Must Like Kids (11 page)

Even now, his parents’ calls and visits were rare and rarely social. Brooke and Peter contacted him when they needed money. Other interaction was limited. And strained.

Lunch with a loved one.
He couldn’t fathom his parents interrupting their overbooked social lives to accommodate such an occasion. Julia was interrupting her jam-packed workday.

He’d meant it when he told her she was lucky to have supportive parents. Her kids were lucky, too. Even as a single mother, she was there for them, contorting herself into the shape of a pretzel if need be to ensure they understood their importance. She’d had her parents as an example. Alec didn’t want to think about the example his parents had set for him. They’d failed him. He would be damned before he would fail a child the same way.

He shoved the thought away and got back to work. Between paperwork and phone calls, however, he kept glancing at his watch, eager for eleven to roll around, even if he wasn’t looking forward to being schooled on what to wear, what to say and how to act during his upcoming television interview.

Body language. It was interesting that Julia had brought that up. He’d picked up a few signals from her that she probably wasn’t aware she’d sent. He knew interest when he saw it. And then there was the not so small matter of their kiss. Sitting at his desk, he thought about it now, focusing not on his actions, but rather her response, in particular that little sigh that had escaped just before things ended. Oh, she’d wanted more.

Besides the obvious, what did he want? It was a question he couldn’t answer. One that, frankly, he’d never asked himself where a woman was concerned. It made him uncomfortable now, edgy.

When the appointment time came and went and there was no sign of Julia, edgy became irritable. So much for her punctuality-is-rule-number-one diatribe. The niggling concern developing over what might be the cause of her tardiness only ticked him off more. What if something had happened to her? What if something had happened to her kids? He was dialing her cell number for the fifth time when his secretary buzzed.

“Mrs. Stillwell is here. Shall I show her in?”

Alec was tempted to keep her waiting, if only to reel in his emotions, but given how tight both of their schedules were, he didn’t have the luxury. “Yes, Linda.”

Julia was dressed in cocoa-colored trousers and a fitted cream blazer. The outfit would have been staid if not for the pop of color and animation a ruffled coral silk blouse provided. As pulled-together as her outfit was, she was anything but. Her hair was windblown, she was out of breath and a slight sheen of perspiration dotted her forehead. That concern was back in spades when she all but collapsed into one of the chairs opposite his desk.

“You’re late.” If she had not looked so uncharacteristically flustered, the words would have been an accusation. Instead, some of that concern leaked into his tone.

“I know. I’m so sorry, Alec. Both that I’m late and that I didn’t call to let you know I was running behind schedule.”

“Is every thing all right?”

“Car trouble.” She laughed humorlessly and pushed the hair back from her damp forehead. “And phone trouble.”

“A double whammy.”

One side of her mouth lifted into a wry smile. “You don’t realize how much you rely on both until you have neither. I think I need a new battery in my phone. It’s not holding a charge. I realized it was dead when I tried to call you after my car overheated on the drive over.”

He took in her appearance again. “How far did you have to walk?”

“Walk? No, no, no. I ran.”

“You’re wearing heels.”

“I narrowly missed a broken ankle after one of them got caught in a sewer grate.” A rueful smile accompanied the admission.

He pictured her rushing down busy sidewalks, politely pushing her way past ambling tourists and quick-paced professionals in her fashionable shoes and nearly smiled.

“Where is your car now?”

“Being towed to a garage.” She shook her head. The line between her eyes spoke as eloquently as her words when she said, “It’s my own fault. The temperature gauge has been blinking on and off for a week.”

“You ignored it?” Julia seemed so on top of everything all the time that he found that hard to believe.

Her tone had turned slightly defensive when she replied, “When that happened last winter, I took it in to a mechanic twice. It wound up being a gauge malfunction both times, so I thought...never mind.” She gathered her hair behind her neck before letting it loose again, and huffed out a sigh. “This isn’t your problem, but it will affect our meeting. Even though I’m late, I need to wrap up quickly so I can make it to school.”

Lucky kids, he thought again. She wouldn’t disappoint them.

“How do you propose to get there? Will you run again?” While her heels weren’t as impractical as some of the footwear he’d seen women don, they were a far cry from a pair of sneakers.

“I’m thinking a cab this time,” she replied dryly.

By cab or foot, how Julia got to her lunch-with-a-loved-one date wasn’t Alec’s problem. She was right about that. But he still found himself offering, “I can take you.”

Even more than wanting to help her out, he didn’t want her kids to be left to wonder when or if their mother would show up. No kid should have to wonder that.

“Oh, no. Really. It’s an imposition.” She shook her head and a few wilted locks of hair fell into her eyes. Had Alec been closer to her, he might have been tempted to brush them away.

“I don’t mind. And...” Because his thoughts kept wanting to stray into personal territory, he added, “On the drive over we can discuss those talking points.”

She made a humming sound before nodding. “Okay. That’s a good idea. Thank you.”

“No problem.”

“I mean it,” she stressed.

The hair fell back into her eyes. This time, Alec went with his impulse, and, coming around his desk, reached out to brush it aside.

“You’re a good mother, Julia.”

“I try.”

“And that’s exactly why you are. I’m happy to help.” His hand had lingered at the side of her face. He pulled it back now on a sigh and surprised them both by admitting, “We’d better start talking business or I’m going to want to kiss you again.”

* * *

Julia’s heart beat out in triple time after he said that. She was flustered and flattered and...conflicted. Julia the image consultant didn’t want Alec to kiss her again. Julia the woman very much did. Indeed, that Julia wanted Alec to do a lot more than kiss her. Like Sleeping Beauty, she’d been awakened from a long slumber. Part of her was eager to make up for lost time. The more practical part, however, knew caution was in order.

“How about we start with what you should wear,” she managed to say in a voice that sounded only slightly strained.

“Good idea.” Alec’s expression, however, didn’t match his words. And no wonder. “What the hell,” he muttered and leaned forward.

This kiss was brief, a close cousin of chaste. Even so, it stirred her blood.

“Don’t expect me to apologize,” he warned afterward.

“I...I...”

While she stammered, a smug smile creased his cheeks.

“Back to business,” he said. She was hardly reassured when he winked and added, “For now.”

It took fifteen minutes to hammer down the appropriate clothing for Alec’s television appearance. It helped Julia’s concentration that he’d retreated to his side of the desk once again and that the intimate look he’d sported had turned pensive to the point of brooding.

“I know for other events I’ve said you need to come across as more accessible to your core customer base, but in this instance, I’m thinking your attire needs to reflect your position of authority.”

“In other words, a suit and tie.”

“You look really good in them.” His brows rose and she felt her cheeks heat. “A-and they make sense since you’re representing the company and the board of directors. You’re reaching out to stockholders as well as consumers. Also, the host of the morning show will be wearing professional attire. If we go too casual, it might seem as if you’re not taking either your position or the interview seriously.”

“So, I should wear what I wear every day to the office. Something like this.” He splayed his hands out in front of him, and she was forced to look at him.

He had on a cobalt-blue dress shirt and black, gray and light blue-striped tie, knotted in a half Windsor. Draped over the back of his chair was a black suit coat. The gabardine held the faintest hint of a pinstripe. Alec had impeccable taste and wore clothes well thanks to a well-honed physique. It didn’t hurt that his affluence afforded him the luxury of custom-made garments that were guaranteed to fit his athletic frame. Her mouth threatened to start watering as her thoughts turned to what the body beneath those garments might look like...and feel like under her hands. Work, she reminded herself. They were talking about work.

She cleared her throat. “Almost.”

“Almost?”

“I was thinking a pastel-hued shirt underneath charcoal gabardine.” But that wasn’t all she was thinking, making her ever so grateful that Alec was incapable of reading minds.

“Pastel?” His lips pulled back in a sneer as he all but spat out the word, and he crossed his arms.

Julia was grateful for the fight she sensed coming. Better the two of them butt heads than dance around their mutual attraction.

“You need something softer.”

“I prefer bold colors.”

“Yes, well, I prefer mild winters, but that’s not what I get living in Chicago.”

He wasn’t done arguing. “White then.”

She shook her head. “Too stark and, frankly, unimaginative.”

“Is that another way to say boring?”

“Oh, not at all.” But, given the way his brows lowered, she suspected he didn’t believe her.

“I won’t wear pink, so don’t even ask.”

The color wouldn’t suit him, but the devil made her say, “I suppose lavender is out of the question, too?”

A snort served as his reply. Oh, they were butting heads all right. It was just her bad luck that she found
that
to be a turn-on, too.

“Yellow might make your complexion appear sallow, especially on camera. Sea-foam-green is popular right now. What do you think?”

“I don’t like green, in the shade of sea foam or otherwise.”

“That’s a very broad assertion.”

“Bad association.”

She waited for Alec to expound on that or at least crack a smile. He didn’t. He was dead serious. What did he have against green? Something in his gaze kept her from asking.

“Light blue it is,” she said. “Do you already have a shirt in that color?”

“I do. Six, as a matter of fact.”

Six light blue shirts? This despite claiming he preferred bold hues. She could only imagine how many of
those
he owned. Or, for that matter, how large his closet must be to accommodate such an expansive wardrobe. Unfortunately, thinking about his closet had her thinking about his apartment. In particular, it had her thinking about his bedroom. Not merely what it looked like, but what it would be like to be in there with him, alone, with no outside responsibilities to intrude and satisfying long-forgotten needs her sole concern.

Because her rusty libido was busy undressing him, Julia made herself focus on doing the opposite.

“Now, for your tie. I’m thinking a darker shade of blue, perhaps with a small geometric print. Nothing too loud or busy.”

At his comically appalled expression, she added, “Sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking. Understated is your middle name.”

Alec was definitely conservative when it came to his clothes and the neat cut of his hair. She glanced at his desktop with its leather blotter. Precise. Structured. Orderly. Those were traits she appreciated, even if she didn’t always get to apply them in her own life. Raising kids required organization, but it also demanded flexibility. Could he be flexible?

“It doesn’t matter.” He frowned and no wonder. Julia rose to her feet. “We should be going.”

On the drive over to the school, she planned to talk about the importance of facial expressions and hand gestures, and how both could be misinterpreted, but she got distracted as soon as she was ensconced in the leather bucket seat of his sports coupe. Nothing about the little black number could be labeled conservative. It was sleek, unapologetically sexy. It made her feel the same way. When Alec turned the key in the ignition, the engine let out a throaty growl. The sound was raw power.

“This is some car.” And it was, if impractical. By their very nature, two-seaters were. Still, she was enjoying sitting in it, and couldn’t help thinking that every once in awhile a little impractical indulgence wouldn’t be a bad thing. And not just when it came to modes of transportation. Her gaze slid to Alec.

“Not exactly understated, hmm?” He sent Julia a wink that for all of its casualness still had her pulse picking up speed.

“Not exactly,” she agreed.

“Want to drive?”

She moistened her lips. “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

“Worried about your image?”

“More like I’m worried about the Porsche’s gears. I haven’t driven a manual transmission in over a decade,” she replied.

He nodded slowly. “That’s a long time.”

“You have no idea,” she muttered.

“Another day we’ll remedy that. If you’re game, that is. I’d be happy to give you a refresher course. It will all come back to you.”

“Maybe.” Even that equivocation seemed bold, since, based on the interest reflected in his green eyes, they weren’t just talking about cars, gears and test drives.

* * *

Thanks to an accident that further snarled the already heavy midday traffic, they arrived at St. Augustine School just after the appointed time. Alec wouldn’t have minded the delay—he was enjoying his time with Julia—but her kids were waiting for her. She was unbuckling her seat belt and gathering up her belongings before Alec came to a full stop at the curb in front of the entrance.

He knew better than to think she would wait for him to come around and open the door for her, but he prevented her from jumping out by asking, “Will you need a ride back to your office afterward?”