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She gave a little laugh that he liked the sound of. “McGee is a bulldog, and I don’t think he’d take kindly to being called a Tinkerbell.”
“Nice name,” he said grudgingly, surprised that she would own such a substantial canine. He’d always wanted a dog himself, but his hectic travel schedule had always prevented him from owning one…at least that was his excuse, he acknowledged wryly.
He loaded her backpack into the rear of his vehicle, next to his own pack, which was half the size and weight. He’d been camping and hiking enough to know that most people packed too much gear. “So your friend, Tori…she’s a little gloomy.”
“She doesn’t like you, either,” Gabrielle said, climbing into the passenger seat and closing the door with a bang.
He frowned, then swung up into his own seat. “I didn’t say I didn’t like her.”
“It’s okay,” Gabrielle said matter-of-factly. “We’re used to it.”
“Used to what?”
“Used to being ignored by the senior account execs.”
He sputtered. “We don’t ignore the junior account managers.”
“Really? What’s the name of the guy who sits in the cube next to mine?”
“The new guy?”
“He’s worked there for five years.”
“Oh…right.” Dell tried to conjure up the man’s face in his mind. “Mike something?”
“Close—Oscar. Oscar White. Nice guys with two kids, puts in about seventy hours a week at the office.”
“Oh. Well, I guess our paths haven’t crossed that much.”
Her mouth flattened, and she remained infuriatingly quiet.
He started the engine and tried another tack as he pulled away from the curb. “So do you live around here?”
“No, I was coming from my friend’s place. I live in Midtown.”
“Really? So do I.”
“I know. I’ve seen you at my grocery Sunday mornings.”
“Why haven’t you ever said hello?”
“You were always with a woman. Sometimes Courtney, sometimes…not.”
He squirmed and inexplicably, he thought of Gabby waking up in his bed on Sunday morning and them running to the store for a newspaper and a carton of juice. The image very nearly made him miss the ramp to the interstate that would take them north toward the Georgia Mountains.
“I’ve seen you at the Fox Theater, too,” she said.
“Oh? Do you moonlight at the Fox?”
“I’m a volunteer usher.”
“Really? I thought only old people did that.” He winced as soon as the words left his mouth.
“Old people and me,” she said cheerfully.
How did she do that—keep him off balance, make him feel as if he were a snob? “I guess that’s a great way to see all the shows.”
She nodded and turned to look out the window. He hadn’t given much thought to her salary, but he vaguely remembered being on a tight budget back when he’d been a junior account manager. There had been no money for theater tickets.
“How old are you, Gabby?”
After a few minutes of silence, she said, “I really wish you wouldn’t call me that.”
He gave a little laugh. “I think it’s cute.”
“I don’t want to be cute,” she said stiffly. “I want to be taken seriously. You think I don’t know what everyone is saying?”
“What is everyone saying?”
“That this competition is a joke, that there’s no way I can beat a superjock like you on a wilderness survival course.”
He weighed his words, especially since he might have inadvertently fueled a few of those sentiments going round the office. “Apparently Bruce feels differently.” His conscience plucked at him, though, for giving her false hope that she could actually beat him. After all, the woman had nearly been done in with her backpack.
She fell silent again, watching the passing scenery on Georgia 400 until they were north of the city. Dell couldn’t remember a time when he’d actually wanted a woman to talk.
“Where are you from?” he asked finally.
“I grew up in a small town outside Chattanooga.”
A small-town girl—not surprising. “Sounds nice. Are your parents still there?”
She nodded.
When no other information seemed forthcoming, he offered, “I grew up in D.C.”
“I know. I helped to put together the bios for the senior account execs for the annual report. Your parents work for the Pentagon and you have an MBA from Emory.”
What his bio didn’t say was that his parents were bitterly disappointed that he hadn’t gone into law or politics, that marketing had been a compromise of his skills and their expectations. Still, she knew more about him than he knew about her. Normally, that wouldn’t bother him, but for some reason, he felt compelled to know what made this woman tick, why she was so spirited in spite of her social clumsiness.
After knocking over that tree in the conference room and sprawling in the floor, most people would have been too embarrassed to show their face again, much less have the balls to march into Bruce’s office and ask for an A-list account.
“I think it’s about a two-hour drive to Amicalola Falls,” he said.
“More like three, actually.” She pulled a sheaf of papers from one of the pockets in her cargo pants. “I’m a bit directionally impaired, but I read the information that Bruce gave us very carefully.”
Of course she had. “Then maybe you can tell me what we’re in for.”
“The instructions aren’t that specific, just that we should bring a stocked backpack, study the weather forecast and be prepared for anything.”
Weather forecast. He looked toward the sky. Hmm, maybe he should have read those papers after all.
“A guide will meet us at the site and give us more instructions from there.” She ran her finger down one of the sheets. “Says here there’ll be ten of us.”
He frowned. Not enough bodies to keep them from bumping into each other.
She pivoted her head. “Do you know Nick Ocean?”
Oh, brother—he knew that look. He’d seen it in Courtney’s eyes when she talked about the movie star. “I’ve met him a couple of times at trade shows.”
“What’s he like? He seems so macho onscreen.”
Dell shrugged and shifted in his seat. “I guess.”
“Tori wants me to get his autograph.”
“Just be careful around him. I’ve heard that he likes to hit on young women.”
“That’s funny,” she murmured, looking back to the papers. “I’ve heard the same thing about you.”
He frowned and only the ringing of his cell phone in its mounted cradle kept him from defending himself. In deference to the ban on holding a cell phone while driving, he hit the hands-free speaker button on the visor. “This is Dell.”
“Hey, gorgeous, it’s Courtney.”
He glanced sideways at Gabby. She didn’t act as if she were listening, but he wished he’d remembered to bring the headset for his phone. “Hi. This is a surprise.”
“I just called to wish you luck on your wilderness weekend—wink, wink.” She laughed gaily.
He shifted in his seat. “Uh, thanks. We’re on our way up there now.”
“We?”
“Gabby—I mean, Gabrielle is with me.”
“Oh.”
“She doesn’t have a car.”
“I see,” she said, her voice laced with innuendo. “Well, Gabby, should feel right at home in the mountains, with all the trees.” Laughter at her own joke burst over the speaker.
Dell shifted in his seat. “Courtney, you’re on the hands-free speaker.”
“Oh. Sorry, Gabby,” she said, not sounding sorry at all.
“How are things in Manhattan?” he asked, trying to reroute the conversation into safer territory.
“Great,” she said brightly. “My apartment is fabulous, the view from my office is unreal and the men here think my southern accent is exotic.”
“That’s nice,” he said breezily.
“In fact, I need to run. Have fun this weekend you two,” she said, her voice singsongy. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
Thinking sourly that Courtney’s parting remark left way too much leeway, Dell disconnected the call. “Sorry about that,” he said, feeling annoyed with Courtney over her insensitive remarks, and feeling guilty that she had struck a nerve implying that in a cozy setting with a member of the opposite sex, he would behave accordingly.
Gabby didn’t respond, just kept reading, which only disgruntled him more. Why wouldn’t the woman talk to him? She just sat there, exuding some kind of light, fruity scent that made him wonder if she tasted as good as she smelled.
He wondered if she had any idea of how appealing she was, if she’d ever been thoroughly kissed or if she’d ever had those long, fabulous legs of hers wrapped around a man who knew what he was doing.
Then Dell pulled his hand down his face. He had to get a grip on himself. These unforeseen feelings of lust were messing with his head.
He glanced at Gabby’s tempting profile, groaning inwardly.
And they weren’t even there yet.
5
GABRIELLE TRIED to concentrate on the papers she was pretending to read, wishing that she hadn’t been privy to a conversation between Dell and his ex-whatever. And the last thing she needed was for Courtney to taunt her about the two of them being thrown together in an intimate setting. As if she weren’t supremely aware of the man sitting next to her.
His seemingly constant questions had rattled her, but in truth, she preferred him talking—when she was answering him, it took her mind off the fact that he looked so sexy in his khaki shorts and pale blue T-shirt. Her gaze kept straying to his tanned, bare arms and legs, thinking how much more at ease he looked in hiking clothes versus suits.
Maybe he was more at ease, but seeing his muscular limbs sprawled in the seat and the athletic way he controlled his body was causing her a great deal of discomfort. And she couldn’t afford to let her irrational attraction to Dell distract her from the competition—she needed all her faculties if she were going to have a fighting chance. With every mile that ticked off the odometer, the stone of dread in her stomach grew heavier and heavier. She nibbled on her thumbnail—what had she gotten herself into?
Dell seemed to have picked up speed since his phone call with Courtney. He turned off the state highway onto a two-lane road that led to the Amicalola Falls State Park, and with the change in landscape, her nerves ratcheted higher. Hoping to calm herself, she pulled out the “Adrenaline Rush” article that she’d torn out and brought with her for moral support.
Everyone has untapped talents, or talents that you take for granted and can apply to other parts of your life.
She reread the words she’d already practically memorized, desperate to drum last-minute courage into her brain, but her brain seemed a little…woozy. Maybe it was her imagination, but the roads seemed to be getting more steep…and more curvy…
Suddenly her stomach roiled and she grabbed the handle on the door frame above her.
“What’s wrong?” Dell asked.
“I…think…I’m…carsick,” she murmured. “You might…want to…slow down.”
“You might want to stop reading,” he said irritably. “We’re running late, remember?”
“I…don’t…ride…in cars…very…often,” she said, grabbing her stomach.
“Oh, good grief,” he muttered.
The vehicle slowed, and he zoomed her window down, bathing her with hot, but fresh, air. She hung her head out the window and breathed deeply, knowing that she probably looked pathetic to Dell, but acknowledged it was better than throwing up in front of him. Several minutes later, her stomach was feeling a touch better…but her throat was feeling scratchy and her nose had started to run.
Ragweed.
Getting back to nature had brought her dormant allergies roaring to life. This did not bode well for the weekend. “Do you have a tissue?” she asked, wiping at her watery eyes.
He tapped the brake. “Are you going to be sick?”
“No, at least not yet. My allergies are acting up.”
