Fourteen
Just because they’d been texting each day, several times a day, for several days in a row, didn’t mean she was becoming reliant on him. She liked texting him. So what? She liked texting Maisie. Hell, she loved her best friend and that didn’t scare her at all. There was nothing wrong with being attracted to someone and wanting to see them again. That didn’t equate to an I’d die without you type of passion. Even if she couldn’t think of Will and the word passion without coming up with some pretty detailed scenarios. She burrowed into her pillow, awkwardly yanking on her own hair. Repositioning herself, she smiled at her phone screen. She could hear Gwen puttering in the room next to her but told herself that if working on those miniature scenes calmed her mom, then where was the harm?
Lexi
You should go to sleep. Don’t you have math meetings early?
The Man You Share Everything With
Math meetings?
Lexi
The F in CFO is for Finance, correct?
The Man You Share Everything With
Correct
Lexi
And Finance is math. I’m in university. I know things.
The Man You Share Everything With
Do you know you make me laugh?
Lexi
Which is all me because I’m not taking any classes in humor.
The Man You Share Everything With
It’d be a waste of money. You don’t need it.
Lexi
Full circle: don’t you need to sleep?
The Man You Share Everything With
There’s a woman on my mind, keeping me awake
Her heart tripped. Stupid heart. You’re not in charge here, Heart. Go back to sleep. This game is strictly for the libido.
Lexi
She’s trying to let you sleep
The Man You Share Everything With
What are you doing tomorrow night?
Lexi
My social life being what it is, I’ll be doing one of any of the following: homework, housework, watching reruns of shows I’ve seen too many times.
The Man You Share Everything With
Would you have time to stop by Cordero’s? It’s a small wine bar near the university.
Lexi
You doing a wine tasting?
The Man You Share Everything With
I have a meeting with someone. He’s bringing his wife. I thought maybe I could bring my fiancée.
Why did that make her smile?
Lexi
And so it begins
The Man You Share Everything With
I don’t want to pressure you
Lexi frowned at the screen. It’d be a lie to say she didn’t want to see him.
Lexi
What time?
The Man You Share Everything With
7. I could do something for you in return
Lexi
It’s not a trade-off. It won’t suck to see your face
The Man You Share Everything With
That’s a hell of a compliment
Lexi
Don’t let it go to your head
The Man You Share Everything With
Hard not to. How’s the homework coming?
Lexi
Still waiting for Maisie to let me know if she has any contacts who could help me out with my marketing interview.
Had she ever had a relationship like this? If that’s what this, in fact, was? It was weird to be in a place where she had all those tingles and stomach spins from the get to know you stage while also being linked to this man, on paper, as so much more. He was easy to talk to, fun to flirt with, and God, was he easy to dream about.
The Man You Share Everything With
See! I can do something for you. Interview me
Lexi
You really need to look up your job description. You’re not in marketing
The Man You Share Everything With
We own the company. All of us are part of everything.
Lexi
Really?
The Man You Share Everything With
I’d never lie to my fiancée
Lexi
I think you like saying that
The Man You Share Everything With
More than I expected. Get your questions ready. After wine and a bit of conversation, you can ask me anything
Lexi
Enticing. About marketing?
The Man You Share Everything With
Anything
She’d worried about being overdressed for the Dress Hut in the flowy, knee-length black skirt she’d paired with a dark-green blouse, but as she walked into Cordero’s, she realized her mistake. She should have worried about being underdressed for the wine bar. Low lighting, high-top tables, and clean, sleek lines shouted elegance in an understated way. Lexi smiled at the hostess even as she spotted Will over near the bar.
“Good evening. Do you have a reservation?” The hostess, dressed in a sparkly black tank top, tight black jeans, and mile-high heels that made her tower over Lexi, looked like a runway model.
“She’s with me,” Will said, walking toward her, his gaze fixed on hers, an appreciative gleam shimmering there.
His words and the way he said them sent a shot of adrenaline through her system. She was with him. For now. As long as she remembered the for now and for fun part, she’d be okay.
“Of course. When the rest of your party is here, we’ll seat you, Mr. Grand.”
Will took her hand, leaned down to kiss her cheek. She turned her head, brushing his lips, relaxing when he hissed out a breath, slipped one arm around her waist.
“You look amazing.”
She smiled up at him, running her hand down the silver tie on top of his crisp white dress shirt. “You look beautiful.”
He tipped his head back and laughed. Lexi’s heart and stomach danced around, giddy with the kind of joy she didn’t recognize.
Nudging her toward the bar, he asked if she wanted anything to drink. Settling onto the stool next to him, aware of the murmured conversations, soft instrumental music, and high-end feel of the surroundings, she shook her head.
“I can wait.”
He ran his fingertip around her palm. “Have you eaten?”
She nodded, the steady motion of his finger making her lose focus. “I grabbed a burger at a drive-through.”
He frowned, his eyebrows moving together in that way that made him look far too thoughtful and really fucking good. “We could have grabbed dinner. Did you come straight from work?”
Sort of. She’d read her marketing homework in the car while eating her burger. “I didn’t want to go home first and risk traffic.”
Will reached out, touched a strand of her hair like he couldn’t not touch it. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to add more to your day.”
She smirked, the worry over whether she was dressed well enough slipping away. “I suppose I can forgive you seeing as, like I expected, it doesn’t suck to see your face.”
He laughed, moved his finger so his whole hand cupped her neck. Instead of kissing her lips, which she all but craved at this point, he pressed his to her forehead. She closed her eyes, sighed deeply. When he pulled back, she shook off the onslaught of feelings.
“Who are we meeting?”
Will dropped his hand, picked up a glass of water, and took a drink. “Holden Wright. He’s the owner of Comfort Plus. It’s a small, fairly new, family-run company that focuses on making eco-friendly blankets, towels, washcloths, and other linens.”
She shook her head. “Haven’t heard of them.”
“Long diatribe short, my father has us looking at a partnership with some people I’m not sure we should partner with. It’s not my role in the company to pull in prospective partners but I’m taking a chance here because when I tell my family I don’t think we should partner with Home Needs, I want to have an alternative.”
“I read that that Nolan guy got arrested. That’s the son of the CEO of the company?”
Will’s jaw tightened. He set his glass down on the bar top. “Yeah. That’s him. Sometimes, you don’t need to know someone long before you get a feeling for who they are. You know what I mean?”
She wanted to reach out and smooth the tension in his face, run her fingers along his high cheekbones, along his striking jaw. “Yeah. I think I do.”
He smiled at her, everything about his posture and expression softening. “I guess we both do, don’t we?”
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak with the level of attraction and energy buzzing around inside her.
“I don’t have a good feeling for the Home Needs deal.”
“Have you told your family that?”
He lowered his chin, staring at the bar for a moment before looking up again. “A couple of them are a little frustrated with me and recent decisions they believe I’ve made. Which is why I want to have something in hand when I talk to them.”
“Then I guess we better charm the pants off this Holden guy, huh?”
Will smiled. “He’s closing in on seventy, his wife is with him, and I want to work with them. I think it’s best if he keeps his pants on.”
Lexi laughed loud enough to turn a few heads. She leaned into Will. “Are you taking humor classes? That was funny.”
Coming close enough that they shared the same air, he shook his head. “Must be the woman I’m falling for rubbing off on me.”
She bit her lip, hard, doing her best not to think about rubbing and Will in the same breath.
“Mr. Grand. The rest of your party is here,” the hostess said beside them.
Lexi moved back, looked over to see an elegant couple watching them with pleased expressions.
“Do you remember what it was like to be young and falling in love, Holden?” Average height with silver-blond hair shimmering around her shoulders, diamonds glittering in each ear, in a lovely blue cocktail dress, the woman beamed at them.
The man, Holden, lifted his wife’s hand, kissed it. “Young, not so much. Falling in love? Yes. I do it every morning when I wake up and see your face.”
Even the hostess sighed. Lexi’s heart turned over in her chest. If her dad had lived, had grown old beside his wife, that’s the sort of thing he would have said.
“Holden,” Will said. “It’s a pleasure to see you again.” He shook the man’s hand, reached for the woman’s. “I’m William Grand. This is my fiancée, Lexi Danby.”
“Lovely to meet you, dear. I’m Bethany. Holden and I read about your engagement online. Congratulations.”
Lexi shook off the discomfort of the conversation and focused on the prospect of spending time with a charming couple and a man she truly enjoyed. There were worse ways to spend an evening. Like sitting at home wishing life would move faster so she could get to the good stuff. This right here was pretty damn good.