by Claire Adams
I almost laughed. This is what being married for years, then not dating for years had done. I didn’t even really remember how to deal with men anymore, let alone men I was actually interested in dating.
“The point is,” I continued, “I liked it. I liked it a lot. You’ve got nothing to apologize for, and, no, I don’t think you took advantage of me. If anything, you gave me a little nice break from all the pain and sadness I’ve been dealing with. I’ll admit—it’s awkward for me.”
Drew nodded slowly. “Okay.”
I placed a hand on his chest. “That’s not your fault. It’s mine.”
He winced.
I laughed. “Seriously. This isn’t an ‘it’s not you—it’s me’ thing. The truth is I haven’t dated anyone since my husband died.”
“Oh.” Judging by his face, that admission stunned him.
“You’re really that surprised?”
Drew shrugged. “You’re a beautiful model. I just figured someone would have asked you out.”
“It’s not that they didn’t. It’s that I’ve always turned them down. I guess I just haven’t been ready for anything. It’s taken a long time to get over my husband’s death, so dating just wasn’t on my radar.”
“And now?”
I peered at him. “So I’m not just a one-night stand?”
“I don’t want it to be that way, but it’s your choice in the end.”
“We can—play it by ear,” I said softly. I held up a finger. “But we have to wait until my Jack’s out of the hospital.” I lowered my voice. “I can’t be at home messing around with you while my son’s lying in a hospital bed. It’s not fair to him.”
Drew nodded. “No problem. I agree. Jack should definitely come first.” He furrowed his brow. “Is everything all right with him? You seemed like you were in a hurry.”
“Oh, he’s doing okay, still sick, but it seems like he’s finally getting better, assuming he doesn’t come down with something in the next couple of days.”
“Where were you going then?”
I smiled. “He said he wanted some spaghetti for dinner, so I wanted to check to see if they had some in the cafeteria since I don’t think he’ll get it for his room delivery meal.”
Drew made a face, “You don’t want to punish that poor boy with crap hospital spaghetti.”
“He wants some, and it’s not like he’s Gordon Ramsay.”
“How about I have some delivered from Gino’s?”
I liked the idea, but I hadn’t even thought of that. I suppose it was the difference between being rich and not rich. I had to think about the cost of every option and weigh it against something else, whereas Drew didn’t.
“Okay,” I said weakly. I was a bit uncertain about the whole thing. “Jack would really like that.”
Drew winked. “I’ll go call them up and pick it up in the front of the hospital. They might not actually deliver to a hospital room.” He turned to leave.
“Thank you,” I said.
He waved as he kept walking. “No problem.”
I opened the door and stepped back inside Jack’s room.
He looked over from the TV. “Did they have it?”
“I’m not sure; before I could check, I ran into Drew. He’s going to get some delivered from Gino’s.”
Jack smiled and clapped. “I like Drew. He’s really nice.”
A soft smile settled over my face as a warm feeling enveloped me. “Yes, sweetie, he is.”
Chapter Twenty-one
Drew
A few days later, I was sitting at my desk when a knock sounded at the door.
“Come in,” I said, assuming it was my sister. Most everyone else went through my secretary, after all.
I wasn’t even sure why. It wasn’t like I was a hard-ass, and I’d always made it clear I had an open-door policy. Even if this company was huge, I still wanted to keep the atmosphere that my dad had created over his decades of running things.
As expected, Daniella stepped inside and closed the door behind her. She headed over to the chair in front my desk and took a seat.
“I could have been busy,” I said.
“Yeah, so? We’re both always busy. If we waited until we weren’t busy, we’d never be able to talk.”
“Good point,” I shrugged. “What’s up?” I said. “Assuming you’re just not here to visit.”
“I just thought you’d like to know that the stunt bikes are all fully assembled. We have the executive producer and stunt coordinator coming in tonight to check them out, but it looks like everything is ready to go. Assuming the producer has no concerns, our bikes will soon be movie stars.”
I grinned. “Those bikes look great. I’m thinking this will work out a lot better than we could have ever hoped.” I rubbed my hands together. “Between this and the ad campaign, our numbers this year are going to go through the roof, and once we prove ourselves in this movie, we’ll have all sorts of chances to expand this revenue stream. I mean Thunderstruck V? I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity.”
Daniella eyed me with a grin of her own. “You’re like a little kid, you’re so excited. Is it really that cool to have our bikes in Thunderstruck? It’s just a dumb movie series.”
“Each of those movies makes half a billion dollars,” I scoffed. “And what do you mean by just a dumb movie series? It’s one of the best series out there. Maybe you have to be a guy to understand. Sometimes it’s just about appealing to a man’s testosterone.”
Daniella snickered. “Or maybe I just have to have poor taste in movies. I’m very happy with the level of testosterone I have, thank you very much.”
I offered her a dismissive wave of my hand. “Whatever, if you want to be that way. I’m pretty sure the primary demographic for those movies matches very closely with the demographics of our customers, and that means exposure and sales. We both can agree on that.”
She shook her finger at me. “I see what you did there.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that it’s true.”
“True enough. And you’re right; the demographics do heavily overlap.” Daniella shrugged. “Well, I like the money the production company is paying us, so it doesn’t really matter if I like the movies or not. It’s not like they need a lot of stunt bikes for the romcoms I enjoy seeing.” She tucked a few strands of her dark hair behind her ear. “Besides, I really didn’t come here to talk about that, anyway.”
She tilted her head, a hungry grin on her face. Now she was the one who looked excited.
“I’m guessing something else important came up?” Though I didn’t get why she didn’t just bring it up to begin with if that were true.
Daniella nodded eagerly. “Oh very. Extremely even.”
I wracked my brain trying figure out if I’d forgotten something else important. “Huh? Now that the preparation for the ad campaign is mostly handled and general production is back up and running, those bikes are probably the single most important thing going on at the company. What are you talking about?”
I didn’t like the sly look that settled over my sister’s face, and my heart kicked up a little. I hated it when she was one step ahead of me, even when it came to the company.
“The bikes were only the most important business thing,” she said. “Not the most important thing at all, Drew.”
I frowned, noting her word choice. She wasn’t normally one to play these little games. I didn’t have a high tolerance for that kind of thing, and she knew it. Too many years on the road.
“Then what about important stuff that’s not business?” I asked.
“Ah. Easy. Personal stuff. Such as your personal life in particular.” Daniella leaned forward and folded her hands in front of her. “I want to know how the visit with Cat went.” She shook her head, “No, I don’t want to know; I need to know.”
I let out a quiet laugh, relief flooding through me. “Oh, that’s all you’re interested in? The way you built it up, I thought it was some huge deal and
was going to involve a huge lawsuit or something.”
She harrumphed. “It is a big deal because I wasn’t sure what happened between you two. I stopped by to visit her the other day, but I didn’t want to bring it up in case you screwed everything up, and I didn’t want to make my friend feel bad.”
I groaned. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, but this isn’t exactly my first rodeo. I know how to deal with women.”
“Kind of. It’s not like you’re the master of long-lasting relationships.”
I held up my hands. “Okay, okay. You win. I get it. I suck. Whatever.”
“Then tell me what I want to know.”
The woman was like a hungry shark. If I didn’t give her some meat, I wasn’t going to leave the room alive.
I shrugged. “It went okay. I talked with her and ordered some spaghetti from Gino’s. Jack wanted some. We all ate it together, and then we watched some crappy kid’s movie about a friendly dinosaur in the hospital. It was just a nice, low-key time. Nothing big. It wasn’t some huge thing like you’re expecting from one of you stupid romcoms or something.”
Daniella nodded slowly. “Uh-huh. And you didn’t have any meaningful conversations? Before or after watching the crappy movie? About anything more important than spaghetti? Hmmm? I doubt that.”
I grunted. I really didn’t want to be discussing my love life with my sister, but it had already become clear she considered Cat a friend, so it was officially ‘her business.’ The fact that I was her brother just meant she had a more convenient way to find out what was going on.
“We agreed to see where things go after Jack gets out of the hospital,” I admitted. “I made it clear that what we shared wasn’t a one-night stand. Is that what you wanted to hear?”
Daniella smiled softly and gave me a nod. “Yes, that’s exactly what I wanted to hear.”
I didn’t tell her the total truth. I didn’t let her know how domestic it felt to sit there with Cat and her son watching that movie. I also didn’t tell her how much I really hoped that we could do it again when Jack got home from the hospital.
It wasn’t exactly a familiar feeling. Hell, I had a hard time remembering if I’d ever felt this way before.
I tried not to fidget as I thought that over. Cat and I couldn’t deny the scorching hot attraction we both felt toward one another, and the sex had been fantastic, but that feeling in the hospital room proved that we had a chance for something more, that whatever we had wasn’t just about satisfying my cock and making her moan.
A future. I could see us having one together, not just Cat, but Cat, Jack, and me. All together.
I grunted. Maybe I was getting ahead of myself.
Daniella narrowed her eyes.
Damn it. It’s like the woman could read my mind. I waited for her to say something, but she unfolded her hands and leaned back like she was getting ready to head out.
My sister stood with a smile on her face. It looked like I’d escaped any further questions.
“Oh, by the way,” she began, “I’ve been thinking about hiring Cat on as a full-time employee.”
It took several seconds for my brain to catch up. It’s not that I didn’t hear what Daniella had said, but it just made so little sense that I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“Huh? Did you just say you want to hire Cat full-time?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
Daniella frowned. “How do you figure?”
I shook my head. Why was I even having to explain myself?
“As much as all the guys would like it, it’s not like we have a need to have a model around full-time, and we’re not doing another major ad campaign for a while, either.”
She waved a hand. “Of course not. I’m not interested in hiring her as a model. I’m interested in hiring her to work with me in operations.”
“Where—what?”
“It’s not like she got her degree modeling, you know. She’s got a degree in business administration.”
I nodded quickly. “Yeah, I know. I remember her mentioning that.”
“And you know she’s looking to get out of modeling?”
I furrowed my brow. “She is?”
Daniella rolled her eyes like she was dealing with a child who hadn’t done his homework. “Do you even know why she took this job?”
I shrugged. “Uh, for money? Because it paid well?”
“She’s trying to save up enough so she can afford to send Jack to private school, and where she could work a normal job, not only for stability, but just to make sure she’s able to spend as much time as she could manage with him while still working.”
The haughty tone my sister adopted made it sound like I should have known all of this. I rubbed the back of my neck. Maybe I should have. I’d slept with the woman and was pursuing a relationship with her. Knowing a little bit about why she needed money wasn’t that crazy of a thing to find out.
“Okay, I didn’t know that,” I said.
“Her mother works at the hospital. Cat was thinking about getting a job there, but I think we can offer her a little more, and the insurance we have to offer is better. This way she’ll never have to worry about hoping some anonymous donor will take care of her medical bills again.”
“I don’t know—” I shrugged. “We don’t really know much about how good she’d even be at something other than modeling.”
Daniella pointed at me. “No, you don’t. I do.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes. Her grades were great, and she’s even done some project management internships.”
“Seriously?”
Daniella rolled her eyes again. “It wasn’t like I was going to offer a job to someone totally incompetent.” Her expression softened. “Look, this isn’t about you. I mean you’re obviously involved with her, but this was about me helping a good woman who I happen to consider a friend. That’s why she’d work with me in operations and not,” she sighed, and flicked her wrist toward me, “with you. I mean, to be honest, I could hire her myself. It’s not like we need the CEO’s sign-off on every new employee, but I just thought you should have input since it’ll affect both of us.”
“I need to think about it.”
My sister nodded. “Okay. Think about it and let me know, preferably sooner than later.” She turned and offered me a wave as she stepped out of my office.
I sat there for a while just thinking about the entire conversation. Cat hadn’t ever mentioned any of this when we’d last talked, and it wasn’t all that long after her yelling at me about my family being too much in her business.
Did she even know about my sister’s idea?
Even if she did, I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. How could I work with her if I’d be more concerned with bending her over a desk and fucking her, rather than hearing her ideas?
Then again, Daniella wasn’t an idiot. She wouldn’t bring on anyone who wouldn’t help her and the company. She was too smart for that.
I groaned. Talk about a hard decision.
Chapter Twenty-two
Catherine
Two weeks. Not just any two weeks, but the longest two weeks of my life. That’s how long Jack had been in the hospital, first because of his appendix and then because of infection. When he’d gotten worse, I’d started to worry about what might happen. Being in a hospital didn’t mean a person was safe. Plenty of kids died from respiratory infection.
Now, though, it was all over. My baby was safe.
My heart swelled with joy though, as I helped him finish getting dressed. He was fully recovered, and he could head back home, even if he’d need a few more weeks of rest before being fully back to his old self.
All the stress and worry had vanished. The bill was being handled thanks to Drew’s donation. What could have been a financial disaster had ended up not an issue at all, thanks to his generosity. The only thing I had to worry about now was the future, particularly Jack’s e
ducation.
I still didn’t know what I was going to do myself. My son ending up in the hospital had been a wake-up call. As much as I hated to admit it, Mom was right. I needed to get a more stable job with better benefits. I’d been so worried about saving for private school, but the reality was I’d been very lucky I hadn’t ended up financially destroyed.
My son finished buttoning his pants, and I smiled at him.
My employment choices were limited. Mom could help me get a job working for the hospital administration. That was a lock, and I knew it would have good insurance. Any medical problems my son had would never be a concern.
“I need to go potty,” Jack said.
“Go ahead and go then, sweetie. After that, we’ll head home.”
My son smiled and hurried into the bathroom.
When the door closed, I sighed. The hospital job didn’t solve my original problem, though. I still wasn’t sure if I had enough to afford Jack’s private school. The hospital pay I could get just didn’t amount to enough, even when combined with my savings. The last thing I wanted was to start my son in private school just to pull him out later.
Should I give up on sending him to a private school? No. I still needed to do everything I could to make sure he had the best educational opportunities. I owed it to him—and to his father.
There had to be some other options. I’d just let myself get tunnel vision with my focus on the modeling and Mom’s constant harping about a job at the hospital. I’d have to find some other job, something that paid more with benefits, and was more stable than modeling.
I had a degree. That had to count for something. I wasn’t a genius, but I was smart enough and knew how to use a computer.
For now, the job situation didn’t matter. The next few days weren’t going to make or break my son’s education. I was looking forward to relaxing at home with my son. The hospital had been quiet enough, but there was nothing like resting in your own place.
There was a knock on the door.
“Come in.”
Mom stepped in just as Jack left the bathroom.