3. Rachel
3
RACHEL
“ N ate ?” I couldn’t help but repeat it. Surprise didn’t cut it. I was totally shocked that Brandon had me apply for a vacancy to be Nate’s assistant.
His best friend? The hot redhead I'd had a crush on since I was a teen?
Oh, my God.
“I take it you already know each other?” Julie asked. She said it in such a deadpan yet curious manner that I knew this woman definitely didn’t struggle to keep up with anything.
“No,” I replied at the same moment Nate said, “Yeah!”
We stared at each other, caught in the contradiction.
Sure, I knew him—from many years ago. I knew the old Nate, the younger version. Not this mature, sophisticated man in a fitted suit looking like a proper and successful businessman.
“Perhaps I should give you two a moment to decide,” Julie quipped, seeming amused.
“We’re from the same town,” I hastily explained.
She snapped her fingers. “ That’s what caught my attention about your application. Rockton. I forgot that was the name of where you grew up,” she said, looking from me to a still bewildered but smiling Nate. “Huh. It’s a small world sometimes, isn’t it?”
I nodded slowly. “It’s an even smaller world when my brother is friends with the boss.”
Nate laughed lightly. It was a low, rich chuckle that teased me to want to hear more. From what I recalled, Nate was always the fun-loving, easy-going guy. Being twelve years younger than Brandon—and Nate—I was left seeing them when they came back home to visit from college and such. With that many years between us, we were never peers, but they let me follow them around. I knew of Nate, enough for a little crush to form on the laidback man.
It seemed his willingness to laugh and have fun hadn’t faded.
That was the only similarity I could find in him, though. It likely wasn’t wise to stare at him, not like this, like I wanted to memorize a sexy hottie in a suit. But I couldn’t look away. His thick red hair was shorter than I remembered it, less shaggy but not overly styled. Those brown eyes seemed darker and deeper, and the moment I realized he was staring right back at me, just as intensely, I realized we had an audience.
Julie had gone quiet. Normally, in any other introduction between a new employee and the boss, long moments of silence would be awkward. I might have come from a small town, but I wasn’t lacking social skills.
Except when I was surprised. Except when I was near him, apparently.
I cleared my throat and glanced at Julie. Just as I suspected, she was smiling at me, then him. “Well. This is certainly an interesting development.”
“It’s not a development,” Nate argued. “It’s just a surprise.” He turned those caramel eyes to me with a slow smile. “A pleasant one.”
The way he looked at me, like he wanted to eat me up, nearly had me breaking my cool. Desire sparked within me. Without fanning the fire of attraction, I struggled to keep my thoughts straight.
Sure, I was thrown off seeing him here. But realizing I was working for my former crush wouldn’t change the facts. I was here to work. I was here to get out of Rockton and be away from all that damn Christmas glee and cheer forced on me by my family.
Focusing my energy on how Nate McIntosh looked at me wasn’t the way to go about it. All I had to do was my job.
And that’s that.
“Likewise,” I replied, clipped and curt. In my mind, I sounded cool and professional. Dignified. But out loud, I sounded like a bitch. “It’s a pleasant surprise to run into you as well,” I added, hoping to smooth out my delivery.
He didn’t seem bothered, sticking with that slow appraisal and those long once-overs he couldn’t stop giving me.
“So.” Julie cleared her throat. The ahem was only to break this lure binding me and Nate to stare at each other. I was proud that I didn’t flinch. He raised his brows a bit, perhaps startled that he’d zoned out on me for so long.
“If introductions aren’t necessary…” Julie gestured for me to leave his office. “We can carry on with the tours.”
I nodded, lifting a hand in a slight wave of farewell for Nate. Turning back to the older woman who was upfront that she would be the supervisor I reported to, I did my best to shut off my thoughts about the redhead in the big office. We walked down the hall, and Julie resumed her explanations of who was who and what was what.
“Anyway.” She glanced at me. “You won’t need to deal with Nate directly.”
Are you… warning me to stay away from him?
“Unless you wanted to.”
Oh.
“No assistants have ever stayed here long enough to really deal with him. He’s too busy, doing so many things at once.”
“Even at this time of the year?” I asked.
“Oh, sure. If anything, he’s busier than ever in the last couple of months of the year.”
“Huh.”
“Why?” She smiled, rolling her eyes at me as we walked back toward the office I’d be using, just outside hers. “Because his office looks like a Christmas décor store exploded in there? Because he’s all smiles and charm?”
I huffed a laugh. “That was a heck of a lot of tinsel and garland in there.”
Waving at me, she brushed the comment away. “It’s not enough, if you ask me. I do it every year to one-up the previous year’s display. It’s an inside joke of ours. He’s one of those people who just love the holidays.” She stopped short, crossing her arms over her chest as she leaned against the doorframe. “Right? If you knew him from before…” She lowered her arms and shrugged. “I assume he’s always been like that.”
“All Christmassy?” I sat and held my hands up to show cluelessness. “I don’t know.” I’ve always been too swamped with my mother’s excessive holiday cheer to notice anyone else’s. “I’m twelve years younger than Nate and Brandon, so I can’t say I know too much about him.” I set my elbows on the desk and propped my chin in my hands. “But I do remember seeing him come home every Christmas after some big party in the city. And then he goes to his family’s cabin. I guess I figured he wouldn’t want to work too much if he’s got those holiday plans.”
“He does. You’ve got that part right. He just…” She sighed, looking away. “He just likes to stay busy this time of the year.”
“Fine by me.”
She nodded, smiling slyly. “I think you’re the Christmas miracle I’ve been waiting for. Finally , an assistant who doesn’t seem like—if I can say this politely—a moron.”
I laughed once, surprised but not offended by her mannerisms. From the moment I met her, just a half hour ago downstairs, I could tell she was a no-nonsense, sassy, efficient woman used to getting things done, preferably right the first time so she could move on to do the next several things on her never-ending list of tasks.
“I’ll do my best.”
And I did. It wasn’t so hard to tune out that instant awareness that seeing Nate filled me with. I was busy. As was he. Julie planned to take the whole week showing me the ropes, but within the first couple of days, I figured out the gist of it. Really, how hard was it to send emails, check forms, and revise simple spreadsheets? This was basic computer and intrapersonal stuff that felt like busywork rather than a real job.
The longer I stayed at the office under Julie’s tutelage, the better I moved on from obsessing about how to keep Kyle’s secret. The more I chatted with the almost grandmotherly office manager, the faster time flew.
According to her, I fit right in. Maybe it was because I knew I wouldn’t be here for long that I felt confident in correcting staff members when they assumed wrong. And how easily I put people in their places when they tried to intimidate me. Most of all, though, I felt no compunction when I stopped the countless workers, solicitors, and other visitors from bothering Nate. Julie said that she often felt like a gatekeeper on the floor, and I assisted her with that task.
All too quickly, whenever we crossed paths, I realized how much of a softie Nate was. How much people were used to getting their way with him.
On Wednesday, I shook my head while I waited for the copier to finish. In the latest example of Nate being too nice, I lingered to overhear a supervisor cajoling him. He was asking for an adjustment with his department’s budget even though he’d abused his budget several times before.
“The best I can tell you is we’ll discuss it in January,” Nate said.
Why can’t you just say no?
“So that’s a yes?” the man asked, smiling and patting his back. “Thanks, Nate. You’re the best.”
“I said we’ll discuss it later,” Nate said. He could stick to his guns. I’d give him that.
But haven’t you ever heard of just saying no ?
I drew a deep breath and stepped closer with the papers I intended to hand over. “Mr. McIntosh, here are your papers. And Mr. Rollings,” I said, “I have yet to receive your signatures on the forms for your outstanding budget from last year.” It was a dismissal, yet not.
Nate grinned as Mr. Rollings turned red.
I didn’t blink as the man huffed and grumbled, stalking off a moment later.
“You sure have quite the go-get-’em attitude,” Nate commented. He leaned against the copier and eyed me closely.
For three days, I’d tried to get used to being near him. And for three days, I gave it my all to accept this tingling sensation of his gaze being on me like this. Three days, and still, I struggled to breathe properly when I had his attention—solicited or not.
I didn’t trust myself to speak. Lifting my brows, I looked at him expectantly and hoped he’d clarify. When he didn’t, seeming too pleased to have my attention directly on him for a change, I caved. “I am here to work, am I not?”
“Sure. Of course, you are.” He looked me over again, hanging on to that loose smile. “But for someone as young as you are, you’re awfully… ambitious.”
“Are you trying to say I’m bossy?” I set my hand on my hip.
“No. Just more dedicated and serious than what I expected.”
“Nate, you last saw me when I was a teenager. How can you even know what to expect from me now ?” It felt like a jab, reminding him that he didn’t know me. He couldn’t since he’d been in the city and I’d been back home or closer to it.
All I could detect in his words was an insult. As though he found it surprising that someone my age could have the gumption and confidence not to be a pushover in an office setting.
Do you think I’m too young to be taken seriously?
Do you think I’m not able to be dedicated because I haven’t been here long?
He was quiet for a moment. Almost pensive. Then he leaned in a bit, close enough to whisper before he walked away. “You got me there, Rach. I don’t know what to expect.”
I blinked, turning to watch him walk away. Staring at his back, I wondered if I was making a mistake in trying to expect anything from him. A mistake in thinking I knew him at all.
He was my brother’s best friend. And… a ridiculously sexy, tall man who’d made a successful career for himself in the city.
Before he strode off, he spun, catching me looking after him. I quickly averted my gaze, but he saw me looking.
“I don’t know what to expect with you, Rachel, but I can’t wait to find out.”
That sounded like a threat. A challenge. A promise?
My God… I walked back to my office, rubbing my hands over my warm cheeks. Is he flirting with me? I couldn’t tell, too inexperienced and na?ve. All I had for knowledge of how to deal with guys was Kyle, and that hadn’t ended all too well.
Oh, stop being ridiculous. I shook my head as I got to the office and saw the piles of papers I had to comb through from supervisors dropping them off. I’d bet my email inbox was just as full.
I’m here to work, to hide from home during the worst time of the year.
That was it. Even if Nate was flirting with me, it—whatever it could be—would go nowhere.
As I settled into my desk to work, I caught snippets of Nate laughing and talking with people out in the hall.
How can he be so damn happy all the time? So charming?
Doesn’t his face ever hurt from smiling too much?
“Life isn’t all sunshine and sparkles, Boss,” I muttered aloud in the privacy of my office.
Mine sure isn’t. Just the thought of Nate flirting with me had me all twisted up, and I wondered if that reaction was because of how Kyle dumped me or because I was ignorant of how to process it. Or if…
Argh! No. No more thinking about him. He’s the boss. And I’m only here to work.
My phone rang, jarring me from focusing on the wordy-ass email that I kept rereading because my focus was shot.
“Oh, great. Now what?”
I didn’t need the potential of Nate’s interest in me to be a distraction.
Nor did I need my mother calling to be another, even worse, distraction. She’d called every day, and I could just bet I knew what she wanted to speak about now—when I was returning to Rockton.
I sighed and picked up the phone, ready to stay firm, again, and tell her that I would most definitely not be coming home for the holiday. I had a lucky out, an escape being here, and I damn well wasn’t giving it up for anything.