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“If you think you’re cold, you should be me. In Miami the temperature rarely falls below sixty. I’m lucky that I remembered to bring a winter coat. Even with it I shiver.”
He was trying to make small talk, to be nice, she supposed, to take the sting out of calling her into the office again, and she smiled at him. He returned her smile and her nerve endings shimmered with life and energy, even as her brain filled with silly, romantic notions. Maybe this incredibly handsome man wasn’t a Scrooge after all? Maybe beneath that playboy exterior was a nice guy? Then all these feelings she had of drowning in his dark eyes wouldn’t be wrong. Maybe she’d get to kiss that mouth, be held in his strong arms—
Luckily, he had turned and didn’t see her shaking her head to clear those thoughts. They were ridiculous! Even thinking about getting involved with someone like him was dangerous. He probably practiced being nice to seduce unsuspecting females like her! She needed to keep her feet firmly grounded in her real world. She was strong now, independent, not dreamy as she had been when she’d fallen for Greg. Cullen needed one little thing printed, the forecast, then she and Harry could go home and bake.
She slid onto her desk chair, turned on her computer, hit a few keystrokes and the room went dark.
Chapter Two
“WHAT did you do?”
So much for thinking that deep down inside he was a nice guy. “I didn’t do anything!”
A childish whimper floated to Wendy. Her office didn’t have a window, so when the lights went out, the room became pitch-black.
She bounced from her seat. “Harry, everything’s fine. The ice probably brought down a power line or two.”
“Damn.”
That had been Cullen.
Sliding her fingers across the edge of her desk, she began feeling her way to Harry. Instead, she bumped into Cullen’s thighs. Once again solid muscle greeted her and she jerked her hands away. It seemed fate was determined to find ways for her to touch him.
“Sorry!”
He cleared his throat. “It’s fine. I think Harry’s about two paces to your left.”
She found her way to Harry. Putting her hand on his shoulder for security, she said, “Here’s what we’ll do. It’s still light outside, so we can open the drapes in Mr. McCoy’s office.” She squeezed the little boy’s shoulder. “Is it okay for me to go and do that?”
Harry said, “Yes.”
“Okay. You stay here.” She carefully navigated past her desk, praying Cullen hadn’t moved in the thirty seconds she’d spoken with Harry.
“Don’t you have a flashlight or something?”
Cullen’s voice came from behind her, thank God.
“I’m sure there’s one in maintenance. Would you like to walk through the dark plant and then down the dark-as-night steps to the basement to get it?”
“Very funny.”
In another few seconds she found her boss’s desk and walked to the window behind it. Running her hands along the curtain, she found the pull string and opened the drapes. Pale light filtered in, but it was enough that she could see Harry and Cullen.
“If you guys want to sit in here, I’ll—”
Before she finished her sentence, Harry raced into the office. She stooped and caught him as he threw himself at her. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” he said, but he hugged her fiercely.
Looking away, Cullen scrubbed his hand across his mouth. “Now, what do we do?”
“It depends on how long it takes for the electricity to come back on.” She rose and grabbed Harry’s hand. “Benny Owens works just inside the door to the plant. He has a radio. It runs on batteries. It’s a mandate of our safety manual because in an emergency, we can tune it to the local station and hear what’s going on. There are five of them in strategic locations throughout the building. Benny’s is the closest.”
“Makes sense.”
“I’m the most familiar with the plant layout so I’ll go and get the radio.” She stooped in front of Harry. “Do you want to stay here with Mr. Barrington or come with me?”
He glanced at Cullen, then back at her, pulled in a big breath and said, “I’ll keep an eye on him.”
Wendy laughed, rose and tousled his hair. The kid certainly caught on fast. “This should only take about five minutes.”
Standing in the semi-dark room with the uncomfortable little boy who’d promised to keep an eye on him, Cullen frowned. One minute turned into two. Two turned into three. Harry began to squirm.
“Don’t worry. Your mom will be back soon.”
The little boy peered up at him. “She’s not my mom.”
“Your aunt?”
He shook his head. “She’s nothing.”
Cullen frowned. “Nothing?”
Harry pushed his glasses up his nose. “I’m a frosting child.”
“A frosting child?”
“You know. Somebody else has to take care of me until portal services decides what to do with me.”
“Portal services?”
Exasperated, Harry said, “The place that puts kids in a home.”
“Oh! Social services. You’re a foster kid.”
He nodded. “Yeah. My mom died.”
Cullen’s heart stopped. Sadness filled him. Hoping he’d heard wrong, he said, “Your mom died?”
He nodded again.
Cullen bent down to talk to Harry on his own level. “Mine did, too.”
“Really?”
“A few months ago. January.” He shook his head in wonder. Time had certainly flown. “It’s been almost a year, but I still miss her.”
“I miss my mom, too.” He caught Cullen’s gaze. “She was sick though. Everybody says she’s happy now.”
Cullen nearly cursed. At the wake when people had told him his mother was in a better place, he’d believed it. But it was cruel to tell this little boy his mom preferred leaving him to staying with him.
“I’m guessing you don’t have any aunts or uncles?”
He shook his head.
Though he hesitated, half afraid of the answer, Cullen asked, “Where’s your dad?”
Harry shrugged. “He’s around somewhere.” Then he flapped his arms in exasperation, as if this is what he’d seen and heard adults do when they talked about his dad. “We’ll find him eventually.”
The kid was just a tad too observant.
The light from the window in Mr. McCoy’s office thinned as Wendy walked farther into the building, but when she reached the main corridor, emergency lights were lit. She scrambled to the door and into the plant. At Benny Owens’s workstation, she snatched the radio and quickly made her way back to Cullen and Harry.
The second she stepped into the office, Cullen caught her gaze. His normally bright eyes were soft, sincere.
“Harry was telling me about his mom.”
“Oh.” She glanced at Harry, who looked up at her with a smile. “You okay, little guy?”
Still smiling, he nodded.
Whatever had happened between the two of them, Harry was okay. He might have even gotten afraid in the dark again and Cullen had taken care of him. Surprising, but good. She turned to smile at Cullen in thanks, but when their gazes caught, that funny feeling happened in her stomach again. Only this time, her chest also tightened. It became hard to breathe. She sort of felt as if she were drowning in the deep pools of his eyes, once again overwhelmed by the strange instinct that deep down he really was a nice guy—
The church bell across the street rang twice, jolting her back to reality.
“Must be two o’clock,” she said, brightly, trying to pretend nothing had happened because nothing had happened. So they’d looked into each other’s eyes? It wasn’t a big deal.
Setting the radio on her boss’s desk, she said, “I forgot about the emergency lights. The corridors are well-lit. The plant has emergency lighting, too.”
She turned on the radio and slowly moved the dial until she found the local station. The announcer said, “The mayor is telling everybody to just sit tight—”
She glanced at Cullen. “Either I have perfect timing or this is an emergency broadcast that’s repeating.”
“To repeat…Trees and power lines are down all over town. Route 81 has been shut down due to accidents.”
Cullen cursed.
She faced him. “What?”
“That’s the only highway out of town. The only way to get to my hotel.”
“I’m sure it will be open before you want to go back.”
“Since I can’t work without a computer, I want to go back now.”
“Good point.”
They both glanced at the radio.
“I’m sorry to say, folks,” the announcer said, “the power company is warning that this is going to be an all-nighter. Get out your candles, light your fireplace, and be careful.”
The announcer stopped talking and a song floated from the radio. Wendy shifted away from the desk. Technically, she and Harry could leave. They could even bake their cookies. She had a gas stove. And a fireplace. They could roast marshmallows and sleep in sleeping bags on the living-room floor.
This could actually be the most fun day of his stay with her.
She put her hand on Harry’s shoulder, took another step back, easing toward the door.
It almost seemed wrong to leave. Almost. The truth was she didn’t know Cullen Barrington. And she was attracted to him. The first man since Greg. That left her feeling odd enough. When she added that he was a playboy, out of her reach, the man who owned the company she worked for, in front of whom she’d prefer to be on her best behavior, not walking around a dark old house with a flashlight…Well, it was for the best that she not invite him to her home. She shouldn’t feel guilty for leaving him to figure out what he’d do for the next twelve to twenty-four hours—in the dark—when she not only had light and warmth, she could also cook dinner.
While he sat in the dark? Slept on the floor with his jacket for a cover?
Damn it!
Why couldn’t her conscience just shut up long enough for her to get to her car?
“Do you want to come with us?”
His head jerked up. “Where are you going?”
“As you said, we can’t work in the dark. So Harry and I are going home. I have a gas stove and a working fireplace in the living room. Even my hot-water heater is gas. We can be without power for a week and the only thing we’ll miss is television.”
“I don’t watch television.”
“Then you should be fine.”
He growled as if annoyed with the inconvenience of humbling himself to go to the home of an employee, and she said a silent prayer that he’d be stubborn enough—or maybe independent enough—to decide he’d rather sit alone in the office, maybe reading files by the emergency lights in the corridor, than go with her.
Please, God…
He pulled in a breath. “Okay. Fine. Let me get my coat.”
Chapter Three
THEY stepped out into the parking lot and Cullen motioned to the right. “That’s my rental car.”
“And it’s a fine car,” Wendy said, “but with power lines down, we can’t drive. We don’t want to become part of the problem.”
Cullen ignored her sarcasm in favor of more pressing concerns. “Part of the problem?”
“We could get halfway home, come across a tree that’s down and either have to leave our cars in the middle of the road or drive back here and walk anyway.”
She faced him. Sunlight sparkled off the thick ice on the trees surrounding the parking lot, encircling her with a glow that made her look like a shimmering angel. He shook his head to clear the haze, but there was no haze. She truly sparkled in the icy world they were caught in.
“So what do you say we skip the first few steps we know might not work, and just walk?”
Great. Maybe a little exercise would help him get himself back to normal around her. “Fine.”
“Good. You can carry Harry.”
