The Hang Up (First Impressions) (6 page)

“Good plan.” She grinned again and dropped her hands to the sides, then pulled out her gloves and tugged them back on. “Ready to head back?”

“Yeah.” He scrubbed a hand over his chin, an effort to wipe away the tingling effects of that kiss, but he only succeeded in drowning his senses with the scent of her perfume.

As he turned away, he knew one thing for damn sure: there was no way in hell he could pretend that hadn’t happened.

…

Two days later, Miriam switched off the blow dryer, then wrapped the cord around the handle. She stashed it in the cupboard before nudging the door closed with her knee. A glance at the clock told her it was nearly 8:00 p.m.

She was downstairs in her guest bath instead of in the master bath upstairs because the showerhead down here was better for rinsing out the deep-conditioning treatment she’d just done on her hair.

Okay, that was only partly true.

Honestly, she’d liked the idea of standing there on the same cool tiles where Jason had stood ten days ago, feeling the water sluice over her naked body as she thought about him with rivulets of water threading through the fine hairs on his chest, sliding down, down, down…

Was that so wrong?

“Mrow.” Phuzeei nudged his head against her bare calf, answering the question Miriam hadn’t spoken aloud.

Miriam looked down at her pet, then bent and scooped him into her arms. She planted a kiss on his kitty forehead as she walked out of the bathroom. “What do you know, anyway?” she muttered. “You lick your own butt.”

“Mrow,” Phuzeei replied, not arguing, but clearly not helping matters, either. He struggled to get down, never one for affection, so she set him gently on the couch and pulled her robe tighter around her. She glanced outside to where some neighborhood kids were playing Frisbee at the playground down the street, enjoying the extra hours of daylight on a summer evening. It was Monday in June, and fifty-three hours had passed since she’d talked to Jason.

Not that she was counting.

It was better this way. They’d agreed to keep things strictly business between them, and Miriam planned to stick with that. No good could come from locking lips with a client.

That’s not the only reason you shouldn’t get involved with him.

True enough. The last thing she needed was another daredevil outdoor adventurist who took risks and lived dangerously until he stopped living entirely. Hadn’t it been hard enough losing her dad?

Phuzeei jumped onto the arm of the sofa and bumped her elbow with the top of his head, jarring Miriam back to the present.

“It’s better this way,” she told her pet. He looked at her with disdain and nudged her with his head again.

“Right,” Miriam said.

She padded to the laundry room to see if her favorite Lululemon yoga pants were dry yet. She yanked open the door of the dryer, and a pink glove tumbled out onto the floor.

Phuzeei bent down to sniff it, and Miriam picked it up. Jason’s glove. The one he’d loaned her in the cave.

She’d wanted to wash them before returning them to him, and she’d nearly forgotten about it. Of course, she’d see him Wednesday at the First Impressions office when the Urban Trax team came to meet with them again, but what if he didn’t want anyone else to know they’d gone caving? As the new CEO of a prestigious company, it was possible he wanted to keep his personal time private.

Miriam fished into the dryer for the other glove, weighing her options. He’d pointed out where he lived the day they first met. Blue duplex, white shutters. It wouldn’t be hard to run the gloves over, maybe tuck them in his mailbox or leave them on the doorstep with a note—

Liar. You just want to see him again.

True enough. Was that so wrong? At least this way she’d spare them both the awkwardness of having their business colleagues know they’d been hanging out together socially.

His
business colleagues, she amended. Holly already knew all about the cave outing and the kiss, since Miriam had told her every last detail the moment they’d returned.

“I can’t believe he kissed you in a cave,” Holly had said.

“I can’t believe he stopped.”

“Well, what did you want him to do, take you from behind up against the wall of the cave?”

Kinda…

Before she realized she’d made up her mind, Miriam had her clothes on and her makeup done to perfection. Nothing too dramatic—a little mascara, some blush, a hint of lipstick. She wore a pale yellow cotton sundress chosen to look like she’d thrown it on haphazardly after work instead of standing in her closet for twenty minutes trying to choose just the right thing. With a light spritz of perfume, she picked up the gloves and headed toward the door.

“Be back in just a second,” she said to Phuzeei as she scooped up the bottle of red wine she’d chosen from her well-appointed wine rack. “But don’t wait up just in case.”

She walked more quickly than usual, her sandal-clad feet easily covering the two blocks from her house to the blue duplex he’d pointed out earlier. She hesitated on the doorstep, realizing she didn’t actually know which place was his. The doors were identical, but the one on the right had a tiny bronze nameplate on it. Miriam squinted at the letters, trying to make out the word.

Sanders.
Yep, this was definitely his place. She’d just lifted her hand to knock when the door flew open.

A slender blond woman with her hair in a ponytail stared back at Miriam. She pushed wispy bangs off her forehead, revealing an enviable pair of blue eyes that looked stunning without a trace of makeup.

Miriam resisted the urge to want to gouge out those eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she stammered, glancing at the nameplate again. “I was looking for Jason Sanders, but I must have the wrong—”

“I’m Ellie,” the blonde said, and offered a friendly smile that made Miriam regret thinking evil thoughts about her eyes. “Jason just ducked out for a sec, but can I help you with something?”

“Ellie,” she repeated, trying to make sense of things. Had he mentioned a roommate?

The woman smiled and leaned against the doorframe, giving Miriam a glimpse of the framed photo on the wall behind her. It was an image of Jason and Ellie perched side by side on matching mountain bikes on the edge of a canyon. Before Miriam could peer closer to see if they were holding hands or striking a friends-only pose, Ellie shifted again.

“He’ll be right back,” Ellie said. “He just ran to the grocery store to grab me some tampons and baby aspirin, but he shouldn’t be more than five more minutes.”

Tampons? Baby aspirin?
A faint buzz started in Miriam’s ears, filling her whole brain with a chorus of self-doubt and dread.

But that crescendo was nothing compared with the sound she heard next.

“Mommy! Who’s there?”

Miriam felt her gut hit the floor. She looked down to see a little blond boy with pale blue eyes magnified by plastic-rimmed glasses and a dimple that matched Jason’s.

Holy shit.

Miriam took a step back, feeling like an idiot. For crying out loud, the guy had a wife and a kid. She’d locked lips with a married man.

Before Ellie or Miriam could respond to the kid’s question, the tyke grinned up at her and shoved his glasses up the bridge of his freckled nose. “I have a penis but mommy has a fa-chyna,” he announced.

Miriam took another step back, nearly falling off the front step in the process. “Um—yes. Yes. I’m sure she does.”

She tried not to look at Ellie, not wanting to consider the fact that Jason was clearly quite familiar with the other woman’s fa-chyna, if his son was any indication.

How could you be so stupid?

“I should go—” Miriam said, but Ellie cut her off.

“Oh, awesome—you brought my gloves back.” She pointed at Miriam’s hand, and Miriam looked down at them, trying to think of an excuse for having Jason’s wife’s gloves.

“Right,” she said, and handed them over. “I was just—washing them.”

Ellie looked at her oddly but didn’t question the likelihood that Jason might have hired someone to wash a pair of stretchy pink Dollar Store gloves. Miriam tried to think of something else to say, but her tongue felt glued to the roof of her mouth.

Seemingly unperturbed, Ellie set the gloves on an end table and gestured toward her living room. “You’re welcome to come on in and wait for Jase,” she said. “He shouldn’t be more than a few minutes. I’m sorry, how did you say you know him?”

With a start, Miriam realized she hadn’t said a word about why she’d come, but work seemed like a good enough cover. It was true, pretty much. Hadn’t they agreed to keep things strictly business?

Never mind that kiss.

“Right,” she said, finding her voice at last. “I’m—um—Miriam. I work with Jason.”

Work. Is that what he’d been doing with his hand up Miriam’s shirt while his wife and kid waited at home for him?

“Ahhh,” Ellie said, looking Miriam up and down with an expression Miriam couldn’t quite read. Was the other woman suspicious? Maybe Jason had a history of extramarital dalliances.

Miriam cleared her throat. “I was just dropping those off, but I’d better run.”

“Is the wine for him, too?”

Miriam looked down at the bottle tucked beneath her own arm. Under the circumstances, it seemed like a much too intimate gift. “Oh—uh—this isn’t for Jason. I was just out for a walk and thought I’d—”

“Get thirsty?”

“Right.” Miriam shifted the bottle under her arm and tried not to look too guilty. “So it was nice meeting you—”

“Ellie.”

“Ellie, right. Have a good night. Tell Jason I said hello. Or not. Or—actually, I guess I’ll see him at work.”

With her cheeks flaming and her gut boiling with a toxic blend of hurt and anger, Miriam turned and stalked down the steps.

Chapter Five

Jason watched from across the boardroom table as Miriam stacked a pile of papers that clearly did not need stacking. She was smiling, but the furrow between her brows looked like someone had chopped it into her forehead with a hatchet.

“Well, I believe we’ve made some excellent progress here today,” she announced with what seemed like forced cheer, making eye contact with everyone around the table.

Well, everyone but him.

Hell, she’d barely spoken to him the whole meeting, except for the occasional business-only conversation about ad campaigns and design concepts. She’d been professional enough, but definitely nothing more.

That’s what you agreed to, dumbass. Remember?

Beside him, the accounting director shifted in his seat. “So you think these dollar figures are a solid estimate of the cost of moving forward?” Rex flipped a page on one of the handouts Miriam had presented at the start of the meeting.

“I do,” she said, resting a manicured hand beside her laptop. “This sort of rebranding effort doesn’t come cheaply, but I’m certain you’ll find—”

“I’m sorry, but our board of directors will never go for it.” Rex frowned and looked at Jason. “I know you’ve been lobbying them to take a shot with a campaign of this magnitude, but given the last round of financials we were presented, I’m not sure the time is right.”

Rex’s words hung in the air between them, and Jason filled in the blanks on his own. He knew what the tight-ass accounting director was referring to. They’d both been in the meeting Monday morning, and Jason had fought like hell to convince the board that moving forward with the plan to lay off two hundred employees wasn’t the best course of action. Not yet, anyway.

Across the table, Miriam opened her mouth to respond, but Jason beat her to it. “Actually, Rex, what I took from Monday’s meeting with the board is that they’re open to hearing creative solutions to the current financial challenges.” He glanced at Miriam, who met his gaze with an unreadable expression. He turned back to Rex and tapped the mock-up of a logo concept he’d found particularly clever. “I think what Ms. Ashley and Ms. Colvin have just shown us here is creativity at its finest.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw Miriam shift in her seat. He looked back to see her cheeks looked faintly flushed and she was watching him with a guarded expression.

“Thank you,” she said tightly. “And as we’ve shown you from the case studies we presented from other First Impressions clients, we have a proven track record of helping clients make great financial strides with a few changes in the overall marketing approach.”

Rex sighed. “Be that as it may, the Urban Trax board of directors is concerned about the bottom line.”

“I’m concerned about the bottom line as well,” Jason agreed. “But I’m also concerned with the bottom line for our employees. With our commitment to them and their families.”

“Likewise.” Miriam stared at Jason from across the table. “Few things in the world are more important than commitment and loyalty to family.”

Jason nodded, surprised by the passion in her voice, but glad they were on the same page. “I couldn’t agree more.”

Rex frowned but said nothing. Jason watched as Miriam and Holly exchanged a look he couldn’t quite read. The two women seemed to have a shared language all their own, which probably explained why they ran such a successful business together.

“Well,” Holly said, taking charge of the meeting again. “It sounds like the Urban Trax executive team has a lot to discuss. We’re already over our allotted time, so we won’t keep you any longer.”

Miriam nodded and closed her laptop. “If you have any questions about what we’ve presented here today, please don’t hesitate to reach out.”

Again, Jason couldn’t help but notice she was avoiding his eyes. Was it normal post-grope awkwardness? Was she playing it cool? They’d agreed to pretend the kiss never happened, but what was going on here seemed like something more.

Ellie had told him Miriam stopped by to drop off the gloves, and he’d been bummed to miss her. “She’s pretty,” his kid sister had said, grinning like she had in grade school when she found out he had a crush on a girl. “I tried to get her to come in and hang out until you got back, but she didn’t want to wait around for your sorry ass.”

So that’s the way it had to be between them. It made sense, but Jason couldn’t pretend to like it. He’d been trying like hell to forget that kiss for the last four days. Maybe Miriam had had better luck with that than he had.

Around the table, the other executives were beginning to stand up and stuff papers into briefcases. Rex seemed intent on ignoring Jason, but the marketing director, Pete Marshall, gave him a nod. “Do you need a ride back to the office?”

“Nah, I biked here,” Jason said. “You go on ahead. I want to stay a minute longer to go over some of the ad concepts with Holly and Miriam.”

“Actually, Holly has another meeting scheduled in here,” Miriam said with a glance at her business partner. Holly gave what looked like a sympathetic head tilt before Miriam turned back to Jason.

Her eyes were bright and a little wary, but at least she was looking at him now. “We can talk in my office,” she offered.

“I’d like that.”

Miriam nodded, not echoing the sentiment, but not arguing, either. They both stood up and gathered their things, Miriam moving with crisp efficiency. She headed for the door, and Jason followed, admiring the sway of her hips and the gloss of those dark curls. He remembered the feel of those curls tangled around his fingers, and he ordered himself to stop ogling her.

She rounded a corner into an office, so Jason followed and sat when she gestured him to a straight-backed chair in front of her desk. She pushed her door shut behind him, then turned and plugged in an electric teakettle. He watched in silence as she went about making a pot of tea, arranging a handful of fancy-looking cookies onto a plate, filling a delicate little creamer from a milk carton in the mini-fridge, then carrying the whole thing on a tray to her desk.

She set the small feast on the surface between them, centering the little tray of cookies in the middle of her desk before setting a thin china plate in front of him. She poured each of them some tea in a flowery cup that looked like it was made for a dollhouse.

Finally, she took a seat on the other side of her desk. She looked at him for a few beats and Jason felt the same prickly-skin sensation he used to have when he got summoned to the principal’s office in middle school.

“So,” she said, breaking the silence at last. “Commitment to family is important to you.”

“That’s right,” he said slowly, not sure whether he was supposed to pick up a cookie or just admire them. “I appreciate you underscoring that just now in the meeting.”

“Of course.” Her voice was oddly brittle, and her green eyes flashed with something he couldn’t quite read. “There’s nothing in the world more important to me than loyalty.”

“Good,” Jason said, not sure why they were rehashing this point. “I may be new to Urban Trax, but as CEO, it’s my duty to protect our employees. To look out for their well-being and security.”

“I see.” Miriam steepled her hands together on the desk in front of her as she stared at him with ice in her eyes. “So at what point were you planning to tell me you have a wife and kid?”

“Oh.” A lightbulb flashed in the back of his brain, and he leaned back in his chair, glad to have this out in the open at last. “Well, I guess
never
. Since I don’t actually have a wife and kid.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What?”

He laughed, so relieved to realize what all the hostility was about that he didn’t care that her frown deepened at the bark of his laughter. “Ellie,” he said, shaking his head a little as the puzzle pieces clicked together. “You’re talking about Ellie?”

“That’s right,” she said slowly, sounding less sure of herself now. “And your son, Henry?”

“If Henry were my son, this would be a conversation for Jerry Springer.” He laughed again, then scooped his teacup into his palm and took a fortifying slurp. “Henry’s my nephew. Ellie is my sister.”

“Your sister,” she repeated, looking as stunned as he’d felt just a few seconds ago. “And your nephew.” Miriam closed her eyes and covered her face with her hands. “God, now I feel like an idiot.”

“Don’t,” he said, setting the teacup down. He was still grinning as he shoved a cookie into his mouth and chewed, dropping crumbs down the front of his shirt. Miriam uncovered her face and he offered her a sympathetic smile. “To be fair,” he said. “I never mentioned them to you.”

“Why on earth not?” she asked, her gaze flickering to the cookie crumbs on his shirt before returning to his face. “We were in the car together for a long time on Saturday. You might have mentioned that you live with your sister and her kid.”

“Technically, they live next door. I own both sides of the duplex, and you just happened to knock on their door instead of mine.”

“Okay,” she said with exaggerated patience. “Still, it seems like something you might have mentioned. We talked about a lot of other things on Saturday.”

He shrugged and brushed cookie crumbs off the front of his shirt before licking the buttery residue off his finger. “I guess I’m a little protective of them. Of their privacy. Henry was diagnosed with leukemia eighteen months ago—”

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry!”

“Thank you. Anyway, it’s been a long battle, but he’s in the early stages of remission now. Partial remission, they call it. He’s not out of the dark, but it’s looking promising.” He reached for another cookie. “The whole process has been really hard for Ellie and for Henry. Ellie’s a single mom, and she had a bad experience with a sitter watching him one night she had to work.”

“What happened?”

“They were roughhousing a little and they dislodged his PICC line—the dedicated catheter they use for delivering chemo drugs? Everything turned out fine, but it was scary for everyone.”

“I can imagine.”

“Anyway, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back as far as I was concerned. After that, I kinda stopped trusting anyone else to watch Henry, so I took this job and we moved out here and now Ellie gets to stay with him all the time.”

“Wow,” she said, her green eyes brimming with compassion. “You sound like a very dedicated brother. And uncle.”

“I am,” he said, though he knew Ellie would probably say “overprotective” instead of “dedicated.” Not that she didn’t tell him every day how grateful she was, but he also knew she felt smothered sometimes.

Jason cleared his throat, not wanting to dwell on that. “Anyway, I guess I’m a bit guarded about sharing too much of their story. I tend to shield them a little, to give them some privacy after all they’ve been through. That’s why I didn’t bring it up earlier.”

“No, of course. I understand totally.” She grimaced, shaking her head. “I mean I can’t relate, of course—what a horrible thing to go through. But I can understand why you might be protective.”

Jason nodded and took another swig of tea, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Thanks. Anyway, sorry for the misunderstanding.”

“No,
I’m
sorry—I should have asked questions instead of just assuming you were some sort of cheating jerk.”

He grinned. “I might be a jerk, but never a cheating one.”

“That’s good to know.” Miriam picked up her own teacup, her fingers delicate and graceful on the little handle. She took a small sip, then returned the cup to its saucer before speaking again. “I lost my dad a year ago. It wasn’t cancer, and obviously he wasn’t a child, but I think I can relate a little bit to the kind of worry you feel when someone you love has a major medical crisis. To the constant sense of fear and anxiety you feel in that situation.”

Jason watched her, touched by the realization that she probably didn’t share this story with everyone. That she’d chosen to tell him seemed to say something, though he wasn’t totally sure what. “How did he die?” Jason asked softly. “If you don’t mind me asking, that is.”

“No, it’s okay.” Miriam set her teacup down and folded her hands on her desk again. “Mountain climbing. He’d just summited Middle Sister over in the Cascade Range when he fell into a crevasse and—”

She broke off there, not needing to finish the sentence. As Jason knew all too well, those kinds of falls were almost always deadly, especially in Oregon’s unforgiving Cascades.

“I’m so sorry.”

“They say he died on impact. That he didn’t suffer, at least.”

“Still, I imagine that was terrible for you,” he said softly. “Middle Sister’s a tough one. He must have been a very good climber to have even attempted it.”

“He was.” She pressed her lips together, her eyes glittery with tears. “The best. He’d been climbing his whole life.”

“Was it comforting at all to know he died doing something he loved?”

Miriam shook her head, her jaw clenching tight before she spoke. “No. It really wasn’t. Not at all.” Jason watched as something that looked like rage flashed in those bright green eyes. “Some goddamn adrenaline rush was more important to him than keeping himself alive for his family? That’s not comforting at all.”

She reached for a tissue from the box on the corner of her desk and dabbed at her eyes. Jason said nothing, waiting for her to compose herself. Part of him wanted to reach out and touch her hand, but he sensed the gesture wouldn’t be welcomed. Not now, anyway.

At last, Miriam tossed the tissue aside and looked at him again. “Anyway, I’m sorry for the misunderstanding. About the wife and kid, I mean. Sorry for being a bitch.”

“All things considered, it’s flattering.” He broke a cookie in half, scattering crumbs across her desk, but he scooped them into his palm and shoveled them in his mouth. “Actually, part of me likes the idea that maybe you were a tiny bit jealous.”

“Hmm,” she said, taking another sip of tea. She set down her cup and gave him a small smile. “Mostly I thought you were a jerk, but I suppose there was a little jealousy mixed in.”

“I see.” Jason grabbed another cookie and took a bite, sending a fresh waterfall of crumbs spilling down the front of his shirt. Miriam picked up her teacup again, watching him over the rim as he dusted crumbs off his shirt. “These cookies are kind of crumbly.”