From Now On

by Louise Brooks

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 1

  “That’s him. Didn’t I tell you he’s gorgeous?”

  Jo glanced at her coworkers as she walked back to her tiny office from the copy room. They were staring toward the elevators. Curious, Jo turned to look too and found herself staring at a man handsome enough to deserve a second look. He was tall, his body well controlled, almost like a soldier on maneuvers. His tawny hair was short, adding to the military look, but there was a gentleness in his brown eyes that softened the rough edges of his rugged features. He paused for a second and looked around, as though unsure where to go next. When their eyes met, he smiled, causing Jo’s heart to skip a beat.

  “Look at her,” one of Jo’s coworkers said. “She thinks he’s looking at her.”

  “A little presumptuous, isn’t she? Especially after Ryan.” The other woman laughed.

  With a burning blush bursting across her face, Jo quickly turned and went to her office. With the door closed and the sound of their laughter cut off, the pounding of Jo’s heart slowed, though it did little for the pain that continued to twist in her stomach. They were right, she knew that. Why would a guy like that take a second look at her? He could probably have any woman he wanted. One who looked like them, with their perfectly coiffed hair, their expertly applied makeup, and their sexy, yet professional dress.

  Jo glanced down at her conservative cotton skirt and primly buttoned up blouse, always perfectly cleaned and pressed, and knew no man could ever find her attractive attired this way. No man ever had.

  Jo reached up and rubbed her hands over her face. She had no need to worry about smearing make-up; Jo hadn’t bothered to wear any in several years. It never seemed to make much difference and it made her feel like a painted clown. Plain, that’s what her mother had always called her. She seemed to melt into crowds, to disappear in the shadow of her beautiful mother and sister. Was it any wonder her coworkers made fun of her the way they did?

  With a heavy sigh, Jo turned to her computer to get back to the report she had been working on. Searching through her carefully organized files, she found the information she needed and began to plug numbers into a spreadsheet. Within moments, she forgot the whole episode out in the hall. That was, of course, until he knocked on her door.

  “Sorry to bother you,” he said, poking his head into the room.

  “No bother,” she said so quietly that he had to ask her to repeat herself.

  “I’m looking for Chuck Franklin’s office,” he said.

  “Chuck’s down on the third floor.”

  “Oh, okay,” he said, a soft smile revealing a small dimple on his left cheek. “I guess I should have double checked before heading up here.”

  “You’re new?” she asked, feeling stupid the moment the words were out of her mouth. Of course he was new, or else he would know where the head of advertising’s office was.

  “Yeah.” He came further into the room, standing awkwardly in front of her desk. “Just started last week.”

  “What department?” Jo asked, wondering if she should come out from behind her desk, but afraid that, if she did, he would notice her bulky, conservative shoes and her lack of height. She should really learn to wear heels like Emily.

  “IT,” he said.

  “IT?”

  “Yeah, fixing computers and what not.”

  Jo nodded. She knew what IT was. It was the busiest department in this company, thanks to the fact that the powers-that-be consistently refused to upgrade their technology. Jo had had to call them three times just last week to get her computer functioning well enough to read her email. And the phones…half the time she had to rely on her personal cell phone to make business calls.

  He was watching her closely, studying something on her face or in her hair. Jo nervously smoothed a hand over her braid, her cheek, wondering if she had lettuce in her teeth. His smile came back as he rocked on his heels, his hands clasped behind his back, again reminding her of a soldier. Jo bit her lip, aware that he was waiting for her to say something, but unsure of what to say.

  Like an action movie hero, he came to her rescue.

  “So, I’m Mark. Mark Rutledge.”

  “Oh…” Jo blushed as she quickly jumped to her feet and held her hand out to him across her desk. “I’m Jo Mitchell.”

  “Jo?” he asked as he took her hand. “Is that short for Joanne?”

  “No,” she gulped. Sparks were shooting up her arm from where he continued to hold her hand, her fingers tingling so she could barely feel them. “No,” she repeated, feeling like a complete idiot.

  “JoBeth?” he asked, a quizzical look in his eyes.

  “No,” Jo said once again, wondering if he was a movie buff. How different it would have been to be named for JoBeth Williams. The Poltergeist franchise was one of her favorites.

  “Or Jolene?” he continued. “Or Josephine, maybe?”

  “No, for Joe Frazier.” Heat surged across her cheeks as his eyebrows rose high into his hairline. “My dad, he was a boxing fan.”

  “He does know you’re a woman, right?” he asked with a humorous glint to his eyes.

  “Yeah, that’s why it’s not spelled with an E.”

  Mark threw back his head and laughed, a full throated, hearty laugh that brought moisture to his caramel colored eyes. Jo couldn’t help but smile too, drawn in by his obvious pleasure.

  He let go of her hand, immediately causing a sense of loss to slide down her spine in a cold shiver, and rubbed the heel of his hands against his eyes. “Sorry,” he said after a minute. “I shouldn’t laugh, but I have to admit that is the first time in a long time I have laughed.”

  Jo bit her lip, wanting to ask why that might be, but she didn’t know how to form the words. Instead, she looked awkwardly down at her desk. After a few seconds, he cleared his throat.

  “Well, I should go,” he said, the humor gone from his deep voice.

  “I guess we should both get back to work,” she agreed.

  “Yeah.”

  Her eyes still locked on the desk, Jo heard more than saw him shuffle his feet. But he didn’t move toward the door. In fact, he made no move to leave at all. Curious, she looked up and found him watching her closely.

  “I hope I didn’t offend you,” he said.

  The concern in his eyes caught her by surprise. After putting up with the barely concealed hostility of her coworkers day in and day out, not to mention the unintentional barbs of her family, it was new to Jo to be faced with genuine compassion.

  “No-oo,” she stuttered. “No offense.”

  He smiled softly and offered his hand again. “Good. That’s the last thing I would want to do.”

  He squeezed her hand lightly, winked, and walked away, leaving Jo so weak in the knees she literally fell into her chair.

  Chapter 2

  Jo walked into her apartment, kicked off her shoes, and dropped her leather satchel on the floor. Exhaustion threatened to overwhelm her despite the vow she had made to herself that morning to clean some of the clutter that would soon overtake the place. A week
end of baking had taken precedence over cleaning, only to leave the kitchen as big a wreck as the rest of the apartment; albeit, an organized mess. Jo fell onto the couch and flipped on the television, happy to see she was just in time for her favorite Food Channel show. She would only sit here for a minute, she told herself.

  Jo curled up against the big, soft cushions of the couch and thought about her brief encounter with Mark. She kept thinking about that wink he dropped just before leaving. She wondered what it meant. Could it be possible that he found her attractive? Jo shook her head, telling herself it was ridiculous. Guys like Mark did not find women like her attractive. While she wasn’t ugly by any means—at least she didn’t think she was—her almost boyish curves and her pale skin could leave some men wanting. She had always thought her dark hair was one of her best assets, the dark color accenting the paleness of her skin while making her creamy chocolate colored eyes pop. But it was impractical to wear it down at work. She almost wished she had met Mark somewhere else, under different circumstances.

  Jo sighed. Here she was, a thirty-something, single woman, fantasizing about some guy she just met. If anyone could hear her thoughts right now, they might think she was some kind of teenager with a crush.

  It wasn’t like she had a great track record when it came to guys. In high school, she might as well have been invisible. College had been productive on the social level thanks to her roommate, but the moment Rachel’s parents forced her to switch schools, Jo’s social status disappeared along with her. There had been a couple of serious relationships after college, a couple of good guys who had pursued her until they grew tired of her lack of social skills. And a few one night stands when a little too much wine loosened her tongue and her inhibitions.

  But nothing lately.

  She was lonely.

  And she wanted more. She wanted a family, a husband, and kids. She wanted the boring, quiet life most thirty-somethings dread these days. Maybe it was that need for commitment that scared most potential lovers away.

  The phone rang, interrupting Jo’s thoughts. She snatched it up and smiled when she saw the name on the caller ID.

  “Hey, Em,” she said.

  Emily, her younger sister, said, “JoJo, I am so glad you are home.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “This engagement party is turning into a nightmare.”

  Jo leaned back and closed her eyes. Emily, five years younger than Jo, was already engaged to be married. To Ryan.

  An image of Ryan filled Jo’s mind despite her efforts to forget everything she once knew about him. It wasn’t like they had been in a committed relationship. Ryan had been new at the office and Jo had been assigned to show him around, help him feel comfortable about his duties. They went to dinner a few times, shared a few intimate kisses. But then Emily visted her at the office for lunch one day and it was as though Jo no longer existed from that moment on.

  Emily had been devastated. She swore she never meant to hurt Jo. And Jo believed her, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt each time she thought about it.

  “Tell me what’s going on,” Jo said.

  “Nico’s overbooked and they can’t give us the room on Saturday. So they’ve moved it to Friday.”

  “But that’s like, the day after tomorrow.”

  “I know. I’ve already been on the phone with everyone we invited. Most of them can change their plans. And the wine delivery was for that night anyway, just so we could be sure the champagne would be on time. But I know this puts you in something of a bind with work and everything.”

  Yeah, Jo thought. It meant that she would have to sneak out of the office before five. Kathleen Thompson, while a fair boss, did not look kindly on employees who wanted to leave the office early on a Friday. It suggested frivolity, something Kathleen definitely did not promote.

  “I’ll work it out,” Jo said.

  “You are the best, Jo,” Emily gushed. “I don’t know how I would get through all this without you.”

  “You would be fine.”

  “No, I don’t think so.” Emily sighed. “So tell me what’s going on with you.”

  “Not much. Nothing ever changes in my life.”

  “Sure it does.”

  Jo thought about Mark and smiled. “Well, there is a little something. There’s a new guy in IT.”

  “Really? Is he cute?”

  Jo thought about Mark’s dimple and his well-defined physique. “He’s not bad looking.”

  “Oh, Jo, you should check him out before one of those other shrews gets their nails into him.”

  “Guys like that don’t go for girls like me, Emily.”

  “Because you don’t put yourself out there.”

  “And how do you suggest I do that?”

  “Just talk to him.”

  Jo scratched her scalp, the idea of approaching Mark cold made her nerves tingle uncomfortably. “I’ll think about it.”

  Emily sighed, clearly exasperated. “I worry so much about you. You should have gotten married long before me.”

  “Emily—”

  “I know.” She sighed again. “So, on Friday, there’s one other thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Ryan’s going to help you set up because I have a hair appointment with Mom.”

  Jo tightened her grip on the phone, half hoping she heard Emily wrong. She hadn’t seen Ryan in months, not since he quit BerCo in favor of a better paying job. It had been a relief for Jo to not have to see him every day, knowing that people were talking about them behind their backs. And it had meant no more Emily coming to the office, all giddy and in love, to see him instead of Jo.

  Being alone with Ryan now was really the last thing Jo wanted.

  “I’m really sorry, Jo,” Emily said. “If there was any other way…”

  “Don’t worry about it. He’s practically family now, anyway.”

  What else could she say?

  “You’re the best, Jo.”

  Chapter 3

  Jo smacked her hand against the side of her computer monitor. Of all the days for it to decide to freeze up on her. She’d called IT more than twenty minutes ago, and of course they weren’t there yet. A glance at the clock only increased her panic She had less than an hour to do three hours of work before she had to leave for Emily’s engagement party.

  She tried again to get the frozen cursor to move by typing randomly on the keyboard, but again there was no response.

  “That won’t help,” a voice from the open doorway stated.

  Jo looked up and forgot her urgency for a moment as Mark walked into the room. She couldn’t help but admire the way he moved, the easy confidence with which he carried himself. And the smile he offered her that made her heart skip a beat.

  “So we meet again,” he said.

  “Yeah. I guess it was inevitable with these old clunkers.”

  Mark laughed. “I’m beginning to realize that.”

  Jo got up and made room for Mark to sit behind her desk. At first she stood behind him, enjoying the smell of his cologne and the vision of his large, muscular hands on her keyboard. Her thoughts began to turn more to the erotic, but the sight of the pale white mark on his ring finger, where a wedding band should have been, made her realize she did not know enough about him to have thoughts of that nature.

  Jo moved restlessly to the front of her desk and watched in silence as he did one thing after another to coax her computer to properly function. He glanced at her once or twice, but otherwise seemed unaware of her presence. It was awkward, to say the least.

  To make the situation worse, voices began to float into the room from the hallway. The gist of the conversation was soon very clear and Jo froze solid, imitating the actions of her antiquated hard drive.

  “Can you believe she’s throwing the engagement party? First the humiliation of losing her boyfriend to her sister—”

  “I would have died.”

  “But its Jo we’re talking about. She would sit ba
ck and let anyone walk over her.”

  “True.”

  “Remember when she had that thing for Sam up in legal? She was like a—”

  The door slammed.

  “Nothing I hate more than gossips,” Mark said as he quickly returned to her desk.

  Heat again rushed to Jo’s face, a growing habit around Mark. She turned away, staring out the window at the Dallas cityscape as though it was the most interesting thing in the world. She couldn’t help but wonder what he thought about what he’d heard. Did he think she was a doormat like her coworkers did? Did he think she was weak and stupid? She couldn’t imagine why he wouldn’t.

  “I should have this working again in a few minutes,” Mark said.

  “Thank you,” she said, risking a quick glance in his direction. He was watching her, a sadness in his eyes that touched her deeply. But then she realized he felt sorry for her and she turned away again.

  “Funny the things you have to put up with for a paycheck,” he said after a few moments of silence, nodding at her computer monitor. “Hard to adjust to these antiquated machines after the state of the art stuff we had at my last job.”

  “Where was that?” Jo asked, hoping to change the subject.

  “Mason’s Electronics across town. Would still be there, but the economic downturn forced layoffs.”

  “Is that where you learned to do all this?” she asked, gesturing at her computer.

  “No. Learned it in the Army.”

  Jo turned and regarded him with more interest. “You were in the Army?”

  “Twelve years,” Mark said proudly. “Wanted to put in my twenty, but things change.”

  “Were you injured?” Jo asked, trying to imagine where the injury might be. Again her thoughts began to go in a direction she didn’t want them to go.