Authors: Tawna Fenske
Will pulled a set of keys out of his pocket as they approached a silver Porsche, and Marley waited for the beep of the door locks.
Instead, Will moved past the Porsche to the passenger side of a gray Volkswagen hatchback. The car was nice enough, but at least ten years old. Will unlocked Marley’s door with his key, and Marley wondered if he was being chivalrous or just didn’t have power locks.
Chivalrous,
she realized, as Will handed her into the passenger seat before flipping the lock on the driver’s side and opening his own door. As Marley buckled her seat belt, Will cranked the ignition. The stereo began thumping with the sound of something that sounded strangely like the Go-Go’s.
“‘We Got the Beat’?” Marley asked with a raised eyebrow. “You weren’t joking about the ’80s bubblegum pop?”
“My favorite,” Will answered, not looking embarrassed at all. He rolled down his window and eased out of the parking lot. “Want your window down?”
Marley had half expected the windows to be the hand-crank variety, so she was surprised to see his hand on the power button.
“Yes, please,” she said, and flipped down her sunglasses.
“There’s air conditioning, but I always prefer the breeze.”
“Me too. Especially here in the high desert where everything smells so good.”
“You don’t think juniper smells like cat pee?”
Marley laughed. “I never thought about it.”
“My ex-wife can’t stand the smell of juniper. Thinks it smells like a pack of drunk tomcats got loose and sprayed the town.”
“There’s a nice visual. Does she live in Central Oregon?”
“My ex-wife? Yes.”
Marley watched his face for a reaction, waiting in case the silence prompted him to fill in the blanks. His expression stayed blank, and Will didn’t seem to feel the need to fill the silence.
“I imagine that makes it tough,” Marley said at last.
Will shrugged. “Tough for her to avoid juniper, for sure. The stuff is everywhere around here. Last Christmas I gave her some body lotion called Juniper Breeze.”
Marley digested the information, intrigued by the context clues. Did it say something that he bought Christmas presents for his ex-wife? Did it say something else that he bought a present he knew she wouldn’t like? Marley mulled it over, aware she was probably overthinking things.
She was also aware they were both avoiding the very large elephant in the room. Marley cleared her throat. “So when we met at the Humane Society on Monday, and then later at my house when we—”
“Made out like horny teenagers?”
Marley flushed. “Right. Um, I didn’t know who you were.”
“And I didn’t know who you were. Is that what you’re driving at?”
“Pretty much.”
Will smiled. “The hiring committee gave the board of directors a chance to review the candidates’ résumés throughout the process, but I didn’t feel a need to be involved. I didn’t even know the name of the person they’d hired until you showed up this morning and I connected the dots.”
“Right. That makes sense.” Marley fidgeted with the notepad in her lap, trying to think of the best way to phrase what she had to say. “Under the circumstances, with you being the president of the board of directors and me—”
“You’re thinking a June wedding then?”
“What?”
He grinned at her. “I’m kidding, Marley. You’re right. Under the circumstances, it would be a terrible conflict of interest for us to make a habit of swapping spit in your kitchen.”
“Yes, exactly.” Marley bit her lip, wishing like hell she wasn’t disappointed.
“
My
kitchen would be a much better place. The counters are a little higher, and if we get the angle just right—”
“Will!” She smacked him on the shoulder and laughed, enjoying the fizzle of lust that shot through her belly. “I’m trying to be professional here.”
“And I admire that. You’re right, of course. No more fooling around between the development director and the board chairman.”
“It’s important to respect company policy,” Marley said. “As a new employee, the last thing I need is a scandal or any sort of disciplinary action.”
“Relax, Marley. I’m not going to ravage you in the backseat. Or the front seat. Or on the hood. Or—”
“Thank you,” Marley said, not feeling particularly thankful.
Will nodded. “So are you worried about be-ribboning the badgers?”
“Maybe a little,” she said, relieved by the shift in conversation. “It’s my first time handling a donor dinner party that involves wild animals.”
“Get used to it. You’re more likely to see a porcupine at a Cheez Whiz charity dinner than a tuxedo.”
“Cheez Whiz,” Marley repeated, smiling a little. “Have you always called it that?”
“No. I started after new management took over a few years ago and went on a mission to make the place more respectable and classy.”
“Not a mission you support?”
“Not when
respectable
means
elitist
and
classy
means
boring
. I’m not a fan of pretentiousness or false airs. My family has supported the organization for years, and the last thing I want is for it to become a stuffy, hoity place that takes itself so seriously that no one gets to enjoy it.”
“I see,” Marley said, digesting the information. “I can appreciate that. I’ve worked for a lot of organizations that take themselves too seriously.” She shrugged and looked out the window. “On the other hand, sometimes you have to play the part to get the job done.”
“Play the part?”
“Go along with other people’s rules for the greater good of an organization that serves the community.”
Will was quiet, and Marley turned to see him regarding her curiously. “That’s an interesting perspective,” he said.
Marley couldn’t tell from his tone if
interesting
meant
interesting
, or
interesting
meant
you’re a fruitcake
, so she shrugged again. “I’ve been in this business a long time in bigger cities like Portland and Seattle. Things are a little more formal there. Speaking of which, do you have any tips on dress for this evening?”
Will laughed. “You’re asking
me
for wardrobe tips?”
“I guess so.”
“You’re aware I was wearing bedroom slippers when we met.”
Marley smiled and fiddled with the door handle. “I’m aware of that.”
“Bed has strict rules about hosiery, neckties, wearing sunglasses in public, saying
bless
you
when someone sneezes, standing up when a woman enters the room, printing materials for board meetings in fourteen-point type, and using nothing but Riedel stemware to serve wine at board functions.”
“Oh,” Marley said. “Are Bed’s rules written down somewhere?”
“No. You just have to wait to get yelled at when you break one.”
Marley nodded and went back to the topic of clothing. “So for tonight. I assume I’ll be safe in a little black dress and heels, but if everyone’s going to turn up in jeans, I’d like to know in advance.”
“That’s what I’ll be wearing.” He glanced over at her. “The jeans, not the little black dress.”
“Really?”
“Maybe you’re right. I’d look good in a little black dress, and if I had the right heels—”
Marley laughed. “So will most guests be in jeans?”
“Dunno.” He took his eyes off the road a moment and studied her. Marley resisted the urge to cross her arms over her chest or ask what he was looking at. She met his gaze and tried not to squirm.
“You seem awfully worried what people think of you,” he said at last.
“I beg your pardon?”
He shrugged. “I don’t mean that as an insult. Just an observation.”
“Because I care what I wear to my first major fund-raiser?”
Will shrugged. “And what kind of music you listen to at home. And which college sports team you favor. And whether you play golf with board members. And whether Bed thinks you can give her mauve rabbits. And—”
“Enough.” Marley swallowed hard, trying to keep her expression impassive. “For your information, a development director
needs
to be focused on pleasing others. On conforming to their expectations. On learning what makes people tick and using that information to—”
“So when you drive out here tonight, you want to look for that tree,” Will said, interrupting Marley’s diatribe to thrust an arm in front of her and point at the side of the road. “The big juniper on the left with the orange flag attached. See it?”
Marley blinked and stared at Will’s arm. Then at the tree. She opened her mouth to say something, but only managed to nod.
Will grinned and drew his arm back, placing both hands back on the wheel. “I’m a master at avoiding conflict,” he said. “I prefer to do it with inappropriate humor, but I don’t know you well enough yet to make penis jokes.”
Marley stared at him, shaken by the turn in conversation. “You’re certainly the most irreverent board chairman I’ve ever worked with.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment. I see it as my civic duty to keep Cheez Whiz from becoming a boring, stuffy organization filled with entitled rich people and overeducated snobs.” He nodded out the window again as he turned off the highway onto a narrow stretch of country road. “Seriously though, this is where you’ll turn tonight. From here, it’s almost exactly six miles, then another right on a gravel road flanked by a wrought iron livestock fence.”
Marley gave up studying Will and looked at the landscape instead. She scanned acres and acres of pasture, flecked with scrubby sagebrush and gnarled, ancient juniper. The sky was a stunning shade of blue flecked with wispy clouds, and a cluster of red-brown cows dotting a field was the only bright splash of color to be seen.
“Wow, Bed is way out here in the middle of nowhere.”
“The family has almost sixty acres,” Will said. “And the best mountain views you can imagine. Don’t miss the sunset tonight.”
“I’ll try not to.”
They drove in silence for a while, Marley sneaking glances at Will every now and then. She thought about his words, turning them over in her brain like weird gumballs in a plastic sphere. When she gave that up, she just looked at him. He was still in his suit from the meeting, but he’d ditched the jacket and tie in the backseat and unbuttoned the top of his shirt. His sleeves were rolled up, and he was drumming his fingers on the steering wheel completely out of sync with the Cyndi Lauper song on the stereo. The coppery highlights in his hair were even more noticeable in the sunlight, and from this angle she could only see his green eye.
“Here we are,” Will announced, jarring Marley out of her thoughts.
She stared at the house and blinked. “Holy crap.”
Will laughed and opened his car door. “In a manner of speaking.”
Marley had seen a lot of huge houses in her line of work, but this place was massive. The architecture was a fascinating mix of Tuscan and Napa, with elaborate stonework and tastefully aged wood. The roof was tile, and the rockwork surrounding the enormous patio was a work of art.
“Those columns are antique,” Will said, reaching into the backseat and hefting the case of wine in his arms as Marley studied the handcrafted stonework. “Bed imported them from Italy.”
Marley ran her hand over a subtly dressed stucco wall. “The doors are amazing.”
“The wood was rescued from an old church in Tuscany.”
He shifted the case of wine to one hip and knocked on the door twice—two quick raps—and then walked inside without waiting for anyone to answer. Marley hesitated, not sure whether to follow or stand on the porch like an idiot.
“Are you just going to stand on the porch like an idiot?” Bed yelled from inside the foyer.
“I was considering it,” Marley said, then marched in.
The interior of the home was even more impressive, if that was possible. Gorgeous artwork lined the walls, and ornate chandeliers of copper and glass cast pools of golden light on the terra-cotta tile. Marley followed Will through the foyer and into a large room with ornate tile floors and an array of bistro tables covered in mauve and green linen tablecloths.
“I was thinking here for the rabbit cage,” Bed said as the two of them approached. She pointed to an open area at the center of the room before folding her arms across her chest.
“Badger cage,” Will corrected, setting the wine down in a corner of the room. “We agreed to the badgers, remember?”
“Hmmph,” Bed said, but didn’t argue.
“I agree, this would be a lovely place,” Marley said. “Your guests will be able to admire the animals right when they enter, and the flooring here is much better than carpet would be for… um, well…”
“Shit,” Will supplied.
“Right.” Marley cleared her throat. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to snap a few pictures of the surrounding furnishings and take a few measurements?”
“Knock yourself out,” Bed said. “I’m going to go yell at the caterer.”
Marley frowned. “Is something wrong with the food?”
“No, I just feel like yelling at him.”
Marley nodded and resisted the urge to beat the woman over the head with a statue that looked like a giant penis. She squinted at the statue more closely, trying to figure out what it was supposed to be.
“It’s not a giant penis,” Will supplied. “The statue. I wasn’t sharing personal information. The statue is supposed to be a mushroom.”
“Thank you for clarifying.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“Would you mind holding the other end of the tape measure?” Marley asked. “For the floor space, not the giant penis.”
Will grinned. “Thank you for clarifying.”
They paced off sections of the floor, deciding the best position for the badgers and for the supplementary display of rabbit photos.
“Is it going to be a problem rounding up bunny photos on short notice?” Will asked.
“Nope, Darin has it covered. We were just hammering out the details in my office when you came to get me.”
“Funny, I thought he was asking you out.”
Marley flushed as she moved the end of the tape to the edge of the wall and squinted at it. “Darin didn’t ask me out.”