Jealous in July (Spring River Valley Book 7) (12 page)

“Hmm.” Brenda slid the folded paper out of the envelope. Neatly typed on the thick sheet of stationary was the cryptic note:

THE ROOF. 5:15

“It’s from Chase,” Dani whispered before disappearing around the cubicle wall. By the time Brenda got up to follow her, she was gone.

Her pulse kicked up a notch. He’d ignored her attempts to contact him last night, and now he was commanding her to meet him on the roof? All this
hush-hush spy stuff, only to set up a rendezvous on company property? Had he lost his mind?

Her phone rang
, and she jumped on it, startled by the sudden noise interrupting her thoughts. It was Dani, who’d apparently made it back to her own desk in record time. “In case you’re wondering, he’s in meetings all day, otherwise he would have delivered the note himself.”

“Dani
, do you have any idea what this is about?” Brenda whispered, then caught herself and cleared her throat. “I know you and Chase are friends. What’s he up to?”

“I honestly don’t know. He asked me to deliver the note because he can’t get away from his meetings. That’s all.”

“All right. I’ll take your word for it.” Brenda hung up. Instead of shredding the note, she tucked it into her purse and headed for the cafeteria.

Halfway to a corner table, after declining several lunch invitations she knew were prompted only by her co-workers’ need for gossip, a familiar voice interrupted her thoughts.

Riley leaned over to whisper in her ear as she passed. “Let’s talk.”

What she wouldn’t have given to hear him say that even a week ago. Now, her first instinct was to refuse, but something told her Riley wasn’t after the dish on Mitzi’s drunken rantings. She changed her trajectory and followed him to the far side of the cafeteria, joining him at an out-of-the-way table for two. She noticed before settling into her seat that Chase was nowhere to be found. Something about sitting down to lunch with the man she’d spent the last eighteen months besotted with made her feel guilty
, and she hoped it didn’t show on her face.

“Before you ask me any questions,” she began, keeping her eyes on her plate, “Mitzi needed some files
. I brought them for her, and we discussed her depositions. That’s all I’m saying about yesterday.”

Riley gave her a sly grin that would have sent her into cardiac arrest a month ago. Now, though he was undeniably handsome, the light in his eyes did nothing to the tempo of her pulse. “Brenda, I know things that would make your hair curl. I’m not after gossip.”

“I didn’t think so, but if one more person asks me about her state of mind, I’ll scream.”

“It’s a shark tank in this place.”

“And I feel like chum.” The image did little for appetite, and she pushed her plate away. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Chase.”

Now her heartbeat tripped. Something squeezed tight beneath her rib cage and the image that replaced the one of a feeding frenzy made her blush. “What about him?”

“I think I get what he was trying to do.”

Uh-oh.
“You do?”

“It’s not the tack I would have taken to impress a girl, but what do I know?”

“Huh?”

“He likes you, and I get the impression, for some reason, he thought I had…designs on you.”

“Designs?”

“Intentions?”

“I know what designs means.”

“He’s been giving me the subtle
heave-ho over the past week, whenever you’re around. I think he’s a little jealous.”

“Well, hell knows why.” Brenda’s voice rose of its own accord
, and she had to glance around nervously to make sure no one had heard her outburst. “Like I said before, there’s nothing between us.”

“I know that, and you know that. Does Chase know that?”

Of course not. He’d been led to believe the exact opposite, at least from Brenda’s point of view. “I really don’t know what he knows. He’s not talking to me at the moment.”

“Oh.” Riley frowned. Still handsome, Brenda noted.
That wasn’t going to change. “I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do?”

Oh
God, now you ask?
“No. It will all be fine. I’m sure it will. Besides, should we be talking about this? At work?”

Riley waved a hand. “It’s all on the down low. There’s so much stuff going on here that no one is talking about. I just hate to see two people who really care about each other get caught up in all the nonsense.”

“Yeah, me, too.”

Riley took a few bites of his lunch and also pushed the plate aside. He rubbed the center of his chest and sighed.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, too tired to eat.” He glanced at his watch. “And I have to be back in a meeting in five minutes. Sorry to eat and run.”

“That seems to be all you do lately. If you don’t mind my saying so, you really don’t look well. Maybe you should take some time off.”

He smiled
, and this time Brenda’s only reaction was a pang of sympathy. He was killing himself to pull this off, and she was more than certain the rewards wouldn’t exceed the cost. “I will soon. Just a couple more weeks, and I can take a vacation.”

“
I hope you make it.”

“Thanks!”

“I meant to the vacation, not the bar,” she said softly as he scooped up his tray and hurried off. She was certain he hadn’t heard her, and finally she was sure that while Riley certainly needed someone in his life to look after him, she wasn’t the one.

* * * *

Chase had planned everything to the minute, which naturally meant something had to go wrong. The meeting with Esterhause, which was supposed to end at four-thirty, didn’t. At four fifty-five, when Dani was supposed to call his cell phone and tell him there was an issue with the payroll company that he needed to mediate, the phone didn’t ring. After he made a lame excuse to duck out of the meeting, the elevator hovered on the third floor for what seemed like an eternity before making its way to the fifth. Then, his phone rang, just as he was passing by the sixth-floor offices on his way to the roof-access stairwell.

“Dani, what happened? You’re late,” he growled into the phone, his voice echoing in the stairwell.

“Sorry, I was on a call. Did you break free?”

“I did. Have you seen Brenda?”

“I passed her in the hallway on her way to the elevators.”

“Are you sure she was headed up to the roof?”

“I couldn’t very well follow her after I lied and told her I had no idea what was going on, now could I?”

“Where are you now?”

“I’m loitering in the lobby. If I see her down here, I’ll send her back up.”

“Thanks.”

“Good luck.” Dani hung up, and Chase considered shutting his phone off to avoid any interruptions, but the way things were going, if he did that he’d probably miss a call from Brenda, so he left it on and set it to vibrate. He reached the door to the roof and made sure to flip the latch so it wouldn’t lock, leaving him stranded.

The summer breeze
that he’d counted on felt more like a desert wind at this hour, and the sun, which was nowhere near setting, blazed a hot trail across the area where the Fourth of July party had been. At least he still had the view of the river and the park as a backdrop. He turned his back to the brilliant light and waited.

At twenty after five the door to the roof opened again
, and Brenda stepped out cautiously into the heat. She held up a hand to shield her eyes, and when she saw him, she strode determinedly across the simmering concrete.

“Are you planning to throw me over the edge?” she asked, hands on hips.

“Uh…no. Why would you—”

“Why else would anyone pick this spot to talk?” Her gaze simmered. He hated that he hadn’t been able to see her all day, and now, in the harsh light of late afternoon, his gesture seemed so much less romantic.

“Ah…well, because this was the spot where I fell in love with you.”

Her response remained unformed. Mouth agape, she stared at him. “You what?”

His collar seemed terribly tight, and he realized now, rather than looking dashing, like a Fortune 500 executive with the panoramic view of the town behind him, he probably just looked like a sweaty lunatic. “Fell in love? With you. It was at the Fourth of July party…
last year
.”

She bit her lower lip. He kept his eyes focused on hers to avoid the sexy distraction. “You probably don’t remember, but we were all standing in a group watching the fireworks
. There was a delay…at the end, and we all thought the show was over, but then one final explosion lit up the sky in red, white, and blue. You were standing next to me, and it startled you…you jumped. You grabbed my hand and you held on for a second. When I looked over at you, I saw the sky reflected in your eyes—and you’re all I’ve seen ever since.”

She started to speak
, but he held up a hand. He couldn’t decide if that “sky in your eyes” line sounded creepy or just goofy and lame, but she hadn’t started laughing yet, so he plowed on. “I figured out pretty fast that you were in love with Riley, so I tried to forget about it, but I finally decided I’d wasted enough time wondering what might have been. I lied to you…and for that I’m really sorry.”

“Lied, about what?”

“I told you I thought Riley was interested, that if we made him jealous he’d come around. The truth is, the guy is brain-dead if he doesn’t notice you. I never thought we had a shot at really getting his attention. Everything I said and did was to get you to go out with me.”

“Because the walking up to me and asking me out wouldn’t have worked
?” Did he imagine the faint smirk curling her lips?

“Would it have?”

She lowered her eyes, and his heart lurched. “No. It wouldn’t have.”

He nodded. It had been worth a shot. “I apologize for the BS, but not for anything that happened between us. I had the time
—”

“It wouldn’t have worked
—” She spoke over his swan song, stepping forward into his long shadow that stretched between them. “—because I was as blind as Riley. I was living in some teenage fantasy that the cool guy would ask me out…and I was too dumb to notice that the right guy already had.”

Before he could say a word, she was in his arms, her lips caressing his. “I hope you can forgive me,” she said a bit breathlessly after she pulled back to meet his gaze.

“Forgive you? For that kiss? Never.”

“For being a complete idiot. You’re right
. If you’d just asked me out, I would have said no, because I had no idea how much I needed you, or how much I could love you. I never would have known, if you hadn’t convinced me to try to make Riley jealous.” She kissed him again, harder this time. “I’m glad it didn’t work.”

Chase wrapped his arms around Brenda, lifted her up and spun her around. The heat, the
too-bright sun, and the dry, dusty wind no longer registered. This would always be the most romantic place in the world as far as he was concerned. He kissed her once more as he set her back down on her feet. “I think it worked perfectly.”

THE END

And in
August 2013

With the bar exam behind him, Riley Thayer can finally take a much needed vacation. At a relaxing spa getaway, Lydia Richmond is thrilled to get her hands on her workaholic former classmate and teach him how to escape the rat race.

The summer heat ignites their passion for each other, but when her free spirit collides with his cool corporate reality, will their awakening love survive?

AWAKENED IN AUGUST

Chapter One

“I’ve wanted to get my hands on you for two years, Riley Thayer, and now you’re finally mine.” Lydia Richmond cradled her office phone on her shoulder and hitched one hip onto the corner of her desk while scrawling her signature on the bottom of the reservation form on the clipboard she balanced on one knee.

“Why does that sound so sinister?” The voice on the other end of the line was the same sexy baritone she remembered from law school, but now she detected a weariness that her former classmate hadn’t possessed back when they’d swapped notes and attended all-night study sessions in the campus common room. He laughed softly, and she thought of his sparkling blue eyes and how oftentimes the mischief in them had been at odds with his studious nature.

“Probably because you’re mortally afraid of relaxation. I must have told you half a million times that you needed
to have a little more fun in your life. Let me guess, you took the bar a week ago and now, finally, you feel like you can let your hair down.”

“Who says I have any hair left?”

Lydia feigned shock. “Oh no, not that gorgeous golden hair? Don’t worry. I’ve got some elixirs that will grow it all back.”