Jackson winced. “That’s unclear at the moment.”
“Trust me, ignoring you would be impossible,” Derrick said.
“It’s been days since we signed the agreement, then we had the canceled dinner plans because of your work emergency and then you went into hibernation mode. Even the Insider noticed, which is weird because I thought you were the one who fed them their intel.”
She’d tried not to let the newest post bother her. Her ex-boss’s accusations bordered on horrifying. They were the type to disqualify her for a human resources positions if they were true, which they were not. But no one would care about the veracity of his claims. It was his word versus hers, and now that her supposed relationship with Derrick fueled the town’s gossip machine, those untrue accusations would grow even louder.
“Did you need something?” Derrick asked her.
She noticed he skipped right over her comment about the gossip post. She turned to Jackson for assistance. “Do you think he hears his tone when he talks?”
“I can only hope not.” Jackson shook his head. “You should hear him when he actually yells.”
She snorted. “No, thanks.”
“Ellie!”
This time Jackson laughed. “There, that was close.”
Yeah, it looked as if they fully had Derrick’s attention now. He held the edge of his desk in a death grip.
Ellie took pity on him. From the exhaustion tugging at the corner of his eyes to the rumpled shirt to the loosened tie, he seemed to be working nearly round the clock after all. “I’m going to ignore the near shouting because I was purposely trying to prick your temper.”
“Good Lord. Why?”
She hated to admit it but part of her was testing him. After a few tough years with Noah, running through their parents’ life insurance and holding on to the family home only with the help of an aging aunt who lived with them to satisfy a well-meaning social worker, she needed to see if Derrick could control his temper. Then there was the issue of being ignored. “I texted you yesterday and you didn’t text back.”
Jackson cleared his throat. “So that we’re clear, I really want to stay and listen to the rest of this and see how it turns out, but I sense you two need to hash this out without me.”
Something in his tone, a mix of amusement and general fondness for Derrick, broke through, making Ellie smile. “Does that mean you’ll make him tell you later?”
Jackson nodded. “Definitely.”
With a final wink at her and a small nod in Derrick’s direction, Jackson took off. He slipped out, closing the door behind him.
“I like him.” She did a second glance when something about the door caught her eye. The shirt. The dry cleaning bag.
“I was working.”
Derrick’s comment dragged her attention to the conversation. She slipped into the seat Jackson had vacated. “Oh, you’re answering my previous question now? No texting because you’re a busy, busy man?”
“Yes.”
“Just so you know, being ignored is frustrating even in a fake dating situation.”
For a few seconds Derrick didn’t say anything. His gaze searched her face then he leaned into his chair. “I’ll do better.”
“I’m impressed that’s your response.” Stunned was more like it. But at his words, she relaxed into the chair, letting her hand fall over the edge of the armrest.
“You strike me as the type who could bolt at any time, so I’m being careful.”
Which lead her to another one of the reasons for her visit. “You should know my brother keeps calling me to complain about you. Fair warning, I think another video is coming.”
“I’ll try to talk to him.”
She wanted to believe Derrick could get through to Noah before his behavior spiraled much more. He was fixated on Derrick. Part of her wondered if it was the shock of being fired. But she loved that Derrick promised to try and was holding firm to that vow. Her father used to promise a lot and never follow through. She sensed Derrick was not that kind of man.
“It’s not easy to win him over.” She hesitated, not sure who much more she should share. “I’ve tried.”
“I get that, but let someone else carry the load for a change.”
That sounded so good, so promising, that a wave of relief rolled through her. “We lived together for so long. Right up until he got a job with you and moved into his own studio. Even in college I commuted and went home to him each night.”
“You raised him by yourself after you lost your parents?” He sounded horrified at the thought.
“A great-aunt lived with us, which made the court happy. Little did the judge know she chain-smoked, spent her days watching baseball and swearing at the television and was really eighty, even though she looked at least a decade younger.” Just thinking about Aunt Lizzy made Ellie smile. “She died my senior year of college. By then I was old enough that the social worker didn’t make a fuss.”