A Miami Affair

by Sherelle Green

  Leanna and Stacy shared a look. “Okay, I guess this is good for now,” Leanna said. “Now go out there and redeem yourself from the last conversation.” Leanna slapped her butt for good measure, causing Becca to laugh. Unfortunately, her laughter was short-lived, because she turned the corner and focused her gaze on Josh, who was standing near the reception desk.

  You can do this, she thought as she approached. Unlike their first meeting, he was dressed in business casual clothing—maroon slacks with a light blue button-up and his Ray-Bans. His blue suede shoes complemented the entire outfit. When Josh saw her, he removed his Ray-Bans and once again, she was temporarily entranced in his beautiful baby blues.

  “Hello, Becca,” he said as she approached. “It’s nice to see you again.”

  “Hello, Josh.” Try not to stare so hard at his pearly whites. “What brings you by our office?”

  “I was hoping that we could have lunch and go over the final paperwork.” He briefly glanced over her shoulder at something behind her. Becca figured it was Leanna and Stacy, who were ready to jump in if she declined his lunch offer.

  “Sure, I’m available for lunch.”

  “Great, I’m parked right outside. If it’s okay with you, I’ll drive us to the restaurant and drop you back off after.”

  “That’s fine.” She briefly waved at Leanna and Stacy as she followed Josh outside. The minute she stepped out onto the sidewalk, she froze.

  “Oh my God,” she said, walking toward the gorgeous vehicle parked in front of her office. “Does this breathtaking beauty belong to you?”

  “Um, yes,” Josh said with a laugh. “This is one of my vehicles.”

  One of? Becca had a few guilty pleasures, and luxury cars had to be in her top five. “May I?” she asked, itching to run her fingers across the smooth steel.

  “Sure.” Josh didn’t look phased by her request, which only increased her boldness. She felt like her hand moved in slow motion as she touched the exterior of the car.

  “I take it you like luxury vehicles?” Josh asked. “It’s a—”

  “French blue Bugatti Chiron. It goes as fast as two hundred and sixty miles per hour and is one of the most powerful luxury vehicles in the world.” Becca hadn’t meant to cut him off, but she was salivating over the car. She walked around the entire Bugatti and admired the detail.

  “I wish the vehicle was see-through,” Becca said, more to herself than Josh. “If it was, I imagine I’d see a sixteen-cylinder engine with double-powered turbochargers and a frame so sexy it would make me want to cry happy tears and thank the inventors for creating such a beautiful piece of art.”

  After a few more minutes admiring the vehicle, Becca finally looked at Josh. He was standing on the sidewalk with his arms crossed over his chest and a smirk on his face.

  “Sorry,” she said. “I guess you can say I have a bit of a car fetish.”

  “There’s no need to apologize.” He walked over and opened the door for her. “If I was the type of man to get jealous, I’d have stopped you from admiring my car minutes ago. Instead, you just made me more curious about how you developed your love of cars.”

  Becca smiled as she got into the car, and Josh followed. Neither of them spoke for the first couple minutes of the drive.

  “So are you going to make me beg?”

  Becca turned to Josh. “Make you beg for what?”

  “Are you going to tell me how you know so much about cars, or are you going to make me beg for the details?”

  Becca’s laughter echoed throughout the car. “Something tells me that a man like you has never had to beg for anything a day in his life.”

  As the car stopped at a light, Josh met her eyes. “Something tells me that you’re the type of woman who would make me beg.” His look was intense and one that she hadn’t yet seen. “And something tells me that I wouldn’t mind begging.”

  Is he flirting with me? There’s no way Joshua DeLong is flirting with me. Yet the minute his lips curled into a side smile, she disregarded her previous thought. For whatever reason, he was flirting with her, and for an even more insane reason, she was liking it.

  * * *

  “Is French okay with you?” Josh asked as they were taken to one of the best seats in the upscale restaurant. Even in the daytime, the dim lighting in the restaurant provided an intimate ambiance.

  “French is fine, but I wasn’t aware that this was going to be such an extravagant lunch.”

  Josh glanced around. “This restaurant has the best French food in Miami. The head chef just won another prestigious award.”

  “I’ve heard great things about this place,” Becca said as she opened her menu.

  “I meant to tell you,” Josh said, opening his menu, as well. “You look really nice today.”

  “Thank you,” she said with a smile. He noticed that her black-rimmed glasses seemed smaller than the ones he’d seen her wear in her online picture. He actually liked these glasses a lot. They fit her.

  He couldn’t quite place what was different about her today, but she looked less restricted than he’d seen her look before. He’d meant to comment on it when they were leaving her office, but her enthusiasm over his car had caused him to forget.

  If he hadn’t needed to discuss the paperwork, he would have been content with watching her admire his Bugatti all day. The excitement he’d seen on her face was enough to keep him entertained for hours. He still wanted to see just how deep her knowledge of cars went, but she’d grown quiet in the car after he’d asked her, so he would wait to bring it up again.

  After they placed their order, he took out the paperwork. “Here’s the agreement with your suggestions incorporated in the document.”

  Becca accepted the packet of information and began scrolling through the pages. “Everything looks good.” She took out the single sheet of paper. “What’s this?”

  Josh took out the same sheet from the paperwork sitting in front of him. “Since you and I weren’t seeing eye to eye on the gala being widely publicized, I composed a list of celebrities that are not only heavily involved in charity work, but that truly believe in the mission of the organizations they support.”

  Josh waited patiently as Becca read through the details. She lifted her head from the sheet when she was finished. “This is pretty impressive.”

  “I’m glad you think so.” Josh hadn’t known how much he wanted her approval until he’d received it. “I was also thinking that—with your approval—we could reach out to a couple friends I have in the media to get some good publicity for The Aunt Penny Foundation before the gala. When I researched the foundation, it looked like you haven’t had any media coverage in at least a year. It would be great practice and help spread the word about all the good you and Haley do.”

  Josh wasn’t sure if Becca really grasped how much he wanted to help The Aunt Penny Foundation in any way he could, but he hoped she had a better idea today than she had before.

  “So what do you think?” he asked since he couldn’t read her expression. This woman probably excels at poker.

  “I must say that after our first meeting, I wasn’t quite sure that you even knew the definition of ‘treading lightly’ when it came to the media. But after reading everything you’ve presented in this paperwork, I’m confident that your ideas are what’s best for the foundation right now.”

  Josh did a mental fist pump. “I’m happy to hear that. I only see brightness in the future of The Aunt Penny Foundation.”

  They put the paperwork aside just as their food arrived. As usual, lunch was fantastic, and judging by the appreciative sounds coming from Becca, she was enjoying the food just as much as he was.

  “Are you really going to make me beg?” Josh asked between bites.

  “Are we back on my car fetish?”

  “Can y
ou blame me for asking again? It’s not every day that someone knows almost as much about my car as I do.”

  “That’s because the Bugatti Chiron is not just any car.” Becca took a sip of water. “Any luxury vehicle enthusiast should be able to name one in the top ten just based off a five-second glance.”

  “Only five seconds? What about a solid twenty?”

  “Nope,” Becca said, shaking her head. “Would your mother have to stare at you for twenty seconds before identifying you as her child?”

  Josh contemplated his answer. “My mother wouldn’t need twenty seconds, but some circumstances may be different.”

  “People who love luxury vehicles love them as if they were their children. They shouldn’t need twenty seconds to identify their child.”

  Josh took another bite of his food before continuing. “It’s not always black-and-white. For example, what if a child was kidnapped at birth, but reunited with their family as a teenager? The parents would need more than twenty seconds to identify that child.”

  Becca shook her head. “Come on, you know very well what I mean.”

  “Another example,” Josh said snapping his fingers. “A child given up for adoption and reunited with their birth parents after twenty years.”

  “Not a good one,” Becca said. “One of my close friends was given up for adoption and when she reunited with her birth mother at twenty-five, her mother knew who she was immediately.”

  “So based off what you’re saying, if it would have taken you twenty seconds to identify a luxury car, you could have had your title of luxury vehicle enthusiast revoked?”

  Becca leaned forward. “It never takes me twenty seconds to identify a luxury car. Ten seconds tops, and even then it’s probably because the car was passing by too fast for me to get a good look.”

  Josh smiled at her confidence. He’d always been a fan of a good debate and it was refreshing to meet a woman who could keep up with him. He glanced out the window of the restaurant at the parking lot. There were numerous vehicles in the lot that he could ask Becca to identify to test her theory. The prestigious restaurant was crawling with money, and with money came expensive cars.

  “If you’re going to ask me to identify one of the luxury cars in the parking lot, don’t bother,” Becca said as she took a sip of water.

  “Why not, Ms. Wright? Afraid you’ll misidentify a vehicle and prove your theory false?”

  Becca leaned back in her chair. “Quite the contrary, Mr. DeLong. The reason I told you not to bother is because I already identified all the luxury cars in the parking lot in the thirty seconds it took for us to exit your vehicle and enter the restaurant.”

  Josh shook his head. “Yeah, right. I’ll believe it when I hear it.”

  The smirk that crossed Becca’s lips gave him fair warning that he should prepare to be wowed. “I’ll skip your French blue baby and start with mentioning the Mercedes-Benz S-Class in the far right corner of the lot. Then there’s a Mercedes-Benz E-Class two cars down from it. Two BMW 4 Series—one gray and the other white. A brilliant yellow Lamborghini Aventador parked next to the white BMW. A Lexus ES parked in the left corner two spaces away from a classic 1966 Jaguar. And although I’m sure, just like you, most of the owners of the vehicles used valet parking, the smartest owner is the one who probably paid the valet extra to park his or her sexy red 1958 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider in the only semi-discreet spot in the parking lot. That spot also happens to be the closest to the valet desk. You don’t leave classics like the Ferrari unattended for long. The Jaguar owner should probably take notes from the Ferrari owner.”

  Josh tried his best to keep a straight face. Who in the world is this woman? He was rarely speechless, but Becca had completely stolen the words from his mouth. There was something about her that challenged him, and finding a woman who truly challenged him had been so difficult, he’d often thought that such a woman didn’t exist. At least, she hadn’t existed until Becca Wright.

  “In case you haven’t done the math, it should have taken me forty-five seconds to name all nine luxury cars in the lot, but you and I both know it didn’t take that long to walk into the restaurant.” Becca took another sip of her water. “And there’s no need to tell me that you’re impressed because I can read it in your eyes.”

  Her satisfied smile was wide and it caused him to smile right back. Everything she’d said was right. He was impressed. More than he had been in a very long time.

  Chapter 5

  “Earth to Josh? Are you going to stare at that basketball all day, or are we actually going to hoop with it?”

  Josh turned to face his youngest brother, Logan. “The others aren’t even here yet.”

  “Exactly. Which means we can practice until they get here.”

  Josh threw Logan the ball. At least twice a month, Josh met up with his three younger brothers for a two-on-two basketball game in the outdoor court down the street from their childhood home, before they all headed to their mother’s house for Sunday dinner. As usual, his brothers Ryan and Sebastian were late.

  “Is everything going okay with work?” Logan asked. “You’ve seemed distracted since you got here.”

  “Work’s been crazy.” Josh rebounded for Logan as he shot from the free throw line. “Do you remember that tech company I was telling you about?”

  “The one that you just had to do a massive layoff for?”

  “Yes, that’s the one.” Josh and Logan switched places so that Josh was the one shooting. “Most of the employees loved the management team, so letting go some of the key players wasn’t easy. I’ve been in numerous meetings with the remaining management staff trying to defuse the situation. The culture of this company is great and I really don’t want to change it. Unfortunately, the staff don’t understand my decisions yet and until they do, there are a lot of growing pains ahead.”

  “Don’t sweat it, big bro. You’ve had to make some difficult decisions throughout your career, but you’re doing what’s best for the company.”

  “I wish they saw it that way, because right now I feel like I’m demolishing dreams and breaking what was otherwise a close camaraderie between colleagues.” And turning friends against each other. Just this morning he’d had one of the executives call him to rat out one of his friends and fellow executives who he believed had been secretly stealing money from the company years ago. Josh had his team investigating the situation, and he had a feeling the outcome wasn’t going to be pretty.

  “Hey,” Logan said, getting his attention. “Do you remember when I was ten and you were fifteen and you walked me to my friend’s house because he was moving after his dad lost his job?”

  “Yeah, I remember.”

  “When we arrived at their house, we walked right into an argument. My friend’s dad was trying to explain to his wife that some investors had just begun cleaning house and laying people off without even meeting with the staff first.”

  “That’s right.” Josh went for another shot and missed. “He also mentioned that the main investor was a corporate raider who didn’t give a damn about anyone or anything as long as he was making money.”

  “And after that conversation you said there was no way you’d ever become a corporate raider and change the course of someone’s life without giving your decisions a second thought.”

  Josh stopped shooting the ball. “And lo and behold, I became the exact person I claimed I would never become.”

  “No, you didn’t,” Logan said. “Bro, despite what some of those articles may say, you actually care about what happens to the companies you invest in. True, you’ve had to be somewhat ruthless to get where you are today, but that’s just the nature of the business. For years, you’ve managed to maintain your dignity while also keeping your emotions out of the situation. Don’t start doubting yourself now that you’re at the
top of your game.”

  Josh let Logan’s words sink in. His brother had basically summarized all the fears he had in that one statement. “You’re right. I need to get out of my headspace.”

  “Better yet,” Logan said, “maybe you should find a sweet honey to help you get out of your headspace.” Josh’s thoughts immediately went to Becca, as they had a lot lately.

  “Are you sure you’re not the older brother?” Josh asked, finally landing a shot without even hitting the backboard.

  Logan pretended to smooth out his hair and T-shirt. “I’ve been trying to tell you for years that I’m the most fly DeLong man in the family, but y’all don’t want to listen.”

  “That’s because you’re too full of yourself,” Ryan said as he walked onto the court with Sebastian. “Men who really have swag don’t need to vocalize the fact that they have swag. They just exude it.” All four brothers dabbed fists and prepared to start the game.

  “I just have to make a quick call.” Josh walked over to his gym bag that he’d placed on the steel bleachers and pulled out his phone to call Becca. She answered on the third ring.

  “Hey, Josh.”

  For a second, Josh soaked in her warm voice. “Hey, Becca. How are you?”

  “I’m fine. Just busy as usual. How are you?”

  “I’m good, but I’d be even better if you’d accompany me to an exclusive black-tie movie premiere at a waterfront estate in the North Bay Road neighborhood on Tuesday.”

  “A movie premiere? So it wouldn’t be for business?”

  “It would be great for networking and spreading the word about The Aunt Penny Foundation,” Josh said, although he hadn’t been thinking about business when he’d decided to invite her. He’d simply wanted to spend some more time with her. He really liked her. However, he wasn’t sure if it was just the challenge that amused him, or if it was more. He needed to find out and the more time they spent together, the quicker he’d figure it out.

  “Also, the host of the movie premiere is a business associate, so I have to make an appearance. I’d be honored if you’d attend with me because I really don’t want to go stag.”