Sweet Deal (25 page)

Did she have “kick me” written all over her, or something?

The thermometer beeped. She slid it out and peered at the digital readout. Normal. Huh. She turned it off and tossed it to the table.

She didn’t have the flu. She was just heartbroken.

Her bottom lip pushed out and she let it, indulging in one more moment of self-pity. Then she sighed.

It was her own fault for letting her feelings get involved with Jake. She should have known she wasn’t going to be able to not do that. She’d started off great, making that deal with him, confident she could do it, but then she’d gotten all soft and hopeful, dammit, with her usual sickening optimism, and actually started having crazy thoughts about love and a future when she should
know
what men were like.

And that included her boss. A guy who’d steal his best friend’s girlfriend. What the hell? That was low. For a moment she almost felt sympathy for Jake after having that done to him.

And now Andrew had killed her project.

Restlessly she threw off the blanket, suddenly feeling hot.

There was no reason they couldn’t do the two projects that needed to be done simultaneously,
if
they hired an external consultant. She knew they didn’t have internal resources to run two big projects simultaneously, but her cost-benefit analysis showed the savings they could make if they did it with an external consultant, even taking that additional expense into consideration.

She had to tell Andrew that. Why hadn’t he listened to her earlier?

Well, for one thing he’d had another meeting to go to. And for another thing, she hadn’t even really tried to tell him. She’d been so shell-shocked she’d barely been able to speak.

But what could she do? He’d already assigned the new project to someone else. Which made her burn with anger. That was not fair! Then she had to heave a huge sigh, because when Andrew had given her this project, she’d totally thought Brad should’ve been the one to run it.

But she’d been doing it. It wasn’t her fault their internal processes were such a huge barrier. Now people were going to think she couldn’t handle this project, just like Bram and Davis had been afraid of. Nobody would ever take her seriously on any other projects she was given.

If she had to leave this job too, her professional reputation would be trashed for sure. She’d never get another job, other than maybe waiting tables. Impotent fury rose up in her, fast and hot, and she clenched her hands into fists.

She fought her way out of the blanket still tangled around her hips and stood. She wasn’t going down without a fight this time. She was
not
going to let this happen to her again. If Andrew didn’t want to hear this, she’d go to his boss. She was
not
going to let her career be trashed yet again.

She’d changed out of her suit when she got home, into her favorite yoga pants and T-shirt. Damn. She looked down at herself. Much as she didn’t give a shit right then how she looked, the VP of Benefits was not going to take her seriously if she stormed into his office looking like this.

Trembling with determination, her stomach tight and her jaw clenched, she hurried into her bedroom and whipped her clothes off. The suit she’d worn earlier lay on the bed and she grabbed it and put it back on. She washed her face, briefly thought about the contact lenses, but her eyes still stung, so she gave up on that idea. Ah well, Jake had said she looked intelligent in her glasses. She hated wearing them, they interfered with her vision and hurt her nose and ears after a few hours, but right now she didn’t care.

She fixed her makeup, not wanting to look like her world had just fallen apart.

No. She straightened her shoulders and studied her reflection in the mirror.
She
was in charge of her world. Two guys who had some kind of bad history and wanted to stab each other in the back over a woman weren’t going to destroy
her
world. Let them battle it out over her.
Gianna.
Her mouth twisted, a sharp pain slicing through her at the memory that Jake had been in love with her.

And likely still was. Why else would he have tried to get back at Andrew like that? Well, if he was still carrying a torch for Gianna, he was an idiot. She was married.

Breathing caused a jagged pain in her chest, sharp and hot.

He was an asshole to use people the way he did. So there.

She turned on the spiky heel of her favorite pumps. She looked fine, even with the stupid glasses.

Chapter Twenty-One

As soon as Andrew had gone, Jake picked up the phone and called Shelby’s cell phone. She didn’t answer. Of course not. Then he called her office number. He didn’t expect her to answer there either, waited impatiently until it had rung four times and gone to voice mail, then stabbed the zero on his phone so he’d be connected to a live body.

“Susan speaking.”

“I need to talk to Shelby Leighton.”

“I’m sorry, but she’s gone for the day. Did you want her voice mail?”

“No. Thanks.” He slammed the phone down, knowing it was rude. She’d gone. Had she gone home?

He told his secretary he had an appointment out of the office then jogged to the elevator. He tapped his foot as the elevator descended to the underground parking garage. Fuck! Could this thing go any slower? Why the hell did people get in on the fourth floor and out on the third? Had they never heard of stairs?
Come on, people!

Finally he was in his car, peeling out of the concrete garage and driving toward Shelby’s home. Traffic was slow and leisurely. Nobody else seemed in any hurry to get anywhere, dammit.

Why had she gone home? He could only think it was because she was upset about the project.

And maybe about him. But he wasn’t worth being upset about.

He couldn’t believe she hadn’t told Andrew about her idea. It was beautiful and he’d helped her do the research she needed to build her business case. It would totally work.

He slammed a hand on the steering wheel as the traffic light in front of him turned red. Another red light.

As he sat there waiting, he started wondering why he was going to see Shelby. She clearly wanted nothing to do with him and he didn’t blame her, but if she was upset, he wanted to help. And dammit, maybe he could talk to her and…and…tell her the truth.

The truth. Whatever that was.

He swiped a hand over his forehead, started forward with the traffic.

The truth was he was in love with her.

His gut cramped. Well, no wonder he didn’t give a shit about Gianna. He really was over her. And if this was how Andrew felt about Gianna, and she about him—well then, no wonder Gianna had dumped him.

That thought didn’t even hurt like it used to.

It did make him wonder, though—if he’d been in Andrew’s position, what would he have done? What if Shelby had belonged to Andrew, and Jake had had to choose between Shelby and his friendship with Andrew—what would he have done?

He didn’t know the answer and he never really would because it was impossible to say how someone would react in a given situation until they were actually there. Which sadly made him think that maybe Andrew had faced the same dilemma and been just as conflicted. If it meant losing Shelby and seeing her with another man for the rest of their lives, would he have had the strength to resist? It’d be different if Andrew had loved Gianna from afar, but the reality was Gianna had been in love with Andrew too. That must have made it a hundred times more difficult.

Yeah. He was in love with Shelby.

She wasn’t supposed to get hurt in all this, but he’d fucked things up. Now he had to try to fix things.

He pulled up on the street in front of Shelby’s apartment building and was just getting out of his SUV when he saw her car pulling out of her parking lot. Hey!

He took a step toward it, without really thinking, but obviously there was no way he could stop her. He watched her tail lights disappear down the street. Where was she going?

He jumped back into his own vehicle, started it up and laid some rubber as he pulled away from the curb.

He spotted her car a block up. She was driving fast, damn fast, and it took some effort to keep up with her in traffic. He didn’t care if she saw him, he just had to keep her in his sights. It soon became obvious she was headed back downtown. Was she going back to work?

Apparently, yes. She drove into the parking garage where she parked during the day. He hesitated only a few seconds. He had a parking spot below his own building but that was two blocks away. Or he could just go in this building and pay to park. Another car got between them, but that was okay now he knew where she was. So he waited to pull a ticket from the machine, waited for the arm to lift, waited while the goof in front of him drove slowly up each level, carefully rounded the corner and drove up the next until he finally found an empty spot. The
only
empty spot.

Jake kept his eyes sharp for Shelby, spotted her car on the fifth level, but no sign of her. Damn! She had to be going back to her office. Finally he found a spot, jumped out and locked his vehicle, jogged toward the elevator.

Why was he doing this? He shook his head while he waited for the elevator. Was he nuts? If she was going back to work, she must be okay.

His guts felt twisted up, though, because he’d gotten all psyched up to go see her and then she’d left. He needed to see her, needed to make sure she was okay, needed to tell her to get back in there and fight.

It took a few minutes to walk from the parking garage to the office tower that housed Gold Shield Insurance. He took the elevator up to the twenty-first floor and faced a receptionist. “Hi,” he said smiling. “I’m here to see Shelby Leighton.”

“Is she expecting you?”

“No. But…” He broadened his smile. “She’ll see me. Jake Magill.”

“I’ll try her line.”

He waited, but the receptionist hung up. “I’m sorry,” she said with a smile. “Her voice mail says she’s not in.”

“Yes she is.” Desperation edged his voice. She blinked at him. “I know she is. She left earlier but she just came back.” God, she was going to call security on him if he kept babbling like an idiot. “Maybe you could try Andrew Haddon for me.”

“Sure.” She called Andrew’s number. “I’m sorry. He’s not in either.”

Jesus. Where had he gone when he’d left Jake’s office? He turned away from the reception desk just as Andrew walked in.

He saw Jake and scowled at him. “Now what?”

Shelby stood alone in the elevator, the button for the twenty-sixth floor lit up. She pressed her lips together as she waited, flutters of anticipation and nerves like wings inside her.

The elevator came to a halt on the twentieth floor and Bram got in. They greeted each other, Shelby still feeling a touch of annoyance at how he’d gone to Andrew behind her back with complaints about her ability to manage the project. She recalled her meeting with him where she’d told him he should have gone to her, instead of going to her boss behind her back.

Exactly what she was about to do to Andrew.

Bram got off on twenty-four. Shelby stood frozen as the elevator doors closed, staring at the lit-up button for twenty-six, where the executive offices were located. Then she stabbed twenty-five, not sure if she was fast enough. The elevator glided to a stop. She stepped out of the elevator, turned and went into the ladies’ room on that floor.

She set her purse on the counter and took a breath.

Dammit, if she hadn’t already kissed this job goodbye, going above Andrew’s head would definitely do it. Her insides twisted into knots. Firming her lips, she picked up her purse and left the ladies’ room.

Jake glanced at the receptionist and smiled, moved closer to Andrew and spoke in a low voice. “I need to see Shelby.”

“She’s not here. She went home earlier. My secretary said she was sick.”

“She’s not sick. I went to her house. She was just leaving, and she came back here.”

Andrew’s forehead creased then he moved toward the door. “Come to my office.”

Jake followed him through a maze of cubicles to a corner office, glancing into each cubicle, wondering if it was Shelby’s. But he didn’t see her. Andrew paused at his secretary’s desk.

“Have you seen Shelby?” he asked her. Jake recalled sitting with her at the picnic. Uh…Susan, that was it.

She shook her head, looking up at him from behind her desk, her face full of confusion as she saw Jake. “No. She left this morning, remember?”

“Yeah, but she may have come back.”

“Oh, I doubt it. She really didn’t look well.” She squinted at Jake but he said nothing.

Andrew gave a short nod and walked into his office. Jake followed. He looked around. He’d visited Andrew’s office a few times, a long time ago. Weird.

“Did you try her cell phone?” Andrew asked.

“Yeah, but she didn’t answer. She’d know it was me.”

“Let me try.” But she didn’t answer Andrew’s call either.

“You’re sure she’s here?”

“Well. I didn’t see her walk into the building, but she parked in the parking garage.”