Authors: Lexy Timms
“May I take your order?” the server asked.
Jamie glanced across the table at Christine, who didn't quite meet her eyes. “I think we're still looking,” she said. “Thanks.”
“No worries. Just wave me down if you need me, or I'll be back in a few minutes to check on you.”
The young server hurried away to another table, and Jamie tried to get Christine to look up at her through sheer force of will. Yet Christine continued to stare down at the menu.
She hadn't been happy at the twins' birthday. Before the fainting had caught everyone's attention, Jamie had noticed the way that the smile on her sister's face appeared half pasted on. Obviously something had happened, and now Jamie was determined to find out what it was. The problem was in getting Christine to actually talk about it.
Once, she would have jumped at the chance to air her every complaint to anyone who would listen. Now, it was like pulling teeth to even get her to come to lunch.
“Christine,” Jamie said.
Her sister looked up from the menu finally, flashing a smile that looked entirely fake. “Yes?”
“Will you actually talk to me? Or do you just want to go?” She sounded like she was talking to the twins, half bribing them even when they were too young to know. Christine, on the other hand, was big enough to know better.
Her sister must have known what Jamie wanted when she called to invite her for lunch. If she didn’t want to talk about it at all, she wouldn’t have come.
Christine sighed. “About what?”
“About whatever is making you look like that,” Jamie answered. “You haven’t seemed happy since the twins’ birthday, and… honestly, I’m worried about you.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Jamie looked across the table at her sister, and Christine met her gaze for only a minute before she dropped it and she looked away. “Fine,” she said. “I’m… I’m happy for Mark and Erica. I really am.”
“But…” Jamie prodded.
Christine looked up at her, and there was no more pretend smile. “But I liked Mark,” she admitted in a voice hardly above a whisper. “I mean,
really
liked Mark.”
And Erica had showed up to the twins’ birthday party wearing an engagement ring. Of course. Arrow straight through the heart. How had Jamie not seen that coming?
“He’s an easy man to like,” Jamie said, mentally searching for the right words. She knew exactly how it felt to want someone and not have those feelings returned, but it must be a new sensation for Christine, who had always had boys tripping over themselves for her attention. “What you’re feeling is normal, Christine.”
“I don’t care that it’s normal,” Christine snapped, and for a moment Jamie saw the woman she had been before she’d changed. Then her face twisted, and the expression of irritation smoothed into apology. “I’m sorry. I know that you’re just trying to help, Jamie. It’s just that knowing how normal it isn’t doesn’t make it any easier to get over.”
“I know,” Jamie said, and she did. She reached out, taking her sister’s hand in her own and waiting until Christine met her eyes. “I know how hard it is to set your hopes on something and then have it taken away from you.”
Christine smiled a little. “I guess that you would.” She bit her lip and the smile faded. “I should never have treated you the way that I used to, Jamie.”
Jamie shook her head. “You’ve already apologized for that. You don’t need to again. I forgave you a long time ago.”
The noise Christine made tried to be a laugh, but it was verging on a sob. Her fingers clenched Jamie’s. “I don’t know what I did to deserve a sister like you. Or a brother-in-law like Alex, honestly. I know that I should just be satisfied with what I have when it’s more than most people get, and better than I would have given you before everything happened.”
“You’ll get there. It sucks now, but you’ll move past the feelings and it will get easier.” Jamie gave her sister an encouraging smile. “You’ll be able to look at Mark and just see a brother. Trust me.”
Christine opened her mouth to speak and then closed it again as their server suddenly appeared beside their table, order pad in hand. He smiled at them. “You ladies ready to order?”
Jamie hadn’t even looked at her menu, but she’d been to the restaurant a few times before and ordered a sandwich that she’d liked the last time. Christine glanced down at her menu again for a moment, lips pursed, and then turned a smile on the server. It didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I’ll take the grilled chicken salad. Thank you.”
“Be right up,” he said, taking their menus and hurrying away again. Jamie hoped that his appearance hadn’t entirely stopped Christine from saying what she had been about to say.
Christine took a sip from her glass of water, and then looked up at Jamie. “I hope that you’re right,” she said softly. “Because I don’t want my feelings to ruin the friendship that we’ve been building. I really… I really value it. Mark has been so kind to me. And I actually do like Erica. I don’t want her to feel like I’m trying to step in on her man. I would never do that.”
“I’m not sure Erica even knew you liked Mark.”
“No.” Christine shook her head. “I've tried really hard to make sure that I'm not obvious about the way I feel. But I know that the fight Mark and Erica had—and almost broke up over—was partly about me. Mark sat with me one night, when I was upset after a date that went badly. You know the one. Erica saw us together and got angry. I just don't want anything like that to happen again. Not when they're so happy.”
“So make sure that it doesn't,” Jamie said. “If you're worried about certain things being taken the wrong way you can make sure that you don't interact with Mark other than in public, but I really don't think that's going to be necessary. They've worked through their problems, and I'm sure there were other factors involved.” She smiled. “There usually are. I've never had a fight with Alex that's over just one thing.”
“I had plenty of fights over just one thing, but they were before.” Christine lifted her narrow shoulders in a shrug and let them fall again. “I think I may not have had the brain power to hold more than one idea in my head at a time, I was so busy thinking all the time about how I looked and how I should act and whatever else was going through my mind on a constant basis,” she laughed a little self-deprecatingly.
“You're not that person anymore,” Jamie said.
Christine smiled, and for the first time since Jamie had started to worry it truly reached her eyes. “No,” she said. “I'm not. And I'm glad.”
“Plus, dating your boss can sometimes get messy.”
Christine giggled. “Yeah, like you and Alex?”
Jamie grinned back. “Bad example. Sorry.”
The server appeared then, with Jamie's sandwich and Christine's salad.
“You know,” Jamie said as he walked away and Christine took her first bite. “We could try inviting Erica to come to lunch with us. She’s going to be part of the family. Maybe that would make things feel a little less awkward.”
Christine paused with her fork halfway to her mouth. “Actually, I think that would be a really good idea. Maybe she wouldn't feel defensive if she actually knew me, and if I knew her better I wouldn't feel so much like I was... moving in on her territory, so to speak.”
“So we'll ask her next time.”
Christine nodded, and finished the mouthful she'd stopped in the middle of. Jamie took a bite of her own sandwich, glad to see that the worry seemed to have left her sister's expression. She didn't want to have to watch Christine slide back into the spiral she'd been in before. Hopefully they'd taken the right steps to make sure that didn't happen again.
“I'm sure everything will work out,” she said when her mouth wasn't full.
“I'm sure it will,” Christine agreed. She paused a moment before touching her sister’s hand briefly. “Thank you, Jamie.”
Jamie smiled. “What are sisters for?”
Two Weeks Later
Alex straightened up from the paperwork he'd been bent over and sighed. The rest of the staff would be coming in soon, not so dedicated to making it to work at six in the morning. Most of the time lately he hadn't been in so early either, but there were still a few things to work through from the mess with Zander, and Paul would be showing up for his first day, so Alex wanted to make sure everything was in order for him. Scaring him off before he'd started wasn't exactly the best way to make sure that his company had a capable senior advisor.
Jamie was on her way in, too. He glanced at his watch. Nearly eight. She'd be arriving any minute. It wasn't her usual day to work, but she'd wanted to be around when Paul got in, and he hadn't exactly had a good reason to tell her she couldn't be, no matter how much her obvious enthusiasm about seeing Paul again stirred up a few lingering traces of jealousy.
She’s married to me
, he reminded himself. She had carried his children. They were happy together, and his irrational jealousy was going to pose far more of a problem than Paul ever could if he didn't get it together.
The sound of voices out in the reception area convinced him to leave his chair, and he stretched as he stood, working some of the kinks out of his back. It seemed like those hadn't been quite as much of a problem a few years ago, but maybe he was just imagining things. It wasn't like he was exactly old. Alex chuckled at the thought. There was a long way to go before he hit that stage of life. Most likely it was just carrying the kids around all the time; they were starting to get pretty heavy. He couldn't imagine how Jamie managed it. Maybe he should buy her a massage appointment as a gift. There wasn't a particular occasion coming up, but a man had a right to spoil his wife.
Yes, he decided, he was going to make sure Jamie had a day to get thoroughly spoiled. Maybe he'd even include Christine and Erica in those plans. Jamie had been making a point of having sister bonding time lately, and she and Christine had taken Erica out for lunch a few days ago. She'd be happy if he helped her facilitate more of it.
Happy enough that he might get a bit of his own spoiling, and that decided it.
Out in reception, Paul was standing at the desk speaking with Justin, and he looked up when Alex stepped out of his office. A smile lit his face.
“Mr. Reid,” he said, immediately crossing the floor, hand held out.
Alex shook it, offering the younger man a smile of his own. “Hello, Paul. I'm glad that you decided to join us. And you can just call me Alex now.”
“Well, Alex, it was an offer I'd have to be kind of an idiot to turn down.”
That was true enough. Alex opened his mouth to answer in a way that didn't sound quite as blunt, and was interrupted by the elevator opening to reveal his gorgeous wife.
“Paul!” she called.
Paul turned and Alex was sure that he was smiling at her. “Jamie! So good to see you again.”
Alex’s own smile tightened a little at its edges as he watched Jamie hurry over to take Paul’s hand in her own.
“We’re so glad to have you back,” she said, shaking it. “It’s been a crazy time.”
“So I’ve heard. I’m pleased that Mr. Reid—Alex thought of me when he needed a new advisor. I’m looking forward to working with Reid Enterprises again.”
Jamie let go of his hand then, and moved past him to wrap her arms around Alex, leaning up on her toes for a brief, chaste kiss. Alex wanted to wrap his hands around her waist and pull her in for a kiss that would show the entire office who she belonged to, but as much as he would like that it wasn’t the kind of professional behavior that a CEO should be showing around a new employee. Or an old one who had come back again. He let her go, and promised himself that he would kiss her the way that he wanted to later. He was sure she wouldn’t object then either.
“And we’re looking forward to seeing what you can do with the position,” Alex said to Paul. “I was impressed with your work when you were with us before, and I hope to see that same standard now.”
“You’ll see even better,” Paul said firmly, and Alex couldn’t help but be reminded of himself. Last time Paul had worked for them, he had thought the younger man was very much the way he’d been ten years before, and nothing had happened to change that assumption.
“I’ll hold you to that,” Alex promised.
“Why don't I take you to your new office and you can get settled in?” Jamie suggested. “If I know Alex, he’s probably already got a lot for you to get started on.”
She did know him. Too well. There was a stack of files waiting for Paul in his new office, to help him get caught up on everything that had happened at the company since he last worked for them. Alex watched Jamie walk away, chatting easily with Paul, and then turned around to head back into his own office. Like Paul, he had a full day's worth of work ahead of him.
***
Lunch rolled around faster than Alex had realized, and he didn't realize how late it had gotten until someone knocked at his door. He pulled his attention from the computer in front of him and turned to look toward it. “Come in.”
The door swung open and Jamie slipped into the room, giving him a smile that never failed to make his day better. She crossed the space between them and sat down on the edge of his desk, leaning in for a kiss that he gladly responded to. His hands spanned her hips, and he had half a mind to just pull her down into the chair with him. That skirt would offer easy enough access, and it had been far too long since they'd made love in his office.
“Oh, no you don't,” Jamie said, laughing, pulling away like she knew what he was thinking. She probably did know what he was thinking. It wasn't a very subtle thought.
“No?”
She shook her head. “I just came to get you for lunch, actually. You know, food? That stuff you need to keep surviving so that you can continue bulldozing through this massive pile of work.”
“We could skip lunch,” Alex suggested, thumbs rubbing circles over the arches of her hipbones under her clothes.
“As much as I would enjoy that, I actually am hungry.”
Alex brushed his lips against the curve of her throat and felt her shiver against him. “Are you sure about that?” he murmured.
“Very—” her breath caught. “Very sure. Later.” She swatted lightly at his shoulder. “Down, boy.”
That made him laugh despite himself, and he pulled back to look up at her face. “Okay. Fine. Lunch. I take it you want me to eat it with you?”
“I would like it if you would. You need a break.”
He did need a break. She'd turned down his best break idea, but Alex supposed he could go for the next best thing. “Sure. I'll grab lunch with you, baby. Did you bring something, or are you wanting to go out?”
“I thought we might go get something. Maybe take Paul?” She looked at him like she wasn't entirely sure what his reaction was going to be to the suggestion. “Since it's his first day.”
Alex sighed. “Not that I dislike Paul, but having to wait on bending you over my desk so we can take him to lunch isn't my favorite compromise.”
“I'll make it up to you,” Jamie said, the tone of her voice enough to make him wish that they were staying in. Maybe for the rest of the day. “Promise.”
“You had better,” Alex shot back.
She laughed and slid down off the desk, offering him her hand. Alex took it and let her lead him out into reception, where Paul was already waiting. He nodded at them both, looking a little less fresh than he had that morning. The pile of research and paperwork had obviously taken its toll.
“We'll go to that place just down the street,” Jamie said. “The one we haven't been to in a while.”
“Wherever you want to go,” Alex said, and he meant it.
They rode the elevator, carrying on polite conversation about what Paul had been doing while away, how much he had to catch up on and, thankfully, Jamie kept the conversation going at a steady stream as they walked.
When they arrived at the restaurant, it was quiet, the lunch rush having already passed. They claimed a table in the corner, and Jamie pulled her phone out of her pocket, checking the screen.
“Christine’s in the area.” She looked up at both of them. “Would you mind if she joins us?”
Alex was starting to feel like the business lunch that he'd initially thought this was going to be wasn't exactly what Jamie had planned. But he couldn't exactly tell her that her sister couldn't come have lunch with them. He'd had plans for some discussion around where the business had been lately and where he would like it to go, but that could wait easily enough. “I don't see a problem with it.”
“Of course I don't mind,” Paul said. “She’s your sister, right?” He shot a glance at Alex, who nodded. Another long story Alex wasn’t going to get into. Plus, he had no idea what all Paul knew.
“Great!” Jamie smiled at them both. “I'll let her know.”
Once, Alex wouldn't have let Christine anywhere near Jamie if he could help it. She'd brought his wife nothing but stress and pain. But then, his own relationship with his brother had been horribly strained for years. He was glad that had changed. And glad for Jamie's sake that her sister had come to her senses.
“Go ahead and think about what you want to order. She won't be very long.”
Jamie was looking down at her own menu, and Alex watched her instead of looking at his, trying to convince her without saying anything to look up at him. He knew that she had to feel the way he was staring, and after a minute she did lift her head, her expression a little sheepish. Alex raised an eyebrow at her, and she gave a tiny shrug that wasn't exactly an answer but was pretty much what he had expected. She had definitely planned the entire thing, which was exactly like Jamie.
“Christine,” Jamie said suddenly, rising from her seat and moving around the table to lead her sister back to it. “I'm really happy you could join us for lunch.”
“Of course,” Christine murmured, sounding a little confused. Alex didn't blame her. She probably hadn't been expecting her sister to try to play matchmaker this afternoon.
“Go ahead and take a seat. We haven't ordered yet,” Jamie instructed as she sat back down in her chair, which Alex noticed conveniently left the space next to Paul open. Christine sat down. “This is Paul, by the way. Paul, this is my sister, Christine.”
“Nice to meet you,” Paul said, reaching out to shake her hand.
Christine gave it a look, like she wasn't sure whether she wanted to take it or not, and then she did, reaching out and letting him fold his fingers around hers. “Nice to meet you, too.”
If the way Paul was looking at Christine was any indication, Jamie had been more than a little right about trying to get them together, though Alex didn't see why she couldn't have waited until after business hours to do it.
“Paul is our new senior advisor,” Jamie said. “He worked for the company before, but Alex just brought him back to fill the open position.”
“How do you like it so far?” Christine asked. Her voice was a little shy. She'd obviously noticed the fact that he was staring at her.
“Well, it's only my first day back, but it helps that I've worked for the company before. I feel at home already.” He glanced sideways at Alex before his eyes moved back to Christine, all his attention on her. “The workload isn’t exactly light, but I’m always up for a challenge.”
Definitely Alex ten years ago, although Alex was sure that he hadn’t been quite so annoying. His wife, meanwhile, looked like the cat that got the canary. If her expression was any more smug, they'd be able to see it from the next block over. It was a look that Alex kind of liked on her. Most of her looks were ones he liked on her, to be honest, but that particular one had a certain appeal. A ruthless business kind of appeal. Hot.
The light talk continued around the table as they decided on the food they wanted and waited for their orders to come in. Alex let it go, contributing occasionally when someone looked his way. For the most part, he let Paul and Christine talk, which seemed to be what Jamie was doing, too, interjecting bits of information about Paul's accomplishments or something that Christine had done. It was about as subtle as a sledgehammer, but Jamie had never really been anything but up front about anything.
“So what are you doing now?” Paul asked.
“I work for Alex's brother, Mark, at Little Lake Country Club, as a receptionist.”
Paul's expression brightened. “I’ve heard about that place. I'd actually been thinking about checking it out once I moved back here.”
“You should.” Christine smiled a little shyly at him. “It's a good place to golf. Even better, once the renovations are done.”
Which reminded Alex, he needed to talk to Mark. He made a mental note of it.
When lunch had ended, and everyone's plates were cleared from the table, Alex stood and held out his hand for Jamie's. Her fingers slipped between his, and he gave her palm a light squeeze, prompting a smile from her. Paul and Christine stood, too, Christine smoothing imaginary wrinkles from the skirt that she was wearing, her eyes lowered.
“I was wondering,” Paul said, and she looked up. “Could I...” he hesitated. Jamie tugged on Alex's hand and pulled him toward the exit, obviously intent on giving them privacy so that Paul could ask for Christine's number without feeling like he was being unprofessional in front of his boss.