And Tessa might have, if her car had started.
She sat there in her uncooperative VW and sighed. It was temping to run back to her sister for help, but this was her life, her problem, and she wanted to handle it on her own. Always being rescued by a sibling didn’t count as handling it on her own.
She took the bus again. Once inside Reilly’s building, she got off on the fourth floor where she knew he sometimes worked out. Oops, funny how that had happened, her getting off on the wrong floor…
She looked through the glass doors of the gym. The room was lined with exercise equipment and filled with early worker bees, all of whom were in various stages of sweating. Serious, intent faces abounded everywhere.
Tessa stood there for a moment trying to decide if she felt any remorse at all for having such a serious aversion to exercise.
Nope. No remorse at all.
She recognized some of the people she’d run into all week-the croissant lady from the lobby, the attorney from the second floor… And there, in the far corner, facing the wall of windows that opened to the beautiful San Gabriel Mountains, running on a treadmill was her temporary boss.
Headphones on his ears, he ran for all he was worth. His T-shirt clung to him, delineating every muscle, every nuance in his long, sleek back and arms. His legs pumped, burning calories. As if he needed to! The man didn’t have a single inch of excess anywhere.
Her eyes caught and held on to his very fine backside.
She took a quick moment to glance furtively around, making sure no one caught her staring at his butt.
No one even looked her way.
She liked this fourth floor, she liked it a lot. She liked to see Reilly all tall, dark and sweaty and she stood there for one long moment, just soaking him in. How many times had she told herself she wasn’t going to want him? And how many times had it not mattered?
She still wanted him.
Then suddenly, Reilly turned and looked unerringly right at her. His skin gleamed, his eyes glittered and his body made her knees knock together as he slowly cocked a brow, silently asking her what the hell she was doing standing there with her eyes locked on him.
Yikes. Like the calm, steady woman she was not, she turned and fled.
THIRTY MINUTES LATER, Tessa froze when the elevator dinged its arrival. From her perch at the receptionist’s desk where she sat pretending to go through the messages on Reilly’s answering machine, she stared at the elevator doors, her heart galloping.
What would she say to him? She hadn’t a clue, she had no excuse, nothing prepared-
The doors opened. Reilly stepped off. “Morning,” he said, and without a word about her Peeping Tomina act, he strode down the hall, leaving her staring after him.
In fact, he never said a word about it or how it’d gone for him at Eddie’s the day before. She assumed Eddie was safe enough for now, but she’d have liked to hear that for sure.
In fact, Reilly sat holed up in his office all day and when she came in to say goodbye, he thanked her for all she’d done.
Composed and cool as ever.
She’d actually forgotten that it was over, that he’d hired her through Thursday only and she nodded to herself as she left. It had come to an end, she’d known it would.
No big deal.
It was just a very small part of her had hoped he’d hire her on permanently, maybe even admit to needing her. Her. Not Marge, not any other temp who could have done the work, but her.
Hadn’t happened, and as always when she fell, she picked herself up, dusted herself off and went on her merry way.
12
THE WEEKEND CAME and Tessa spent Saturday getting her car fixed and putting the charges on her poor credit card.
When Rafe found out what she’d spent, he couldn’t understand why she hadn’t called him for help.
Carolyn couldn’t understand why Tessa hadn’t come to her to borrow the money.
And her parents fussed and fretted over the fact she hadn’t let them buy her a new car last Christmas when they’d wanted.
Sure, being smothered by family was just a part of being a Delacantro, but she did her best to remain true to herself and was happier for it. She loved her family so much, but she was living her own life, handling her own responsibilities and thriving that way.
On Sunday, she and her sister went shopping and she was quite proud of the fact that she restrained herself from buying anything but new underwear, because let’s face it, she didn’t need another red, hot dress that would go unnoticed.
“Hmm,” was all her sister said as they stood in line at the lingerie shop with Tessa’s satin, purple panties and matching bra between them.
“Do you have something to say?” Tessa asked. “Because let me remind you, you bought black lace two weeks ago, remember? Did I say ‘hmm’ in that snooty tone to you then?”
“No, you smirked and wondered if Rob was going to get to see them.”
“A reasonable question since you’ve been dating him for months.”
“Dating, not sleeping with.”
“And why is that again?”
Her sister sighed. “I don’t know. He doesn’t even make a move. It’s such a waste of a good relationship.”
Tessa sighed inwardly and wished for a good relationship, to waste or otherwise.
ON MONDAY MORNING, she got an early morning call from Eddie, letting her know Reilly needed a temp for another week. Was she up for it?
Was she up for it? Well, given the way her heart had taken off, pounding against her ribs at just the thought of another week at Reilly’s office, yes. She was most definitely up for it.
Damn it.
She tried to take her time getting ready, tried not to care what she wore or how it looked. Most of all, she tried to be in her usual running-out-the-door-at-the-last-moment state, but before she knew it, she was entering the building twenty minutes early.
And also before she knew it, her finger had hit the fourth floor button.
He wasn’t there. She knew because she stood outside the gym, eyeing each and every treadmill that lined the huge room, but she couldn’t see him-
“Tessa.”
She managed not to jump but did grimace before turning to face Reilly, who’d apparently just gotten off the elevator behind her. Up close and personal, after a three-day break, he was even taller, darker and…hotter than she remembered. “Hi.”
He nodded toward the gym. “You going to work out?”
She nearly laughed, except she was sure it would sound half-hysterical so she swallowed it. “Um, no.”
“You get off on the wrong floor?”
“No.”
“Oh. Are you…looking for me?”
She sighed and forced herself to look in his eyes and not at his leanly muscled athletic body. “Do you remember my claim that I wasn’t pathetic with the opposite sex?”
“I remember,” he said.
