Who's the Boss? (9 page)

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Authors: Jill Shalvis

Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Contemporary

BOOK: Who's the Boss?
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“I think I do.”
Hot tea came next, and Caitlin found herself being pampered by nothing but the best crumb cake she’d ever sampled and an even better friendship.
“You know,” she mumbled around a huge, heavenly biteful, “I’ve been everywhere in this world. I’ve eaten at the most amazing places.” She smiled at Amy’s curious face. “But nothing has tasted as good as this.”
“Well, I haven’t been anywhere, other than Los Angeles, but that doesn’t really count ’cause it’s just in the next county over, you know?” Amy laughed completely unselfconsciously. “But I still know a good person when I meet one, Caitlin. Don’t let them get you down. Life’s too good, too short.”
Caitlin stilled as the simple truth sunk in. “It is, isn’t it?”
“You could get another job and drop all the problems in one shot.”
Another truth, one that just a few days ago she would have thought an impossibility. But now she knew better. She knew she was smart enough to learn how to do whatever she wanted. “You know... you’re right.”
And she thought about it for the rest of the day. Imagined herself in another job, being appreciated, rewarded. Cared about.
Without Joe.
The tightness in her chest deepened and became an ache.
She was in bigger trouble than she ever imagined if the thought of being without Joe Brownley could so unsettle her.
 
CAITLIN DRAGGED HER FEET as she carried CompuSoft’s bookkeeping to Darla’s office, but it had to be done. Joe had told her. She had explained it wasn’t necessary as she’d already reconciled his checkbook and had arranged his accounts receivables and payables.
He’d laughed. “And I’m the Pope.”
She’d been disgusted, then furious at his assumption that she’d been joking, but now all she felt was hurt.
Amy’s suggestion bounced around in her head.
Another job.
The prospect didn’t seem quite so daunting anymore.
She found Darla in her office, laughing over something Tim had said. The phone rang, distracting her, for which Caitlin was thankful. She needed a moment to collect herself.
Tim smiled shyly as Darla dealt with her call, which went a long way toward boosting Caitlin’s spirits. “You look really pretty today, Caitlin.”
“Thanks.” She forced a smile in return because Tim was probably the sweetest, most unassuming man she’d ever met. “Just tell Darla everything’s there.”
And done
. As she dropped the package on the desk, her gaze ran over a complicated spreadsheet opened there.
Darla hung up the phone and nodded politely to Caitlin, her eyes filled with curiosity. “Thanks. How’s it going?”
“Perfect.” But she was distracted. She pointed to the spreadsheet and spoke without thinking. “Did you know that this column is added up wrong? You’ve got the tens and hundreds column transposed.”
Darla’s dark gaze widened, then narrowed. “So that’s why I didn’t balance— How in the world did you figure that out so fast?”
“I just added them up.” Caitlin held her breath at the look of bewildered shock on the woman’s face. “Adding is a basic function you know. Even blondes can do it.”
“This is more than just adding two plus two.” Stunned, Darla stared at Tim. “Did you know she could do that?”
“No.” Tim looked at Caitlin,
not
as though she were a freak as she expected, but with affection. “Cool. You’re blond, beautiful
and
smart. Marry me?”
Darla snorted and shoved him out of the way. She opened the package Caitlin had brought. Her surprise was clear as she spread out the papers, realizing most of the work was complete. “This isn’t Joseph’s messy scrawl.”
“No, it isn’t.”
Darla looked up. “Is it right?”
“You’ve seen me add.”
Darla smiled slow and warm. “You know,
nothing
irritates me more than when someone sticks their nose in the air over the clinch cover on one of my favorite romance books. Do you know what I mean?”
“That I shouldn’t make fun of your choice of reading material?”
Darla grasped Caitlin’s hand, sent her a small, regretful smile. “I judged
you
by your cover, Caitlin. And I’m sorry for that. I hope you can forgive me.”
There was no sign of the aloof woman Caitlin had first met on the elevator. Even that long, lean, perfect body of Darla’s suddenly seemed less intimidating. “I did the same,” Caitlin admitted, smiling in return. “Just forget it.”
“I never forget a fellow number lover,” Darla vowed. “When you get tired of Mr. Gorgeous Grump, come here. I’ll hire you on the spot.”
“I’m tired of Mr. Gorgeous Grump.”
Darla laughed. “Well, then we’ve got a lot to talk about. You want to think about another job?”
“I already have.”
Darla nodded approvingly. “Then let’s do it.”
 
THE PHONE RANG, and Joe automatically lifted the receiver, but his greeting died as Caitlin’s mortgage officer introduced himself.
“You just missed Ms. Taylor,” Joe said coolly. “But I’m her...attorney. How much does she owe and where do I send it?”
He took the information, silently calling himself every sort of fool. So he had this bizarre sense of protectiveness, so what?
If you had to become a bleeding heart, you idiot, you could have gotten a puppy.
It would have been far cheaper.
Vince came in. “Where’s the Huntley contract?”
“I had that one out last week. It should be...hell.” With dread, he looked down at the desk that was now Caitlin’s. It was cleared off. So was the floor, he realized with growing horror. “I had it here. I used to have lot of files here. Oh, God.” Sick, he looked up. “I don’t see any files here, Vince.”
Vince bit his lip.
“Tell me she didn’t file,” he urged. “Please. Tell me she’s just been sitting here answering phones, blowing up coffee machines and looking pretty.”
“Well...”
With one short, concise oath, Joe stood. “Where?” he said quietly, and Vince pointed to the series of filing cabinets against the wall. “She told me the other day she’d been doing a little at a time. She, uh...revamped your system for you.”
“Oh, great.” Knowing Caitlin, things could be anywhere. Individual contracts could have been grouped and filed away under N for “Nasty-Looking Documents.” Detailed software instructions, which tended to look like maps, could have been filed under anything from D for “Directions,” to L for “Looks like Latin to me.”
“I’m going to have to kill her.”
Vince sighed and moved toward the files. “No. Then I’d have to kill you. Too messy, Joe.”
Unreasonable jealousy reared up and smacked him, hard. She’d made instant friends with these guys. Real friends. They were already as loyal to her as they were to him, maybe more. Joe had never in his life made an instant friend, and he was afraid that said something about him. Something he didn’t like.
She was just a woman, he reminded himself. One woman. And while he knew it was a rotten, unfair generalization, he’d found that most women were manipulators. That had always been fine with him, since he’d never wanted one for more than the usual quick fling.
But now things were different. He didn’t want a quick fling with Caitlin. All he wanted was his work. Oh, man, he couldn’t lie to himself. He did want a quick, hard fling, and that really got him. This was his
work
, dammit. Work and pleasure did not mix!
Tim and Andy came in, and when they found out what Caitlin had done, they quickly offered to help.
“Keep in mind,” Andy said, flipping through the first drawer, “if you fire her now, we’ll go back to answering our own phones, and you’ll get even less done. Think of your program, Joe. The one you’re almost done with. Our future, man. Just remember.”
“Yeah, our future.” Joseph’s mouth tightened. Since Caitlin had joined them, he’d accomplished little toward that goal. What made it worse, he couldn’t put all the blame at her feet.
For some reason, when he sat at his computer, he now spent a good amount of time just staring at it, seeing a certain brown-eyed, sweet-smiling, drop-dead-gorgeous blonde. Thinking. Wishing. Hoping. And it annoyed him.
The files were...perfect. As were in the As. Bs in the
Bs
. And so on. The Huntley file was with the
Hs
. It was a miracle.
And he was a jerk.
“She did a good job,” Vince noted casually.
“But...I told her to answer phones.” Baffled now, he looked around. He hardly recognized his surroundings; everything looked so good, so dean. So...uncluttered.
“She’s done much more than just answer phones,” Vince said, somewhat accusingly. “She’s
made
this place, Joe. You should tell her. Thank her.”
That Vince was right didn’t help, but how to explain what he’d known all along? Caitlin could drive him off the brink. She was sexy, and yes, dammit, smarter than he wanted to admit.
This,
he told himself harshly, was what happened when he went against his better judgment. He hadn’t wanted to work with her. Had tried to find a way out of it. But short of breaking his promise to a man who’d meant everything to him, he hadn’t found a way.
“Here’s the general ledger that Darla called about. It’s right here, in the accounting stuff, just where it should be.”
Joe groaned, knowing the ledger that Darla had been asking for was two weeks overdue, and one thing Darla wasn’t, was patient. He’d had it on the front desk, but apparently his efficient secretary had taken care of it for him.
He would have to face Darla, too.
The phone rang again, this time from a slimy used-car salesman Joe wouldn’t have turned his back on. When he realized that Caitlin had called this guy, looking for a used car she could afford, his stomach actually cramped. She’d lost her car.
Dammit, Edmund.
Why?
He hung up on the sales-scum, then promptly took another call. It was the building electrician. The wiring in his kitchen was faulty.
Faulty.
Joe grit his teeth as he listened to the man explain how the entire kitchen could have gone up in flames instead of just blowing up the coffeemaker.
It hadn’t been Caitlin’s fault—neither time.
He was rotten to the core.
 
BY THE END of the week, Joe was losing it. Really losing it. For days, he’d been making a new career out of staring at his computer. Sometimes, for variety, he swore at it.
But the final straw came on Friday.
Caitlin didn’t show.
He was in his office with Darla when Vince informed him that Caitlin wasn’t coming in.
“Good, maybe I’ll get something done for a change,” Joe said with bright relief for Darla’s and Vince’s benefit. Meanwhile, his insides sank. A weekend was coming up. Now he wouldn’t catch a glimpse of her for three days. Not one look at those huge, haunting brown eyes. Not one peek at her full red mouth that he knew damn well was more addicting than any drug. Not to mention her other notable...parts.
Worse, he’d have no one to spar with. Oh, he could pick on any of the techs. Or Darla. All of them could be counted on to give as good as they got. Except Tim, who usually just pouted.
But no one gave him what Caitlin did. A run for his money. A kick start to a whirl of emotional adrenaline he hadn’t experienced in far too long, which itself was good enough reason to stay clear of her. He didn’t need to feel that attachment. Didn’t want to.
Nope. In fact, he should be ecstatic that she wasn’t coming in, and his temper stirred when he realized he wasn’t even close. “Is she sick?”
“No.” Vince moved to the door. “She’s moving tomorrow and needs to do some stuff.”
“What?”
“She didn’t tell you?”
To the amusement of both Darla and Vince, Joseph yanked up the phone and called her. “Why didn’t you tell me you were moving?” he demanded when he got her on the line.
“What does that matter?” came her surprisingly weary voice. “But I’m sorry about today. I’ll be there Monday.”
She hung up on him.
The nerve. No one had ever— “Vince,” he barked as his poor tech was trying to escape. “She’s moving? By herself?”
“Yeah.”
He’d paid the mortgage, dammit!
“I told her I’d come tonight to help her pack. She didn’t want me to, but I’m going anyway.” He hesitated. “Actually, she sounded poorly. I think I’ll just go now.”
Joe swore again. Darla lifted her brows and glanced at him. The knowing light in her eyes was hard to take.
“Fine,” he said stiffly to Vince. No problem, he was fine with it.
Vince left and Darla smiled. “Okay,” she drawled. “Where were we? The expenses, I believe.” She lifted her pencil and smiled at him.

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