Читать книгу The Boss's Urgent Proposal - SUSAN MEIER, Susan Meier - Страница 9

“Goodbye, Josh.”

For thirty seconds Olivia Brady stood by the door of Josh Anderson’s office, hoping the real meaning of her words would sink in, but they didn’t. If her boss had caught what she said, he didn’t give any thought to the “big picture,” only heard what he wanted to hear, or maybe what he expected to hear.

“Goodnight,” Josh called, not looking up from the paper he was reading, hardly paying attention to his own mumbled farewell, let alone Olivia’s very clear, very distinct, very permanent goodbye.

“I have a long drive ahead of me in the morning. So once I pack my car tonight, I’m just going to find a hotel and get right to bed,” Olivia said, providing a less-than-subtle clue with her hint about the long drive and praying he would finally grasp what she was telling him. “I said all my other goodbyes last night at my going-away party.”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah, I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Olivia began, but for the first time since she’d come to his office door, Josh glanced up from the report he was reading. His sharp brown eyes caught her gaze and, as always, Olivia was overwhelmed by how attractive he was. Not only were his eyes clear and direct, but all of his other features were striking and distinct. His nose was straight. His cheekbones were high and angular. His chin was perfect. Thick black hair framed his flawless face and emphasized his dark eyes. The black suit, white shirt and red print tie he wore added to the drama of both his coloring and attractiveness. The only word to describe him was breathtaking.

“I’m sorry, Olivia, but I really don’t have time to chat tonight. Since Mr. Martin ordered me to come up with a strategy to combat the movement of Bee-Great Groceries into the territory of our food-store chain, I haven’t had two minutes of peace. I don’t mean to be rude, but I do have to get this work done.”

“Yeah, I see that,” Olivia said, though tears stung her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“Good. Great. No harm done,” Josh said, bending his head to his work again. “I’ll see you Monday.”

Olivia turned toward his door. “No, you won’t,” she whispered, then left his office. Forever. For good. She wasn’t coming back on Monday.

Not ten minutes after he had finally been left alone, Josh’s cousin Gina, director of human resources of Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods, a grocery store chain owned by her father and his family, came barreling into Josh’s office. This time, he didn’t bother to hide his irritation.

“Gina, you above everybody else should know that your father will skin me alive if I don’t come up with a halfway decent proposal for keeping our market share when Bee-Great is trying everything under the sun to steal it from us.”

Shoving wayward strands of her thick, sable-colored hair off her face, Gina glared at him. “Josh, you’re an idiot. As if it wasn’t bad enough that you’re so ill-mannered you didn’t have twenty seconds to say goodbye to a secretary who’s been more loyal to you than you deserve, now you’re refusing to help me find someone new!”

“Whoa! Whoa! Slow down,” Josh said. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play stupid, Josh. We thought it was pompous and rude enough that you missed Olivia’s going-away party, but I sent you three memos reminding you that she was leaving and that you would have to help me find you another secretary. Olivia might have covered for you last night by telling everybody you were working, but I don’t have time for your antics.” She leaned over his desk and glared at him. “I need help finding her replacement, and whether you like it or not, you’re going to help me.”

As Josh stared at his cousin things began to sink in, and the conclusion he drew threw him into shock. “Olivia quit?”

“Oh, come on, Josh, I sent you three memos.”

Sweat beaded on his forehead and his chest tightened. Olivia quit? He would never get through this assignment without her. “I swear, I didn’t get them.”

Without so much as a cursory glance at his desk, Gina reached for the top documents in his in-box. She handed them to Josh. “Not only did you get the memos, but it appears Olivia went out of her way to try to make sure you would see them.”

Josh sagged in his seat. “Oh, my gosh. I was just so rude to her.”

“I can only imagine.”

He sent his cousin a withering look. “I didn’t say anything nasty. I just told her I didn’t have time to chat. That I’d see her Monday morning.”

“You didn’t have time to go to her party. You didn’t have time to say goodbye. Yeah, you’re a dream boss. You make me wish my dad didn’t own controlling interest in this company so I could work for someone as wonderful as you.”

“There’s no need to be facetious, Gina,” Josh said, rising from his seat. “I’ve been very busy. I forgive myself.”

“Well, good for you. I’m glad you’re emotionally well balanced,” she said sarcastically.

But Josh let her comment slide. He had been busy, and because it was her father who had overwhelmed him with work, Gina knew it, too. He just wished he would have come up for air long enough to see that his very faithful, very talented, very hard-working secretary was leaving him.

“But that doesn’t get you out of finding Olivia’s replacement.” Gina set a stack of résumés on his desk. “I’ll add more to these Monday morning, then I want your recommendations and a calendar of when I can schedule interviews.”

“Consider it done,” Josh said.

Gina sighed with disgust and strode out of the room, and Josh went back to work. But when he was completely sure she couldn’t see him, he slumped over his desk. How had he missed Olivia’s resignation? He had been rude. Inconsiderate. He’d failed to attend Olivia’s going-away party, for Pete’s sake! Sure he had been inundated with work, but deep down inside he knew he owed Olivia an apology. Unfortunately, she was already gone and he wasn’t going to get the chance to make one.

Worse, he realized, glancing around at his cluttered desk and the rows of filing cabinets that lined the wall of Olivia’s cubicle, there was no way in hell he could train her replacement. Two years ago, she had taken over little things like his minor chitchat correspondence. Only she knew the filing system. Only she knew the names, addresses and phone numbers that he needed and when he needed them.

He was in big trouble!

Of course, if he went to Olivia’s house on the pretense of seeking her help to train her replacement, he could also edge in an apology without looking completely desperate. Not only would they both feel better, but also, once he explained that he hadn’t understood she was quitting her job, he could probably persuade her to come back for a week or two until they found a replacement and trained him or her.

He was sure he could persuade Olivia. She was a levelheaded, sincere woman, and a good sport. A champ. A woman among women.

And he was also director of marketing and advertising. He knew how to get people to see his point and do his bidding. Combining Olivia’s respectful disposition and his skill at illustrating the obvious, he was positive he could have Olivia back on her office chair Monday morning without so much as a ripple of unease.

All Olivia had to do to dry her tears was remember how many times she had covered for her boss, how many times he had taken advantage of her and how many times he had behaved as if she were a convenience, not a person.

As she strode to her car, she didn’t even see the celebrated blossoms of spring in Georgia, feel the warmth of the March sun or smell the fresh air that signaled new life. All she could think of was how poorly Josh had treated her, and how foolish she had been to let him.

With every mile she drove on her way to her apartment, huge chunks of grief and sadness dislodged from her soul, but more than that she got angry. Furious. She was so damned glad to be moving on with the rest of her life that she hoped she never saw Josh Anderson again.

She was grateful—thrilled—he had been obnoxious when she tried to say goodbye. It was painful to think she had wasted four years of her life being head over heels in love with the guy. This rude awakening was exactly what she needed to force her to face the truth and assure that she didn’t change her mind or have any regrets. After the way he had treated her, she was absolutely certain she wouldn’t have to worry about being nice to him again, let alone falling back in love with him. Let alone reversing her decision and staying in Georgia one minute beyond her deadline!

When there was a knock at her apartment door only a few minutes after she arrived home, Olivia peered up from the final box she was packing and wondered who the heck it could be. Positive it was a well-wisher, hopefully somebody with takeout dinner, she answered the door with a smile.

When she saw Josh, her smile faded and she said, “What do you want?”

“Hey, is that any way to treat a guy who is here to apologize?”

She only stared at him. It was odd. Now that she had faced the truth about him, and now that he was no longer her boss, she didn’t have the butterflies in her stomach that she usually got. They were equals. On even ground. He didn’t hold her future in his hands anymore.

Heck, she didn’t even like him anymore.

She could talk to him any way she wanted.

“I’m going to take a wild stab at this and guess that you’re here because Gina finally got you to understand that today was my last day.”

Josh shuffled his feet. “Yes and no. Come on, Liv, I’ve been busy. You know that better than anybody else. And I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry. I feel like a heel for not realizing you were going.”

“They had a cake for me sitting by the coffeepot. You ate three pieces, but didn’t see the Good Luck in Florida decoration? You’re a marketing whiz who graduated from Princeton. I’m just about certain you can read.”

“Come on, Liv,” he groaned. “I’ve been preoccupied. Florida? You’re moving to Florida?”

“My mother lives there.”

“Oh, so you’re moving to be with family?”

She almost told him she was moving to get away from him, but thought the better of it. Not that he didn’t deserve it, but she didn’t want him to know she had spent the past four years desperately hoping he would notice her, desperately wishing he would fall in love with her. He had embarrassed her enough for one lifetime—or maybe she had embarrassed herself by not waking up sooner. But she was awake now and she wasn’t letting her guard down.

“Look, Josh, I’m busy. I’ve got to pack these things in my car. And then I need to find a hotel and go to bed early so I can be on the road first thing in the morning to avoid some of the traffic.”

“What part of Florida?”

“What difference does it make?” Olivia said, getting angry. Now that she wanted him out of her life, it appeared he wanted to camp at her front door.

“I’m just curious. We’ve been together three years—”

“Four,” she interrupted him.

“Four years. Four long years,” he said, ambling into her living room, which was empty except for boxes. “And now you’re just going. It doesn’t feel right.”

For the first time since his arrival, Olivia began to weaken. He finally got it. Her leaving didn’t feel right. It felt forced and awkward.

Still, it was too late.

This time she shuffled her feet. “Yeah, it feels weird.”

“And it’s the worst possible time for Hilton-Cooper-Martin.”

Olivia swallowed. That was the one part she regretted. And her only Achilles’ heel. She hadn’t intended to leave when all hell was breaking loose for the company that had employed her and paid her generously for four years. But she had set a deadline of one year to get him to notice her, and she had promised herself she would leave if he didn’t. In the past twelve months she had tried everything under the sun to get Josh to see her as a woman, to ask her out, or even to hold a more personal conversation with her, but he hadn’t. So, keeping the deal she made with herself, she gave up what was clearly an unrequited love and turned in her two-week notice. She had actually resigned before Gina’s father, Hilton Martin, gave Josh the assignment that buried him with work. But in spite of the gravity of the situation, she wouldn’t let herself take back her resignation. She couldn’t. Forcing herself to admit that her life was stagnating and it was time to move on had been difficult enough the first time. She never would be able to do it a second time.

“Sorry.”

He caught her gaze and gave her the sweet, sheepish smile that always made her melt. “You could salve your conscience and save my career if you would stay another week and help me train a new person.”

She shook her head. “Can’t.”

“You already have another job?”

She shrugged. “An interview.”

“We can reschedule an interview,” he said, as if he still had the right to plan her life, and Olivia straightened her shoulders.

“There is no we, Josh. This is an interview scheduled between me and a new company—”

“What new company?”

Josh had never been this curious about her life. She knew part of his inquisitiveness stemmed from his natural gift for digging into a situation and finding a way to work it to his advantage. But she also sensed something else. He stood in her empty living room, gazing at her boxes as if they were strange, wonderful things he should explore, and Olivia got the feeling something was wrong. She knew he regretted losing her. She knew he regretted being rude. But the poor guy seemed like he was going to have a stroke or something.

“It’s a law office,” she mumbled, answering his question.

He looked at her. He really looked at her…and smiled. Olivia genuinely believed it was the first time that he was seeing her as a person, not just an employee.

“You’re going to be a legal secretary?”

“That’s actually what I trained to be.”

His smile grew larger. “No kidding.”

She shrugged, keeping her eyes downward because she was weakening. Really, really weakening. She had fallen in love with Josh Anderson because he was a workaholic who wasn’t any nicer to himself than he was to the people around him. Olivia knew he needed somebody in his life who would smother him with affection. She had fallen in love with him because underneath all that Princeton business knowledge was a simple, nice guy who took great pleasure in the most common, ordinary things when he finally got around to noticing them. To him everything was special and wonderful, because in an odd way everything was new to him.

“You ever work for a lawyer?” he asked suddenly.

“Yeah. When I first got out of college.”

“I hear they’re awful.”

“I’m sure Ethan McKenzie will be thrilled to hear that,” Olivia said with a laugh, referring to Hilton-Cooper-Martin’s in-house counsel.

“Hey, Ethan can be a barracuda when he wants to be.”

She smiled.

Josh smiled.

“Just give me one week, Olivia.”

She shook her head, feeling the weight of her shoulder-length golden blond hair as it shifted around her. “I can’t.”

Josh tried to argue, but she held her hand up to stop him. “It’s not something you can fix. I don’t have electricity,” she said, then hit the switch to prove it. “I told my landlord I would be out today and I have to be out today. I have to find a hotel room for tonight. Forget about finding a place to stay for an entire week.”

“Stay with me,” Josh suggested as if it were the most simple, most obvious solution in the world, but heat shivered through Olivia.

Stay with him…at his house…All alone with him when she was weakening toward him again. Oh, that would be wonderful.

“That’s not a good idea.”

“Why not?” Josh asked innocently.

Unless she wanted to confess the truth, Olivia knew she didn’t have an answer for him. He had the perfect argument and his next words proved it.

“I have a huge house. You would have your own bedroom and bathroom. And it would give me a chance to make everything up to you. Every insensitive, inconsiderate thing I’ve done in the past three…four years,” he said, correcting himself, “I could replace with something good. I like you, Liv. I feel terrible about the fact that I didn’t treat you better. And I want to fix this.”

Olivia couldn’t help it. She smiled. There was no way he could “fix” what had happened between them unless he married her. For a silly second she wondered how he would react if she told him that, but decided it wouldn’t be wise to mention it.

“I hope you’re not planning to spend this week trying to convince me to change my mind about leaving, because you can’t ‘fix’ the reasons I’m leaving.”

“Okay, so I’ll respect your privacy,” Josh said quickly. “I won’t ask why you’re leaving, I won’t try to get you to stay. I will keep to the letter of this bargain.”

Though she had already begun to weaken, she wavered even more. She did feel guilty about leaving at such a bad time. Not just because Josh was busy, but because everyone was busy. Before Josh was through he would have everybody working, helping to ward off the competition, saving the company from the new grocery store chain that was trying to infringe on their territory. While she, the one person who should have been there to support Josh and to pay back Hilton Martin for all the good things he had done for her, would be hundreds of miles away.

“I’ll get Ethan to write up an official agreement if it will make you feel better,” Josh coaxed.

But his proposal had exactly the opposite effect. All the girls in the office knew why she was leaving. They had helped her to forge her declaration of independence. They would laugh at her if she came back. Even for a week. Even to help him.

Especially if she came back to help him.

“I can’t.”

“What do I have to do to change your mind?”

Knowing Josh would see right through a lie and would also see a little too far into the meaning if she told him the truth, Olivia wrapped her arms around herself and turned away from him so he couldn’t look at her face.

“I already told everybody I was leaving. They had a party and a cake. I can’t just show up Monday morning.”

“So, don’t,” Josh said in his usual I-can-find-the-answer-to-anything voice. “Train me at night.” He snapped his fingers. “I know. Train me tomorrow and Sunday. That way if anybody sees you at the office, you can still say you’re leaving Monday.”

He had a point. And she did regret deserting him. And she did feel awkward about putting Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods in a bind when there was so much work to do.

“Okay,” she said, but the minute the word was out of her mouth she regretted it because Josh gave her his beautiful smile again. And he was looking at her as if he really appreciated what she was doing. And they were about to spend at least a weekend in the same house, probably across the hall from each other. Undoubtedly staring at each other over Cheerios.

Boy, this didn’t feel right at all.

If anything, Olivia got the sudden, distinct impression she’d jumped from the frying pan directly into the fire.