Lip Lock (13 page)

Annette chewed on her bottom lip. “Something doesn’t fit.”

“You think Molly is innocent?” He felt the flicker of hope and was disgusted from it. He didn’t look for excuses or explanations with his other employees. He should treat Molly the same way.

“Innocent is such a vague word. Either she knows something or she’s…” Annette trailed off. “She’s not mastermind material.”

Kyle forced himself to turn to his computer and reach for his keyboard. “Believe me, she’s a lot more devious than she looks.”

Annette’s eyebrow arched and Kyle ignored it.

“You believe Curtis over Molly?” she asked.

“Don’t you?” Kyle punched in his password.

“Curtis got something for turning over Molly. She didn’t ask for anything.”

“There could be a lot of reasons why she didn’t ask. Maybe the competitor can beat our offer. Maybe there’s something she wants that we can’t give.” The possibility jabbed him in the gut.

“Maybe.” Annette paused. “About the other thing Curtis said…”

Oh, God, he didn’t want to hear anymore lies and excuses. “Annette, I don’t have time to deal with—”

“I didn’t mean to hide it from you.”

That lie annoyed him. “You don’t hide a start-up company by accident. You did mean to hide it.”

She had the grace to blush. “Only because the terms of my contract—”

“To hell with the contract. You want to leave? Then leave.” He focused on his computer screen and pretended to find great interest in his e-mails.

“I spent ten years putting this company together.” Annette’s voice trembled with anger. “It’s not easy walking away.”

Kyle glanced up from his computer. “Then why are you?”

“Because I want something of my own.” She pressed her hands to her chest. “I want something with my name on it. My own territory.”

As much as he hated to admit it, he understood that need. It was the same quest that drove him every day.

“I’m not going into competition against you,” Annette promised. “I want to work with image processing for the math and science fields. This is going to fill a niche.”

Considering she was a math geek when he first met her, he wasn’t too surprised by this passion. Annette always tried to get Ashton ImageWorks involved in the fields, but he thought the target consumer was too small.

“I’m not taking your employees or proprietary info,” she was quick to point out. “I would never do that.”

Annette was leaving him and not looking back. She was ready to move on. He knew why she needed to, but the way she did felt like a betrayal.

“And if you have a need for the best mathematical and scientific image processing,” Annette said as she rose from her seat and headed for the door, “then we can form an alliance.”

Kyle’s eyes widened at his friend’s moxie. “Are you already trying to do a deal?”

“Softening you up.” He heard the smile in her voice.

“Just for that, I’m going to snatch up your company in a hostile takeover.”

Annette chuckled. “I’d like to see you try.” She looked over her shoulder. “Are we still friends?”

“Yeah,” he said, but he wasn’t sure if that was a lie. Friends trusted each other no matter what. Didn’t they?

Molly walked slowly down the sidewalk, carrying a small cardboard box against her hip. If that didn’t tell everyone on the street what she happened to her! She felt like a walking advertisement for losers.

The muted clanks and dings were getting on her nerves. She peered inside the box and kept noticing that her belongings were a few trinkets and scraps of paper, and pathetically few at that. She had tossed her purse inside so she didn’t hear all the rattling around.

Fired.
The word swirled around her mind. She couldn’t believe she’d been fired. For something she didn’t even do!

Don’t dwell on that. You’ve got bigger problems. Like where do you go from here?

She’d have to take whatever job she could get. Two jobs. Three. She’d done it before. It nearly killed her, but she’d do it again if she had to.

Housing. Molly winced. She didn’t know what she was going to do about that. Her credit blown. And now that she was unemployed…

Attitude.
Come on, it’s all about attitude. I will get through this. Before the end of the year, I’ll have a cozy place and a job
.

Riiight
.

It could happen. Her luck boomeranged from bad to good. Like how it did today. Everything was looking up and then—bam! Someone lost her file.

She would have really liked to have seen what bonus she would have gotten. Molly’s feet shuffled against the pavement as she imagined the dollar amount scrolling up. Ooh, maybe some stock options. Not like she had any use for them unless she could have treated them like green stamps, but it would have been a nice touch.

It was probably for the best that she didn’t know. Molly sighed and felt it all the way to her toes. It was going to be difficult knowing all that money had been taken away from her. That she almost got out of living in a truck.

Speaking of which…Molly stopped and looked around. Where was her truck? Did she pass it?

She didn’t see a truck anywhere. She parked it in this busy parking lot today, didn’t she? That was one of the disadvantages of a mobile living space. Routine went out the window.

It was this parking lot. She remembered going behind the building where the other trucks were. Which would mean that her truck would be right…

Where that empty space was.

Molly stared at the pavement. She saw it, but didn’t understand it. Then it all hit her at once.

Panic hit her in the chest. The truck was gone. The truck was…
gone
! And all of her stuff with it.

Oh, no. No! She pressed her lips together. The box she was carrying suddenly felt too heavy and she placed it on the curb. She whirled around and searched the parking lot, as if her truck would miraculously appear.

Where was her truck? Was it stolen? Towed? When did this happen? She looked around wildly, but no one was around. No one would have the answers.

Molly shakily walked back to the empty parking space. She sat down, clumsy and tired, and stared at the gray pavement.

She had no idea how long she sat there, hugging her knees against her chest, but it dawned on her that she needed to get up. Move. Take action. Get her stuff back. Get a job. Get a place to live.

But she couldn’t move. She wasn’t strong enough to fight back. And even if she were, she’d use her strength to run away.

I don’t bail.

What she said to Kyle had been the truth. She always stayed the course. Finished the job. Paid the bill.

Molly rested her head on her knees. And where did that get her? Nowhere with nothing.

Maybe her good-for-nothing ex-boyfriend had the right idea. Just get up and go. Who cared what mess you left behind? Someone would have to clean it up.

That sounded so good right now.

But what about the truck? About her bills? What about her work record?

No one was going to clean that up for her. She had to fix that herself.

The weight of it all pulled her down. She felt like she was suffocating. She couldn’t breathe.

She had to concentrate on the more important things. Food. Clothes. Shelter. Get her stuff and get a job.

Molly’s stomach grumbled at the thought of food. When was the last time she ate? Did she throw the packet of chips in her box while the security guards watched her?

She looked through her box, knowing that she would think better on a full stomach. At least with something in her stomach.

Chips…chips…She could have sworn she had some potato chips. She pulled out the
M
notepad Bonita gave her when she got the job and saw one sheet curled backward.

What was that? She couldn’t remember. Molly folded it over and saw a jumble of words among the doodling.

Laurie. Family emergency. Food in refrigerator. Coming back? Key at neighbor.

She winced. How could she have forgotten to give that note to Sara? Oh, well. Molly tossed the notepad back into the box. It made no difference. Kyle wouldn’t know the house was empty.

Molly shuffled through her lucky pencil container and her framed photos. She froze.
Kyle’s cottage was empty. The one that he never used!

No. No. Bad idea. She couldn’t go over there. Live there. Even temporarily until she got back on her feet. That was breaking and entering.

Unless she got the key from the neighbors…

Diving her hand into the box, she retrieved the M-shaped paper. The rolled up bag of chips came up with the notepad, clinging to the sticky strip.

Molly smiled. Things were looking up already.

As the ferry docked next to the island, Molly’s heart pounded harder. Her stomach twisted as sweat appeared on her cold, clammy skin. At first she thought it might have been motion sickness. Then she realized it for what it was.

She was going somewhere she’d never laid eyes on. In a place she couldn’t easily leave. To live in a house that wasn’t hers.

“You are going to get caught,” Bonita had predicted the night before. “Do me a favor and plead insanity.”

“No one will find out,” Molly had said as she stuffed jeans and sweaters she had bought from yard sales that morning into a bag. “Kyle doesn’t use the house. I’m going to go in, find a job on the island, and then get a place of my own.”

“Never going to work,” Bonita had muttered.

“What I’ve been doing hasn’t worked, so let’s try it in reverse. Get the home first and then everything else will fall into place.”

“And if you don’t find a job?”

Molly had shrugged, although she desperately hoped that wouldn’t be the case. “Then I leave and no one will ever know I had been there.”

This is the craziest idea I’ve ever had
, Molly decided as she stepped onto the island and looked around.
And it just might work
.

She walked along the first street she found. There were lots of evergreen trees and rolling hills. The island was much bigger than she expected. That had to be good.

Molly found what looked like a quaint general store. As she walked inside, a small brass bell on top of the door announced her presence. She glanced around the small, crowded, one-room store. It was like she had entered a slower, more gracious time.

The man behind the counter stood up. “Hi, can I help you with anything?”

“Um, yeah. Could you direct me to Main Street?”

His smile was broad. “You’re on it.”

Huh. Maybe the action was more toward the coastline. “Where are the shops?” she asked. “The restaurants? The Starbucks?”

“There aren’t any, but I do have an espresso machine.”

“Really?” No Starbucks? Was she still in the Pacific Northwest?

“People live here to get away from it all.” The man rested his elbow on the cash register. “How long are you staying?”

“I’m not quite sure,” she hedged. This plan might not work.

The man eyed her beat-up backpack. “You don’t have any camping equipment.”

Molly’s eyes widened. “Why would I need that?”
Oh, please tell me these people have running water and electricity.

“The island doesn’t have a hotel.”

“Oh, that’s okay,” she said with some relief. Molly then realized what that meant. The job market on this island was much smaller than she’d anticipated. “I’m staying over at Kyle Ashton’s cottage.”

“You are?” He looked at her carefully. “Are they expecting you?”

Okay, that was her cue to establish her story. She worked on this on the ferry ride over. Not too much information, but just a few clues that she belonged here. “I know Laurie isn’t there,” Molly said, “but she told me where to get the key. Oh, did you hear any news about the baby?”

The suspicion cleared from the man’s brow. “Yeah, it’s a boy.”

“Oh, good. I’m sure I’ll hear all about it.” Molly gave the shopkeeper a wink.

The older man gave a knowing smile in return. “What did you say your name was?”

“Molly. Molly Connors.” She held out her hand, although she was reluctant to give out her real name. But if she was going to find a job here, she had to be truthful up front. “And you are?”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Jerry.” He then proceeded to give her directions to Kyle’s place. “If you have any questions, give me a call.”

“Thanks.” Molly stepped outside and headed off in the direction of the cottage.

The job search was going to be harder than she anticipated. No restaurants? No hotels? No businesses? How was she going to survive?

She looked in the direction of the ferry. Stopped in her tracks. Wavered.

No. She wasn’t going to give up just yet. She had to think outside the box. There were other types of jobs available. Molly knew that she needed to be on the lookout.

She walked along the unpaved roads, catching glimpses of Puget Sound between the evergreen trees. She tried to remember the address and went completely blank for a minute.

Don’t panic. You wrote it down somewhere
. She opened her backpack and scanned the address. The last thing she wanted to do was break into the wrong house!

She followed along the path until she found the address advertised. She looked around, surprised that there was no fence. No gates. Nothing.

Whew. One less thing to worry about.

She walked down the sloping yard. The lawn was lush and green, but by no means controlled. Plants were grouped together, flaring out and soaking in the weak sunlight.

Molly abruptly stopped when she saw the cottage. Her mouth fell open. This was
not
a cottage. Where she came from, the proper term was a freaking mansion!

Nooo
…She looked at the address she had written down. It was the right house. Molly slowly returned her gaze to the place.

The “cottage” was freshly painted a pale yellow. It rose majestically from the ground about two stories and stretched across the wide yard. The driveway meandered to the stone steps.

The low slanted roof gave a gracious look to the sturdy house. The window balconies made her think of those movies set in Italy. Tuscany or something.

She slowly walked along the meandering driveway to the stone steps. Now might be a time to rethink her plan, Molly considered as she approached the massive front door. Taking advantage of an empty beachside cottage was one thing…Molly turned around and found a woman standing right behind her. She screamed and reeled back, colliding into the front door.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to sneak up on you. Jerry at the store called and said you were coming.”

Molly pressed her hand against her chest and took in a few gulps of air. “Hi, I’m Molly,” she said shakily and stretched out her hand. “And you are?”

The woman eyed her and didn’t accept the handshake. “The next-door neighbor.”

Hmm…That doesn’t sound promising
. Molly quickly dropped her hand and studied the older woman. She was thin, wrinkled, and looked like she had seen a lot of life. The woman was going to be a hard nut to crack.

“Laurie didn’t say you were coming.”

“She didn’t know.”

“Uh-huh.” She studied Molly with open suspicion. The woman folded her arms across her chest. “You better start talking.”

Molly eyed the next-door neighbor. Okay. She had better be convincing if she wanted the key. And she really needed the key. The ferry was gone, and she had no truck or office building to sleep at. No way was she going camping in the wild tonight.

“Well, I’m so glad to meet you,” Molly said with her friendliest smile. “How’s Laurie doing with her grandson?”

“How do you know Laurie?”

“Well, I don’t,” Molly admitted. “I’ve only talked to her on the phone on a couple of occasions.”

The neighbor gave her the evil eye. Molly’s nerves skittered up and down her spine.

“It sounded awful what her daughter went through,” Molly said in a rush, determined to prove a familiarity with Kyle’s life.

The neighbor’s eyes narrowed.

“With the water breaking and the…”

Her eyes went steely.

“Mucus plug.” Hmm, normal people usually would have tried to stop her and change the subject. “Anyway, Laurie said you would have the key.”

The woman wasn’t warming up at all. “Like I said, Laurie didn’t tell me you were coming.”

“I didn’t know myself until this weekend.”

“Are you a relative of Kyle’s?”

“Not exactly.” She could lie, but she remembered Kyle’s distance with his family. This woman might know that.

“Not exactly?” The woman frowned. “Either you are or you aren’t. How do you know Kyle?”

“I’m a”—Acquaintance? Employee?—“friend.”

“Friend?” The woman appeared unconvinced.

“A
close
friend,” Molly added.

“How close?”

Molly’s mouth opened and closed. “Excuse me?”

“Because I don’t know how a close friend is not exactly related to him.”

Well, she walked into that one, didn’t she? Molly knew she should give up and leave. She had no idea why she was arguing with this woman on the doorstep of a house that was neither hers nor this woman’s.

So why wasn’t she leaving? Why was she risking getting caught? Had she passed the point of recognizing a lost cause, or was she willing to do anything to live in this house? She didn’t want to think about that right now. “Okay, here’s the deal, Miss…”

Nothing.

Molly tried again. “Mrs….?”

Still nothing. If she said sir, would she get a reaction? Molly decided not to chance it.

“Ma’am, I’m not really allowed to say anything because”—because why?—“it’s not…official.”

“Uh-huh.”

“But Kyle and I are…engaged.” Molly reviewed what she just said. That story might work.

“Uh-huh.” The woman made a point to look at Molly’s hand.

“I don’t have a ring yet,” Molly explained, fighting the urge to curl her hands and hide them behind her back. “Because it’s not official.”

“When did this happen?”

“This week.” That sounded good. She’d go with that.

“So why are you here?” The woman shifted back on her heels. “Alone?”

Hmm. Molly hadn’t considered that a just-engaged couple would stick to each other like glue. “Kyle is talking about selling this house, but I told him I wanted to see it before he decided.”

The neighbor looked at the house and back at Molly. “Why didn’t he come down with you?”

Gosh, this woman was nosy! “He’s been so busy at work,” Molly said as if she was confiding something with the neighbor. “I told him he needed to get out more and get some fresh air, but no. The guy is fine with his treadmill. He’s a good runner.”

“Yes, I know,” the woman said. She glanced at the unpaved road. “He used to run these hills every morning.”

Aha! She was getting somewhere. Molly tried not to show her relief.

“Is he coming down soon?” the neighbor asked.

Oh, don’t wish that on me!
“He wants to,” Molly said. “It depends on work.”

“How long are you going to be here?”

This line of questioning was beginning to sound promising. “I’m not sure. I really like this place,” Molly said in all honesty. “I guess I can wait until Laurie gets back. Did she say when she’ll be back?”

“No, but her daughter has maternity leave and needed her help.”

That was probably a couple of weeks at least. She should be able to find a job, break the pretend engagement, and find a place to live by that time.

“So,” the older woman said, interrupting Molly’s thoughts. “You and Kyle are engaged?”

Molly nodded. “But no one is supposed to know, so keep it between us.”

“Why is it a secret?”

Good question
. Why would they keep it secret? Why wouldn’t they announce it right away? Molly leaned forward. “We’re still negotiating the pre-nup.”

“Really?” She gave Molly another searching glance. “He’s making you sign a prenuptial agreement?”

Oh, darn it! She walked into that one. She just made herself sound untrustworthy. “No…I’m making him sign one.”

“You are?” The older woman’s eyelashes fluttered with surprise. “Why?”

Molly spread her arms out wide and admitted, “I’m a trust fund baby.”

Kyle stepped out of the elevator onto the executive floor and stopped at the sight of the new receptionist.

The chic woman was very different from Molly. Sleek, urban, businesslike. Which didn’t explain his crashing disappointment.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Ashton.”

He went blank on the woman’s name and gave a nod of recognition as she took another call, her voice elegant and hushed.

He walked into his office and found Sara following him in. “Your meeting with marketing has been rescheduled. Check your computer. Nothing urgent in your e-mails, and here are the summaries about Darrell and Bridget.” She placed a file on his glass desk.

“Who?” he asked as he sat down.

“The owners of plaza+tag that you invited over the last week of November?”

“Right.” To show they had nothing to worry about with his company. What a joke.

“Anything else?”

“Did you find Molly Connors’s job review file?” Okay, he had no idea why he just asked that.

Sara seemed equally surprised. She drew her head back. “Excuse me?”

“It never showed up. I never saw it.”