thirty years old, single, and with nothing better to do on a Saturday night except watch a movie on DVD and order in a pizza. She’d be willing to bet Carrie Wancheck wasn’t sitting home alone tonight. Or Alex, either.
Now why had she thought of those two, practically in the same breath?
Oh, you know why.
Was it possible that Carrie had accomplished her mission of catching Alex’s interest? She hadn’t been at Jake’s the night before, either, and when P.J. had casually asked about her, one of the guys said Carrie had bragged that she had a hot date. A sleep-over date, he’d said, and the others had all laughed knowingly.
What if that hot date had been with Alex? Although it was the last thing she wanted to think about, P.J. couldn’t help imagining the two of them in bed together. Carrie had a fantastic body—toned and slender, with curves in all the right places. What man wouldn’t desire her?
The idea of the two of them together made P.J. want to throw up. And that made her even more disgusted with herself. Why did she care anyway? You don’t want him. So what’s the problem?
But even as she told herself this, P.J. knew exactly what the problem was. She did want him. And unfortunately, what she’d imagined to be a corresponding interest from him had turned out to be just plain normal friendliness on his part. Because if he’d been going to make a move in her direction, he’d darned sure have done it by now.
Really disgusted with herself now, she decided that once and for all, she would wipe Alex Noble out of her mind. Not only that, she would stay away from him at work as well as after work. If that meant she would have to give up going to Jake’s, so be it. She needed some new interests in life, anyway. In fact, instead of just giving lip service to some of the areas that interested her, it was past time to put some of those interests into action. Like volunteering at a women’s shelter. And getting involved in politics.
It was a good thing she had that management meeting in Seattle this week. She needed to get away. Maybe after a week of meetings, she’d have her head back in the game again.
And nowhere near Alex Noble.
The week went fast for Alex. They were extremely busy at work, and it felt as if he’d no sooner had lunch than it would be time to punch out.
After work, he always ran his five miles in Jansen Park. He kept hoping he’d see P.J. there since Chick Fogarty had told them she was in management meetings in Seattle this week. But she didn’t come to the park, or if she did, she came earlier or later than he did.
Because he was curious, he gave Gray a call and found out the meetings would be over by noon on Thursday. While he had Gray on the phone, he asked him how his bride hunt was going. As always, Gray was noncommittal.
“What about you?” he asked.
“I’m working on it,” Alex said.
After they’d hung up, Alex wondered if P.J. would be back to work on Friday. He hoped so. Now that he’d decided Miss Paige Jeffers Kinkaid was the perfect candidate for his bride hunt, he was determined to make some forward progress in his campaign to win her.
On Friday morning, as he entered the quad, the first person he saw was P.J. sitting at her desk. She looked up when she heard his footsteps. “Good morning.”
“Good morning,” he said, smiling down at her. She looked great in a short-sleeved sweater the same blue as her eyes. It hugged her breasts and Alex couldn’t help noticing the faint outline of her bra. “How were your meetings?”
She shrugged, not meeting his gaze. “Fine.”
Alex started to say something else, but she’d already turned her attention back to her computer.
Alex frowned as he walked away. She certainly wasn’t very friendly this morning. He wondered if something was wrong. And if so, if it had to do with him. Could she have found out who he was? But he didn’t have time to think about her for long because only minutes later the morning orders began pouring in.
Again, the day went by fast. He barely saw P.J. When he passed her desk, she always seemed to be somewhere else, and she wasn’t around at lunchtime, either. And when he did see her, she never stopped to talk, not even for a few minutes. By the end of the day, he had the distinct feeling she was purposely avoiding him.
When Rick asked if he was planning to go to Jake’s after work, Alex said yes. He hoped P.J. would be there, too. If she was, he was going to make it his business to talk to her.
She was still at her desk when he and Rick left, and Alex was glad when Rick said, “Hey, boss, you goin’ to Jake’s?”
She looked up. Her gaze met Alex’s for an instant before resting on Rick. After hesitating a moment, she shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Ah, c’mon, boss,” Rick cajoled. “Do you good to go. You’ve been uptight all day. Those meetings must’ve done you in. We’ll see you there, okay?”
Alex wondered if she’d show up. He’d almost given up after an hour went by and she didn’t appear. And then suddenly, there she was. She looked tired, not her usual lively self at all. Something must be wrong. Maybe whatever it was had nothing to do with Alex at all. Maybe the week had just been a rough one for her. He wished there was an empty chair near where he was sitting, but even though he’d tried to sit at the far end of the table where there was room for a few more, Rick wouldn’t hear of it and had insisted Alex come and join him and Wayne and Jim, who were all sitting together.
The good thing was, Carrie Wancheck wasn’t there. In fact, the only female to join the group that night was Ruby.
P.J. walked over to the bar, got herself a beer, then sat at the far end where Alex had initially wanted to sit, too.
Damn. She hadn’t even acknowledged his presence, just gave a nod and general “hello” to everyone. Soon she was engaged in a conversation with Buddy Willis, one of the pickers from Quad A. Alex might have been worried at the intimate way they were talking, but Buddy couldn’t have been more than twenty, way too young for P.J. After a few minutes, Ruby drifted down to that end of the table and joined them.
Rick nudgedAlex. “Ruby’s got the hots for Buddy.”
Alex smiled. “What about him?”
Rick grinned. “I think he’s into her, too.”
About six, Rick said he had to go. Soon after that, the other married men left one by one. By six-thirty, only Alex, two of the dock workers, Buddy, Ruby and P.J. were left and finally Alex was close enough to P.J. to actually talk to her.
“While you were gone we had a really busy week,” he said.
“I noticed.”
“We missed you, though.” He nudged Ruby. “Didn’t we?”
Ruby grinned. “You might have. I didn’t.”
P.J. laughed. “Ruby tells it like it
