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Heat slapped at her cheeks. Her knees felt loose. He was unbelievable. She was unbelievable. While part of her loathed his over-the-top he-man tactics, another part couldn’t help admiring the hard, sculpted plane of his bare chest.
Shame sidled in, jacking her chin high. “That wasn’t what I had in mind.”
“Once upon a time it was all you had in mind.” He balled up his shirt and tossed it aside. “Let me guess why you’re here. One of my former accounts is launching a campaign and he’s asked for me as lead. Tackett smelled big money and picked you to play fetch, said if you didn’t bring me back to Alexandria you could kiss your Christmas bonus goodbye. Am I right?”
“This isn’t about a bonus,” she said carefully. His scorn made it easy to keep her gaze from straying south of his. “This is about my job.”
He shot her a look that was pure disdain. “When Tackett decided to filch my biggest clients, you backed him instead of me. At a time when work was all I had left. And you expect me to hook up with the agency again? Screw that.”
Hook up. Screw. She’d smirk, if only her lips would cooperate. “You know darned well we were trying to—”
“Give it up, slick.”
“At least now I know for sure why you did it.”
“Did what?”
“Are you kidding me?” Her keys gave a furious rattle as she clasped her hands behind her back to keep from yanking at her own hair. “You’re actually going to pretend you don’t know?”
“Know what, exactly?”
“What you did.”
“Why don’t you remind me?” He crossed his arms over his bare chest. Another time, another place, and she’d have started to drool.
“You cost me my promotion,” she said, letting the resentment ring loud in her voice. “And you almost got me fired.”
* * *
JOE SCOWLED. What the hell was she talking about? “Want to run that by me again?”
“Tackett found out about you and me. Want to know how?”
Judas Priest. Joe exhaled. He already knew how.
“Danielle Franks told him,” she said, her tone not quite casual enough to hide the bitterness. “And you know how he feels about fraternization. So Danielle got the promotion he’d promised me.”
“And you’re here because you think I told Danielle.”
“I’m here because Tackett sent me to bring you back to handle a client who won’t work with anyone but you. The company needs you for two months, tops. The fact that you lost me my promotion is the reason I offered to scrub every toilet in the building in exchange for Tackett picking someone else to ‘play fetch.’ Obviously he didn’t accept my offer.”
Okay, that hurt. Which pissed him off even more. That son of a bitch Tackett was too damned clever for his own good. No doubt the old man figured Joe would jump at the chance to “reacquaint” himself with Allison Kincaid. Instead he wished she’d kept her pretty little materialistic ass back in the city.
“I’m sorry for what happened,” he ground out. “But not sorry enough to go back.”
“What a surprise. Some things never change, do they?” She shook her head, eyes dark with disgust. “No one mattered but you. Your clients, your projects, your schedule. Everything else came in second. Then something doesn’t go your way and bam! You’re gone, and the rest of us are left scrambling to meet your commitments.”
“Didn’t go my way? My brother died.”
“And that’s why you’re hiding out in this hellhole? Because you’re feeling sorry for yourself?”
Joe set his jaw. Was it wrong to be so damned angry he wanted to put a fist through a wall—preferably one he hadn’t already painted—and at the same time be so incredibly turned on by the hints of nipple he could see through her blouse? He stomped over to where he’d lobbed his shirt, snatched it up and stomped back.
“If you think I told anyone about us, you don’t know me.”
“Exactly the point I tried to make a year ago.”
Another direct hit. She’d learned a lot from her boss. Still, she had it right. He owed her. Hell.
“Fine. I’ll give Tackett a call.”
“And tell him what? That I can handle the client myself? You think I didn’t try that? Mahoney made it clear. He doesn’t get you, he gets another agency.”
Mahoney, huh? Joe grunted. He knew as well as she did that client should be hers.
“Maybe it’s a sign,” he said. “That it’s time for you to move on.”
“It’s a sign that it’s time for you to step up and fix the mess you made. Mr. DIY.”
“You always did put T&P first.”
“They never let me down.”
“Until Tackett decided to make an example out of you.”
“I repeat. They never let me down.”
“You really want to start comparing scars?” he asked softly.
She clenched her teeth. “I want to keep my job.”
“The agency means that much to you.”
“The paycheck means that much to me.”
“So it’s the money.” He should have known. “What, is the gold plating wearing off your toothbrush?”
“You self-centered, egotistical son of a—”
“Children, children, please.” They swung toward the door. Longtime Castle Creek resident Audrey Tweedy marched toward them, clapping her hands as if urging a classroom of first-graders to settle down after recess. The seventy-something woman had a voice like a pixie and a body like a lumberjack, and Joe couldn’t remember ever seeing her without that purple barrette holding her gray hair out of her face.
For one wild, despairing moment, he considered making his escape through the window. But he’d just replaced the screen. And Audrey was faster than she looked.
She wagged a thick finger. “I could hear you kids all the way out in the parking lot. That’s not good for business, Joseph Gallahan.”
“I’m not open for business.”
“That’s not the point.” She gave him a disapproving look—he was getting a lot of those lately—then leaned toward Allison, her expression complicit. “I could tell the trouble right off. You two are having a meat crisis.”
Allison went still. “A what?”
Joe ran a hand over his face as Audrey rummaged through a bright green purse—the one with the oversize “P” on the side. She pulled out a can of Vienna sausages. “You’re grumpy. That’s what happens when you don’t get enough protein. Have a weenie.”
Joe held up his hands, palms out. “I’ll pass.” His gaze cut to Allison, who was staring at the old woman in fascinated dismay.
Audrey gave him a tsk-tsk and shrugged. She jammed the can back into her purse and turned to Allison, thrust out a hand. “I’m Audrey Tweedy, dear. Welcome to Castle Creek. Care for a weenie? No?” She patted her monster of a purse. “I could fit a whole ham in here if I wanted to. I could show you where I got it, if you’d like. The purse, not the ham. ’Course, the initial on the side costs extra.”
“What does the ‘P’ stand for?”
Audrey shot Joe a “where’d you find this one?” look. “Protein.” She turned back to Joe. “Which you, Mr. Vegetarian, obviously don’t get enough of.”
“I had scrambled eggs for breakfast. With cheese. And, Aud? I’m a little busy right now.”
She sniffed. “The way you eat, Joseph, you’d think you didn’t have any teeth. You need something that’ll work that jaw—something besides insulting your visitors. And you’re not getting rid of me that easily. Have some jerky.”
He stared down at the bright yellow stick of processed who-the-hell-knew-what. “You never give up.”
She turned to Allison. “You eat meat, don’t you, dear?” Joe tried not to choke while Allison managed a nod. With a smile worthy of a denture commercial, Audrey swung back to face him. “Sounds like you two have some problems to work out. Why don’t you invite your friend here to stay awhile?”
Oh, hell, no.
Joe gave her his best “mess with me and I’ll break out my pneumatic drill” look. Audrey countered with her “humor me or I’ll hide a dead perch in your pickup” glare.
“Sounds like Allison doesn’t have much of a job to go back to,” Audrey continued smugly. “And, Joseph, you and I both know you could use a hand around here. She has two.”
Allison thrust out her hands, fingers spread. “Uh, and they both just had a manicure.”
“Go ahead, Joseph. Invite her to stay.”
He heard Audrey’s words but they didn’t register. He’d finally given in to the urge to look at Allison, really look at her, for the first time in a year. She watched him back, head tipped to the side, hazel eyes narrowed, chin indignant. She’d changed her hair. Instead of the short, sleek, behind-the-ears style he remembered, she’d let it grow so a smooth, butter-colored curtain skimmed her shoulders. Not as smooth as when she’d first walked in, though. One side looked kind of poufy, as if someone had given her a noogie.
Or she’d just rolled out of bed.
He drew in a breath and focused on Audrey, who looked mighty pleased with herself as she stood there in her pink pants, spotless white trainers and olive drab Go Army T-shirt. A gift from his buddy Reid Macfarland, no doubt. Joe sighed.
“Don’t you have anything better to do, Aud?”
“Better than helping two conflicted souls find grace and understanding? Really, Joseph, how self-centered do you think I am?”
He wasn’t touching that with a ten-foot salami. Meanwhile, Allison was looking a little wild-eyed.
Audrey gave her a sympathetic smile. “Does it bother you, dear? That he’s one of those pesky vegetarians?”
“Pesco,” Joe growled. “I’m a pesco-vegetarian.”
“You did call this place a ‘hellhole,’” Audrey continued, her voice suddenly all schoolmarm. “If you stayed you could help change that.”
Allison shook the noogie right out of her hair. “That’s not an option.”
Joe watched her back away toward the door. He should be feeling smug. Why wasn’t he feeling smug?
“Surely, dear, you could spare a few days to help out an old friend—”
“Audrey Tweedy, you’re supposed to be holding a table for us at the diner. If we don’t head over there now, we won’t get any chocolate mousse.” Hazel Catlett appeared next to Allison, tapping her watch. Her gaze slid to Joe’s naked chest and her eyes sparked as bright as the neon-orange color on her lips.
“Goodness gracious me. I see what held you up.”
Hell. The Castle Creek paparazza had arrived. Joe shook out his shirt and scrambled to find an opening. Hazel, meanwhile, was brandishing her cell phone.
“Why didn’t you text me?” she fussed at Audrey. The moment before Joe shoved an arm inside his T-shirt he heard a chiming sound, and Hazel shot him a wicked wink. “You’ve been holding out on us, Joe Gallahan.” Squinting at her phone’s display, she hummed her approval at the photo she’d just snapped. “We’ve got that fund-raiser for the citizens’ center coming up. What do you say we have a wet T-shirt contest? You know, the man-chest kind? Honey, who are you?” Another chime as she snapped a pic of Allison.
“She’s a friend of Joe’s, visiting from Virginia. Allison Kincaid, meet Hazel Catlett. She and her sister, June, have the most adorable salt-and-pepper schnauzer named Baby Blue.”
Allison blinked. Joe did his best to turn a laugh into a cough and Audrey thumped him on the back. With her purse.
Ouch.
Hazel glanced from Joe to Allison and back again. “You really have been holding out on us.” She sidled closer to Allison, keeping her gaze on Joe. “Tell me the truth, hon. Does the bottom half look as good as the top?”
“Let’s go get that mousse,” Audrey said, and tugged on her friend’s arm.
“I’m coming, I’m coming.” Hazel flapped a hand at Joe then elbowed Allison. “Ironic, isn’t it? A piece of beefcake like that, being a vegetarian?”
“I’m standing right here,” he said.
“And God bless you for it,” Hazel beamed.
Audrey led Hazel out the door while Hazel played with her cell phone, no doubt sending copies of that damned photo to the entire population of Castle Creek. As soon as they cleared the door, Allison rounded on him.
“I’m not staying.”
“And I’m not going back. Glad we understand each other. Goodbye.”
She let loose a strangled sound of exasperation and stalked over to the window. The fan-borne breeze huffed through her hair and his traitorous fingers itched to follow. His gaze skimmed downward. Damn. He shoved his hands in his pockets and forced himself to look away from the luscious lines of her ass. Tried to focus on the probability that the pants hugging that class-A ass had cost more than what he’d shelled out to tile ten bathrooms.
Then again, hadn’t he spent thousands on suits during his stint at T&P?
He scowled. If he’d lost her that promotion, then he damned well owed her. He hadn’t said a word to Danielle. But she’d been hovering over him as he cleaned out his desk and the instant she spotted the photo of Allison she’d figured it out. And apparently had gone running straight to Tackett.
And Allison thought he’d turned tattletale. Because she’d rejected him. Because the company had stripped him of his clients. Not a bad way to get revenge, if he’d been that kind of man.
But things had changed since then. He’d changed. And right now revenge was sounding pretty damned good.
“I’m serious.” She turned from the window, her arms wrapped around her waist so tight it was a wonder she could breathe. “I have to get back. And you have to come with me.”
Obviously, she wanted to be here as much as he wanted to be back in the nation’s capital. Maybe Audrey’s idea wasn’t such a ball-buster, after all. Keeping Allison around for a while would be hell, yeah, but he could string that old bastard Tackett along and at the same time score some free menial labor. He pictured Allison trying to handle a roller while fighting to protect her manicure and smiled inwardly. At the very least, he’d get some comic relief.
And maybe, just maybe, she’d see that life in the country—life with him—wouldn’t have been so bad after all.
