style="font-size:15px;"> “For a minute.” The chair scraped over the brick floor as Walker pulled it out. “I have a lunch meeting with a new client and then I’m picking up Tamra at two to fly back to South Dakota.” He turned to face Paige. “How’s the event planning going?”
The pointed question elicited the slightest flush on her cheeks. “Great. We’ve got a theme, decor, entertainment, a guest list and an invitation design all completed this morning.”
“So,” Walker looked from one to the other. “Why are you still meeting?”
“Budget,” Matt said without thinking.
“Time line,” Paige said at the same time, then cleared her throat and ignored Walker’s snort of laughter at the contradiction. “Matt was just telling me how you two used to frequent the brunches here in college.”
Walker’s grin was slow as his gaze slid to Matt. “Then I guess I should be glad he’s bringing you here instead of some of our less respectable hangouts in Oakland.”
“Maybe you’ll take me to one of those, too, Matt.” Her smile was anything but innocent. “I’m always interested in seeing what less than respectable looks like.”
Her meaning was not lost on him and by the burn in Walker’s stare, it wasn’t lost on him, either.
She wasn’t doing such a bang-up job of keeping this pure business, he thought. The morning meeting had been filled with longer-than-businesslike glances and a definite sense of play and not work in her quick comebacks.
And she’d looked damn near triumphant when he called the Marketing Department to tell Tessa he’d hired an outside consultant to do the event.
Suddenly Paige pushed her chair back and stood. “Excuse me for a moment, please.”
They both stood up as she left the table, their similar heights bringing the two men face-to-face.
“I thought you were doing a good deed.” Walker’s voice had no humor.
Matt rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he considered a response. “I’m taking a business associate to lunch to discuss an event we’re planning. I fail to see how that’s a bad deed.”
Walker’s thick native-American brows knotted and his dark eyes narrowed. “When you bid on her, Matt, you said, ‘I’m only doing a good deed.’ You felt sorry for her or something.”
“That’s true.” He felt…something. Not sorry, but this wasn’t the right time to explain that. “Then I hired her to manage an event. Something she happens to be very good at. Is that a problem?”
“It could be.” Walker was far too familiar with Matt’s track record for him to easily buy that excuse. Matt had even confided that he had no intention of ever getting serious with a woman again after his divorce; he’d been very clear about his “sex without strings” personal philosophy.
“I don’t intend for it to go beyond the boardroom, Walker,” he added, lowering his voice and holding his friend’s slightly hostile gaze. “You don’t have to worry about me.”
“I’m not in the least bit worried about you.” Walker glanced in the direction where Paige had gone. “I’m worried about my little cousin. She does her best to be tough but…”
“But what?”
“She’s got a soft heart.”
And soft lips. And soft hair. “I can tell,” Matt admitted.
“And she’s shy.”
Shy? Could Walker—or the other Ashtons—not know the same Paige he did? She was definitely not shy. Quiet, thoughtful and intelligent, but not shy. “She’s not timid, Walker. She knows how to get what she wants.”
“That’s just a front,” Walker insisted. “She tries to be as in control as her sister Megan, and as shrewd as their mother. But she’s tender, not tough. She’s…she’s not…”
“She’s not what?”
“She’s not your type.”
Now that was debatable. “I know what you’re trying to say,” Matt assured his friend. “You can trust me.”
Walker put his hand on Matt’s shoulder and gave him a quick squeeze. They went too far back, had too much history and friendship, for either one to doubt the truth of Matt’s promise.
“I know that, Matty boy. I know that.” Walker cocked his head toward Paige’s empty chair. “Tell her I had to run.”
When Walker disappeared into the dining room of The Terrace, Matt caught a glimpse of Paige approaching the table. Her slender hips swayed a bit with each step, her breasts moved just enough to make his mouth water.
She moistened her lips ever so slightly and kept her gaze locked on him.
Matt knew women. And he knew for a fact that this one most definitely had something on her mind other than a time line or a budget.
But he’d made his promise. To himself. And, more important, to his friend.
Chapter Five
Paige had to give him credit. Matt was doing everything humanly possible to keep their interaction strictly business. Or at least not personal.
And hadn’t she planned to do the same thing on their first date just a few nights ago? She’d failed miserably…and he would, too.
For one thing, their “meeting” had started at ten, then continued on through a two-hour lunch, and showed no sign of ending now that they were strolling through Ghirardelli Square like a couple of tourists.
Like a couple. Period.
It was unspoken that they didn’t want the “meeting” to end. He’d suggested they drive over to the square after lunch to soak in the incredible autumn California day, and she hadn’t argued. The sun warmed the golden brick pavement of the sprawling park, and their easy conversation and comfortable silences warmed her heart. Nothing intimate, nothing personal. But not exactly business, either.
“I haven’t been here for years,” Paige said as they passed the historic chocolate factory. “I forgot how quaint and inviting this place is.”
“It’s touristy,” he noted. “But there’s a reason the tourists like it.”
They entered a tree-lined plaza, pausing at a storefront to admire the hand-blown glass in the window.
“We can’t leave the square without making a wish,” Matt said suddenly, taking her hand. “Let’s visit Andrea.”
Her fingers curled around his much stronger ones. Oh, yes. This was feeling more like a date and less like a meeting every minute. “Andrea?”
“The mermaid of the fountain.” He tugged her toward the massive sculpture of two mermaids nursing their babies and surrounded by a pool of sun-drenched water. “Gotta
