was rejecting the very lifestyle most of her family and childhood friends had chosen, they didn’t quite understand. Piper knew they were fond of Charlie—she had been, too, at one point—but she hadn’t liked the person she’d become when she was with him. “Promise me you’re not going to spend the weekend trying to throw us together.”
“Well, of course not, dear—not with this new young man in your life. We can’t wait to meet him!” her mother repeated.
“I’ll, um, see if he’s available.” Piper hated the blatant dishonesty, but not as much as she hated the thought of an entire weekend explaining why the county’s most eligible bachelor wasn’t good enough for her.
“This is so exciting,” her mom said. “I can’t wait to call everyone and let them know. Oh, and honey, if you’re going out tonight, I hope you’ll think about wearing a dress for a ch—”
Ding dong!
Piper jumped at the unexpected pealing of her doorbell. “Who—” Remembering that she was supposedly expecting a date, she swallowed the last of her question. “Gotta go now, see you this weekend. Love to Dad.”
The doorbell shrilled again as she hung up, and a familiar male voice called through the door, “Piper? You home?”
Josh. Thank goodness, because a day like she’d had called for one of two things: venting to her best friend or a Chocomel, a chocolate-covered bar of caramel-and-nougat-filled nirvana. Talking to Josh was calorie-free.
“Hey,” she greeted him as she opened the door. Joshua Weber was a co-worker who’d become her best friend after moving into her downtown Houston apartment building two years ago. “Did we have plans tonight and I forgot? I’m sorry, it’s been a horrible day, and—”
“Relax, darlin’.” His lips curved into the sexy smile that had no doubt been instrumental in seducing many women. Luckily for Piper, seduction wasn’t high on her priority list. “We didn’t have plans. I just wanted to see if you were interested in going with me for a bite to eat.”
“What, no date tonight?”
Women flocked to Josh in droves. With his long lean build, square jaw, lionlike green-gold eyes and thick hair the color of rich chocolate, he was easily the best-looking man in the apartment complex. Maybe the zip code. Or the state.
“Dating can be exhausting.” He leaned casually against the doorjamb, his posture matching his informal attire of a faded Astros shirt and jeans going threadbare at the knees. “Sometimes a guy just needs a little peace and quiet.”
“So why not enjoy dinner alone in your apartment?” Piper asked.
It was what she’d planned to do. If she had any groceries. She’d been working so many late nights that she’d once again neglected shopping. Other women in her family were prizewinning cooks; Piper barely remembered to keep her fridge stocked.
“Being with you is even better,” Josh said. “I don’t have to be by myself, but I don’t have to be ‘on,’ either. Besides,” he added sheepishly, “I burned the nice dinner I was supposed to be having alone in my apartment right now.”
She laughed. “Let me grab my purse and put my shoes back on.” As she turned, she patted her French braid to make sure it was still presentable. A few strands fell around her face, but all in all, the braid had survived the day intact.
Good thing she hadn’t yet changed from her tailored blue pantsuit into her comfy sweats. Josh probably wouldn’t think anything of going out in public wearing a sweatsuit, but the casual look worked for him. For instance, Josh’s hair always looked as though it had just outgrown that popular short and gelled style that was slightly spiky on top. Though it was still short, his hair was pleasantly rumpled with no trace of gel. Undeniably handsome when he dressed up for work or an occasionally formal date, he was somehow even more appealing in the rugged laid-back uniform of worn jeans and T-shirts.
The injustice of life. Piper in her oldest jeans was grunge personified, whereas Josh effortlessly resembled a female’s fantasy come to life in any clothes. Probably looks even more like a walking fantasy in no clothes at all.
She blinked. Thoughts like that were trouble she didn’t need, she reminded herself, sliding her feet into a pair of high-heeled navy slingbacks. The shoes were arguably the most feminine part of her wardrobe, but at barely five foot three, she’d take all the help she could get. Especially next to Josh’s six foot one.
Grabbing her apartment keys off the coffee table, she stole a look at her tall, platonic friend. Emphasis on the platonic. She was perfectly happy without a guy in her life, and she’d watched Josh back away from enough relationships to know he didn’t want a woman in his life. Not long-term, anyway.
And short-term’s out of the question. Maybe hot flings with no future worked for some people, but the one impulsive time Piper had flung, she’d found the experience to be more embarrassing than pleasurable. She couldn’t begin to fathom how awkward it would be if she constantly saw the flingee at the office.
Shoes on her feet, purse in her hand and lustful thoughts relegated to the dark mental cellar where they belonged, she strolled back to where Josh was waiting. “All set.”
Once they’d reached the apartment’s parking garage, she turned to ask, “Who’s driving?” But she didn’t know why she bothered.
He’d already pulled out his keys and was striding toward his two-door sports car.
“It’s just as well,” she admitted. “I got another ticket today.”
“Speeding again?” He shook his head. “I don’t know how you manage to even get up to the speed limit with traffic as bad as it is, much less exceed it. Do the other cars just magically part for you?”
She climbed into the passenger side. “Hey, you’re supposed to be sympathetic about my bad day.”
“That’s right. You said it was horrible.” His low voice was full of teasing mischief as he turned the key in the ignition. “There are ways I could help take your mind off your troubles, sweetheart. You just say the word.”
Piper’s breath caught, a quiver of expectation in her abdomen. Josh’s flirting was nothing new—it was his default mode—but tonight, after her earlier wayward thoughts, there was a split second where she forgot that he meant nothing by it.
Then he spoke again, his tone genuinely sympathetic. “Kagle being a chauvinistic creep?”
Although Stanley Kagle was too business-savvy to do or say anything overt she could formally complain about, his attitude was a constant reminder that she was the youngest and shortest on the drafting team. And the only one with ovaries, which he apparently viewed as some sort of handicap. Thank God for Callahan and Munroe to counter his presence, or she might actually have to brave the job market.
Piper sighed. “No, it’s not one of our bosses making me crazy, it’s one of our colleagues. If Smith doesn’t get me those dimensions for the Fuqua building, my blueprints will be late, and you know who Kagle will blame. Then, of course, the traffic ticket on my way home today. And on top of everything, my mother called and…”
She’d been about to say that her mother was driving her nuts, but it seemed insensitive to complain. At least she had a mom. Josh’s mother and father had both been
