hanging past her shoulder blades instead of pulled back in the usual ponytail or neat chignon, she didn’t look at all like a secretary, but a woman. For the first ten seconds he actually felt dizzy and sort of weak-kneed. He would have wisely sat for a bit to give himself time to get his bearings, but she didn’t have a darned chair!
“So,” he said, trying to sound casual and knowing he was failing. But it didn’t matter because he had accomplished the real goal of his mission. She had agreed to help him get organized so he could train her replacement. No matter how silly or how shaky he sounded, the victory was his. And the sooner he got her out of this house and into his, the less chance she would change her mind.
“I appreciate your doing this, Liv,” he said, then wondered why he had the sudden inspiration to give her a nickname when he had never used one before. “But, since it’s already late, I think we should get going.”
Olivia turned to face him and Josh found himself caught in the gaze of her unusual green eyes. They weren’t green like grass, or green like moss, but more the color of the ocean. Sort of an aqua. He’d never noticed them before.
“To your house?”
“Well, yeah. We’ll get you settled and then maybe we’ll even have time for you to give me some background information about your job before we call it a night.”
“I guess,” Olivia said, but she stammered and stumbled over her words, as if she were having second thoughts about her agreement. Josh nearly panicked until she added, “The thing is, Josh, I have to be out of here tonight. That means I have to have all my boxes out of here.”
A rush of relief poured through him. For a minute there, he thought she might have changed her mind. Or, worse, that she was recognizing the layers of complications involved in spending the weekend at his house. After all they were both single, good-looking adults, and in spite of the fact that he was more than ten years older than she, he was suddenly attracted to her. Maybe she had noticed and wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to stay overnight with him…. Or maybe after seeing him in another context she was feeling an attraction to him….
Nah. That was nothing but his over-active imagination traveling into the land of wishful thinking.
“That’s simple enough. I’ll help you get the rest of these boxes into your car and then you can follow me home. By the way, where’s your furniture?”
“I sold it. I’m going to be living with my mother and stepfather until I get on my feet. Once I do, I would rather buy new things than use what I had here, because I want to make a whole new life.”
He knew there was significance in that statement. She hadn’t said it with any extra inflection, but Josh instinctively knew that selling her furniture or maybe starting over again meant something to her.
“Well,” he said, not quite sure why a simple statement would leave him with a hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach. “New furniture is as good a way as any to make a declaration of independence.”
She nodded, and her blond hair floated around her like a billowy cloud. In the thin light of the early evening, her complexion was smooth and edged with shadows that gave her a mysterious, sultry countenance, again feeding the notion that he didn’t really know this woman at all, and again making him feel tongue-tied and stupid.
He glanced around at her boxes to get his eyes off her. “What do you say we get started?”
“Okay,” she agreed, but now her voice sounded uncertain. Almost as if she didn’t know how to treat him anymore.
Josh understood that feeling perfectly. He hadn’t necessarily missed that his former secretary was an attractive woman, he had just never noticed that she was drop-dead gorgeous. Not that that influenced how he felt about her. He had always liked her. True, he didn’t show her any affection. Sometimes he wasn’t even really friendly. But he was busy. He was always busy. It wasn’t easy to work for family. First, he didn’t want to take advantage of the generosity of his uncle. Second, he didn’t ever want anyone to accuse him of not pulling his weight. If he worked harder and longer than everyone else, it was because he had to.
And if that meant his personal life suffered, then so be it. The problem was, though, in one ten-minute encounter out of the office, with roles reversed, or perhaps in some respects completely nonexistent, watching Olivia’s hair shifting around her every time she moved, and her nice little butt outlined in her jeans, Josh was considering that maybe—just maybe—his life was out of balance.
“Josh?”
“Huh? Oh, I’m sorry,” Josh apologized quickly, then hoped she hadn’t caught him staring at her, pining for something he couldn’t have. Because that was ridiculous. Hormones. An unexpected wash of testosterone. That’s all. His goals, his lifestyle, his dedication to a man who had rescued him from a job he hated, couldn’t be overturned merely from seeing a pretty girl in jeans that fit as if they were cut to cling to her curves.
“Tell me what box to move and where to take it, and I’ll start toting and storing.”
“Okay,” she said, chipper and happy again.
Josh nearly breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t want to be attracted to her. He didn’t want to be attracted to anybody, but he especially didn’t want to be attracted to her. She worked for him. Any move he made or inadvertently flirty thing he said could be construed as sexual harassment, but more than that she was vital to his plans right now. He needed her to be his teacher…and maybe his friend. But that was it.
Comfortable that his resolve was in place, he took a quick peek at her to see if the sight of her disrupted his reinforced conviction. When it didn’t, he knew he was back to normal. It was for both of their benefit that he didn’t see her as anything other than a secretary, and if it killed him over the next few days, he would treat her as impersonally as possible.
They stepped into Josh’s foyer a little more than an hour later and Olivia gasped with appreciation. Pale oak trimmed the three-tiered stairway that led to an open second-floor hall. Ceramic tile glistened beneath her feet. A sparkling chandelier hung from a glittery chain.
“Oh, gosh, Josh, your house is fantastic.”
“Thank you. I like it,” he said, taking her summer-weight jacket when she handed it to him.
“Did you do this yourself?” she asked, peeking around the corner at a comfortable room that was furnished in Southwest American decor. Earthy greens, hazy pinks and muted browns in the accent rug, sofa, and chairs came to life as soon as Josh turned on an overhead light.
“Gina helped. But the truth is I know what I like, and when I see what I like I…” He paused, and his face scrunched with an odd look before he slowly added, “I usually go after it. Not always, though, because some things aren’t meant to be. Or aren’t meant to happen.”
When he said the last, Olivia got the distinct impression he wasn’t talking about furniture anymore. For a fleeting second she worried that he had somehow caught on to the fact that she was unreasonably attracted to him and was warning her off, but that couldn’t be it. He hadn’t in four years figured out she had a crush on him. It was a stretch to think he saw it now. Besides, she hadn’t succumbed to his magnetic pull yet. Her resolve was in place. He might be good-looking and sexy, but even if she loved him to pieces, he didn’t love her. She was done pining over unrequited love.
But as he led her from the homey living room,
