Back to the Drawing Board (10 page)

“I don’t want to talk about Johnny,” I interrupted. “I can’t do anything about it, so just drop it.”

“So let’s assume that you slept together,” Tracey continued, thankfully dropping the Johnny subject.

I groaned. “If I slept with that man, I hate myself even more for not remembering.”

“He was in a hotel, and here only for a day. Right?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Well,” Tracey said, “what’s the likelihood of him having protection with him or even used it if you were both in such a state that you can’t remember what happened?”

Cold chills started at my head and followed a lightning path to my toes, making goose bumps break out all over me. My mouth opened and closed but nothing came out.
Oh, my God. I hadn’t even thought of that.

“Julia?”

“Oh, God,” I cried, feeling the tears coming back. Damn it, I might as well call it a day. My stomach roiled, threatening to bring back the blueberry muffin and coffee I’d had earlier.

“You may want to make an appointment with your doctor,” Tracey said. “Better safe than sorry, right?”

There was no way in hell I wanted to have this conversation with Carter. God, I was so stupid.

I STARED OUT THE SLIDING
glass window of my new apartment at the mountains, in awe that I was really doing this. I was here. It had been a week since I’d heard those fateful words from Julia, and my life had been a whirlwind since. Saying goodbye to my family and life in Florida had been way harder than I’d thought it would be. After I got settled and into this new job, I wanted them to come out and see me. I’d even gone and had lunch with my ‘other’ dad, Ronan, before leaving. Of course he’d tried to give me money, of which I calmly but firmly declined. It wasn’t that I was too proud to ask for help; it was that every time he did something like that I felt like it was a smack in the face to my
actual
father. Blake didn’t have any issues helping me, and he and my mom had given me plenty to survive on out here. I was still angry with Ronan for so many things, though I tried to stuff it down for everyone’s sake. It just wasn’t worth losing my mind over it.

I’d just arrived here late last night to an empty apartment. The only thing I had in here now was an air mattress and the two suitcases I’d brought on the plane. I’d gotten to talk to Julia’s dad, Mr. Gibbons, and even his wife, Mrs. Gibbons on the phone several times. They’d helped me with getting the place finalized and getting the utilities hooked up. All of my belongings and my car were somewhere in transit from Florida.

For the first time, I had my own apartment, and it was breathtaking. Large windows brought in the natural light, and there were amazing views of the mountains from my family room. I felt like I could stand there and look at them forever.

I hadn’t heard from Julia since that day, other than the emails we’d sent back and forth about the Adams project. She was right—- it was epic and I was so excited to get started on it. With her.

Forcing the thoughts of the beautiful brown haired beauty out of my head, I heard my phone pinging with a message. I ignored it and turned my thoughts to my first day, and how I was going to manage to behave professionally with Julia.

I was a stupid, stupid man. I vowed not to get that drunk again, and certainly not around Julia. It was obvious I couldn’t handle myself. There was something about her that knocked me off of my game, but I was going to have to figure out how to control myself.
There’s no reason to start acting like a fool over a woman, now,
I thought to myself.
She’s just a pretty face. You go to work, you do your job, and you achieve your dream of working for this company for good. Getting messed up with Julia because your hormones are out of whack isn’t going to get you the dream, and you didn’t work this hard for this many years to throw it away over a roll in the hay.

Yeah. I could do this. I grabbed my new briefcase full of the papers Julia had sent me about the Adams project and walked out of my new apartment, knowing full well the entire pep talk I’d given myself would be shot to hell the second I saw her. I could only hope the lies I told myself would be enough to keep my hands to myself.

The elevator doors opened and I walked out, forcing myself to exude an air of confidence I
definitely
didn’t feel. I knew where Mr. Gibbons office was, but not Julia’s. I assumed I’d be going directly to her’s.

“Mr. McIntyre,” the peppy receptionist stood, holding out her hand. She either had a great memory, or she’d been told to look out for me. “I’m Brandi. Welcome to GSJ.”

I took her hand, smiling at her. Her hands were small and cold, and I noticed the gleam in her eye the second I looked at her. Oh, yeah. She thought I was fresh meat. I dropped her hand, breaking our gaze as I looked around. It was still quiet in the office, but I just had to admire the architecture of this building one more time.

“Is Jul- Ms. Gibbons in?” I asked, biting the inside of my cheek at my faux pas. I could
not
call her Julia right out of the gate.
Professional
, I reminded myself.

“She is. If you go straight back, her office is the one just before Mr. Gibbons. Would you like me to take you there?”

I shook my head. “No, thank you, Brandi. It was nice to see you again.” Some manners refused to quit.
Don’t feed the animals,
I chuckled to myself.

She looked me up and down so blatantly, I wanted to squirm. “The pleasure was
all
mine. Let me know if there’s anything I can do for you, Carter.”

Deciding not to respond to her obvious come-on, I turned and walked towards Julia’s office, mentally steeling myself for seeing her again. When I reached her door, I stared at the etching on the plate next to her door.
Julia Gibbons, Architect
. I ran my fingers along the etched glass, thinking about this being where I belong. God, I couldn’t wait to have my own office. Her door was shut, so I knocked lightly, forcing the air in and out of my lungs.

“Come in,” her voice came through the door.
Chill, man. Be cool
, I repeated over and over in my head. Turning the handle, I opened the door into another modern, wall-to-wall window office much like her dad’s, just smaller. A modern steel desk sat to one side with a two huge computer screens, and a large table took up much of the middle of the room. A projector hung from the ceiling.

Julia stood at her desk. My eyes took in her cream-colored pantsuit. It made her skin look even more flawless than it already was. Her dark hair was up in a bun with a few pieces framing her face. My eyes zeroed in on her smooth neck, and my fingers itched to reach out and touch that skin.
Maybe you already touched it
, that little annoying voice reminded me. Her captivating eyes sucked me in the second they met mine.

“Carter,” she said, a smile crinkling the corners of her eyes and making that little dimple pop. “It’s great to see you again. Welcome back, and welcome to GSJ.” While her tone was friendly, she was still all business. Good. Maybe this wouldn’t be as hard as I’d thought. She was way more professional than Brandi up front.

“Thank you,” I answered. “This is an amazing office. I just can’t get over the views here. Even from my apartment. It’s just breathtaking.”

“Quite different from Florida. It is beautiful here, but I’m a native so we kind of take it for granted. You get all settled then?”

“Well, if you call having no furniture and sleeping on an air mattress settled, then yes. I’ll be busy this week getting furniture and waiting on the rest of my things, but I love it here so far.”

Julia laughed, making my chest feel tight again. “Well, good. My parents are at a meeting out of town, so they’ll greet you tomorrow. We’re going to jump right in to the Adams project. We have a meeting with Mr. Adams after lunch today, so we will work here in my office on the specs of what he wants and how we are going to deliver it all on budget. I’ve got a head start, so I’ll get you up to speed. We’ll order lunch in so we can be ready for him right after. There’s a great deli I always order from around the corner if that’s okay with you.”

My brain was registering her words, making me nod my head, but my eyes were stuck watching the fullness of her lips as she spoke. I remembered those lips on mine that was for sure. When I realized she’d stopped talking, I snapped my eyes to hers. A small smile played on her lips, and there was laughter in her eyes. She stepped up to me, her eyes darting behind her for a moment at the open door before locking on mine again.

“What’s the matter, Carter?” Her voice dropped as she got closer. I watched in awe as she licked her bottom lip. What was she doing? What did I want her to do?

Forcing myself to step back, I averted my eyes from her. “Sorry. I didn’t sleep well. Yes, the deli sounds perfect. Ready to get to work?” She gave me a look, the one that told me she knew what I was doing, or
not
doing. I stepped around her and pulled out one of the chairs, settling myself into one to wait for her to come sit down. I needed to focus on work. That was what I was here for. My attraction to her was going to have to be just that—- an attraction.

As if smelling Julia’s light perfume as we hovered together over the plans, the budget, and the meeting agenda all morning hadn’t been hard enough, now we were eating lunch together. Her assistant, Paige, had gone out to get us food from the deli while we were working. We only had about fifteen minutes before Mr. Adams arrived, but it wasn’t him that was making my stomach a jittery mess.

Julia slipped off her jacket and I couldn’t keep my eyes off of the silk shirt she was wearing. I forced my fingers to pick up my sandwich instead of reaching out and feeling the soft fabric. It was professional and modest, but when she turned towards me in a certain way, I could see just a peek of lace underneath. It was making me hungry in a whole new way.

“Oh, we have a benefit coming up next weekend for the Grand Opening/ Ribbon Cutting/ Dedication of the new Children’s Hospital we recently finished about forty-five minutes from here in Castle Rock. Everyone is expected to go. It’s black tie. I figured I better tell you now so you have time to make sure you unpack your dress clothes.”