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“And you will have, as soon as you invite Gage Richmond to go with you.”
Megan shook her head. “I barely know the man.”
“You know him well enough to help him shop for a birthday gift for his niece.”
“We happened to cross paths at the mall and he was desperate.”
“Well, happen to cross paths with him at work and tell him that you’re desperate.”
“Yeah, I can see how that kind of approach would appeal,” she said drily.
Paige laughed as she sorted the lists and notes that littered the table. “I’ll bet it’s one he hasn’t heard before.”
“And not one he’s going to hear from me,” Megan said.
“Why not? What are you afraid of?”
“I’m not afraid,” she denied. “But you know I don’t have the best track record with men.”
“You’ve made a few errors in judgment,” Paige acknowledged with a shrug. “So have I. So has your sister.”
Megan guessed her cousin’s thoughts were on a similar path to her own—wondering if Trevor Byden was Ashley’s prince charming or another error in judgment. She pushed the thought aside and picked up her wineglass.
“Asking Gage Richmond out on a date wouldn’t be an error in judgment,” she finally said. “It would be an invitation to humiliation.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because the man is a major leaguer when it comes to dating and I’m still at the T-ball stage.”
Paige smiled at the analogy. “Well, that major leaguer seemed majorly interested in playing ball with you.”
“Because he delivered a dress that I was careless enough to leave in a toy store?” she asked skeptically.
“Because he couldn’t take his eyes off of you the whole time he was here.”
Megan shook her head. She wished it was true but experience had proven that men like Gage Richmond were oblivious to her.
“And no one else will be able to take their eyes off of you when you walk into your sister’s engagement party with him.”
Except that Megan would walk into the party alone, and her mother would pretend to hide her disappointment.
As a child, her relatives had often referred to her as “poor little Megan” because she was too shy to make friends, preferring to hide in a corner rather than make conversation with people she didn’t know. She might not be “little” anymore, but nothing else had changed.
“I can picture it clearly,” Paige continued. “The surprise and envy on everyone’s faces—most notably our cousin Camilla’s—when you show up with that sexy man at your side.”
Showing up with Gage would definitely create some ripples in the family pond, especially by the ruffled feathers of those who had grown so smug about Megan’s solo appearance at social events.
“Forget it,” she said. “I’ll think about inviting a date to the party, but it won’t be Gage Richmond.”
Paige’s lips curved as she tipped the last of the wine into her cousin’s glass. “I dare you.”
Megan narrowed her eyes. “I’m not ten years old anymore. You can’t get me to do something I don’t want to simply by uttering those three words.”
“How about bribery?”
She sipped her wine.
“Of course, not having to listen to your mother’s commentary about the importance of putting on some lipstick if you ever want to meet a nice man should be incentive enough,” Paige told her, “but I’ll sweeten the deal.
“If you invite Gage Richmond to be your date for Ashley’s engagement party, we’ll all go to Gia’s Spa before the event. My treat.”
Megan had never cared much about the latest hairstyles or makeup trends, but she did enjoy a good foot treatment, and Gia’s were absolutely the best. “Do I get the pedicure even if he says no?”
“I’ll only know for sure that you asked if he says yes,” her cousin pointed out.
She frowned at that. “He won’t say yes.”
“Ask him.” Paige tossed back the last of her wine then grinned wickedly. “And maybe the next time he gives you back your clothes, it will be after he picks them up off the floor beside his bed.”
Chapter Three
Bugs, Gage mused, as he made his way toward the employee café to grab a cup of coffee on the Monday morning after Lucy’s birthday party. Who would have guessed that a seven-year-old girl would get so excited about bugs?
He certainly wouldn’t, which was why he’d been so far off base with the other gifts he’d given to Lucy over the years. He’d assumed—obviously incorrectly—that just because she was a girl, she’d like baby dolls and ballet slippers. And he would have struck out again if he hadn’t dragged Megan Roarke into the toy store with him.
Thinking of Megan now, he realized he might have made some incorrect assumptions where she was concerned, too. There was a lot more to her than he’d originally suspected.
He spotted her at the counter as soon as he entered the café, as if she’d been conjured by his thoughts. She was alone, as she frequently was, and apparently preoccupied by her own thoughts as she added milk and sugar to her coffee.
He smiled, genuinely pleased to see her and eager to tell her about the success of his shopping expedition. But he hesitated, his recent conversation with his father still lingering in the back of his mind.
In his younger days, he had sometimes been less than discreet while dating an employee of R.P.—and he’d dated quite a few women from the company. Of course, none of those relationships had been serious or long-term, and it hadn’t been long before coworkers started placing bets on the duration of a new romance. Gage hadn’t learned about this pool until it had been going on for a while, and when he did, he vowed to stop dating women from work.
That was a few years ago now, but he still worried that seeking out Megan in a public venue might start the rumor mill churning again. On the other hand, he was confident that people would know his relationship with the researcher was strictly professional. After all, she wasn’t at all like the type of woman he usually dated.
You’ve been wasting your time with women who are completely wrong for you.
Maybe that was true, but he had no intention of looking for a different type of woman in the hope of meeting someone who was right for him, especially when he still didn’t believe he would—and didn’t want to—find one who was.
Anyway, there was no point in tempting fate—or gossip. Although he’d like to tell Megan about the birthday party, it was probably better if he simply took his coffee back to the office, as if he’d never seen her there.
Except that she looked up then, their eyes met across the room … and she looked away.
As if she didn’t even know him.
Or maybe as if she didn’t expect him to acknowledge that he knew her.
The thought niggled at his conscience, and he found himself carrying his cup toward the table at which she’d sat down.
“Do you mind if I join you?” he asked, indicating the empty chair across from her.
“Um, sure. I mean, no, I don’t mind.” She dropped her gaze and lifted her cup to her mouth.
Gage sat down. “I’m Lucy’s favorite uncle this week.”
She looked up at that. “Your birthday gift was a hit?”
“My niece was over the moon with everything and anxious to put all of her new tools and toys to use.”
“All of?” she prompted.
He shrugged. “I had trouble narrowing down my selections, so I just bought everything you picked out.”
She smiled. “No wonder she was happy.”
“Her enthusiasm was dampened only slightly by her mother’s request that she wait for the backyard to dry out a little before she tramped through the muck, looking for specimens.”
“I guess you forgot the rubber boots.”
“I guess I did,” he agreed.
She smiled again, and he found his gaze shifting to her mouth.
She wore no color or gloss, but her lips—naturally pink and full—were somehow even more tempting without any enhancement.
Tempting? He gave himself a mental shake. Okay, so he’d realized he’d made some inaccurate assumptions about Megan, but he wasn’t—couldn’t possibly be—attracted to her.
Still, he couldn’t help but notice her great bone structure and creamy, flawless skin. Or that her hair wasn’t just blond but shot through with strands of flaxen and gold that glinted in the light. True, she had more angles than curves and he generally liked his women on the softer side, but she still had the most intriguing violet eyes he’d ever seen.
“Anyway,” he said, forcing his attention back to the topic at hand. “I owe you. And if there’s ever anything I can do for you—any way I could possibly repay you—you only have to ask.”
“It wasn’t a big deal. Really.”
“It was a really big deal,” he argued.
“I was glad to help.” She glanced at her watch. “But now I need to be getting back to work.”
“You’re entitled to a half-hour break and you haven’t been here half of that.”
“I want to finish a report I’m writing.”
“Is that the final report on Fedentropin?” he asked, referring to the drug she had helped develop for women suffering from endometriosis.
“How did you know?”
“I was talking to Dean Garrison this morning about possible timelines for the upcoming trial.”
Megan sat back down. “Is it going to start soon, then?”
“Within the next couple of months.”
“That’s great.”
“Garrison said you’ve been putting a lot of extra hours into the project.”
“It means a lot to me,” she admitted.
“Then you’ll be pleased to know that he wants you and me to coordinate the trial.”
“He told me he was going to make a recommendation,” she confessed, her voice tinged with both hope and excitement. “I didn’t know it was actually going to happen.”
Gage had been less than thrilled by the news himself.
Not that he had any objection to working with Megan. But he’d thought running the trial would have been a good opportunity to prove himself, to demonstrate that he had the requisite skills and experience to fill the V.P. position.
Learning that he would have to share the responsibilities was a disappointment, but maybe sharing it with Megan wouldn’t be so bad. And it would give him the perfect opportunity to get to know her better.
There were three messages on Megan’s answering machine when she got home Monday night. A quick glance at the call display confirmed that they were all from Paige. She punched the erase button without listening to them. No doubt they all said exactly the same thing as the e-mails she’d sent to Megan’s computer at work and the text messages to her cell phone.
Have you asked him yet?
She wasn’t ready to call her back. She didn’t want to admit to her cousin that she hadn’t—and wouldn’t—invite Gage to Ashley’s engagement party. Because as many reasons as she had for wanting to ask him to be her date, there were a lot more reasons not to ask. Most notably, her conviction that he would say no. Because once the question had been asked, it couldn’t be unasked. There could be no taking back the words or the embarrassment and humiliation she would inevitably feel when he declined the invitation.
And if there’s ever anything I can do for you, any way I could possibly repay you, you only have to ask.
Megan ignored the echo of Gage’s words in the back of her mind as she made her way into the kitchen to scrounge up something for dinner.
She was certain he hadn’t really meant them. It was just the kind of thing someone said to express appreciation. And if she did ask him for a favor in return—especially something so personal as to be her date for her sister’s engagement party—it would put both of them in an awkward position. Gage while he scrambled to come up with a plausible excuse for refusing, and Megan while she tried to pretend his response didn’t really matter.
Ashley came down the stairs, clothes neatly pressed, makeup freshly reapplied. Despite her outwardly casual appearance, Megan could see the tension in her eyes.
“Parent-teacher conferences tonight,” she suddenly remembered.
Her sister nodded. “I love the kids—it’s the parents I sometimes wish I could sit in the corners for a time-out.”
“They’ll love you,” she assured her, kissing Ashley’s cheek. “They always do.”
“Not always. But thanks for the vote of confidence.” She swung her tote bag over her shoulder. “By the way, Paige has been trying to get in touch with you.”
“Yeah, I got a dozen or so messages along that line.”
“She wanted to let you know that she’s booked pedicures for two o’clock on Saturday.”
“She always did fight dirty,” Megan grumbled.
“As only someone who truly knows and loves you can do.”
“I won’t be bribed or blackmailed,” she said decisively. “I’ll call Gia and make my own appointment.”
