“You have a minute?” he asked in that quiet way he had.
Behind him the office staff, mostly women, were all watching with interest. Stacy, Nathan’s secretary, was nearly falling off her chair as she tried to get a better look. She was speaking into a phone as though giving a play- by-play, which didn’t make any sense, until Liza came skittering down the hall with her cell phone to her ear, stopping on a dime at the sight of them.
“Em,” Liza said, shoving her cell phone in her pocket after a glance back at Stacy, who hung up her phone, looking guilty. “I need to talk to you.”
Em gestured to Jacob. “I’m kind of in the middle of something-”
“I know.” Liza came close and looked at Jacob. In a very low voice she said,
“Liza,” Em said, horrified at the unfriendly tone.
“No, I want to know,” Liza said in quiet fury to Em. “Because for three weeks you haven’t been yourself, you’ve been sad and grieving and not eating and not sleeping, and just today I thought you were getting better, that you were getting over him, but now here he is, ready to sleep with you and then walk away again. I’m not going to have it, Em. You’re strong, so very strong, and I love you too much to let an egotistical jerk-off-”
“Excuse me,” Jacob said. “I’m right here.”
Liza barely spared him a glance. “I mean it, Em. He’s only here for the sex-”
“Until three weeks ago,” Em reminded her, “sex was all you were interested in yourself. So, Ms. Pot, please. I think I can handle Mr. Kettle.”
Liza looked at Em for a long moment, and nodded. Then she subjected Jacob to a long, withering stare.
Em thought he would offer Liza some pithy remark. She didn’t expect him to speak with quiet earnestness.
“This is the second time I’ve said this,” he said to Liza. “The first time was to Eric, and it turns out I was wrong. I’m not wrong this time. I’m not going to hurt her. Not ever again. I promise.”
Liza stared at him for a minute more, then gave another nod and turned to leave them alone.
“Can we talk now?” Jacob asked.
The rest of the staff were pretending to work but hanging on every word.
“For someone bearing chocolate,” she managed to say in a normal voice. “I can definitely talk.” She brought him into her office and shut the door on their audience.
Em tried to keep it together as she lifted Jacob’s resume, silently asking him to tell her what it meant, even though she thought maybe she knew. God, she hoped she knew. “Impressive,” she said.
“I was thinking we could discuss terms.” He nodded to the resume. “I still don’t want to be on your show,” he said very gently.
“I didn’t think so.” A lump blocked her throat at the worry in his eyes. “It’s okay.”
“You look great, Em.”
She had black circles beneath her eyes, she’d forgotten to put mascara on that morning, and her hair…she couldn’t bear thinking about her hair. She was wearing her last pair of panties because she hadn’t had the energy to do laundry, and she thought that if he said one more nice word, she would do the unthinkable and burst into tears.
“I’ve missed you,” he said quietly.
Oh, damn. She blinked hard.
“I was a fool.” He took a step toward her. “A complete fool to let you go. A cowardly one, too.” Another step, and then another. “All my life I’ve walked away from commitment, from relationships, from anything that was more than skin-deep.” One last step put them face-to-face, only inches apart. “But when I was with you, Em, I realized something.”
She could scarcely breathe. “What’s that?”
“I don’t want to be that guy anymore.”
It was painful, so painful, to look at him because she knew she couldn’t keep the hope out of her voice. “What are you saying?” she whispered.
“I’m saying there’s a lot more between us than passion, though that’s pretty damn great. I’m saying I love you back, damn it.”
Oh, God. “Jacob-”
He put his hands on her arms. “And I know you’re here and I’m there, but I’ll take the executive chef position if I have to and only work once a week at Hush. Or I’ll start over somewhere else, somewhere here-”
She put her fingers over his mouth, and then because words failed, she just looked at him for a minute. “That you’d even do that for me…The show is a success, Jacob. It doesn’t need me every day anymore. I’ll have to come up with a new show now to produce, of course, but I can do that anywhere.”
He wrapped his fingers around her wrist and gently pulled her hand from his mouth. “Keep talking.”
“I loved New York. Enough to maybe give the city a shot. I’m sure there’s something I can do there, because I know how much you want to be at Hush. That is…if you’d like.”
“I don’t care where we are, as long as we’re there together.” His eyes glittered. “So, yeah. I’d like.”
“So.” She held up his resume. “The job of holding my heart. You seem uniquely qualified for that.”
Slowly his tension seemed to drain. And for the first time since he’d stepped inside her office, he let out a slow smile, one infused with obvious relief. “You think so?”
Nodding, she smiled. “And I am hiring you on the spot for all the above, to be my lover, my friend and the bearer of my heart. As long as I get to be the bearer of yours.”
“Always,” he whispered fiercely, his arms banding tightly around her as he lifted her up. “Always.”
Jill Shalvis
