She put her hand on her huge stomach. “And so will this one, when the time comes.” Her hazel eyes twinkled. “I’m so glad you decided to bring KinderWay here.”
“I’m pretty excited about it myself,” Cleo said.
At her side Fletcher laughed—a low, knowing laugh that played along her nerve endings. “To hear her talk now, you’d never guess how hard I had to work to convince her she needed to do this.”
Aaron held out a hand. “Welcome to the Bravo Group family.”
Cleo took it and they shook. She met Aaron’s blue eyes and wondered what he might be thinking. Like the Bravo standing beside her, it was hard to figure out what could be going through his mind.
Fletcher put a hand—so lightly—at the small of her back. “Okay, we’ll let you two enjoy your lunch in peace.” Cleo went where he guided her, stunningly aware of the press of his palm against the base of her spine.
They took the elevator to the office tower. As they stepped into the car, Cleo eased away from him. She turned and backed against the brass railing that ran along the mirrored elevator walls.
They looked at each other, neither of them speaking. She found herself achingly aware of how small the space was, how with only a step or two she would be in his arms.
Crazy. Ridiculous. She was not, under any circumstances, going to end up in Fletcher Bravo’s arms.
She shifted her gaze and she was looking at her own reflection in the mirrored wall behind him. Did she look as guilty as she felt?
Before she could decide if she did or not, the elevator whooshed to a stop and the doors parted.
Marla had a manila envelope all ready for her. Cleo took it with a smile. “Thanks.”
From behind her Fletcher said, “I’ll see you to your car.”
No way, she thought, as she turned to him. She made a joke of her refusal. “You don’t want to do that. You saw the way I pull out of parking spaces. I might actually run over you this time.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
Danny had said it that night last week: He’s after you.
And he was. He still was: his hand on hers at the table; his palm settling so possessively at the small of her back as they left the restaurant …
Subtle, knowing touches. What a man does to draw a woman in. Nothing obvious. Nothing blatant. Making it so very easy to pretend it isn’t happening …
But it was happening. And she had to stop denying, stop pretending it wasn’t.
Guilt tightened her stomach as she remembered how she’d assured Danny that she wasn’t interested.
Liar, she silently accused herself. She was interested. She just didn’t want to be—no. Wrong, damn it.
She wasn’t going to be. She was stopping this slow and oh-so-clever seduction, stopping it right here and now.
She drew herself up. “No,” she said firmly. “I enjoyed the lunch. Thank you.”
He held her gaze for a second too long. She felt the heat zipping back and forth, arcing between them. And then he said silkily, “No need for thanks. I’m pleased that we’re going to be working together.”
Cleo saw her lawyer the next morning. The lawyer said everything looked good, so she took the signed papers back to Impresario that day. She made a point of not calling first, which meant she ended up handing the envelope over to Marla, who promised to see that Fletcher got it right away.
That duty discharged, Cleo returned to her office at KinderWay and started making lists, getting her priorities in order for all the work that lay ahead.
Fletcher called at three. “You should have told me you were stopping by.”
“No reason for that.” She spoke much too briskly. “I only dropped off the contract.”
He was silent. But not for long. “You’ll need keys to the facility. Did you want to conduct your interviews there?”
Her face felt hot. She laid her hand against her cheek. Blushing. Definitely. This was so absurd.
“Cleo?”
She realized she hadn’t answered him. What was the question?
Oh, yeah. About the interviews …
“Well, I thought I could hold the interviews here. I’ve got everything set up and operating. And my current staff will be available to help me.”
“Makes sense.”
“I will need those keys, though. I’ve got office equipment to purchase. And supplies. And furniture—tables and chairs, all that. I’ll need to be able to get in and out of the facility.”
He said, “I’ll have the keys waiting for you. Check the concierge desk at the hotel. Just show them ID.”
“Hotel Impresario, you mean?”
“That’s right.”
He’d have them waiting….
He wasn’t offering lunch, wasn’t inventing excuses for them to get together. Apparently he’d gotten her message loud and clear: keep away.
Good. He was the wrong kind of guy for her and she was glad he’d realized the two of them weren’t going anywhere.
He said, his tone all business, “Since you signed the contract without asking for any changes, I’m taking it that you agree to the opening day we proposed. You’ll be ready to open the doors on February fourteenth?”
The fourteenth was two and a half weeks away. It was also Valentine’s Day, as luck would have it. For some reason, that struck Cleo as terribly ironic.
“I’ll do my best,” she told him. “It’s cutting it pretty tight.”
“You signed the contract.” He said it gently.
Annoyance prickled through her. Did he have to rub it in? But then she reminded herself that he was only stating a fact. “I know. I’m a little worried about the background checks, though. I run background checks on everyone I hire, even the ones who are already licensed. But the checks can take time….”
“Are the checks really necessary? If they’re licensed already, I would think that would do it.”
She wasn’t backing down on this one. “There are a lot of reasons KinderWay is the best. We go the extra mile. All of our teachers and care providers are not only highly skilled and well trained, they’ve also been thoroughly vetted. We can say that we’ve done everything humanly possible to be certain no predator or abuser gets near any of the children in our care.”
He must have been convinced; he didn’t argue further. “Let me speed that up for you, then.”
“That
