Chapter Ten #3
She’d reached a point of confidence where she felt that Stone liked her.
They were friends. He thought she was smart.
But she wanted more than that. She wanted to matter to him.
Because he mattered to her. He had for a long time, and working together had only increased her feelings.
But she was determined that he would never figure that out.
It would all be too humiliating. What if he felt sorry for her?
She shuddered. Better to keep things the way they were.
So she would never tell him that her feelings had changed.
That she thought about him all the time and wished they could be more than friends.
She never told him about her daydreams for their future or how the fantasies sustained her through long nights when she couldn’t sleep.
She never mentioned how often she thought about that kiss they’d shared.
As she reached the third-floor landing, she heard rock music coming from down the hall.
She followed the sound and ended up in a large mirrored room.
Several pieces of weight-lifting equipment sat on the hardwood floor.
There was a treadmill and stair climber.
In the corner was a cross-country-ski machine.
No wonder Stone was in such great shape.
He was already in the room, crouched down in front of a stereo system.
He’d exchanged slacks and a shirt for shorts and a cropped T-shirt that exposed his flat, muscled belly.
Cathy tugged on the hem of her T-shirt. It was over-size and fell nearly to the hem of her bicycle shorts.
Over the past month, she’d been swimming on the weekends, so her legs were faintly tanned.
She was the size she wanted to be, and with all the aerobics, she was in decent shape physically.
But this was Stone, and she knew no matter what the circumstances, or how she was dressed, he had the power to leave her feeling breathless and inadequate.
He glanced up, caught her reflection in the mirror and grinned. “You made it.”
She laughed. “This room is so far away, it’s practically another country. I had to leave breadcrumbs to make sure I made it back.”
“I can show you the way,” he promised.
“Hah. Like I’d trust that.” Her voice was teasing.
He rose to his feet and crossed to her. “Come on, kid. Let me show you how the big boys work out.”
She glanced at all the gleaming equipment. “Don’t hurt me or let me hurt myself.”
“Never.”
Oddly enough, she trusted him. At least in that.
“We’ll start with light weights,” he said, approaching a machine that looked like a medieval torture device. “The trick is to work big muscles first, then smaller ones. Here’s what you want to do on this machine,” he said, and described the mechanism.
She slipped into the seat and took the position he told her. “I think the trick is not to get maimed.”
But it wasn’t as hard as it looked. They took turns, with him going first, showing her what the exercise looked like.
Then he would adjust the weight and the seat for her.
They worked slowly. Cathy felt her muscles awakening, then protesting the unfamiliar activity.
Stone was a patient teacher, guiding her slowly.
She knew she should be grateful…and she was…
if only the man would stop touching her.
A hand to her arm, fingers on her knee, a pat to her shoulder.
He was driving her crazy. How was she supposed to concentrate on what they were doing?
And he was so darn close to naked! Again and again she caught herself staring at his long legs or his firm belly.
More than once she admired him as he bent over.
The man had the best butt she’d ever seen. It just wasn’t fair.
They took a break after about thirty minutes. Stone crossed to a small refrigerator in the corner of the room and pulled out two bottles of water. Cathy took one and gulped down half of it. Then she walked to the windows and stared out at the grounds.
She’d never seen the view from this side of the house. The ocean was behind them, but she could see trees and well-manicured grounds. In the distance was another large property.
He came up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. She didn’t know whether to groan or swoon.
“How are you holding up?” he asked.
“Fine. I’m going to be sore tomorrow, though.”
“Try a hot bath tonight. It works wonders.”
Great. Now she could add thinking about him in a tub to her list of fantasies. If only she were his type, she might have a chance. But she wasn’t. Stone was the kind of man who would date women who—
She frowned. She had been in his house nearly four months, and to the best of her knowledge he didn’t go out with anyone. Evelyn had died over three years before. Was he still recovering? He must really have been in love with her.
“Did you live here with your late wife?” she asked.
Stone took a drink of water and nodded. “Evelyn is the one who found this house. She adored it. When we moved in, she did a lot of the decorating herself. She’d grown up pretty poor.
They lived in a trailer park, but she spent a lot of time at my place.
She said that gave her ideas and she’d been dreaming about the perfect house for years.
So when we bought this one, she already had most of the rooms planned out. ”
Cathy was surprised she wasn’t jealous of his relationship with Evelyn. She supposed it was because to her the woman wasn’t real. They’d never met and there was no trace of her in the house. No pictures, no mementos that she knew about.
“Where did you meet?” she asked.
Stone settled on a workout bench and rested his elbows on his knees.
The water bottle hung loosely from his hands.
“Through some redistricting, the kids from the trailer park came to our elementary school. Talk about mixing the haves and have-nots. Evelyn sat next to me in class, and I was instantly smitten. We ate lunch together, and by the end of the first day of third grade we were fast friends.” His gaze drifted from her to a past she couldn’t see. “Nothing ever changed that.”
“I’m surprised your parents approved of your relationship.”
He shrugged. “Me, too. But as long as I did the appropriate ‘heir’ things, they left me alone. Benign neglect and all that. Evelyn was my real family. After high school, we went to the same college. She was on scholarship. She was amazing. So damn bright. She never let me get away with anything.”
Cathy leaned against the wall. She could hear the love in Stone’s voice. That hurt a little. No one had ever loved her that much. Not even her parents.
“You miss her,” she said.
“Yeah. It’s better now, but I do miss her. She was my best friend and we’d been together so long, I didn’t know what the world would be like without her.” He straightened. “I’ll never be able to replace her. Not that I’d try. She was unique.”
Cathy nodded. Theirs would have been a special marriage, she thought. The years of friendship would have added a dimension to their love. No doubt the transition from friends to romantic partners had been exactly right.
She finished her bottle of water and placed it in the trash. She was a fool. All his kind acts, all her daydreams, even her change in circumstances couldn’t shake the truth. She was living in a dreamworld.
It was a very nice dream, she reminded herself, and for now it was enough.
She was here to do a good job and learn as much as she could.
She wanted to grow as a person. But everything came with a price.
For her, that price was falling for her boss.
A man who was still in love with a woman who had been gone for three long years.