His Perfect Woman (Urban Hearts Series Book 1) (14 page)

The Minnesota conference brought a flood of new business and she asked for an assistant, and was amazed when the company agreed. Rachel was a great girl, two years out of college, tall, blonde, smart with a wicked sense of humor. Azure spent more time in the office and let Rachel handle the away conferences.  She would come back with reports of how well it went, how good the presenters were, especially Ross Berenger. Every mention of him twisted Azure’s stomach. She figured eventually her GI tract would fall out, and if she were lucky, she might die.             

“Rachel, did you get the schedule rearranged for the Conference in Milwaukee? We can’t have the panel discussion on Saturday, that’s our biggest day.” Az stood beside her assistant’s desk, situated in the alcove just outside her office.

“Well, Ross couldn’t make it any other day—the schedule’s been locked in for weeks.”

Az’s hands clenched involuntarily, she hid them just out of Rachel’s view.

“Then get someone else, because the panel needs to move to Sunday.” Ross again. When would she be able to hear his name without it causing such pain?

Rachel looked at her as if she had suggested strippers as a replacement. “Sunday? But—”

“Look, Ross Berenger is not the only damn speaker we have. Someone else can do this. Just look in the book and find them.” She realized too late that her voice had risen to almost a shout.

“But Ross is…like, Ross is perfect for this panel. He’s booked already, he—”

“He’s not irreplaceable. Either get him to change to Sunday or find somebody else.  Just call him.” Az’s hand made its way over her abdomen to hold the churning down. 

“He can’t,” Rachel insisted.  Aware that several people from the break room were glancing their way, Az walked through the door to her office, Rachel’s strappy heels clicking as she followed her.

“Why?”Az tossed the schedule on her desk, sending loose paper afloat in the room.

“Why?” Rachel wasn’t dumb. She was stalling for time.

“Rachel, come on, what’s up? Why can’t we change this to Sunday?”

The girl’s bottom lip caught just under a front tooth.

“It just wouldn’t work, that’s all.”

Azure stood behind her desk, staring at her—with her impossibly youthful skin and tiny waist… thinking that maybe Rachel had gone where she couldn’t. Rachel was single, attractive, working closely with Ross for a couple of months now. It was definitely in the realm of possibility and Az’s stomach, suddenly tired from its little twists and turns decided to completely upend and she had no choice but to leave Rachel standing there as she ran for the ladies room.

She came back several minutes later to find Rachel back at her desk, focused on her computer, a phone crooked between her ear and shoulder. Az gave her a look as she passed and a few minutes later, Rachel was standing her desk.

“Az, I’m sorry. Can we talk? I know you have a meeting but, are you free for lunch?”

Lunch was not the first thing on her mind, her stomach having finally calmed somewhat, but she liked Rachel.  She was trying to be upfront, the least Az could do was have the courage to let her. 

Az steeled herself and sat through an over-priced Cobb salad, praying she could keep it down after hearing what Rachel had to say. The restaurant was a little deli around the corner from the office. A popular place with their co-workers and Az found herself nodding and waving to a bunch as they passed. She didn’t ask Rachel—couldn’t ask her anything. She waited until they ordered at the counter and got drinks and a table before she could look Rachel in the eye.  The young woman took deep breath. Azure held hers. Under the table, her hand gradually soothed over her stomach again. 

“So, I’ve made a few calls,” Rachel started, “hoping to get someone else for the panel on Sunday.” Her voice was morose. “The others can change. So maybe we can just have a three person panel instead of four?”

“No one else can make it?” Az asked. This was not the conversation she had on her mind, but it needed to happen.

“Ah—I have a call into Jackson Traynor, but…”

Az huffed dissention.  Jackson Traynor was a pretentious boob with an ego the size of his gut. He knew his stuff, but talked too much to be effective in a panel discussion. “Traynor isn’t right,” she sighed. “Look, let’s just go with the three…or…” she thought about it. “Never mind, I suppose the panel discussion can stay on Saturday.”

Rachel’s eyes lit up like a teenage girl’s at the mall. “Oh that’s great. I was really hoping you’d say that and I know, okay, next time we’ll do the panels at midweek or end of the week, not on the main day and you’re right, Traynor sucks—well, he doesn’t suck, but he’s so… such a bag of wind that… and Ross—” She stopped at the mention of his name. Az’s heart dropped to her stomach, causing it to flip again.

“Ross?”

“Okay, remember last month’s workshop in Chicago?” Rachel gulped her drink. Az nodded. Of course she remembered. She’d sent Rachel instead of going and had forced herself to some lame training thing in Kansas, not wanting to stay home.  Rachel had returned from that workshop all glowing and giggly. “Well, one of the nights I had drinks with Ross,” she said, her unlined eyes looking soft and pathetically happy. Az clutched her iced tea glass, trying to magically change its contents to Vodka.  “It was fun and then his brother showed up.”

“Ben?” she blinked.

“Yeah, Ben,” Rachel said breathily. “They told me about the karaoke night where you guys all sang and Ben got sloshed. He was just so…amazing.” There was that breathless excitement again.

“Ben?” she said again. “You met Ben Berenger?” Az knew she sounded stupid, but before she let herself breathe again, she had to be sure.

“Yes, and I had a great time. He came back the next morning and took me to breakfast and then dinner that night before I had to fly back…and we’ve been talking on the phone…and this weekend he was flying in with Ross on Friday, and we—”

“Okay, okay I get the picture. You and Ben have a thing.”

“Yes.” She breathed out. The relief was mutual.  “I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want you to think that I wasn’t working that weekend. Because I did—I was.”

Az’s heart started beating again, somewhere distant in her chest. “I don’t doubt that you were working. But you’re not booking Ross for things simply because of Ben, are you? I mean, he’s a big boy. He can show up without his brother, right?”

“Yes, yes of course, but this is only the second time we’re meeting, and showing up with Ross is kind of, I dunno, maybe it’s an excuse. Milwaukee isn’t that far from Chicago and he had the weekend off and—”

“Rachel, it’s fine.” Azure was cautiously relieved. In reality, it didn’t change anything, but she was glad for Rachel. Ben was a great guy. Rachel rambled on and Az nodded, not really listening as she was thinking back to when she’d met Ross’s brother.

Ben Berenger was almost as hard to forget as Ross was. It had been a particularly brutal day at the Chicago convention and Azure had eased the pain of it with her usual Vodka Collins—extra cherries. Leaning back into more sumptuous leather than she had at her house, she remembered closing her eyes and relishing the first sip.

“Az.” A male voice interrupted her moment and she’d responded with an irritated groan before looking up to find Ross grinning at her, just behind him, stood a taller man with longer, slightly darker hair.  “This is my brother, Ben,” he said, walking around the low table and sitting beside her, allowing Ben to fold his prodigious frame into the chair directly across.

“Hi,” She reached a hand out and he shook it briefly as she noted the family resemblance. Ben’s eyes were hazel, not the startling green of Ross’s, but they had that same friendly crinkle at the corners when he smiled. He had dimples. He was taller than Ross, by a couple of inches, actually bigger all around, but not in a brutish, hulking way. She noticed his mannerisms could make people forget just how large a man he was, until he stood up. “Did you hear Ross’s speech?” she’d asked, simply to start a conversation.

“No, I missed it. I just got off work and came down to see my little brother in action, but—traffic.” The dimples went away and he looked so perplexed Azure almost laughed.

“No worries,” she said, “It was his standard take on how to live your best life and still make a boat load of money speech. I’m sure you’ve heard it.” She glanced at Ross, who was fidgeting with the label on his beer bottle. “Though, the anecdote about the nurse choking on her strawberry shortcake was good—nice addition.” He nodded and smiled, almost shyly and that was weird—the appearance of his brother making him quiet and less Ross somehow. Ben laughed, drawing her back to the sound and the dimples again.

“You should write a self-help book, man. You’d clean up.” He nodded at Ross. 

“That’s what Azure says, too.” Ross answered his brother, but his eyes didn’t stray from her face. “Sure, I have time for that. I could write on cocktail napkins from planes.”  Her phone buzzed in her jacket pocket. She took it out, glanced at it and put it back. “More issues?” Ross asked.

“Oh, just the normal stuff—my techie, Amy, is sick again. Dave is paranoid that it’s contagious, which is only true if you drink the tequila. My eight a.m. presenter isn’t here yet—Jenny Lee, her flight is delayed.” Ross’s hometown of Chicago was an iffy destination in the winter months, but strangely, the problem was at the other end—some kind of security thing in Newark. “Nothing out of the ordinary.” She gave them both a wan smile. “It’s been a helluva day.”

“Well here’s to a better evening,” Ben said and they clinked their respective drinks. “Ross tells me you’re the problem-solver extraordinaire at these things.”

“Sometimes,” she said. “Sometimes I hide in the hotel bars until everyone solves their own problems.”  This got her a flash of the dimples again.  He was attractive, in a rougher, less classic way than Ross. “So… how many years apart are you guys?”

“I’m three years older,” Ben answered and it was cute the way his voice dropped to a more serious, mature tone. Perhaps he’d been mistaken as younger and she mentioned it. Ross’s laugh sung out, deep and sexy. 

“We’re the brothers in the middle. Have one older sister, Maggie. She’s an assistant dean at the community college, and our little sister, Madison, is in college in Texas.”

“How is your mom?” she asked and was pleased to see his relief.

“She’s doing really well, thanks.” Ross had told her previously that his mom had undergone a breast biopsy.

“So what do you do, Ben?” She’d been making polite conversation, vaguely remembering something Ross had said about his brother’s work.

“I work in a lab at the University.”

“Ben’s the head lab tech in the Bio-technology research dept.”  Ross added with obvious pride in his voice.

“Impressive. You have a very intellectual, successful family, Ross.” She smirked at him, “Do they know about your penchant for Austin Powers’ movies?”

“Yeah baby,” Ross said in his Austin voice. She rolled her eyes as Ben looked over at his brother.

“She knows about
The International Man of Mystery
?”

“I like
The Spy who Shagged Me
better.” She sipped her drink, watching the two brothers. It was evident they enjoyed each other’s company, not a hint of sibling rivalry or other usual family dysfunction. Somewhere behind her, a guy started testing the sound system for karaoke night.  She groaned inwardly, remembering another night where she’d embarrassed herself in front of Ross and co-workers.  Her drink finished, Az had pushed her chair back to leave, wanting to give the brothers a chance to visit. She looked forward to a hot bath and room service.

“You’re going?” Ross asked, looking like he’d just gotten turned down for prom.

“Stay,” Ben said, “Ross and I were going to order dinner, please join us.”

She was doubtful, but Ross leaned over, his hand falling upon her arm in a conspiratorial caress. “Stay, we can get Ben drunk and make fun of him when he sings karaoke.” His request had sounded like a much better offer than room service.

Azure sipped her ice tea across from Rachel, who was still going on about Ben. She was happy for her. She was. Ben was great—good-looking, smart, and unattached, unlike Ross had been.

Attached, unavailable, taken—Ben had reminded her of Ross’s status when they were alone. He’d called it blurring the lines. He’d been gentle, but he was also right.

She remembered Ben’s concern and the end of the evening where she’d leaned into Ross’s warmth under the portico of the hotel. A fairly drunken big brother had just left in a cab for home. Weird details of that evening came to her: how the back of his hand had felt occasionally brushing hers as they waited for the elevator—the conversation with her co-worker who’d spotted them, how, once in her room, she’d called Ross and said she’d needed space.

“Az?” Az blinked to find Rachel looking at her peculiarly. “Are you okay? I think I lost you there.”

“Oh, sorry I was just thinking that…long distance things are difficult. New romances have a way of interfering with work.”

              “Sure, I know. I don’t even know exactly how this will work out, it’s so new.” The blonde beamed across their salads at Azure. “But isn’t he great and good looking and just…everything? He was so funny.”