“Actually…” Ross hesitated. A shadow of something close to a smile turned up his far too pretty lips and it tugged and pulled deep in her belly. “I didn’t fire Dora after all.”
“What?” Teela felt her mouth gape open.
“No. I thought about what you said after you left. I decided to keep her on. You’re right. She knows the company inside and out. Whatever money I have to put into retraining her will pay off tenfold. She’s very capable and damn, does she ever know accounting.”
“She’s an accounting goddess,” Teela agreed, when she’d recovered from her shock. “So, you actually mean that something I said had some impact?”
Ross shifted just a little. “I suppose it did.” He glanced at her mug. “Drink your tea. It’s probably cool enough now.”
Teela wasn’t used to having someone fuss over her. Not since she’d left home. Actually, far beyond that. Her little sister, who was a bit of a brat even in high school, always took up most of their parent’s attention. “What about the cheque? Should I tear it up?”
Ross considered for a minute. “No. Consider it the asshole bonus. I was an asshole. You get the bonus by way of apology.”
“I thought you said that you didn’t like people taking advantage of you,” she responded softly.
Ross’ ice blue eyes blazed into hers for just a second before a smile played over his lips. God, he looked so different late at night without the anger and defensiveness and all those layers hiding the softness and the goodness below. No one had really ever looked at her that way before. Either they didn’t want her to see it or it just wasn’t there. In her case, it was the latter. She’d never been with a single guy who could stand there and talk about his feelings.
“Goodnight, Teela,” Ross said softly. “Finish your tea. I’ll let myself out.” He walked out of the kitchen while she stayed where she was, for once doing what someone told her to do. “Never mind,” his voice drifted from the front door. “Don’t come in at nine. It’s way too late for that. Make it ten.”
He didn’t wait for an answer. Her front door opened and shut gently, but firmly.
Teela sat at the table, clutching her mug, the lingering warmth seeping into her hands.
Not only was it the first time a guy had ever looked at her that way, as if she actually meant something, not just as someone who could do something for them- usually in the bedroom- or as a piece of meat, or as a thing to be put up with and endured just so that they could have favors in the bedroom, it was the first time anyone besides her mom or Amy had ever made her tea. Or held her hair back as she threw up. Or- or bothered to care that she might be tired in the morning after a long night.
When she thought of Ross’ handsome face, his incredible eyes, the soft arch of his lips when he smiled, it wasn’t her panties that got hit the hardest. It was that annoyingly soft squishy part of her chest that she’d thought was pretty much incapable of feeling anything at all.
CHAPTER 10
Ross
Screw the butterflies, it felt like a herd of wild elephants was stampeding through his stomach. Or over his chest. He felt like he’d just been stormed and bowled over. Although, to be fair, he’d felt like that most of the day.
Usually Sundays were quiet. He took the opportunity to catch up on work that he still needed to do, prepared for the busy Monday and Tuesday, since those were the days where he usually had meetings with his managers and with Darla, a twenty year old Business student who was shockingly adept at finding grocery stores that needed a facelift. It seemed like a better term than calling it a corporate take-over.
Since it was his last day at the store in Nestor Falls, after two weeks of training and getting everything off the ground and running smoothly, he knew he had to do something. He’d debated about it for almost a week. It took him every single one of those seven days to work up the courage to ask Teela if she wanted to come over to his house on Sunday afternoon for BBQ and iced tea. Normally he would have said beer, but that was a big hell no.
He thought that he remembered her saying sometimes she visited her parents in Philly. He thought maybe she wouldn’t mind the drive. That she’d come because, even more shockingly, they seemed to get on well enough at work. He stayed out of her way and let her do her job. She didn’t flash hate filled daggers at him every single time she looked his way. She actually smiled at him once in a while, on the odd chance their paths crossed. It was like rays of sunshine piercing the clouds. The clouds of his damn life.