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Reunion With Benefits
HelenKay Dimon
There are two sides to every scandal.His side…and the truth.Abby Rowe managed to avoid her former boss, Spence Jameson for months. But now she’s forced to attend one of his parties and it may just turn into their second chance.


There are two sides to every scandal.
His side...and the truth.
After Spence Jameson’s betrayal, Abby Rowe won’t be in the same room with her former boss. Now he’s returned to Jameson Industries, and Abby is running out of ways to avoid him—and the heat they can’t deny. When a swank Washington, DC, party puts them in close quarters, her anger flares into passion—and a new scandal… But will it become their second chance?
HELENKAY DIMON is a divorce lawyer turned full-time author. Her bestselling and award-winning books have been showcased in numerous venues, including the Washington Post and Cosmopolitan. She is an RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Book Award winner and has been a finalist for the Romance Writers of America’s RITA® Award multiple times.
Also by HelenKay Dimon (#u05a4cbce-4295-5be6-85d1-af2e7dae70e9)
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Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Reunion with Benefits
HelenKay Dimon


www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-07651-7
REUNION WITH BENEFITS
© 2018 HelenKay Dimon
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
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Contents
Cover (#uffac510b-6408-5bad-9a01-d8113b2cbb66)
Back Cover Text (#ua53ab93d-4c57-5730-8f49-0a143248604f)
About the Author (#u561dc577-f1f9-5921-98c1-fa593d41b1d4)
Booklist (#u3ab2e41d-41ee-5bd7-b06c-95c39e70d88f)
Title Page (#u32786b18-dad0-5979-9cd1-0b9f3a7ea469)
Copyright (#u9973c444-96ff-5b5b-8b52-5609f097ee57)
One (#u59b49fee-2049-5513-9761-a0fb5cfb621d)
Two (#u2408f144-ed63-5661-91d9-fc3c9c9fdc0b)
Three (#uaf9599b9-c244-5bd0-92a2-5dcabce7b69a)
Four (#ub8957b62-b279-50ea-968f-dc5e026da358)
Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
One (#u05a4cbce-4295-5be6-85d1-af2e7dae70e9)
Spencer Jameson wasn’t accustomed to being ignored.
He’d been back in Washington, DC, for three weeks. The plan was to buzz into town for just enough time to help out his oldest brother, Derrick, and then leave again.
That’s what Spence did. He moved on. Too many days back in the office meant he might run into his father. Eldrick Jameson was the family patriarch, a recently retired businessman on his fourth wife...and the main reason Spence wanted to be anywhere but the DC metro area most of the time.
But dear old Dad was not the problem this trip. The new wife had convinced him to move to Tortola, an island over fifteen hundred miles away. That was almost enough distance, though Spence would have been fine with more.
No, Spence had a different target in mind today. Abigail Rowe, the woman currently pretending he didn’t exist.
He used the keys he borrowed from the office manager to open the door to the abandoned elementary school in northeast DC. The building had been empty for two years, caught in a ball of red tape over government regulations and environmental concerns. Derrick wanted the company to buy it and do a complete internal rebuild to turn the massive property into something usable. Spence was on-site meeting the head of the team assigned to make it happen...the head being her, and she actually didn’t know he was attending.
He followed the sound of voices, a man’s deep laughter and the steady rumble of a lighter female one. Careful not to give away his presence, Spence leaned against the outer hall wall and peeked into what he guessed used to be the student dining hall. Paint peeled off the stucco walls. Old posters were half ripped down and half hanging by old tape. Rows of luncheon tables and benches had been replaced with one folding table and a couple of chairs that didn’t look sturdy enough to hold an adult.
A woman stood there—the woman. She wore a sleek navy suit with a skirt that stopped just above the knee. She embodied the perfect mix of professionalism and sexiness. The flash of bare long legs brought back memories. He could see her only from behind right now but that angle looked really good to him.
Just as he remembered.
Her brown hair reached past her shoulders and ended in a gentle curl. Where it used to be darker, it now had light brown highlights. Strands shifted over her shoulder as she bent down to show the man standing next to her—almost on top of her—something in a file.
Not that the other man was paying attention to whatever she said. His gaze traveled over her. As she talked and pointed, he leaned back slightly and stared at her legs then up higher.
Spence couldn’t exactly blame him, but nothing about that look was professional or appropriate. The lack of respect was not okay. The guy’s joking charm gave way to something much more territorial and heated. As far as Spence was concerned, the other man was begging for a punch in the face.
As if he sensed his behavior was under a microscope, the man glanced up and turned. Spence got a full-on view of him. He looked like every blond-haired, blue-eyed guy in his midthirties who hung out in bars around the city looking for young Capitol Hill interns to date. Good-looking in a still-brags-about-his-college-days kind of way. That sort of thing was big in this town, as if where you went to school defined you a decade or so later.
Point was, Spence knew the type. Charming, resourceful and looking for an easy lay. He knew because he’d been that guy. He just grew out of it well before he hit thirty.
The other man’s eyebrows rose and he hesitated for a second before hitting Spence with a big flashy smile. “Good afternoon.”
At the intrusion, Abby spun around. Her expression switched from surprised to flat-mouthed anger in the span of two seconds. “Spencer.”
It was not exactly a loving welcome, but for a second he couldn’t breathe. The air stammered in his lungs. Seeing her now hit him like a body blow. He had to fight off the urge to rub a hand over his stomach.
They’d worked together for months, every day with him wanting to break the office conduct rules and ask her out. He got close but backed off, sensing he was crossing a line. Then she made a move. A stolen touch here. A kiss there. He’d battled with his control and waited because he needed to be careful. But he’d wanted her from the first moment he saw her. Now, months later, the attraction still lingered...which ticked him off.
Her ultimate betrayal hadn’t killed his interest in her, no matter how much he wanted it to.
“Spencer Jameson?” The guy walked toward Spence with his arm extended. “Excellent to meet you.”
“Is it?” Spencer shook the guy’s hand as he stared at Abby. He wasn’t sure what was going on. Abby was supposed to be here with her team. Working. This felt like something else.
“I didn’t realize you’d be joining us.” Her deep voice stayed even, almost monotone.
If she was happy to see him, she sure hid it well. Frustration pounded off her and filled the room. The tension ratcheted up to a suffocating degree even though none of them moved.
Spence tried not to let his gaze linger on her. Tried not to show how seeing her again affected him. “Where are the others?”
The man did a quick look around the empty room. “Excuse me?”
“Derrick told me—”
“Rylan Stamford is the environmental engineer who is performing the site assessment.” She even managed to make that sentence sound angry and clipped.
The job title didn’t really explain why Rylan looked ready to jump on Abby a second ago. Spence sensed Rylan’s mind wasn’t only on the job. “Our assessment?”
“The city’s,” Abby said. “Rylan isn’t employed by us.”
Rylan’s smile grew wider. “But I’ve been working very closely with Abby.”
Yeah, Spence kind of hated this guy. “I’m sure.”
Abby exhaled loud enough to bring the conversation to a halt. She turned back to the table and started piling the paperwork in a neat stack. “Did you need something, Spence?”
She clearly wanted to be in control of the conversation and them seeing each other again. Unfortunately for her, so did he. And that started now. “We have a meeting.”
She slowly turned around again. “We do?”
“Just the two of us.” The idea was risky and maybe a little stupid, but he needed to stay in town until his soon-to-be sister-in-law gave birth. Derrick’s fiancée’s pregnancy was high-risk and Spence promised to help, to take some of the pressure off Derrick.
“Oh, I see.”
That tone... Abby may as well have threatened to hit him with her car. She definitely was not happy to see him. Spence got that. “No, you don’t.”
She sighed. “Oh, really?”
If words had the force of a knife, he’d be sliced to pieces. She’d treated him to a prickly, unwelcome greeting and, if anything, the coolness had turned even icier since then.
The reaction struck him as interesting, infuriating even, since he was the injured party here. She cheated on him. Well, not technically, since they weren’t officially going out back then, but she’d done the one thing he could not stand—she used him to climb the ladder to get to a stronger, more powerful Jameson: his father.
Spence glanced at Rylan. He stood there in his perfectly pressed gray suit and purple tie. He had the right watch. The right haircut. He’d shined his shoes and combed his hair. Nothing—not one damn thing—was out of place on this guy.
Clearly Rylan hoped this was a date or the prelude to a date and not an informal afternoon business meeting.
Well, that was enough of that.
“Are you done here?” Spence asked Rylan, making sure his tone suggested the answer should be yes.
“Absolutely.” Rylan’s sunny disposition didn’t dim one bit. He put a hand on Abby’s arm and gave it a squeeze. “I’ll call you tomorrow so we can go over the list of concerns.” His hand dropped as he faced Spence again and nodded. “Mr. Jameson.”
Yeah, whatever. “Rylan.”
Spence watched the engineer leave. He’d never had such a sudden negative reaction to a person in his life. Rylan could have said anything and Spence would have disliked him.
Abby leaned back with her hands resting on the table on either side of her hips. “Heavy-handed as always, I see.”
Facing her head-on, without a buffer, tested the defenses he’d thrown up against her. He shouldn’t care. It shouldn’t mean anything. If only his brain and his body would listen to that order.
Despite standing ten feet apart, Spence felt a familiar sensation spark inside him. Desire mixed with lust and a bit of confusion. The intensity hit him full force.
“Did I interrupt your date?”
She rolled her eyes. “Right. Because I’m incapable of meeting with a man without crawling all over him.”
“You said it, not me.”
She exhaled loud enough to let him know she had better things to do. “What do you want?”
She didn’t back down. He’d always loved that about her. The boss-employee boundaries didn’t mean much to her. If she had a thought, she said it. If she disagreed, she let him know. She’d been tactful in not making angry announcements in the office lunchroom, but she wasn’t the type to coddle a man’s ego, either.
He’d found that sexy. So sexy even as his life crumbled around him and his relationship with his father, which had never been good, disintegrated.
“Is that how you talk to your boss?” He figured he may as well try to reestablish the lines between them. Like it or not, they had to figure out a way to tolerate each other.
For him, it meant ignoring the way she walked and the sound of her voice. Forgetting that he once was willing to go against his father to be with her. But he had to smash all of those feelings, all that vulnerability, now.
“Is that what you are? Last I checked, you ran out of the office and never looked back. If this were a cartoon, you would have left a man-size hole in the wall.” She smiled for the first time.
“I’d had a surprise.” As if that was the right word for seeing the woman you wanted locked in the arms of a father who turned out to be a constant disappointment.
She pushed away from the table. Without looking at him, she finished straightening the stacks of files. Made each edge line up. “You still think you’re the victim then?”
“You were kissing my father.”
She glanced over at him again. “Why are you here, Spence?”
No denial, but just like the last time they’d talked—yelled and argued with each other—and a hint of sadness settled in her big brown eyes. Her shoulders fell a bit and for just a second, she didn’t look like the confident, in-charge woman he knew her to be.
He had no idea what that meant. But he did have a job to do. “This is an important project and—”
“I mean in DC.” She picked up the stack of files and hugged them tight to her chest. “Are you back permanently?”
He hated that question. Derrick had asked it. People at the company had asked. The guy at the rental car company wanted to know. Spence gave her the same answer he’d given to everyone for three weeks. “Derrick needs some help.”
“Huh.” She frowned at him as her gaze wandered over his face. “I don’t really think of you as the type to drop everything and come running to assist someone else.”
Charming. “It’s not as if we know each other all that well, do we?”
“I guess not.” She bent down and picked up her bag. She looked cleaned up and ready to bolt.
“Derrick’s fiancée has a health issue,” he said.
The anger drained from Abby’s face. So did some of the color. She took a step forward with her hand out, but dropped her arm right before she touched him. “Did something new go wrong with the pregnancy?”
“You know about that?” Sure, the pregnancy had been on the gossip sites. One of the playboy Jameson heirs settling down was big news. Their lives had been followed and dissected for years. Every mistake highlighted. Every girlfriend photographed. The rumors, the lies. But the family hadn’t confirmed the pregnancy because it was too soon and too personal. “Are you two friends?”
Abby’s expression went blank. “You sound horrified by the idea.”
Admittedly, he was acting like a jerk, as if everything was about him. Ellie, Derrick’s fiancée, needed support. Spence got that. But still... “Well, it will be a bit uncomfortable, don’t you think?”
“As uncomfortable as this conversation?”
For some reason, the response knocked the wind right out of him. He almost smiled, but managed to beat it back at the last minute. “Look, we’re going to need to get along.”
She shrugged. “Why?”
Man, she had not changed one bit. “Why?”
“You’ve been back for three weeks and we’ve successfully avoided each other. I say we keep doing that.”
She sounded aloof and unaffected, but he could see her white-knuckle grip on the files. Much tighter and she’d cut off circulation to her fingers. In fact, this close he saw everything. The flecks of gold around the outside of her eyes. The slight tremor in her hands.
He could smell her, that heady mix of ginger and something sweet. It was her shampoo and it floated to him now.
He inhaled, trying to calm the heartbeat pounding in his ears. “Now who’s running?”
“Do you really want to have this conversation? Because we can.” She took one more step. The move left little more than a whisper of air between them. “I’m not the one who saw something, misinterpreted it and then threw the mother of all hissy fits.”
The air in the room closed in around him. He could actually feel it press against his back. “Misinterpreted?”
“You’re offended by my word choice?”
“You were kissing my father!” He shouted the accusation loud enough to make the walls shake.
A sharp silence descended on them right after. In the quiet, she retreated both physically and emotionally. The air seemed to seep right out of her.
“That’s what you think you saw.” Not a question. Not really even a statement. She said the words and let them sit there.
The adrenaline shooting through him refused to ease off. “Hell, yes!”
“You can let yourself out.” She walked around him and headed for the door.
“Hey.” His hand brushed against her arm. He dropped it again when she glared at him. “Fine. No touching.”
“None.” Which sounded like not ever.
Regret plowed into him. He came here for them to talk this out. He’d gone into the computer and looked up her schedule. Came here unannounced, thinking he’d have the upper hand.
“I want us to be civil toward each other,” he said as he struggled to bring his voice back under control.
She shook her head. “No.”
“What?” He’d been the one to offer the olive branch. He hadn’t insisted on an apology or that she take responsibility. But she still came out swinging and didn’t stop.
“You lied to me,” she said in a voice growing stronger with each word.
For a second, his brain misfired. He couldn’t think of a response. “When?”
“You let me believe you weren’t that guy, but you are. Rich, entitled, ready to bolt, tied to his daddy and desperate for approval.” She counted out his perceived sins on her fingers.
That fast his temper skyrocketed again. Heat flushed through him “That’s enough.”
“The suggestion still stands. We ignore each other.”
“Does that mean you’re going to leave every room I enter? Get off projects I’m overseeing?”
She shrugged. “That all works for me.”
No, he was not going to be pushed into a corner. He was the boss. He wasn’t the one who screwed everything up.
He pointed at her. “You did this to us.”
Her mouth dropped open. For a second, she didn’t say anything, and then she clenched her teeth together. “You’re unbelievable.”
She slipped by him a second time. Got the whole way to the doorway.
“Stop trying to storm off, and talk to me.” He didn’t try to grab her but he did want to.
She was absolutely infuriating. Every word she said pushed him until the frustration mixed with the attraction and it all pounded in his head.
“Okay.” She whipped around and faced him again. “You want me to talk, try this. You’re no better than your father.”
The words sliced through him. Ripped right through the layers of clothing and skin.
“I guess you should be the one to compare us since you kissed both of us.” When she just stood there, staring at him, he wanted to lash out even harder. “What, no comeback?”
“Stay out of my way.”
“Or?”
“Don’t push me, Spence. Other people might be afraid of you or want to impress you, but I know better.” She shook her head. “What you need is for someone to kick your butt. Keep talking and I will.”
Two (#u05a4cbce-4295-5be6-85d1-af2e7dae70e9)
Everything was weird now. For the last few weeks, Abby didn’t think twice about heading over to Ellie’s house on the tree-lined street in Georgetown for a visit. She lived with and was engaged to Derrick Jameson and their high-risk pregnancy had people at work, their friends—everyone—on edge.
Derrick was Spence’s older brother, and Spence was the nightmare that just wouldn’t go away, so Abby was torn. Being friends with someone tied that closely to the man who broke her heart promised more pain. That was the last thing Abby needed.
Ellie and Abby met by accident, really. Someone wrongly suggested Abby and Derrick were having a “thing” and Ellie stopped by Abby’s office to apologize for getting her dragged into their personal business and someone else’s vendetta. Abby still didn’t understand what happened, but she was grateful for the warning and the show of trust from Ellie, a woman who didn’t know her at all at that point. That was three weeks ago and they’d been friends since.
Trust was more than she ever got from Spence, the man she’d planned to date, sleep with, before he stormed off refusing to listen to her months ago. The awful day played out so clearly on a loop in her head.
Panic and frustration whirled together in her mind. “It’s not what you think.”
“I have eyes, Abby.” And that furious gaze switched back and forth between her and his father...and his hand on her waist. The noise rumbling out of Spence almost sounded like a snarl. “You want the top of the Jameson food chain? He’s all yours. Good luck.”
She tried to follow him but Eldrick held on. “Spence, wait—”
“I told you.” Eldrick smiled down at her as she yanked her arm out of his grip. “You’re going after the wrong Jameson.”
“I’m so happy you came...” Ellie’s smile fell as she talked. “What happened?”
The memory blinked out at the sound of Ellie’s voice. Abby snapped back into reality as she stood in the doorway to Ellie and Derrick’s bedroom, holding a box of brownies from that place in Foggy Bottom that Ellie had raved about a few days before.
Abby had no idea what conversation she missed as her mind wandered, but both Derrick and Ellie stared at her. Ellie was cuddled up in a blanket in the center of the gigantic never-seen-a-king-size-bed-that-big bed with pillows tucked around her body and the television remote control in her hand. Derrick, still wearing his dress pants and button-down shirt, sat next to her. Not on top of her, but close enough for the intimacy, the closeness, to flow around them. His only nod to being home and not at work came in the removal of his tie. It lay over the armrest of the overstuffed chair by the bed.
“Nothing.” That seemed like a reasonable response to most things, so Abby went with that as her answer.
“Huh.” Ellie made a face. “You look furious.”
Derrick let out a long breath. “So, Spence.”
“Definitely Spence,” Ellie said with a nod.
Well, they weren’t wrong. Derrick and Spence were brothers and her bosses. But still. “I don’t know how you two are related.”
“We’re actually a lot alike.” Derrick smiled at first but when Abby stood there, not moving, Derrick bit his bottom lip. “But I can see that’s the wrong answer.”
“Did something happen?” Ellie patted an empty space on the bed, inviting Abby farther into the room to take a seat.
Seeing the two of them, with Derrick’s arm resting on the pillows behind Ellie and his fingers slipping into her hair and massaging her neck, struck Abby with the force of a slap. A pang of something...jealousy, regret, longing...moved through her. She couldn’t identify the feeling or grab on to it long enough to assess it. But the idea that she was interrupting did crash on top of her.
She was about to drop the brownies and run when she saw both of their faces. The concern. Derrick was the big boss and he deserved to know Spence hadn’t really done anything wrong. This time.
She shook her head. “Nothing, really. He walked onto my job site unannounced.”
Derrick winced. “Yeah, about that.”
Ellie’s head slowly turned and she pinned Derrick with a you’re-in-trouble glare. “What did you do?”
“With you being on bed rest—”
“Don’t blame me,” Ellie warned.
“Let me try again.” Derrick, the tough, no-nonsense boss who sent employees scurrying, cleared his throat. “Since I can’t be in the office as much as usual right now—”
Ellie’s sigh echoed around the room. “You’re still blaming me.”
They were so cute, so perfectly in sync, that Abby took pity on Derrick. “Let me guess. Spence is overseeing some of the projects now that he’s back in town.”
Derrick closed his eyes for a second before opening them again. Relief poured off him. “Thank you and yes.”
She wasn’t willing to let him all the way off the hook. “Like the one I’m in charge of.”
“The key phrase there is that you are in charge. Spence watching over the project is in line with office procedure. It’s purely a we-need-to-know-what’s-happening check. You know that.”
“That was a lot of words,” Ellie said in a stunned voice.
“I wanted to be clear.”
This time, she rolled her eyes at him. “Uh-huh. You’re sure you’re not doing something else?”
Derrick smiled. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Abby got it. Derrick rarely explained himself. He’d gone into an office-manual description with his answer. That immediately put Abby on edge. The idea of Derrick playing matchmaker or trying to push people together to talk...forget it. That was ridiculous. He wasn’t that great with people, which is why his assistant, Jackson Richards, worked nonstop and everyone ran to him for everything.
It also explained why the entire office celebrated when Derrick fell in love with Ellie. Everyone hoped love would soften him. It had, except for the palpable panic that now hovered around him due to the endangered pregnancy.
Still, shortly after Spence left town, Abby had been promoted. She’d seriously considered turning the offer down out of fear of it being perceived as a payoff to get her to keep quiet about the Jameson men shenanigans. Then she decided she qualified for the position and needed the money because there was no way she was staying at Jameson for long.
She went from assistant to project manager. Now she had a seat at the manager’s table. She didn’t need a full-time babysitter, and certainly not that full-time babysitter. “Spence showed up at a site meeting unannounced.”
“He does have access to your calendar,” Derrick said.
Ellie patted Derrick’s knee where it lay curled on the bed beside her. “I love you but you’re not very good at this.”
Loyalty. Derrick and Spence had it. Abby got that.
“No, it’s fine.” She tried to keep her voice even but knew she failed when Derrick frowned and Ellie’s eyes widened.
“Really?” Ellie snorted. “Because that tone did not sound fine.”
Derrick had stopped massaging Ellie’s neck but he started again. “I think she’s afraid she’ll upset you if she launches into her why-I-hate-Spence speech.”
Ellie waved the concern away as she turned the television from muted to off. “Nope. Jameson family gossip is ridiculously delicious. I’m always happy to hear it.”
Hate Spence. If only. Abby’s life would be so much easier if she did hate Spence. She’d tried. Her mind spun with all the ways he’d failed her. How he hadn’t believed her or let her explain. She could call up a ton of hate for the elder Mr. Jameson and heaps of anger and disappointment for Spence, but that was it. And seeing him again...her normal breathing still hadn’t returned.
She’d heard his deep, rich voice in the hallway at work and ducked into the closest office to avoid him. Then there was his face. That gorgeous face. The straight black hair and striking light brown eyes. He’d been blessed with those extraordinary Jameson genes, including a hint of his Japanese grandmother around the nose and cheeks. Tall, almost six-two with impossibly long legs and a trim waist, Spence was a bit more muscled than Derrick. Spence’s shoulders, and that pronounced collarbone, cried out for kisses.
Not that she noticed.
She was trying really hard not to notice.
With a shake, she forced her mind back to work and the best way to survive being in the same building as Spence. “Well, hopefully it was a one-time thing and I can submit reports or tell Jackson and make Jackson talk to Spence.”
Derrick frowned. “That sounds like an efficient use of office resources.”
“It might keep Spence alive.” Ellie slipped her fingers through Derrick’s as she spoke. “Just saying.”
The gentle touch seemed to spark something in Derrick. He sat up a bit straighter as he looked at Abby. “If it’s a problem to deal with Spence, I’ll switch projects with him. I’ll be the silent Jameson looming in the background on yours.”
As if she could agree to that. Saying yes to the offer suggested she couldn’t handle pressure, and that was not a message Abby wanted to send.
Ellie visibly squeezed his hand. “That’s not really how you run the office, is it?”
“No,” Derrick said.
Abby shrugged. “Sort of.”
For a few seconds, no one spoke. They all looked at each other, back and forth, as the tension rose. Abby wasn’t clear on what was happening. Maybe some sort of unspoken chat between Ellie and Derrick. But Abby did know that the cool room suddenly felt suffocating. Even the cream-colored duvet cover with the tiny blue roses—an addition she would bet money moved in with Ellie—didn’t ease the mood.
“Everything okay in here?” Spence’s firm voice boomed into the silence.
He hovered right behind her. Abby could almost feel the heat pulse off his body. When he exhaled, his warm breath blew across the back of her neck.
Time to go. That phrase repeated in her head until it took hold.
“Spence.” Ellie smiled. “Look, it’s Spence.”
“I do live here. Temporarily, but still.”
In the bedroom down the hall. Abby knew because she’d walked by it a few days ago and glanced in. Saw a bag and hoped it meant nothing. Then she recognized Spence’s tie from the day before flung over the unmade bed.
“For now.” Abby meant to think and not say it, but she managed to mumble it.
Of course Spence heard and placed a hand on her lower back. “Meaning?”
The touch, perfectly respectable and so small, hit her like a live wire. Energy arced through her. She had to fight the urge to lean into him. To balance her body against his. “I’m sure you’ll be on your way again soon.”
Spence’s exhale was louder, more dramatic this time. “That’s not—”
Derrick stood up. “As fun as it is to see you two work things out by lobbing verbal volleys at each other, Ellie does need her rest.”
“I’m having fun.” Ellie caught Derrick’s hand.
Abby silently thanked Derrick for giving her the easy out. Once she maneuvered her way through the three-story brick mansion, she’d be gone.
She put the box of brownies on the bed and pointed to them. “I just wanted to drop them off. Don’t eat them all at once.”
“You’re very sweet.” Ellie went to work on the tape holding the sides of the box down. “I make no promises about how fast they’ll be gone.” She shot Derrick and Spence a serious look. “So we’re clear, I’m not sharing.”
“No one would dare defy that order.” Abby could not escape fast enough. “I’ll text you later.”
She pivoted around Spence and practically raced down the hall. Moved as fast as her stupid spiky heels would let her without wiping out in an inglorious sprawl. The humming in her head blocked out all sounds. She didn’t realize she’d been followed until she reached the bottom of the intricately carved wooden staircase and heard footsteps behind her.
She turned around just as she left the steps. Spence was there. Of course he was.
With his palm flattened against the wall and his other on the banister, he stopped. She couldn’t help but stare. His body was an amazing mystery to her. A package she ached to unwrap. How long were his arms, anyway?
His expression stayed blank as his gaze searched her face. “What are you doing here?”
“Visiting Ellie.” Not a lie. She’d brought a treat and everything.
Spence finished coming down the stairs. Slipped his body by hers until they stood side by side. “How do you even know her?”
He still towered over her. She stood a good five-eight and with the heels could talk to anyone without feeling as if someone was trying to intimidate her. But Spence still towered, though he did stand a few steps back, giving her space.
“I do work at the company,” she pointed out, not knowing what else to say.
“A lot of people work there. None of them show up at the boss’s house.” Spence folded his arms across his middle and stared her down. “What’s really going on?”
He had to be kidding with this. “Do you think I’m stalking you?”
“Are you?”
She was doing the exact opposite, whatever that was called. Hiding from him? Sort of. Trying to find breathing room to center her control and ease the disappointment that clawed at her every time she thought about him and what could have been. “Lately, when I come over I text first to make sure you’re gone. Happy?”
His arms slid down until they hung at his sides again. “Isn’t that a bit extreme?”
“No.” It was self-preservation.
She refused to get snared in another Jameson trap. She trusted Derrick. He’d delivered on every promise he’d made to her back then, when he begged her to stay with the company after...Spence.
“Sooner or later, we’re going to need to talk to each other,” Spence said.
“I disagree.” Not her most mature answer ever but probably the most honest one.
“Abby, come on.”
The tone of his voice suggested he was done playing games. Well, that made two of them. “It’s fascinating that you ran off without saying a word months ago, but now you want some big chatty moment with me. I guess us talking is fine so long as it’s convenient to you.”
“We’re adults.”
Lecturing. Great. Just what she wanted from him. “One of us is.”
With that, she turned and walked out. She’d reached her maximum load on Jameson testosterone for one day. She needed her shoes off and her feet up. Some wine. No Spence.
A Spence-free zone. The idea made her smile as she walked down the hall then closed the front door behind her.
* * *
“She’s not wrong,” Derrick said as he slowly walked down the stairs.
“You want to clue me in here?” Because Spence felt deflated and empty. The gnawing sensation refused to leave him. He’d blown out of the office all those months ago. Traveled around. Helped out on random building sites across the east. Lived a life so different from the spectacle he’d grown up in. All that competition. How his father pitted the three of them against each other. How Derrick always tried to protect them from Dad’s wrath, especially Carter, the youngest.
They lost their mom to cancer. Their father didn’t even have the decency to let her live out her life in peace. No, he moved her to a facility then marched in there one day and demanded a divorce so he could marry his mistress. He thought she was pregnant but she wasn’t, so he quickly dumped the mistress, too. Then he ran through others. He was on wife number four and insisted this one had changed him. Yeah, right. The man treated women as disposable and his sons as property.
All that playing, all that acting at being a Big Man, and he let the business slide. Derrick had stepped in and saved it years ago. They all had to work there from the time they were teens. It was a family requirement, but Derrick was the one who rescued them all—including their father—and restored the family checking account when he took over the day-to-day operations four years ago.
That incredible turnaround was one of the reasons Spence stood on Derrick’s first floor now. He owed Derrick. He also loved Derrick and wanted to help. That meant sticking around. Worse, it meant facing his demons and dealing with Abby.
Spence wasn’t good at standing still. He’d always been the brother to keep moving. Go away to school. Go farther to a different school. Try to work somewhere else. Delay full-time work with the family as long as possible.
The Jameson name choked him. He didn’t find it freeing or respectable. Forcing his feet to stay planted was taking all of his strength. He didn’t have much left over to do battle with Abby.
“Are you admitting you’re clueless? That’s a start.” The amusement was right there in Derrick’s voice.
At the sound, some of the churning in Spence’s gut eased. He had no idea how to handle Abby, but he could do the fake fighting-with-his-brother thing all day. “Don’t make me punch you while your fiancée is on bed rest. She shouldn’t see you beg and cry right now.”
“Are you quoting from a dream you once had? Because that’s not reality.”
They’d physically fought only once. It was years ago, over their mother. Spence had been desperate to keep her in the house with nurses. Derrick, barely in his twenties, had tried to make it happen but couldn’t. Spence had needed an outlet for his rage and Derrick was right there. The perfect target.
There was an almost three-year age difference between them, but Spence still got his ass kicked. And he’d deserved it because his anger really should have been aimed at his father. Spence was thirty-three now. In theory, he knew better.
“Spence, she’s one of the best we have.” Derrick sat down on a step a few from the bottom and started counting out Abby’s attributes on his fingers. “She can multitask and oversee projects, keep things moving. She’s smart. She’s a great negotiator.”
It was an impressive list, but Spence already knew it by heart. Every time he tried to run through her sins in his mind, the image of her face would pop up and his thoughts would stumble. “I feel like you’re reading her résumé to me.”
“Don’t scare her away.”
There was no amusement in his tone now. Spence got the message. “You do understand she screwed me, right?”
“I don’t know what happened back then because you bolted and when I tried to talk with her, in part to make sure we weren’t going to get sued, she refused to say one single negative thing about you.” Derrick threw up his hands before balancing them on his thighs again. “Hell, I can name twenty bad things just sitting here and without thinking very hard, but she protected you.”
“She sure has no problem listing out my faults now.”
“Do you hear what I’m saying?”
“That you’re nosy as hell.” Spence dropped down on the step two down from Derrick and stretched out sideways so he could look at Derrick. “What’s your actual point?”
“Maybe you got it wrong back then.”
Spence leaned his head back against the staircase railing and stared up at the ceiling. “I saw her kissing Dad.”
“Right, because our father never set anyone up or did anything to mess with us.”
That got Spence’s attention. His head lowered and he looked at Derrick. “I don’t—”
“When rumors were going around about me in an attempt to convince Ellie to dump me, Abby’s name came up.”
“What?”
“Some people think the two of us had a thing. There are whispers, none of them true, but they’re out there.” Derrick shrugged. “Ellie heard, wanted to apologize to Abby for dragging her into our personal mess, they met and, honestly, it’s like they’ve known each other for years.”
Derrick and Abby. Fake or not, there was an image Spence never wanted in his head. But Abby and Ellie? No one was safe if those two put their powers together. “That’s just great.”
“For you, no. Abby is going to be around here for Ellie. And she’s a big part of the managerial team at work.” Derrick dropped his arm and touched the step right by Spence’s shoulder. “I want you here and I will do anything to keep you in the office and in town, but even I can’t work miracles. You have to fix this because I can’t.”
“I’ve never heard you admit that before.”
“You’re going to run into her.”
Derrick sounded so serious. Spence wanted to make a joke or ignore the whole conversation. He knew he couldn’t do either. “I can handle it.”
“I’m wondering if the rest of us will survive it.”
Suddenly, so was Spence.
Three (#u05a4cbce-4295-5be6-85d1-af2e7dae70e9)
Abby sat in a conference room on the fifteenth floor of the swanky office building where Jameson Industries was located. A glass wall with the glass door fronted the room, facing into the hall. The room was reserved for relatively few people in the company because it connected to Jackson Richards’s office next door. He used it. Derrick used it. Today, she used it.
She looked at the stack of papers in front of her, then to her laptop, then across the small round table to Jackson. He was Derrick’s right-hand man and the most accessible person on the management staff. He was also tall and lean with a runner’s body and, if rumors were correct, the one every single woman in the office named as the most eligible and interesting man in the office. There hadn’t been an actual poll, to her knowledge, but she got asked at least a few times a week if he was dating anyone. Not that Abby saw him in a romantic way. She didn’t.
She considered Jackson one of her closest friends, if not the closest. After a relatively solitary existence growing up—just her and her mom and the apartment manager who watched her when her mom worked the night shift at the diner—dating here and there, keeping attachments light in case she needed to get up and go, Jackson acted as a lifeline for her. They even lived in condos next door to each other, which was more of an accident than anything else. But when you heard about a good deal on a downtown DC property with a doorman and reasonable monthly fees, you jumped on it. Jackson sure had.
But right now she was at work and out of patience. She beat back the urge to knock her head against the table. “If I have to read one more email from Rylan, my brain will explode.”
The man sent her the most mundane emails. The status check today, which he sent a day earlier than he said he would, was to tell her nothing had changed. Yeah, she guessed that much. But with emails clogging her inbox and her mind on constant wandering mode these days, she needed something solid. Jackson was it.
“Good thing we have good health insurance here,” Jackson said as he closed the file he was reading.
She snorted. “I’m pretty sure head explosion isn’t covered.”
“He is persistent.” Jackson glanced at the conference room door as it opened. “Speaking of which...”
“Hello.” Spence stepped inside. He didn’t make a move to sit down. He stopped and rested his palms on the back of the chair nearest to him.
That fast, the oxygen sucked out of the room. The easy banter with Jackson gave way to suffocating tension. It pressed in on Abby, proving what she already knew. Seeing Spence grew harder each time, not easier.
Jackson smiled as he moved some of the files and papers around to make room in front of an open chair. “Hey, Spence.”
As far as Abby was concerned, all of that accommodating was unnecessary. She had no interest in sitting there, explaining her projects to Spence. She had a file made up with the relevant information and emailed him the rest. She’d done her part to keep the machine running.
“Right.” She shut her laptop, careful not to slam the cover down, and stood up. “I’m going to head back to my office.”
“I need to talk to you for a second.” Spence’s gaze moved from her to Jackson.
Jackson sighed. “Why are you looking at me? I’m supposed to be in here. I’m not leaving.”
“Help me out,” Spence said.
Jackson shook his head as he stood up. “Did you not hear my dramatic sigh?”
“It was tough to miss.”
“That’s because I spend half my life rescuing Jamesons from certain disaster.” Jackson ended the back-and-forth with a smack against Spence’s shoulder.
Some of the tension drained away as Jackson and Spence fell into their easy camaraderie. That sort of thing always amazed Abby. Men could argue and go at each other, but if they were friends or related, they seemed to have this secret signal, heard only by them, that triggered the end of the battle. Then all the anger slipped away.
She wished she possessed that skill.
She glanced at Jackson. “You deserve a raise.”
“Hell, yeah.” Jackson winked at her as he walked out of the conference room through the connecting door to his office.
A second later, Spence slid into the seat Jackson abandoned. He flipped through a whole repertoire of nervous gestures, none of which she’d seen from him before. He rubbed the back of his neck. Shifted around in his seat. Put a hand on the table then took it off. But he didn’t say a word.
After about a minute, the silence screamed in her head. “You’re up, Spence. You’re the one who wanted to talk.”
Fight was probably more accurate. They couldn’t seem to be civil to each other for more than a few minutes at a time since living in the same town again. They verbally sparred. Every conversation led them back to the same place—he believed she came on to his father. The idea made her want to heave.
He let out a heavy sigh that had his chest lifting and falling. “We got off on the wrong foot.”
“When?”
He frowned. “What?”
“Now or back then?” She was having a hard time keeping up, so he was going to need to be more specific. “Maybe when we were starting to go out and had plans for our first official date that Friday. You left on Thursday without a word.”
The memories flashed in her brain and she blinked them out. She refused to let the sharp pain in her chest derail her. This close, right across the table, she could see the intensity in his eyes, smell that scent she associated with him. A kind of peppery sharpness that reeled her in. In the past. Not now. She wouldn’t let it happen now.
“You are determined to make this difficult.” He had the nerve to look wounded.
She pushed down her anger and lifted her chin. “Do you blame me?”
“Actually, yes.” He sat back in the chair. The metal creaked under his weight as he lifted the front two legs off the floor. “You kissed my father.”
And there it was. The only point he could make, so he did it over and over until it lost its punch. “So you’ve pointed out. Repeatedly.”
“Okay. Enough.” A thud echoed through the small room as the front legs of his chair hit the floor again.
“I agree.” She stood up. Her vision blurred. She struggled through a haze of anger and disappointment to see the stacks of documents and folders in front of her.
“Please, sit.” His hand slipped over hers. “I know you think I’m an ass, but I’m here because I am worried about Ellie and the baby. The chance of my big brother running himself into the ground is really good. He may be acting cool, but he’s a panicked mess.”
Part of her wanted to throw his hand off hers. The other part wanted to grab hold. Her life would have been so much easier if she could have hated him. She begged the universe to let that happen.
Instead, she slipped her hand out from under his, stopped moving her things around and looked at him. “Of course he is. He loves Ellie.”
Spence’s gaze traveled over her face. “You like Derrick.”
All the blood ran out of her head. “You’re not accusing me—”
“No!” Spence held up both hands as if in mock surrender. “I mean, respect. Friendship. Deeper than a boss, but not romantic.”
Her heartbeat stopped thundering in her ears. It was as if he opened his mouth and her body prepared for battle. The whole thing gave her a headache. “That’s fair. Yes.”
“Any chance we could get there? I’d like us to be friends.” His hand rested on the table, so close to hers.
She stared at his long fingers. She’d always loved his hands. They showed strength. Seeing them made her wonder what they would feel like on her.
She pushed the thought away. “No.”
“Abby, come on.”
“I have that level of trust and understanding with Derrick because there is nothing else in the way. Nothing else between us because I don’t have any other feelings for him.” The words echoed in her head. She closed her eyes for a second before opening them again, hoping she’d only thought them. But no, there he was. Staring at her. Clear that he heard every syllable.
His eyebrow lifted. “But you do feel something for me?”
The look on his face. Was that satisfaction or hope? She couldn’t tell. Didn’t want to know. She never meant to open that door. Thinking it and saying it were two very different things, and she’d blown it. Now she rushed to try to fix the damage. “Did. That’s over.”
“Is it?”
He stood up then. Took one step toward her. Not too close, but enough to cut off her breathing. To make her fight not to gasp.
“I want to kiss you.” He put his hands on her arms and turned her slightly until they faced each other. “Tell me no if you don’t want me to.”
They’d kissed before. Gone to dinner, stolen a few minutes in closed conference rooms now and then. But this one was lined with windows on one side. She looked over his shoulder, thinking someone would be out there. That her brain would click on and common sense would come rushing back. For once, no one rushed up and down the hall.
She opened her mouth to say no, sensing he actually would stop. But she couldn’t get the word out. Not that one. “Yes.”
With the unexpected green light, he leaned in. His mouth covered hers and need shot through her. The press of his mouth, the sureness of his touch. His lips didn’t dance over hers. They didn’t test or linger. No, this was the kind of kiss where you dove in and held on.
His mouth slipped over hers and her knees buckled. She grabbed on to the sleeve of his shirt. Dug her fingers into the material as desire pounded her. Her brain shut down and her body took over. She wanted to wrap her legs around his and slip her fingers through that sexy dark hair.
Voices in the hallway floated through her. She heard laughter and the mumbling. The noise broke the spell.
“Stop.” She pushed away from him. Still held on but lessened her grip and put a bit of air between them. “Don’t.”
Her gaze went back to the glass wall. She heard talking but didn’t see anyone. Not unusual at this end of the hall since only Derrick and Jackson had offices there. But she took the sound of voices as a warning. Forcing her fingers to uncurl, she dropped her arms and stepped back another step, ignoring the way the corner of her chair jammed into the side of her thigh.
“Sorry.” Spence visibly swallowed. “I know I’m your boss and it’s weird.”
She looked at him then. Really looked. Saw the flush on his cheeks and his swollen lips. That haze clouding his eyes. He had been as spun up and knocked off balance as she was. It was tempting to shut it all down and let him believe this was about Human Resources and office rules, but it wasn’t. Employees could date and this wasn’t about that.
“We both know this isn’t workplace harassment. You asked permission and I said yes. I know my job doesn’t depend on kissing you. There’s no big power play here.” She laid a lot of sins at his feet, but not that one. His father? Yes. But not Spence.
“I guess that’s something.”
“You hated me and ran away but never threatened my job. You’re not that guy.” She waved a hand between them. “But this—us—we’ve proven it doesn’t work. We’re miserable around each other.”
“I never hated you.”
No way was she going to dissect that and examine it. “Okay.”
“And are we? You make me feel a lot of things, Abby. Miserable isn’t one of them.”
And she was ignoring that, too. She had to. Believing, even for a second, that he might trust her, that he might get what he did when he sided with his father months ago, was too dangerous. He’d been clear about what he thought of her back then. They needed to stick with that and stay away from each other.
She grabbed her laptop. Almost dropped it. “I need to prep for another meeting with Rylan.”
Spence watched the fumbling. Even tried to help when the laptop started its dive, but when she pulled it all together, he stepped back again. Slipped his hands in his pants pockets. “When is it? I’ll come with you.”
“To the meeting? Do you think I can’t handle it?” He really was determined to babysit her. Thinking about that killed off her need to unbutton his shirt and strip it off him. Mostly.
“That guy’s interest in you is not entirely professional.”
Her brain cells scrambled. She didn’t understand what he was saying or why now. “And you’re worried I’ll kiss him, too?”
“I’m concerned he won’t know where the line is. I don’t want you to be put in an untenable position.” Whatever he saw on her face had him frowning. “What?”
“Where was this Spence months ago?” She would have done anything to have him stick up for her then. To be on her side.
“What does that mean?”
She retreated back behind her safe wall. Her mother had taught her to be wary. She’d learned the hard way from the man who never stuck around to be a dad. Then her mom taught the ultimate lesson when she died in that diner shooting. Abby had to be stronger, smarter. Always be ready. Always be careful.
“I’ll be fine.” Somehow, she made her legs move. The shaking in her hands had her laptop bouncing against her chest from the death grip she had on it. She ignored all of it, and Spence, as she walked out.
But that kiss she would remember.
* * *
Spence couldn’t forget the kiss or that look on Abby’s face. It was as if she expected him not to believe her, not to stick up for her. Then his mind slipped back to another office. Another kiss. He’d walked in and his life had turned upside down. All that hatred for his father manifested itself in one horrible second, and he’d taken it out on Abby. She knew about his father’s charm and his effect on women. He’d just hoped she would be different.
That realization brought him to Derrick’s office. Spence didn’t want to talk, but hanging out with Derrick generally calmed him. He was a reminder that the Jameson men could turn out to be decent. Their grandfather was a disgraced congressman. Dad was considered a big-time successful businessman who always had a beautiful woman on his arm. Spence and his brothers had spent too much time in the public eye as props for family photos and public relations schemes.
But Derrick was the real thing. He didn’t see it, but Carter and Spence did.
As soon as Spence walked in, Derrick motioned for him to take the seat on the other side of his massive desk. Without saying a word, Derrick opened the top drawer and took out a large envelope. “Here.”
Spence wasn’t exactly looking for work talk but he sensed that’s not what this was anyway. “Do I want to know what this is?”
“It’s from Dad.”
The damn agreement. Despite all of Derrick’s hard work, Eldrick owned the majority of the company. He promised to turn it over, but not before he put his boys through another set of tests. It was his way of holding on to power and exerting control.
Derrick had been given a specific time to clean up his reputation. He was also supposed to lure Carter and Spence home, which proved easy enough once Derrick admitted it to them. But he did more than that. He managed to run a multimillion-dollar company, expand its holding, meet their father’s conditions and land the best woman for him.
For Derrick—easy. For anyone else? Likely impossible.
Spence hated to guess what his task was. “Lucky me.”
Derrick dropped the envelope on the desk. “Rip it up without opening it.”
The suggestion didn’t make sense. “What?”
“Walk away from this.”
“Isn’t this my stipulation, the things I have to do? The way you explained it to me before, Dad only turns over the business if we all do his bidding. You had the biggest part and finished. Now it’s my turn.” Still, Spence couldn’t bring himself to touch the envelope.
“Don’t let him do this. It’s manipulation.”
It was. No one debated that. Not the lawyers who drew up the documents. Not Jackson, the only person outside of the family who knew other than Ellie. The requirements were personal and not likely to be legally enforceable, but with controlling interest, dear old Dad could sell the company and take the company that meant everything to Derrick away from him at any time. Spence refused to let that happen, even if it meant staying and working there.
“You deserve to run the company. You saved it.” To Spence, it was that simple. He’d talked to Carter, their younger, California-living brother. He agreed with Spence. Whatever it took to beat the old man and get Derrick the business, they would do it.
Derrick shrugged. “I’ll find another way.”
“I’m thinking it’s time I stepped up and took responsibility.” Something even Spence had to admit he should have done before. Stopped running long enough to help.
“Are we only talking about the job?” Derrick smiled as he asked the question.
“This isn’t about Abby.” It was infuriating how she was the first thing that popped into his mind—always. Spence couldn’t kick that habit.
“Right, Abby.” Derrick made a humming sound. “Do you notice how you brought up her name, not me?”
Spence was not touching that. He knew he had a weakness for her. There was no need to pretend otherwise. “I was talking about being more engaged here, at work.”
Derrick sat back in his chair. “I can’t say I hate that idea.”
“Yeah, well, don’t get excited. I might suck at it.”
This time, Derrick laughed. He’d so rarely done that in the past, but he did it now that he’d found Ellie. “I like the positive attitude.”
Spence never had one of those before. Maybe it was time he tried. “I’m being realistic.”
“I’ll take whatever I can get.”
Four (#u05a4cbce-4295-5be6-85d1-af2e7dae70e9)
Abby kicked off her high heels and dropped down on her sectional sofa. Next, she propped her feet up on the round leather ottoman in front of her. If she had the energy, she’d change out of her work clothes. She picked dropping her head back against the cushions and closing her eyes instead.
The condo was on the seventh floor of a securebuilding that sat a block off of Logan Circle. The trendy area became trendy during the last decade. Now galleries and restaurants and fitness studios lined the streets. Several parks nearby provided great places to run and bike, but she tried never to do either. She preferred walking the city and turning her muscles to mush in kickboxing classes.
She picked the building because of the location. She was able to get in on the newly refurbished space before the prices skyrocketed and used a work bonus to do it. Now she laughed when she heard what people were willing to pay for studios on lower floors in the building. It was an odd feeling when the place you lived became a place you likely could no longer afford if you were trying to buy right now.
There were four condos per floor and those were serviced by a private elevator. A penthouse stretched the full length of the building on the floor above but there was never any noise up there except when the couple who lived there threw one of their lavish rooftop garden parties. She’d never been invited but she loved sitting out on her tiny balcony and listening to the music and laughter as it spun through the DC night.
The best part of the building was her neighbor—Jackson. His two-bedroom also had a den. She didn’t need the extra space or the bigger price tag, but she loved having him close by. The man appreciated takeout. One of his many fine attributes.
The door opened after a quick knock. She didn’t get up because she didn’t have to. She’d texted Jackson as she walked in the door. She wanted Chinese food and could almost always convince him to share with her.
“You’re drinking wine already?” He laughed as he relaxed into the corner seat of her sectional.
She opened her eyes and looked at him. He’d stripped off his tie and rolled up the sleeves of his shockingly white dress shirt. His hair showed signs that he’d run his fingers through it repeatedly during the day.
He really was attractive. Those big eyes and the athletic build. Decent and smart. Hardworking and compassionate. Funny. And she felt nothing but a big loving friendship for him.
Clearly there was something wrong with her. She knew what it was and didn’t try to hide it. “Spence.”
“Ah.” Jackson reached behind him to the table that sat there. “Here’s the bottle.”
Abby watched Jackson fill a glass for himself then put the bottle on a wooden tray on the ottoman for easy reach. If they were going to talk about Spence, and they were because she needed to blow off some of the frustration pinging around inside of her, then she might need a second glass.
She skipped over the kissing part of the afternoon and how that rocked her so hard she’d spent the rest of the day brushing her fingertips over her lips. “He talks and I want to punch him in the face.”
“That sounds like a healthy reaction.”
She ran her fingers up and down the stem of her glass. “Doesn’t it make you frustrated, having to deal with the Jamesons and their money and power and bullying behavior?”
His eyebrow lifted. “Are we still talking about work?”
“He makes me...” She couldn’t even find the right word. Hot, angry, spun up, frustrated. They all fit.
“Want to punch him.” Jackson toasted her with his glass. “Yeah, I got it.”
“I love Ellie. She’s funny and smart and charming and doesn’t take their crap.”
“Sounds like someone else I know.” When she frowned, he kept talking. “It does. You don’t get onto the managerial team at a family-owned company unless you’re good. You’re damn good.”
“Like you?” She knew the truth. Jackson was a star at work. Derrick depended on him. Everyone did. Even she did. If you needed an answer, he likely had it.
He acted as if he were thinking something over. “Maybe I do deserve a raise.”
“I’m tired of all of it.”
“Wait.” He put down his glass, took hers and did the same with it. “That sounds suspiciously like you’re thinking about finding a new job and leaving.”
She felt a little lost without the glass to grab on to and started talking with her hands. “Don’t you toy with the idea? Leave, open your own place. Do some consulting.”
“Sounds risky but potentially rewarding, except for the part where you’ll work round the clock, be panicked about finances and eat peanut butter for every meal so you can stockpile cash.” He shook his head. “I’ve already lived that life. I really don’t want to go back.”
They shared a similar background, having been raised by single moms who barely earned enough money to keep the lights on. But he hadn’t been alone. He had a sister, a twin. But it had just been Abby. She depended on her mom until the day she lost her, and she’d mourned her every day since. Missed the vanilla-scented shampoo she used. Her smile. The way she laughed at bad horror movies. That loss, so deep and raw, never disappeared. Moving forward became easier but was never easy.
But this was about her, and her work life and figuring out the best choice for her, separate from the Spence piece of the puzzle. “Me, either, but I’m not afraid of putting in the hours.”
“I don’t doubt you at all.” Jackson studied her for a second before picking up her wineglass and handing it to her again. “Not to bring up a rough subject, but you know Eldrick is coming to town, right?”
Spence’s dad. Abby despised the man.
“What?” The glass slipped in her hands and wine splashed over the side and dribbled down her hand. She caught it before it hit her light gray couch or her silk blouse.
“I had a feeling you didn’t know.”
“Are you sure it’s happening?” Because that was her nightmare. Dealing with Spence was rough. Not smashing a computer over Eldrick’s head might prove impossible.
He’d left shortly after he’d kissed her all those months ago, made it clear he did it to teach Spence a lesson. Since then, he’d married another wife and left the country. Abby seethed every day since. She’d hoped he’d stay on that beach in Tortola forever, but no such luck.
“Found out today.” Jackson kept watching her, as if he were assessing if he should shut up or provide more details. “It’s for Ellie and Derrick’s engagement party. They postponed it when Ellie fainted and figured out she was pregnant. Derrick told his dad to stay away, but now the shindig is back on and father Jameson is flying in with the newest wife.”
“Ever met her?”
“No, but Derrick had her investigated, so I learned too much.” Jackson made a you-don’t-want-to-know face.
Abby rolled her eyes. “Of course he did.”
“The Jameson men are somewhat predictable.”
“It’s scary.”
“Eldrick Jameson is...” Jackson made a humming sound. “I can’t actually think of a decent thing to say about that man.”
“Me, either. But go back a second. Ellie is still on bed rest.” Abby didn’t want her friend confined, but she didn’t want a reason to see Eldrick, either.
“I don’t think that means we tie her to the bed and keep her there. She’s allowed to move.”
“But a party? Isn’t that stressful?” It would be for Abby.
“They’re being extra careful.” Jackson shrugged. “Getting the doctor’s okay and all that. Trust me, Derrick isn’t happy about it, either. I think after all the rumors in the paper about them, Ellie wants the party to stop any whispers.”
That meant this was happening. It sounded like Derrick was throwing up roadblocks but none of them showed any promise in stopping the party. “Ugh.”
Jackson laughed. “I can hear the excitement in your voice.”
He might as well have said funeral. “I hate parties. Derrick hates parties.”
“But he loves her.”
That made Abby smile. “They really are too cute. I mean it. Too cute.”
“Well, if it’s any consolation, they were a mess at first. Derrick nearly blew it about a hundred times.” Jackson shook his head. “It was kind of pathetic.”
“Maybe there’s some relationship malfunction in the Jameson gene pool.”
Jackson drained his glass and poured another. “I’ve often thought that.”
“I’m supposed to go over and see Ellie at lunch tomorrow.” Abby wanted to cancel, or at least get some sort of promise that Spence would not show up. He seemed to be doing that a lot these days.
“Business?”
“Girl talk.”
Jackson made a face. “Do I want to know what that means?”
“I don’t know.” It wasn’t exactly Abby’s strength, either. She’d grown up with few friends and kept that streak going most of her life. That’s why when Ellie took her in and insisted they get to know each other, and then introduced her to her best friend, Vanessa, Abby didn’t balk. She took the risk this one time and it had paid off. Spending time with Ellie made Abby smile. “She texted. I’m going.”
“The things we do to make the pregnant woman happy.”
Abby lifted her near-empty glass. “I’ll toast to that.”
* * *
The next afternoon, Abby arrived at Ellie’s house, weighed down with bags of food. Derrick had to go into work for a few meetings, so Abby used the code and slipped through the layers of security to get inside. Then up the stairs. A few minutes later, she unloaded the salads and caprese-on-focaccia sandwiches onto the tray set up on the edge of Ellie’s bed with drinks and what looked like a bowl of pretzels.

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