“You could and no one would notice. Especially not me.” He took her arm and led her into a shadowy alcove. “Here.” He handed her a piece of paper.
She looked at it. The sheet was a printout of a memo, detailing the new policy on discounted tires.
“Now will you get your damn car fixed?”
She stared at him, knowing that while he’d been helping her, he was also helping a lot of other people. “I will,” she said, raising herself onto tiptoes and lightly kissing him. “I promise.”
He put his arms around her and pulled her close. “Good. You’re a pain in the ass. You know that, right?”
She giggled. “Yes. You’re dictatorial. And annoying.”
They hung on to each other for several seconds. Annie loved the feel of him, the strength and heat of his body. As always, being close to him made her feel safe.
“I have to get back to my class,” she said reluctantly. “They’re wearing cardboard halos that won’t really survive very long.”
“Okay. I’ll see you after the Christmas thing.”
“Winter festival.”
“Whatever. I’ll see you.”
“Yes,” she said and watched him walk away.
She knew then that despite the fact that she’d only known him a few weeks, she was well on her way to being in love with him. He was unlike anyone she’d ever met. He was better in every way possible.
He’d promised not to ask her to be friends and she trusted him to keep his word. But he’d also promised when the holiday season was over, so was their relationship. And she knew he would keep his word on that, as well. Wishing for more wouldn’t change the outcome. Duncan had told her once that, in his life, somebody always won and somebody always lost. This time, she had a bad feeling the loser would be her.
Monday morning Duncan walked into his office to find a plate of cookies on his desk. They were covered in holiday plastic wrap and there was a handwritten note attached.
Duncan had no idea who the woman was or how long she’d worked for the company. He unwrapped the cookies and bit into one. Chocolate chip. His favorite.
Still chewing, he crossed to the windows overlooking the six-story atrium in the center of the building. He could see people coming in to start their week. People he’d never bothered to get to know.
Ten years ago, he would have been able to name every employee. He’d worked twenty-hour days, struggling to make the company profitable, then to grow it as quickly as possible. For the past few years, he’d had contact with his senior management team, his assistant and no one else. He didn’t have time.
Who were these people who worked for him? Why had they chosen this company and not another? Did they like their jobs? Should that even matter to him?
He looked back at the note and the plate of cookies. Annie would be a disaster as a boss, giving away more than the company made. But maybe it was time for him to leave the confines of his office and remember what it was like to know his employees. To listen instead of command. To ask instead of demand. Maybe it was time to stop being the meanest CEO in the country.
Nine
Duncan had never really enjoyed his board of director meetings, but this was worse than usual. Not because they were complaining-that he could handle. It was the way they were all
“Just doing what we agreed.”
“This reporter…” One of the board members adjusted his glasses and frowned at the business journal. “Charles Patterson seems to think you’ve had an awakening. Who’s this Annie person?”
“Annie McCoy,” Lawrence said, before Duncan could answer. “The woman Duncan’s seeing.”
The other board members looked at him.
“You told me to find someone nice,” he reminded them. “She’s a kindergarten teacher. Very pretty. Charles has a crush on her.”
“Well done,” the oldest board member said. “You should bring her around here so we can all meet her.”
“There’s no need for that,” Duncan said, thinking the last thing Annie needed was a bunch of old guys trying to flirt with her.
“Annie’s special,” Lawrence announced. “Good for Duncan, too.”
Duncan narrowed his gaze. “I’m seeing her through the holidays. It’s a business arrangement, nothing more. You told me to find someone nice and clean up my act. I did. Don’t make it more than it is.”
“It didn’t look like a business arrangement to me,” Lawrence said.
“Looks can be deceiving.”
There was no way he was telling his uncle or anyone on the board that he also thought Annie was special. They didn’t need to know how she’d wormed her way into his life. The kicker was he didn’t think she’d even been trying. But regardless of his feelings for her, when the holidays were over, so was their relationship.
The board moved on to other business. When they were finished, Lawrence lingered in the conference room until the other men had left.
“Are you serious about ending things with Annie?” his uncle asked. “I saw you two together, Duncan. You like her. You should marry her.”
Duncan shook his head. “I’ve been married.”
“To the wrong woman. I don’t know what Valentina wanted, but it wasn’t you or a real marriage. Annie’s different. She’s the kind of girl you spend forever with.”
This from a man who’d been married five times? “You know this how?”
“I’ve lived a lot longer than you. I’ve seen things, made bad choices. There are few regrets more painful than knowing you let the woman of your dreams get away. You’ve always been smarter than me about most things. Don’t be an idiot now.”
“Thanks for the advice,” Duncan said, standing up to leave.
“But you’re not going to take it.”
“I did what the board asked. That’s all you’re getting from me.”
Lawrence stared at him for a long time. “Not everyone leaves.”
Duncan didn’t react to the statement, even though he knew the old man was wrong. Nearly everyone who mattered left. He’d learned that a long time ago. It was better not to care. Safer.
“Annie doesn’t leave,” his uncle added softly. “Look at her life.”
“What do you know about it?”
“What you told me. She has her cousins and their friend living with her. She’s helping to pay for their college educations. She agreed to date you to help her brother, after he tried to throw her under the bus. She’s not a person who gives up easily.”
True, Duncan thought uneasily. Annie took responsibility, hanging on with both hands. “That’s different,” he
