Back to the Drawing Board (8 page)

“HE CALLED ME BACK,” I
paced the small living room of my apartment, my phone pressed between my ear and my shoulder so I could keep wringing my hands.

“And? What did he say?” My best friend Tracey was amused by me. She had been ever since I pounded on her door at barely seven in the morning, dressed in my clothes from last night and my hair a mess. I’d poured out everything to her, including the fact that I hadn’t a damn clue what we’d done but that I woke up
naked
. I could only assume he also had been naked, but he’d been gone when I woke up. Yes,
gone
. Only a
note
had been left on the desk for me, saying he was sorry and had an early flight.

I understood. Not that any woman liked to be left in a hotel room by a man she had known for just a few hours and may or may not have slept with, but I got it. Even when the tears streamed down my face as I realized he was gone, I’d still understood. Even if I had been being a stupid girl crying over a guy I’d just met.

My parents’ company was
the
place to work in the architecture industry. Carter was driven; I knew that after hearing him talk for thirty seconds while my dad was interviewing him. What he didn’t know, and what I hope I didn’t tell him while obviously drunk was that he was a shoo-in for the job. My dad didn’t waste his time on the hundreds, if not thousands of applications he received every year for new interns. He made all of the low men on the totem pole, like me, go through the applications and narrow it down to under twenty.

My dad would then give that twenty to my mom and have her pick the top ten. Even then, he’d only meet with the ones he wanted to mold to become the next him. He had no patience or time for yes-men and kiss-asses. Carter was neither of those. He was brilliant, had great ideas, and wanted to go somewhere in his life. He wouldn’t ever be content with being a grunt. He’d someday want to
be
my dad, and that was what John Gibbons was looking for. While he loved his job, he knew that someday he’d want to step back and know that the company was in good hands. My dad wanted me to have someone strong to work with once he was ready to hand the company over, and he’d been searching for that person for years.

He wanted me to take over someday, and I’m not against that. It was just that I never got a shot at saying what I wanted to do in life. It was just assumed, especially after everything went down with my brother, that it would be me. I never had a chance to tell my parents that I wanted to design, just not buildings. I’d love to someday design what was
inside
the building, putting my creative touch on the interior design.

My parents had a huge company full of people of hard workers, innovators eager to please them. But he continued to look for the one he thought had it all. I knew without him even telling me that Carter was it for him. When he invited me to come into the interview, he gave me ‘that look.’ Even though Carter didn’t know me (well maybe he knew parts of me
really
well now, but oh my . . . ), I would never do anything to jeopardize that.

He was hot. He was off limits. And I wanted him. Again. Or for the first time. Whatever. But I knew I couldn’t. I shouldn’t. It would risk everything. But wasn’t it time to risk
something
in my life instead of always doing what everyone expected?

“Julia! Are you listening to me at all?” I realized that Tracey had been talking, and I’d been off in la-la land.

“Sorry,” I apologized. “I was lost in thought.”

“You were lost in that fine man. Now what did he say?”

“He left me a message. He didn’t say much other than it was great to spend time with me and he hopes to see me in Denver soon.”

Tracey was quiet, and I knew she was trying to read between the lines. Tracey and I have been best friends since childhood. While I was a corporate mogul now, she was a free spirit, working at a coffee shop while she worked on a writing career. I wished I could be her. Just for one day, I’d like to wake up carefree and not worry about what I needed to do for the day or who I needed to please. Most of all, I wished I didn’t have to hide my love for my brother from my parents. If they found out what I did on a monthly basis, I’d likely be finding new employment
and
a new family.

“Is your dad going to give him the job?”

“I don’t know,” I said. He hadn’t said anything to me, therefore I couldn’t guarantee it; however, I felt fairly certain of the outcome. “I assume so, but you never know.”

“True,” she laughed. “Well, maybe you wait to try to contact him again once you find out if your dad is giving him the job or not? Because if he doesn’t give him the job, what’s the likelihood of anything happening with you?”

“The point is, nothing should happen between us if he
does
get the job. My dad will never stand for that. And it’s not like I could hide it. Wait until you see this man. He’s . . . deadly. Death by libido.”

Tracey roared in my ear, making me smile. “God, I love you. If he’s that fine, I may be fine with death by libido. Don’t you wish you remembered?”

I thought back to Carter’s cut body, the way he felt against me during the part of the night I
could
remember, and I groaned. “Like nothing else. But what am I going to do if he ends up moving here, Trace? Whether we slept together or not, there’s something between us—- a sexual tension.”

“Julia,” she said. “You need to relax. There’s nothing you can do but wait and see. And the two of you are adults. If you want to start a relationship, who cares if you work together?”

“A relationship? I never said that. Plus, it will be my dad that’ll care. Oh, I’m in so much trouble. Why did I go to that bar last night? Why did I get trashed? Why did he have to be such a
gentleman?
”

Tracey snorted. “He
left
you in a hotel room. I don’t see that as a gentleman, but you’re all torn up over him anyway. He’s not your normal hook-up, Jules. I know you’ve been ‘hearts off’ since everything happened with your brother, but you can’t let his choices ruin you for your future. Whether it’s this Carter guy or someone else, it’s about time you want more than just a roll in the sheets. You deserve more.”

Tears blinded my eyes and I stopped my pacing, stretching my neck as I held the phone with my hand. Leave it to Tracey to throw out all of my issues matter-of-factly. “Okay, so maybe he wasn’t completely a gentleman. But there’s still something about him . . .”

“Listen to me,” she whispered. “Go talk to your dad. See what he’s thinking about Carter. If he doesn’t get the job, you can call him back and say it was a great night and be done with it, if that’s what you want. If he does get the job, you’re going to have to decide if you want to pursue things with him. There are plenty of people at that firm, Jules. You don’t have to be the one that oversees him, you know.”

She was right. But there was no way I could tell my dad I didn’t want to oversee Carter because I may have slept with him and I may possibly have feelings for a guy I’d known only for a few hours. He would give me that ‘look’, the one that told me he was disappointed in my choices. Then he would lecture me about my career and why I should follow in the footsteps of my mother, who didn’t let being a woman in a male-dominated career stop her from being one of the best. That was because, of course, she worked her ass off to the detriment of every other thing in her life, her children included. Maybe if she’d been more of a mother and less of a ball-busting career person, things wouldn’t be the way that they were. Every school performance, every dance recital, all accomplishments were attended by our lifelong nanny, Nancy. Even though I’ve been an adult for six years, it was Nancy who called me and made sure I was okay. Not that my parents didn’t love me; they just didn’t see it the same way. I swore that if I ever became a wife and mother it would be different. I could do both things, but I’d never let my job take priority over being there for my family.

After a sleepless night, I checked my makeup in the mirror in the office bathroom, making sure I didn’t look exhausted before heading in to meet with my father. I hadn’t called Carter back, but had dreamt all night about our night together. My imagination sure wanted to dream of our explosive lovemaking, but who knew if that was my overactive and exhausted brain coming up with its own version of what happened? I laid in bed most of the night after that dream reliving it over and over. The way he touched me, the way he felt on me and in me, and the way his bright blue eyes watched me in the moonlight.

Sigh. This wasn’t helping. Pulling concealer out of my purse, I applied a few more dots to the dark circles under my eyes. I smoothed my hands down my navy pantsuit and ran my fingers through my long hair. I knew I was good looking. I’d always had the attention of many guys, including the ones who worked here. They all knew where the line was drawn, however, because they wouldn’t dare cross the bosses’ daughter. Since both of my parents were the head honchos here, guys tended to steer clear of asking me out.

I walked out of the bathroom, saying hello to my assistant Paige and another architect, Zeke. They stopped talking as I approached, and I smiled at them. They thought they were being sly by not announcing they were seeing each other, but I knew it the first day. Not only was Paige
not
a good liar, but also she practically beamed every time he was near and his eyes followed her everywhere she went. I wished that could be as easy for me. Paige was my same age and had become a great friend of mine over the last few years.

My dad’s office door was open, it still being rather early. “Hey, Dad,” I said, forcing a smile on my face. He looked up from his computer and smiled back at me.

“Hey, sweetie. Good morning. Everything okay?”

“Great,” I lied, settling myself in the chair across from him. “I just had a question for you.”

He sat back in his seat, crossing his arms in front of him. “You look tired, Jules. Are you sure you’re okay?” Of course he would choose today to notice personal things about me.

“I’m fine, really. I wondered if you made a choice on the new intern yet.” I tried to ask him without much emotion in my voice, but when he leaned forward, a smile on his lips, I wasn’t sure I’d succeeded.

“Why? Did you have some further input on one of them?” The way he said it made my mouth dry out and my heart start pounding. Did he know something about us? Did someone see us at the bar and tell him?

My hands started shaking, so I tucked them under my legs to stop me from wringing them. “No,” I forced myself to say. “I’m going to start the Adams project within the next few weeks, though, and wanted to wait to work on it with whoever the new intern is going to be. That’s an epic project for them to start with. It’ll give them great experience. No rush. I can start it and they can catch up.”

“You’re right,” he agreed, steepling his fingers. “That project is a great way for the new person to get their feet wet in our business and be able to see where I’d like to take things. It’s local, which means less travel, and it’s groundbreaking energy efficient technology. Can you hold off and start the process in two weeks? I’d like to have our new hire here by then as long as he’s able to get here that fast.”

If it’s Carter, I’m sure he’d get on a plane today to be here,
I thought. “Sure! I’ll make sure everything is in line to start then. Do you know who you’re choosing, or are you still going over their portfolios?”

He shook his head. “No, I already know. You probably could guess who I’m going to hire.” I stared at my handsome father, his dark hair styled perfectly to the side and his eyes bright. Everyone called me his ‘mini-me’, and I guessed that was true. The only part of me that looked like my mother was my size.

Satisfied that I’d taken long enough of a pause before jumping in with the suggestion that had been on my lips for two days, I took a deep breath. “Is it Carter McIntyre?”

He slapped his hands on his desk, his booming voice making me jump. “That’s my girl!” he shouted. “I knew you had an eye in this business. You’re so young but so talented. Absolutely. That kid is
the one
, Jules. He’s the future me. I can feel it oozing out of his pores. He will live and breathe this job. Best of all, he’ll bring more innovation and ideas to the company than we already have. He’ll never settle for being second best.”

My heart rattled against my ribs. He was going to do it. He was offering Carter the internship. Of course, this was just part one of him being the newest architect at GSJ, but it was a huge step. If Carter could prove himself in the next six months, he’d be a permanent fixture around here. I had no doubt he would.

“That’s a great choice, Dad,” I forced myself not to jump up and hug him. “I figured when you had me come in to the interview he was the one you were serious about.”

“He looked perfect on paper, but you know me. I have to get a feel for them in person. Since he’ll be working directly with you, I wanted you to at least meet him before I offer it to him. Do you think he’ll be a good addition to your team? Will you work well together?”

A bubble of laughter came up into my throat, and I masked it with a cough. Would we work well together? Well, we may have already crossed that hurdle.
Play it cool, Julia
. If there was one thing I wasn’t, it was a good storyteller. “He seemed like a perfect fit here, Dad. I think that’s a great choice. Have you called him yet?”