in his jaw. His fingers clenching into a fist. All of it told her he was voluntarily opening up, revealing the depth of his pain. She was afraid to say anything and stop him. Break the spell. So she watched and waited and held her breath.

  “I consciously made the choice not to let anyone else get close.”

  “Including me.” It had to be said and wasn’t a question.

  “Especially you.” He drew in a shuddering breath. “I put you in the business category. Work only. That made you off-limits personally.”

  “I see.”

  “No, you don’t.” He must have heard the hurt in her voice, because there was frustration in his. “When I interviewed you for my executive assistant, you were all grown up and pretty as a picture. You’re smart and funny and weren’t afraid to tell me when I was full of it. You kept me grounded and instinctively I knew you could be more if I wasn’t careful.”

  “So you were careful and kept me in my subset.”

  “I had to. Otherwise there’d have been more to lose and I’d already lost enough. But day after day you were there—sweet, sassy, telling it like it is. I just couldn’t keep you out no matter how hard I tried.”

  “Why?” She really wanted to know.

  “You brought me out of the shadows. And keeping it real, I have to say the light wasn’t comfortable at first—”

  “You’re a vampire?”

  That got a small smile. “In a way. Hard knocks sucked the will to try right out of me. My goal was to keep everything status quo. You came to work every day and I could see you. As long as it stayed business, nothing could change. I couldn’t lose.”

  “So what happened?”

  “In a word?” He slid his sunglasses to the top of his head and met her gaze. “Leonard.”

  “But he wasn’t real,” she protested.

  “I didn’t know that at first. The idea of you leaving me was unacceptable and despite what you think, it wasn’t about replacing you. On some level that I tried very hard not to acknowledge, I knew you were irreplaceable. Since I’m groveling here, I might as well go for broke.” He blew out a breath. “I was jealous.”

  “Really?”

  “Insane with it.”

  Happiness filled her to overflowing. This had seemed like the wrong time and place for a bare-your-soul talk. It was so very public. They were on a beach where children dug in the sand and played tag with the surf. But there were breezes and an endless blue sky overhead. It was the absolutely perfect place to talk about the past, present, future.

  She was pretty sure she knew where he was headed with this, but it was as important for him to get the words out as it was for her to hear them. Computers and technology were all well and good in their place but would never be a substitute for human interaction, which he was pretty rusty at. That wasn’t going to fly now. No more hiding in the shadows for him.

  “Go on. I’m listening,” she said.

  He reached over and loosely took her fingers in his. “I need you, Liv. I didn’t know how much until I thought I’d lost you to another guy. And I realized something else.”
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  “Oh?”

  “Standing on the sidelines isn’t living. I’d rather have one day with you than a lifetime alone.”

  “Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?”

  “Something like that. People leave us for reasons we can’t do anything about. I realized when you left me that I’m being stupid not to try.”

  “We both know you’re not stupid,” she said.

  “I hope you still feel that way, because I’m putting it all on the line here.” He took her hand more securely and met her gaze. “You can leave me, but I’ll just track you down. And we both know I can do it.”

  “Should I be afraid?” she teased.

  “When I say track, I don’t mean in a creepy, stalker kind of way.”

  “Then what kind of way are you talking?” No getting off the hook. She’d waited too long to hear him say this.

  “I’m talking love. As in I love you. I want to marry you and have a family with you.” He brushed his thumb over her knuckles. “But make no mistake. I will not be a pretend boyfriend. I’m talking husband. And I am the boss.”

  “At work,” she agreed. “At home, that’s a different story. How about a fifty-fifty partnership?”

  “Okay, I’m not very good at this kind of stuff so I need it spelled out. Did you just say what I think you did?”

  With her index finger she smoothed out the sand and drew a heart. Inside it she wrote I love you.

  “In case that’s not spelled out clearly enough for you, I’ll say it. I love you, Brady O’Keefe. I fell for you long before you were my boss and this feels like a dream come true.”

  “So you’ll marry me?”

  “Nothing would make me happier.” She smiled. “Now I’d appreciate it if you’d kiss me.”

  “Pretty bossy, aren’t you?” He moved closer and his mouth was a whisper from hers when he said, “That works for me.”

  And then, right there on a public beach in front of everyone, Brady O’Keefe kissed her for a very, very long time.

  * * * * *