Stu could spend his life recalibrating that machine and those balls would still threaten to take a guy’s head off. Someday Matt was going to buy Stu some new machines.
Stepping down the aisle of cages, he popped into the third one, being careful to stay near the fence as he made his way toward the machine. When Stu worked on the machines, one never knew when a random ball would come flying out like a fat rubber bullet. He grabbed a metal folding chair on his way and took a seat next to Stu’s feet—the only part of him visible from behind the machine.
“I’m glad you’re here,” Stu said, and Matt wondered if Stu even knew it was him. “Hand me the three-sixteenths.”
A greasy hand popped out in waiting, and Matt looked down to the red metal toolbox at their feet. He reached in, assuming a three-sixteenths was one of these wrenches, each one an exact replica of the other. He began sorting through them, looking for some sort of sign, when he heard Stu’s impatient huff. “The one with the white paint splatter.”
Matt held it up like an Olympic torch, then placed it in Stu’s waiting hand, and within seconds a fastball went shooting out of the machine with enough speed to split an atom.
“You might want to slow it down,” Matt droned.
The next ball thumped out and hit the ground three feet from the machine, rolling lazily to the center thanks to the slant in the floor.
“Somewhere in between would be my suggestion.”
The three-sixteenths went flying end over end, and Matt ducked.
“Dang blasted machine!” Stu called out.
“Someday I’m buying you a new one.”
Scooting out from behind the equipment, Stu hung an Out of Order sign on the front and turned to Matt. “With that new fancy job of yours, I just might let you.” They gathered up the tools, then headed back to Stu’s office, Matt stopping for his customary Dr Pepper before taking a seat in front of Stu’s old metal desk circa 1943.
“How is that new job of yours, by the way?” Stu asked.
“Busier than I expected. My sessions with Tommy have been the only chance I’ve had to get away from the job in over a week.”
Stu stepped into the small bathroom off the side of his office and turned the tap on the sink. “Well, I’m sure your boss wants to get his money’s worth, what with the big pay increase.”
Matt propped his feet on a spare chair. “Yeah, and I wouldn’t mind so much if it wasn’t putting such a strain on me and Carly.”
“Ah, well, the easy part’s falling in love. The hard part’s making it work over the long haul.” Stu grabbed a bar of soap and began lathering his hands.
“She doesn’t understand what this job is like,” Matt said over the rush of the running water. “She thinks I’m giving her the brush-off, but I’m not. Hall’s been running me ragged and I haven’t had a moment to spend with her.”
“Yeah?” Stu used his elbow to shut off the tap while he worked the foam over his fingers and nails. “Funny, you haven’t missed your sessions with Tommy.”
“Stu, you know I’m not going to let the kid down. As it was I had to dodge a meeting this afternoon to get here. I didn’t even stop to check my voice mails today to find out he’d gone and canceled on me.”
“And as busy as you are, you still showed up. Somehow you made the time.”
“You know why I won’t let him down.” Stu had known Matt long enough to know he’d move mountains before he canceled out on a session with a young kid. Matt had been there too many times, had known how demeaning it felt being passed over by people who were supposed to be there for him.
“So why can’t you make the time with Carly?”
Matt opened his mouth to answer, then suddenly found he didn’t have one.
Stu peeked through the open door. “Seems to me you’ve gotten some of your priorities straight. You’re willing to put a kid you barely know ahead of your job, which is an admirable thing. Now where’s your priorities when it comes to this woman you seem to care so much about?”
When Matt didn’t answer, Stu flicked on the faucet and rinsed his hands, then grabbed a towel and stepped into the office. “You know, Matt, we don’t always have to make a choice between a rock and a hard place, but we should know which one we’d pick if we had to.” He took a seat behind his desk and tossed the paper towel in the trash. “If you had to choose between your new job or your new girl, do you know which one you’d take?”
It was a good question, one Matt continued to turn over as he finished his drink and wrapped up his visit with Stu.
As he headed back to the office he knew Stu had been right. Matt had managed to make time for Tommy despite the frantic schedule Hall had him on, yet he hadn’t made it as high a priority to set aside time for Carly. He’d just figured Carly was an adult and should understand, while Tom was a kid who wouldn’t.
Or was he merely making an excuse for himself?
Maybe a side of him hadn’t wanted to press things with Carly because he’d been afraid of the response he’d get. He knew she wasn’t happy with him. He could see that in her eyes, hear it in her tone and feel it under his skin. As much as both of them tried to deny it, she’d felt he’d used her, and he simply couldn’t find the words that would prove to her he hadn’t.
Stepping back in the office, he was grateful to discover that Hall was tied up in meetings, giving Matt some badly needed time to sit down and pull his thoughts together. Somehow he had to find a way to let her know that he loved her, and not just because of what she’d done for him on the job. He had to make her understand he would have loved her even if he hadn’t gotten the promotion. But how could he do that now that the deed was done?
“I found this in the back of your desk drawer. Do you need it?”
He looked up and saw Melissa Avery, the programmer who’d moved into his old cubicle. Reaching out, he took the notebook in her hand. “Sure, thanks,” he said as she walked out the door.
It was the leather-bound notepad he thought he’d lost, and, opening the cover, he saw his Singles Inc. code name and password he’d jotted down all those weeks ago. The last time he’d used this was during the meeting with Hall on the project.
The project that started this mess.
He moved to rip the page from the pad, when something hit him, and instead of throwing the paper away, he turned to his laptop and logged into the site, curious to see if their survey results were still in the database. Sure enough, once he keyed in his user information his results popped up before him, and he began looking over the answers.
And before he got halfway through he saw his problems clearly before him.
He didn’t recognize the cynical man behind all these answers. He’d come so far in the last few weeks, looking at his life differently, seeing the world through Carly’s eyes and through the light she’d brought to his. No wonder he’d scored so low with everyone in the group. This survey painted him as a regular ass.
And in all honesty, back when he’d filled it out, that’s exactly what he was.
Cynical, self-absorbed, egotistical. Answer after answer drew a picture of a man who cared only about himself. To the point where he hadn’t been concerned enough to answer the questions with any sincerity. Admittedly, most of this didn’t even reflect the man he’d been at the time. He’d been annoyed back then, feeling the survey was a stupid gimmick Hall had concocted, and many of his responses spoke to that state of mind.
He’d scoffed at much of it and toyed with the rest, only the part about sex being the section he’d given care to—and even then only because he’d found the questions amusing.
Shaking his head, he sighed. No wonder Carly had been so quick to brush him off in those early days of the project. Given this image of him, he wondered how she’d even built up enough trust to get along with him.
And then he stared at the screen as that last thought struck him like a slap in the face.
This damned survey. Carly had read his answers, and despite what she’d seen, she�
��d placed her trust with him anyway. And what she got was passed over for a promotion by a man this survey painted as a selfish, arrogant child.
He fell back against the chair and stared at the screen. This wasn’t him, but he’d bet this was the man Carly feared she’d grown to care for. And since his promotion he’d done nothing to prove otherwise.
He rubbed his face in his hands as this all became so clear in front of him. He needed to show her this wasn’t him, and, as his unconscious kept trying to tell him, he wouldn’t be able to show her with words. He had to truly convince her she hadn’t gone wrong by trusting him. She’d supported him when he’d needed it most, helped him fulfill his dream, and now it was his turn to repay her and set things right.
Stuck between a rock and a hard place. That was damn straight. But with Stu’s words still echoing through his mind, he knew there was only one choice to make.
BRAYTON HALL SAT behind his desk, his hands folded on the tabletop, his eyes focused intently on Matt and Carly.
Since calling this meeting an hour ago, he’d refused to tell Carly what it was about, but based on the confident gleam in Matt’s eyes, she suspected he knew something. He looked like the cat that caught the canary, entirely smug, as if he were bursting with good news, which left her entirely confused. If her conversation with Mr. Hall this morning had made it to his ears, she would have hoped for something different.
For what seemed like an exasperatingly long moment Brayton only sat and stared at the two of them, not saying anything, until he finally cleared his throat and began.
“Now that I’ve managed to get the two of you together,” he said, “let me start off this meeting by informing you that neither of you is quitting.”
Her eyes collided with Matt’s. “You quit!” they said in unison.
“Technically, Matt stepped down from his new position,” Brayton said. “But I’m not letting that happen, either.”
Carly gaped at Matt, who returned her expression with mirrored confusion.
“Apparently, Matt thinks if he steps down from the job, I’ll promote you in his place,” Brayton explained.
Carly inhaled a breath, and Matt reached out to take her hand, his eyes speaking a million words he couldn’t say in front of Mr. Hall. And Carly didn’t need to hear them. She knew what he’d done, and as it began to sink in, a rush of tears threatened to surface in front of the boss.
Or the ex-boss.
She’d already given her resignation. Having made the painful decision that she had to look out for herself and put distance between her and this man who was wrong for her in every way—or the man she’d thought was wrong.
Oh, boy. If there was an award to hand out for the world’s biggest fool, she’d be receiving the honor right now. Never in a million years would she have expected Matt to make a sacrifice like this for her, and now that he had, she felt ashamed for not giving him more credit.
“Problem is,” Brayton went on, “even if Matt insists on stepping down, you’re not getting his job.”
“What?” Matt argued. “You told me weeks ago she was your toss-up.”
Hall grabbed a pencil and began tapping it against the arm of his chair. “And since then I’ve decided she’s not right for the position.”
Matt began to rise from his chair, that gratified expression quickly giving way to anger, but Brayton held up a hand. “Matt, you’re the best candidate to head up the new team. It’s as simple as that. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t have plans for Carly.” The man huffed and shook his head. “Honestly, if I’d known promoting you first was going to cause all this commotion, I would have waited and handled you both together.”
Matt slowly returned to his seat, but his eyes remained cautious and distrustful.
“Carly,” Brayton said, turning his gaze to hers. “I want to organize a new training unit. I can’t think of a better person to head it up.”
“Now, wait a minute—” Matt started.
Carly slapped a hand to his thigh. “I’m listening.”
“You’d start off taking Renee and Andrea, along with Human Resources and Payroll. I want it combined with a new unit to look after training and staff development. We can negotiate what we call the new department, but in short, you’ll be the person taking care of this place, handling pay and benefits, employee relations and continuing education.”
She looked at Matt, then back to Mr. Hall. “I don’t have much training in employment law. That’s a very specialized field.”
“Trust me, you’re a natural. We’ll get you the schooling you need, and your programming background will keep you in touch with the needs of the staff.”
A smile began to form on her face. She had to admit the job sounded exciting. She loved working with people, which was why she’d been so anxious to head up the new development team. It had been more about wanting to build the team environment than actually developing Web sites, and as Mr. Hall’s ideas began to buzz through her mind, she got more and more excited.
“What about pay?” Matt asked, not nearly as enthused as Carly.
Hall gave them an exasperated look. “I’ll pay her exactly what I’m paying you and she can have the office next to yours. Will that make you two happy?”
Matt turned his eyes to Carly, who responded by grinning widely.
“I sort of like maple better than mahogany,” she said. Hall raised a brow. “And if I need to get an associate degree in Human Resources, I’ll want time off to study.”
Matt eyed her proudly while Hall’s pencil tapping accelerated.
“I can go along with all this if you accept Carly’s counteroffer,” Matt urged.
“Under two conditions,” Hall said. “One, if there’s going to be any hanky-panky between you two, stay out of my lab.”
Carly’s cheeks enflamed.
“And two, if you have any more lover’s quarrels, they better be off my campus.”
Matt beamed. “We can do that.”
Hall tossed the pencil on his desk. “So is everyone happy?”
They nodded.
“No one’s quitting and no one’s stepping down?”
They shook their heads.
“Good. Then maybe everyone can get back to work.” He rose from his desk and shook both their hands. “Carly, your new job is effective immediately.” Then he winked. “I’ll see what I can do about your furniture.”
“Thank you,” she grinned, and without a moment’s hesitation Matt pulled her out of the office.
The two scampered down the hall and into Matt’s office, where he closed the door, pressed her against it and covered her mouth with his.
“I love you, babe,” he whispered in her mouth, then he pressed a trail of eager kisses down her neck, and Carly’s heart swelled.
“You were really going to step down for me?”
He tugged the shoulder off her sleeveless tank and replaced it with his lips. “I needed to prove to you I’m not the jerk who filled out that survey.”
“You chose me over your job.”
He stopped kissing her shoulder and looked into her eyes without a shred of doubt in his gaze. “Baby, I’d choose you over my life. I’m in love with you. I’ll do whatever I have to do to prove it to you.”
A lump lodged in her throat, leaving her speechless and teary. Instead of waiting for a response, he simply kissed her deeply, circling her tongue with his and pressing his stiff erection against her waist. She sank against him, her heart aching to drink him in and soak up every ounce of love and affection he was offering.
“I’m sorry I doubted you,” she whispered. “Do you forgive me?”
“Only if you love me back.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed him tightly. “I’ll love you forever with all my heart.”
“Then, yes, I forgive you,” he said, slipping his hands up under her shirt.
She kissed his chin, then nibbled a path to his ear. “Hall said no hanky-panky.”
“He sa
id to stay out of the lab.”
She giggled. “I think that was just a figure of speech.”
He cupped her breasts and squeezed a gasp from her chest, devouring the tender flesh of her neck as he worked to get under her clothes. The man was ravenous, his hands licking flames with every deep caress, and as heat pooled at the apex of her thighs she quickly lost the will to fight it.
“Then, as the new Training and Development Manager, you’ll have to give me a few lessons on how to interpret instructions,” he said. “I’m not very good at it.”
And when he reached up under her skirt and got himself under her panties, he proved how very bad he was.
Epilogue
“HERE YOU GO, MRS. Jacobs. It’s the last remnant of pink on this house, and I think you deserve the honor of extinguishing it.”
Matt handed Carly the brush and the can of gray-green paint the store had named “Suede.” They’d remodeled the entire house, bringing it twenty-five years into the present, the 1980s style finally sent to that decor graveyard along with brass trim, big hair and fat shoulder pads.
Holding the brush in her hand, she walked up the path that was now spotted with creamy white kitty paws, Mr. Doodles having thought nothing of walking across a paint lid and leaving his tracks up the walk. Matt and Carly had decided not to wash it off, the prints good warning to visitors who dare come inside.
He was such a bad cat.
As Matt mocked a trumpet playing “Taps,” Carly covered over the pink paint, leaving her beautiful little bungalow fully restored and ready for the twenty-first century.
She stepped back down the path and cloaked herself in Matt’s arms as they stood on the driveway and admired the view.
The antique tea roses still lined the path, but they’d excavated and replaced the borders with a more earthy covering of shredded redwood. Now, walking up the path, the air was filled with the woodsy scent and the sweet fragrance of roses, the paw prints adding a touch of whimsy in the newly landscaped garden.
Keeping in tune with the neighborhood, they’d mounted a decorative flag next to the garage door. This one appropriately displayed a merry Santa, now that Thanksgiving was over and they were heading toward Christmas.
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