Signed, Sealed, Delivered (13 page)

Juliana didn’t notice her hands trembling until she shut the car door. She stared at her fingers, wondering whether anyone had seen the slight tremors or whether the shaking had developed after the terror of facing her first closing alone.

Terror?

At first. But as the closing went on, it became exhilaration.

Connor was going to be proud. He’d told her she was ready—
more
than ready. She’d met with the owners, convinced them to list, and then sold the house within a week; he’d decided she should see this through to the very end. Solo.

She’d done well. Both the sellers and buyers were thrilled with the deal, the paperwork had gone through without a glitch, and the closing had been pleasant and polite. And very profitable.

Not only was Connor going to be proud, she was damned proud of herself.

Uncle Francis was right. I
am
a born salesman.

Juliana slid behind the wheel of her white SUV, another of Connor’s contributions. He’d helped her find it only ten days after they’d opened Kelley-Wilson Realty. Someone near Chicago had an Enclave that was only three years old. The guy desperately wanted out of the lease, and she needed a bigger car at a cheap price. A match made in heaven. The interior was gray leather, and the inside still smelled new. Whenever she drove it, she felt successful. A silly notion, but her life had truly changed, probably forever, and the SUV served as a symbol of that.

She plucked her cell from her pocket and called Connor. By the third ring, she knew she’d get voice mail since he usually answered before the second.

“You’ve reached Connor Wilson. Please leave your name and number, and I’ll return your call as soon as I can. Thanks.”

“Hey. It’s me. Closing went great. Wanted to brag, but you’re busy. Call me.” She gave her watch a quick glance. It was later than she thought. “Um… wow. It’s almost four. We’re supposed to meet Robert at the office in less than an hour. Figured you and Ms. Barrett would be here by now.”

Where was he?

The appointment with Robert had been planned for weeks, and Connor had mentioned it before he left, which meant he hadn’t forgotten.

After Connor had explained about Barrett Foods, Robert had been almost too excited to function. She and Connor had struck a nice deal with him so he could focus on building and not selling his homes. Robert paid them a lower commission than any other Realtors in return for putting the many Barrett clients they gave him at the front of his line. He was even hiring more tradesmen to increase the speed of his work schedule. The last time she’d talked to him, he’d put in his request to take a year’s personal leave of absence from school with an eye on walking away for good when that time ended.

The meeting today was to bring Robert and Tracy Barrett together to make long-term plans, everything from discussing how many executives would need custom houses to making arrangements for Tracy’s personal home.

Juliana made it back to the office with time to spare, probably because she hadn’t stopped to pick up Starbucks coffee. There was always a fresh pot at the office, and she was being as frugal as possible. A couple of months into the partnership, the firm was growing nicely, but her nature was never to crow too loudly over success or expect it to continue. The move by Barrett Foods was going well, but the real estate market was volatile at best, dismal at worst. She wouldn’t assume she’d “made it,” especially this early in the game. She had a year to prove to herself she could make this her new life. Hence her nearly crippling inability to spend money on anything that didn’t benefit the firm, especially something as frivolous as overpriced foo-foo coffee.

What if a baby’s on the way?

Her periods had been horribly irregular her whole life. Sure, she’d technically missed one. But that wasn’t unusual in the least. Nor did she have a single symptom of being pregnant. Just to be sure, she’d grab a pregnancy test at the drug store on her way home.

Not gonna let that worry run my life.

As Connor had a habit of saying,
“Take it one day at a time.”

His Escalade wasn’t in the driveway, but Robert’s truck was.

“Hey,” she said as Robert came over to open her door. “You’re early. How you doin’?”

“Honestly? I’m nervous as hell.” At least he was trying to smile.

“Nervous? No reason to be.” Even though she was, too. She grabbed her briefcase from the backseat and led him inside the office.

Robert followed her to the conference table she’d bought. That need was immediate, and she’d anticipated wanting to sit together with Connor, buyers, or sellers in one place. Thankfully, she found one in a local penny-pinchers’ paper for dirt cheap. The chairs were a tad more expensive, but she’d insisted on something both attractive and comfortable.

Her one luxury.

She set her briefcase on her desk. “Let me try Connor again. He should be here any minute.”

Robert plopped onto a chair and fiddled with one of the green pens she’d left on the table.

“You’ve reached Connor—”

She hit the button to go right to voice mail and tried to keep her words soft. “Connor, where
are
you? Robert’s already here. Hurry.”

“Something wrong?” Robert asked.

“No. Nothing like that. Maybe Tracy’s plane was late.” Although Connor surely would have called or texted her if they needed to move the meeting back.

One thing they did well as partners was communicate. Yet the more she thought about it, the more something niggled at her. In the weeks they’d worked together, there were times she’d been unable to reach him. She tried to rationalize those episodes. Maybe his cell phone battery had run down, or he’d left his phone in his car. Now as those memories filled her mind, she worried.

This meeting was the most important in the history of the firm, most likely determining whether Kelley-Wilson Realty would be a success or a here-and-gone venture.

“Where are you?” Juliana whispered to herself, letting her temper slowly rise.

“What’s wrong, Jules?” Robert popped up from his chair and went to the coffeemaker. He held up the empty pot. “Want some?”

“Absolutely. I’ll start a new pot.” At least making coffee would kill a few minutes of waiting.

By the time the coffee was done and they were both seated at the table, sipping from mismatched mugs, she was fighting a battle between worry and anger.

“Where’s Connor?” Robert asked.

“Running late.” She tried to ease his mind—and her own. “Could be a million reasons. Traffic. A late plane. Stopped to get a bite to eat.” All of which he should’ve called to let her know. She might be able to forgive him for being rude to her, but she sure didn’t think Robert deserved to wait. Then again, it was only a few minutes past the meeting time. No reason to have an anxiety attack.

“Tell me something, Jules, do you like the guy?”

Robert’s question was the same one she thought about almost every hour of every day. That and whether a broken condom was going to toss her life into a tornado. “Yeah, I do.”

I think I love him.

“Your name or Connor’s comes up every time I talk to someone in the business,” he added.

She cocked her head. “Really?”

“Really. Think about it. Cloverleaf isn’t exactly a big city.” A grin lit his face. “Most of the talk’s about how pissed off Max Schumm is.”

That thought made her smile as well. “Good. Arrogant jackass.”

“Exactly.”

That explained why she’d heard from a couple of other custom builders who’d worked with Schumm Realty in the past and were looking to jump ship. Max had clearly burned more than a couple of bridges, so why shouldn’t Kelley-Wilson Realty take advantage of that?

The office door opened. A laughing blonde slipped through, followed by a laughing Connor.

Thank God.

I’m gonna wring his neck.

Juliana swallowed the litany of questions she wanted to fire at him. Not only would it be rude in front of Robert and Tracy, but she didn’t want to seem like a needy girlfriend. If that’s what she was. Or were they roommates? Or partners? All the boundaries were mixed up and so convoluted, it was no wonder she was confused.

What a fucking mess.

Which was exactly what she’d been trying to avoid.

At least this meeting would distract her, giving her a chance to figure things out before she and Connor were alone.

Then they could talk, really talk. The time had come to set down some more ground rules. Everything that happened between them hit her like a tsunami, and she was afraid of drowning.

“Spontaneous” wasn’t in her vocabulary for anything other than ordering a pitcher of margaritas. But Connor made her spontaneous—from the way they worked together to the way they made love.

Connor’s voice pulled her back from her thoughts. “Juliana, this is Tracy Barrett.”

Juliana shook the blonde’s hand and tried not to look like she was sizing her up, even if she was.

Tracy was a petite thing, several inches shorter than Juliana and almost painfully thin. The way Connor had tossed her name around as being an important player in the business world, Juliana had formed a picture of some Amazon woman—a warrior in a black business suit. What she got was Twiggy in a gauzy summer dress.

“Nice to meet you, Ms. Barrett.”

“Oh, please.” Her smile was genuine. “No formalities. As much as Connor’s told me about you, I feel like we’ve known each other for years.”

A moment of panic over exactly what he’d said came and left. Of course he’d talked about her. She was his business partner.

Tracy shattered that wishful thinking. “I’m going to help him move his stuff from storage here Saturday.”

“Yeah,” Robert said with a chuckle. “They’re shacking up together.”

“So I heard.” Tracy shook his offered hand. “Temporarily, right?”

Robert chuckled again. “We both know better.”

Connor pulled out a chair. For Tracy. “Have a seat. Let’s get down to business.”

At least there would be something going on that would help her think about anything except backing her man into a corner and firing question after question at him.

* * *

Connor didn’t hesitate at the door, walking right into the kitchen. It was empty. “Red?”

No reply. He hoped to hell that didn’t mean she was still angry. Not that she’d come out and told him she was pissed. She’d been wonderful with Tracy and Robert, but she’d answered any of his own questions with abrupt, almost rude replies. The tone of her voice in her voice mail messages was another clue. Pure irritation. Then there was the scorching glare she’d thrown him when he’d told her he was driving Tracy to her hotel.

Kicking his shoes into the small pile of hers by the door, he hung his suit jacket over one of the chairs. “Red? You home?”

He didn’t hear the shower running until he stepped into the master suite.

His first instinct was to strip and join her, to soothe her with his touch. But he had only a tenuous grip on his emotions as it was. If he made love to her right now, he was liable to say something stupid.

Like
I love you
.

Juliana’s panicked messages still rang in his ears. Once he’d picked up Tracy, they’d started talking, like always. Seeing her face-to-face was enough to make the words spill out as he told her everything that had happened, especially in the last few weeks. After she listened, she’d made her usual request.

He snorted. Actually, it was more like an order from a five-star general. And then they’d gone to one meeting and been late to another.

Tracy didn’t think he should’ve moved in with Juliana. Not that she was jealous. They’d decided long ago—all the way back to their one and only date in high school—that there simply wasn’t any chemistry between them.

By the time he’d stripped down to his briefs, Juliana had turned off the water. He crawled into bed.

“Don’t freak out if there’s a nearly naked man in your bedroom,” he called.

“Connor?”

“Nope.” He tried a terrible Spanish accent. “Antonio Banderas.”

Her laughter touched his heart.

She came into the bedroom wearing nothing but a blue towel, and it looked damned good on her. “Funny, you don’t look like Antonio Banderas.”

Despite Connor’s plan to only snuggle up to her and get some sleep, his cock went from soft to hard fast enough to make his head spin. He bunched the sheet up in his lap to hide his erection. “Damn.”

Her gaze raked him from head to toe, the same way he’d stared at her. “I was thinking the same thing about you.”

Would there ever be a time he didn’t want to toss her on a bed and make love to her until she screamed? He faked an exaggerated yawn, hoping to convince her of his fatigue. The fake yawn turned into a real one. “I’m exhausted. Long day.”

“Yeah. It was.” After fishing a pair of panties and a red shirt out of her dresser, she retreated back into the bathroom. A few moments later, the noise of a hair dryer kicked in.

He hadn’t been lying when he said he was exhausted. By the time Juliana came back into the bedroom, he could barely keep his eyes open. She was dressed in the oversized T-shirt, and while she looked delectable, he knew he was going to be able to sleep despite the temptation.

She stared down at him from the side of the bed. “Left or right?”

His mind was too foggy to understand. “Left or right what?”

“Side of the bed. You’re on the right. Did you decide to switch sides again?”

“Hadn’t realized I did that.”

“You do. All the time,” she replied with a touch of annoyance. “Pick one and stick with it, or I’m kicking you out.”

“Left.” He lifted the sheet in invitation.

She flicked off the light, slid between the sheets, and rolled to give him her back.

Connor turned to his side and molded himself to her, pressing his thighs against the backs of hers and draping an arm over her waist. Her hair smelled like flowers.

“Shouldn’t we talk?” she whispered.

“About?”

He could almost see her roll her eyes. “The chance of rain.”