Corner-Office Courtship

by Victoria Pade

  True enough.

  But she still shouldn’t...

  Except that just as they reached the front of her building temptation overtook her and she heard herself say, “Okay.”

  “Great! It says here that it starts at eight, so I’ll pick you up at seven-thirty?”

  “Seven-forty-five would be fine. I only live a little ways from here.”

  Taking out his smartphone, Cade had her give him her address.

  “It’s my grandfather’s house,” she explained. “I live in the basement and come and go from around back, so if you just call when you get there—”

  “Will massive guard dogs attack if I go around to your door to pick you up?”

  “No, there aren’t any dogs, it’s just easier—”

  “I’ll come around and get you,” he said in a tone that broached no further argument.

  Nati pointed to an alley between the building that housed her shop and an old house being used as a real estate office. “The truck is over there,” she said. “I should start it and let it run for a few minutes—I haven’t driven it in a couple of weeks. But you don’t need to wait.”

  Cade craned to see what she was talking about. “Looks dark over there. I’ll keep you company,” he said.

  By then Nati knew it was a waste of breath to try to keep him from doing the gentlemanly thing, so she didn’t bother. She merely led him around the front of her and Holly’s shops to the dark side of the building.

  Unlocking the old truck and opening the door produced a dim glow from the dome light that helped illuminate the alleyway. She got in and started the engine. As it sputtered to life, the light dimmed momentarily and then brightened again.

  Cade had come to stand in the open door so she pivoted on the seat to face him. She was at a height that put her eye-to-eye with the tall man.

  “I won’t tell my grandmother this, but I have to say that I’m kind of glad your grandfather didn’t marry her,” he said, a small smile making creases at the corners of his eyes. “If she had, you and I could have ended up brother and sister. Or at least cousins.”

  “Would that have been so bad?” Nati asked.

  “Given what’s on my mind right now? Really, really bad,” he confided in a voice that was deeper than usual.

  Nati couldn’t help smiling at that revelation. There was an undeniable energy charging the air all of a sudden. And she knew what was going to happen. Cade was going to kiss her. And she also knew that she should stop it.

  But her chin tipped up ever so slightly instead, and she looked into his eyes the way he was looking into hers—intently, longingly.

  “Ahh...what is it that you do to me, Morrison...” he whispered, in the throes of his own overwhelming temptation.

  Then he slid one arm along the top of the truck’s seat back, grabbed the steering wheel with his other hand, and leaned forward gradually to take her mouth with his.

  Nati’s eyes drifted closed and she accepted the kiss, returned it, her mind chasing away all thoughts.

  Slow and steady and thoughtful, this was not like the kisses that had come before. This was not impulsive or stolen. This was a kiss that got to be a kiss in all its glory.

  With their breaths mingling and their lips easing into it, Nati savored the full feel of just how agile and talented a kisser Cade was. The kiss was sweet and soft, then firmer, deeper. Their heads swayed the tiniest bit, mouths fitted together like two halves making a whole, and it went on long enough for every nuance to imprint on Nati’s memory.

  She didn’t want it to end when it did. But after a moment, Cade brought it to a conclusion, pushed himself out of the truck cab and stood up straight.

  Tonight he made no apologies or excuses. Instead he stayed looking into her eyes for a long moment.

  Nati thought he was going to kiss her again—she wanted him to kiss her again.

  But he didn’t. He just went on looking at her, studying her as if he wasn’t quite sure what to make of her before he said, “Tomorrow night. Seven-forty-five. Wine and cheese.”

  Nati nodded, not wanting to speak, not wanting to move her lips and lose the sensation of his kiss.

  He reached an arm under her knees, swiveled her to face the steering wheel, locked the door and closed it.

  Nati watched him in the side mirror as he walked away toward the back of the building where his own car was parked.

  The scent of his cologne lingered in the truck’s cab and the feel of his mouth lingered on hers from the kiss.

  She had no doubt she would relive that kiss again and again in bed tonight as images of Cade played behind her closed eyelids. They would keep her from sleeping the same way they had every night since she’d first set eyes on him.

  Because despite knowing better, she was having no luck at all fighting this feeling.

  Fighting him.

  Fighting what she knew could ultimately be very, very bad for her.

  Chapter Seven

  “Hit me, Holly. Hit me hard enough to knock the stupid out of me,” Nati ordered as she stood in front of the full-length mirror in her bedroom, inspecting herself one last time after getting ready for her date with Cade.

  She was wearing winter-white wool slacks and a matching cashmere cowl-neck sweater. Her hair framed her face in a perfect, shiny fall. A hint of makeup accentuated her cheekbones, mascara lengthened her eyelashes, and a pale lipstick made her lips a glossy pink. She’d even given her short nails a fresh manicure.

  Holly, who had come to borrow a pair of earrings for her own blind date, took in the finished product. “You may have gotten the short end of the stick in that marriage to Doug, but you did come out of it with some nice clothes.”

  “And those earrings—they’re the only piece of jewelry I didn’t sell to bankroll the shop.”

  Holly held them out to her. “Maybe you should wear them tonight.”

  “They’re too fancy for this outfit. Plus, this wine and cheese tasting in Old Town is more casual than that. Just don’t lose them—at three carats apiece they’re my rainy-day fund.”

  “I’ll guard them with my life. But I won’t hit you,” Holly said, returning to Nati’s earlier demand.

  “What am I doing?” Nati asked in response. “I’ve only been divorced six months. And the first guy I do go out with isn’t Mr. Every Man, he’s another rich boy! Richer than the last one!”

  “Maybe it isn’t the rich-boy thing that you should be thinking about. Maybe you should just be thinking about how he’s your first guy after the divorce.”

  Nati laughed. “That sounds like you mean he’s the first of many.”

  “I do. Even if he’s not the first of many, he’s the first. The back-in-the-saddle-again guy. The get-your-feet-wet-again guy. The guy who lets you know that you can get out there again and mingle and meet other guys until you find the right one.”

  “The first guy, not the keeper?”

  “Exactly. The practice guy just to get you back in the game.”

  “‘Back in the saddle,’ ‘get your feet wet,’ ‘get back out there,’ ‘get back in the game’—there are a lot of sayings for that.”

  “Because there are so many of us who find ourselves in that position. And now you’re one of us. But you keep talking about this guy as if he’s the one. He’s only dangerous if you get in as deep with him as you did with Doug. Deep enough for prenups, and marriage, and family and social pressures, and relationship and maturity and...other...problems, and then divorce, and the whole mess. But Cade Camden isn’t all that. He’s just a guy you can get some refresher-dating practice with.”

  “That’s true,” Nati agreed, seeing her friend’s point of view. “I do keep jumping the gun, don’t I?”

  “It’s like there’s a fire five hundred miles away and you�
��ve been burned,” Holly reasoned. “Of course your instinct is to run in the other direction. But the fire is way—way—in the distance—”

  “So maybe I’m making too big a deal out of this.”

  “I say be careful. But yeah, maybe a little spark for this guy is a good sign—it tells us you’re rising from the ashes.”

  “But it doesn’t have to be any more than that,” Nati concluded.

  “It doesn’t.”

  But what if it was?

  That question nagged at Nati. She’d never had the same reaction to anyone that she was having to Cade. Not even with Doug. She couldn’t stop thinking about Cade every minute of every day. And never had she wanted to be with anyone—wanted anyone—like she wanted that man.

  But maybe that was only because she was raw. She was so fresh from her marriage, her divorce, maybe her emotions were just closer to the surface than they usually were, causing the intensity of her attraction to Cade.

  Maybe if she relaxed a little, she’d get some perspective and see that Cade really was just the initial stepping stone to get her back in the game—as Holly had said.

  And if that was the case, then it was actually healthy for her to give in a little to what was happening with Cade.

  “I have to get going,” Holly said, interrupting Nati’s reflections. “Don’t beat yourself up anymore—or ask anyone else to beat you up, either—over this thing tonight. It isn’t stupid, it’s just spending some time with a guy—good for the ego. And yours could use a boost.”

  “That seems a little mercenary—I’m just going out with him to boost my own ego?”

  “He gets the pleasure of your company, that’s his reward,” Holly said loftily, making Nati laugh.

  “Lucky, lucky man,” Nati said facetiously.

  “Yes, he is,” Holly insisted. “And don’t you forget it—no matter who he is or how much he’s worth, he’s lucky to be with you.”

  “No matter what the Pirfoys might think?”

  “History! Ancient history. We’ve moved on and tonight is just part of that,” Holly assured her.

  And as her friend left, Nati told herself that that’s exactly how she was going to view tonight—as the first step toward moving on.

  And nothing else.

  Even if her pulse did race at the thought that Cade could be there anytime now and she knew that the minute she saw him she’d be putty in his hands.

  Because that’s the way it had been since they’d met.

  * * *

  “Wow, don’t you look amazing.” Cade’s appreciative gaze traveled up and down her body when Nati opened the apartment door to his knock at precisely seven forty-five Thursday evening.

  “Thank you. You don’t clean up bad yourself,” she countered.

  As usual, he looked wonderful. He was wearing a pair of gray wool slacks and a black mock turtleneck sweater under a tweed sport coat that accentuated the breadth of his shoulders. He stood tall and straight and commanding, and Nati just wanted to stay there and ogle him.

  But instead she snatched up her own calf-length wool coat and slipped it on in a hurry, saying as she did, “Shall we go?” rather than asking him inside. She was a little afraid that if she did, she wouldn’t want to go out again at all.

  Cade took a step back to let her out. She pulled the door closed behind them and led the way around to the front of her grandfather’s redbrick house where Cade’s car was parked on the street.

  “Any news on your car?” he asked, eyeing the old shop truck under her carport.

  “It needs a new alternator and there’s a hole in the radiator. It’s basically aged-out. But I can’t afford to replace it, so the mechanic will do what he can to resuscitate it again—he’s good that way. It’ll take him until next week.”

  “So maybe your bonus for a job well done needs to be new wheels?”

  He had to be joking....

  “I don’t think so,” Nati said firmly just in case he wasn’t.

  “I do know a couple of car dealers—why don’t you at least let me talk to them, see if I can’t get you a deal,” he suggested as he held the passenger door open for her and she got in.

  “Thanks, but no—”

  He closed the door, went around the rear of the car and got in. “I’m sure I could get you a demo car or something for dirt cheap and—”

  “No, really,” Nati insisted. “When mine absolutely can’t be fixed anymore I’ll work it out.” Probably by selling the earrings that Holly was wearing tonight unless business improved enough to allow for a car payment. But she wasn’t going to go into her financial situation with Cade.

  “I’d like to help,” Cade said with a sideways glance at her just before he pulled away from the curb.

  “And I like being able to do things without help.” Because the last time she’d needed and accepted it, it had cost her dearly. “But thanks for the offer.”

  “It’s open-ended—if you change your mind. You need a reliable car to get wherever your work takes you, you know....”

  “I do know. And mine will be fine. It has a few more years in it.”

  “But you’ll keep me in mind—”

  “Sure,” she said without camouflaging the fact that there was no chance she would ever factor him into it.

  She was glad when they reached Old Town just then so they could stop talking about it.

  “Park behind my shop and we can walk,” she instructed, wondering why Cade had that troubled frown on his face that she’d seen in the past.

  He pulled into her lot without saying more about her car predicament. The wine and cheese tasting event had apparently drawn a crowd because all four of the spots in her lot were already being used. Cade ended up parking in the dark, narrow area between her building and the real estate office.

  Still, though, it was nice to see a good turn-out and Nati hoped that whoever had used her parking lot would do some window shopping and come back to the store to buy something or hire her for in-home work.

  The wine and cheese tasting was crowded. It was organized in stations where particular wines were paired with their complementary cheeses. Someone from either the cheese or wine shop was standing at every station to point out why the pairings worked.

  The setup wasn’t conducive to a lot of conversation, but it was still fun, and by the time Nati and Cade had visited all of the stations, Nati had had enough sips of wine to help her mellow out.

  Before they left, Cade bought a case of Chianti Classico and an entire wheel of the Pecorino Toscana cheese that had been served drizzled with garlic-infused olive oil and sprinkled with grains of sea salt. Nati carried the wheel of cheese while Cade carried the wine back to his car.

  “You must have really liked these,” Nati observed as he opened the narrow trunk.

  “We came to support your fellow local businesses, didn’t we?”

  “Sure,” Nati allowed. “But buying one or two bottles of wine and a little cheese would have accomplished that.”

  “They were great, though. And this isn’t all for me. I’ll keep one bottle of the wine and a wedge of the cheese, and give the same to GiGi, to Margaret and Louie, and to each of my siblings and cousins—that’ll take care of all twelve bottles and the whole wheel.”

  “That’s very thoughtful of you,” Nati observed as they got into his car and headed back to her place.

  Cade shrugged off the compliment. “We all do it. If we find something we like, we share. It’s always been that way. Except maybe for Seth—he probably gets the short end here and there because he’s in Northbridge. I’ll send him the wine but he’ll miss out on the cheese.”

  Cade grinned, then added, “Not that he’ll care this round. He just got engaged and he’s so into his fiancée Lacey that I don’t think he notices anything els
e.”

  “Seth is your older brother, right? The one who abdicated as CEO?”

  “Right.”

  “And he’s getting married?”

  “To Lacey Kincaid—she’s the daughter of Morgan Kincaid—”

  “The big football guy who owns a bunch of restaurants and things? There’s one of his restaurants in Cherry Creek, isn’t there? Kincaid’s?”

  “Right. He also just brought an NFL football franchise to Montana and he’s building a training center in Northbridge. Lacey is heading up that project—that’s how she and Seth met. She also has an internet business selling women’s sports clothes. Seth says she’s learning to delegate and not be so work obsessed. Anyway... I don’t know how I got off on that tangent. But Seth will get wine and no cheese.”

  They’d arrived back at Nati’s house. Cade parked at the curb and reached into the side pocket on his door, pulling out a tall, thin bottle.

  “The framboise you liked so well—I thought I’d surprise you. Now you can have more than a sip.”

  Nati had loved that dessert wine and coveted a bottle but she hadn’t thought it showed.

  “You didn’t have to do that,” she said in spite of the fact that she was glad he had.

  “Didn’t have to, wanted to,” he said, getting out of the car and coming around to Nati’s side just as she got out, too.

  She’d been weighing whether or not to invite him in before that. She’d enjoyed the wine and cheese tasting but it hadn’t been an occasion that had left her feeling like she’d really spent the time with Cade. Then on top of that the evening had ended too quickly. Now, as Cade walked her to her door she had reason to say, “Maybe you should come in and we should open the framboise....”

  He grinned at her as he held the gate so she could go into the backyard ahead of him. “I think that’s a fine idea.”

  “I have to warn you, though, it isn’t an impressive place. And I only own water and juice glasses....”

  “Oh, no, not juice glasses!” he joked, clearly unfazed by her lesser accommodations.