Chapter Eight
Jordan
“Jordan, hold my calls,” Linc says as he exits his office. “I’ll be holed up in the conference room with Brian. No interruptions.”
“Got it!” I turn my attention back to work.
In the two weeks since I slept with Linc again, we’ve fallen back into our normal routine, working during the day, occasional dinners together, and yes, he took me to Ocean Prime for lunch as promised, but he was a total gentleman.
I have a hunch he’s letting me deal with my feelings and come to the conclusion he wants.
That we make sense together, at least sexually.
Or maybe he’s willing to go back to being my best friend.
Whatever the reason, I’m concentrating on the present.
This weekend is the baby shower Chloe has planned at the country club the Kingston family belong to.
I’ve never been comfortable at the club during the times I’ve been invited to events there, but thankfully I don’t have to attend often.
I’m not intimidated by the clothing, handbags, and shoes the women there own, but they make sure to let me know my designer choices aren’t up to their standards.
If not with words, then with a sneer or a distinct way of looking me over and finding me lacking.
Especially the women in Linc’s family’s social circle.
Although this will be a party in a separate room, the rest of the club is open to members, so I’m prepared to run into the women who resent my friendship with Linc and always have.
After a morning of work, I decide to eat at my desk today. I’m not in the mood to go out. Linc is still meeting in the conference room with Brian and a private investigator who he hired to look for Wallace. The man is still missing.
Linc also has upcoming meetings with banks and lenders to cover the money needed for the deal with Beck. Anything not to lose a portion of his beloved company to the man he has long-standing issues with.
I walk to the kitchen, pausing to say hello to Suzanne and some of the other women who work in the office. After taking my yogurt out of the refrigerator, I return to my desk to find a female with long jet-black hair and a fitted dress tapping her foot impatiently in front of my desk.
As I draw closer and see the woman’s profile, I recognize the visitor. Angelica Winston, Linc’s ex. One I have never gotten along with, not for lack of trying on my part.
I stride around my desk before acknowledging the clearly impatient woman. “Angelica.”
“Jordan. I’ve been waiting,” she says, pursing her red lips in annoyance.
Settling into my seat and placing my lunch on the desk, I meet the woman’s gaze. “I wasn’t aware you had an appointment.”
She straightens her shoulders. “I shouldn’t need one. I knocked on his door but he didn’t answer. Just let him know I’m here,” she says.
“Please would be nice,” Jordan mutters. “Linc is in a meeting, and I have no idea when he’ll be out.” Ignoring the woman, I open my yogurt container and pick up my spoon.
Angelica clears her throat. “Again, if you would do your job and tell him I’m here, I know he’ll come out to talk to me.”
As she speaks, Linc approaches his office from behind her. “Angelica, what are you doing here?” he asks, sounding tired from the day he’s already had.
“Linc, I missed you and I wanted to talk. She wouldn’t let you know I was here.”
The woman ought to consider herself fortunate, because without him there, I would have ripped into her about how I won’t do a damn thing for someone so rude.
“Because I told her I didn’t want to be interrupted by anyone.” He shoots me a grateful look, which Angelica catches.
Unfortunately the woman doesn’t take a hint. “I’m not just anyone. Now that you’re here, we need to talk.” She hooks her arm in his and directs him around my desk and to his office. Short of shaking her off, he has no choice but to deal with her.
Maybe I ought to feel bad for him, but he chose to get involved with a stage-five clinger. What does he expect?
He opens the door to his office, and Angelica pushes him inside. I can’t help but watch, and as she attempts to shut the door, Linc flings it open again, making his point.
Despite Angelica’s proprietary action, I know he hasn’t been involved with the woman for a long time, but they had been in an on-again, off-again relationship, and based on his past behavior, Angelica has every right to think she can talk him into another go-round.
“Angelica, stop. No. We need to talk.” Linc sounds pissed.
I cringe at the thought of her touching him, admitting jealousy crept up on me the minute Linc was alone with the bitch.
“But Linc, it’s been so long. Neither one of us is involved with anyone and we’re good together.” Her nasal whine grates on my nerves.
I hate blatantly eavesdropping on what should be a private conversation, but he deliberately opened the door. And I want to hear what he says to the part about him not being involved with anyone.
Though we haven’t touched each other in two weeks, the possessive streak I didn’t know about rears its ugly head. About a man I’m trying not to get more attached to.
“You don’t know anything about my private life,” Linc says.
“I know more than you think. Your mother had lunch with mine, and she was bemoaning her oldest son still being single. Chloe’s getting married and she’s younger than you. Isn’t it time you started thinking about settling down?”
I push aside the yogurt I was about to eat, my stomach suddenly churning.
“Not with you. Angelica, listen. You’re right. We had a good run when neither of us was involved with anyone else, but that’s all it was. Two people scratching an itch.”
I wince. Oh, he did not say that to her. Talk about a typically dense man.
“Lincoln!” Angelica wails. “You can’t mean that. I was giving you space and time to get other women out of your system. I was waiting for you to come around.”
“I’m sorry. Really. But I never led you on. Never told you we had a future.” Linc lowers his voice, compassion in his tone.
“Who is she?” Angelica asks loudly, not caring if she causes a scene at his office.
“Who?” Linc asks.
“If it’s not me you have a future with, then who is it?”
Linc’s groan is a mix of annoyance and frustration. I recognize it well. “No one you need to concern yourself with.”
He doesn’t mention me by name, but he doesn’t deny there’s someone, either.
“Come. I’ll walk you out,” Linc says.
“Don’t touch me. You led me on. I was waiting for you.” Angelica’s voice sounds closer to the door.
“I never gave you any reason to think you should.”
I spin my chair around, pick up my spoon, and manage to eat a spoonful, swiping my mouse to turn on my computer screen and look busy.
Angelica’s heels sound, and she comes storming out of the office and past my desk, striding through the office, an angry woman who doesn’t care if anyone else knows it.
Wincing, I focus on my lunch, wondering if Linc will come out of his office, whether or not he realizes I heard it all, and unsure of what I’ll say if he does.
Instead he shuts the door and remains inside for the rest of the afternoon.
* * *
Linc
I lean against the office door and let out a groan.
Jesus Christ. I haven’t led Angelica on, nor have I given her any indication there will be a future between us.
With everything hanging over my head with the business, the last thing I need is female drama.
Another reason I appreciate Jordan. She doesn’t do drama. She never has.
Speaking of Jordan, I cringe at the realization she overheard the conversation. I’m not ready to face her, so I settle in behind my desk to work, but I’m distracted by my missing CFO and my need to borrow way too much money for my liking.
When a knock sounds on my door, I’m grateful for the distraction. “Come in!”
My sister bounces into the room, obviously in a good mood. Her cheery smile matches her bright pink dress.
“Hey, Chloe.”
She smiles wide. “Hi!” She shuts the door behind her and sits down in a chair across from me. “Good time? Bad time?”
“For you? Always a good time.” I let go of my stress and focus on my sister. Rising, I walk around the desk and sit on the edge. “How’s the baby shower planning going?”
Though Aurora had the baby early, Chloe is going ahead with the shower since it’s as much of a way to introduce Aurora as family as it is to celebrate the baby she’s named Leah.
“Great. I have Faith Dare doing the specialty desserts,” she says of Jason Dare’s wife.
I’ve stayed in touch with Braden and Willow, keeping them up to date on Aurora and how she’s fitting in here.
The Prescotts, it turns out, are part of the interesting Dare family, something I learned from Chloe.
She was curious about the people who took her sister in, then she was fascinated by the Dare family tree.
Faith is married to Jason Dare, a cousin of Austin’s who lives in New York.
From there Chloe discovered Faith’s Sweet Treats in the city, and with Willow and Braden coming to the baby shower, Chloe has obviously decided to bring Braden’s family into the mix.
“Sounds like you have everything under control,” I say, glad she’s enjoying the preparation.
She nods. “I definitely do,” she says, suddenly squirming in her seat, a habit left over from when she was a child.
Chloe has a tell and can’t lie worth a damn. “Okay, spill it,” I say. “What else is on your mind?”
She sighs. “I didn’t want to ask you this sooner because it felt wrong, what with Dad’s surprise passing and it feeling so soon.” She swallows hard, clearly struggling.
Of all the siblings, I knew our father best because we worked together, but we weren’t close.
And Kenneth didn’t understand his writer or rock star sons.
Chloe had looked up to him because he was our father, but as soon as she was old enough to catch on to our mother’s misery, she shut our father out, too.
“It’s okay. Whatever it is, you can say it.” I don’t want her to feel she can’t come to me.