“Excuse me?”
“Look at you, cheating on Earl Grey with Mr. Coffee. Maybe you are being a bit too American after all. If you aren’t careful, you’re going to start deep frying everything and spend your weekends watching NASCAR.”
He laughed as he set the mug before me, but then he looked at me seriously. “Make up the ground the company has lost?” he asked, a little frown creasing the place between his eyes as he studied me intently, as if he was hearing about it for the first time.
“Uh...yeah.” I bit my lip and looked down at the mug, suddenly fearful that I’d said too much. Still, I was sure he had a right to know, since his name did occupy the side of that big skyscraper we all worked in. “It’s no big deal, just something we need to reconcile before the start of the next quarter.” I took a sip of the best espresso I’d ever had, then threw back my hair and gave him a confident, winning smile. “At any rate, we have three weeks to run each other into the ground, and I must say that our first day got off to a damn good start.”
James compartmentalized the troubling news about his father’s company for another time, and a faint smile flitted across his face at my enthusiasm. “Three weeks, huh?”
“Yep, which is kind of odd actually,” I mused, “considering the quarter ends in two. A little random, huh?”
He flashed a humorless smile, spinning his cup around gently on the table. “There’s nothing random about it. Trust me.”
I shot him a questioning look.
He rolled his eyes and gave me a reluctant smile. “Three weeks is...kind of a family joke. My dad and brother always say I can’t ever stay in one place for longer than that.” The sparkle in his eyes intensified slightly as they fastened on me. “It seems to me that someone is trying to be sure you are...distracted and unavailable during this so-called competition.”
My mouth fell open in shock. Could that possibly be true? Is this entire competition really just be Robert’s way of trying to undercut his twin brother? And does James really intend to leave at the end of three weeks?
“No, that’s not...” I trailed off, feeling more and more ridiculous all the while. “I mean, he wouldn’t...not just for...”
James grinned and dropped his eyes to the table. “Your babbling is worse than that awful voicemail I just left, he muttered.
I glanced up in a daze. “What?”
“Nothing.” He reached across the table and clinked my mug against his. “A toast then, to the great start to your ruthless competition. I’m sure there’s blood in the water already.”
I joined him in the toast, then felt a sudden wave of nerves as I realized the actual reason why I was at his apartment, recalling precisely what I had come to tell him. “James, the thing is—”
In what felt like slow motion, the coffee slipped out of my hands and bounced across the table, splashing all over his white collared shirt.
“Oh my gosh! I
-I’m so sorry!” I leapt to my feet in horror, wringing my hands as the stain spread slowly across his chest. “James, I can’t believe I just—”
“No worries,” he said easily, pushing to his feet.
“Seriously, you must at least let me have that dry-cleaned for you, and I’ll—”
“Della...” He caught my nervous hands and steadied them. “It couldn’t matter less. I have fifty shirts just like it. Now, tell me what you were about to say.”
As I struggled to collect myself so I could make my awkward little announcement, he crossed the kitchen, peeled off the ruined shirt, and tossed it into the sink. A second later, he returned to the table, bare-chested and more steaming hot than our espresso, with that honey scent oozing off him.
“I really like you.”
“Seriously? Because I have a crush on you.”
My grin widened. “You’re on my mind all the time. Guess I just needed to tell you that.”
“Damn, woman. I’m addicted to the way I feel when I’m with you. You’re all I think about too. It’s like you cast some spell over me. I don’t get what’s happening, but I’m so glad I met you.”
“Me too.”
“I think I met you for a reason.”
“Had to. It’s highly unlikely that two souls just bumped into each other simply by accident. And to think we almost lost each other.”
“That would’ve been tragic.”