CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Joy walked out of the lobby and saw a group of executives piling into an SUV parked behind William’s Mercedes. She wondered what that was about.
But when she got up to the Mercedes and William pressed the window down, she smiled. “Hey. I haven’t seen you all morning.”
But her smile weakened when she saw Sloane in the car with him. She knew she was his private secretary and therefore traveled with him. But she was supposedly going to be his assistant too. Shouldn’t she be on that trip?
She knew she shouldn’t be. Her starting day wasn’t for another two weeks. She knew she had to get a grip.
“How did it go?” William asked her.
“You mean with HR?”
“Yes.”
“I’m officially the new assistant to the chairman.” Sloane looked at her when she gave her title. She’d never heard of such a position at Skeffington. “At least I will be in two weeks.”
“Will that give you enough time to relocate to Chicago?”
“Yes sir.” And with that signing bonus check, she’d be financially able to do so too.
“So what’s your plan?”
“Head back to Bridell when I finish getting what I need to know from Bobby. I mean from Mr. Latham.”
William caught the familiarity in her voice. He didn’t like it.
“I’ll check on Gramps and then get packed and get everything taken care of there.”
“Such as?”
Sloane looked at William. When in the world did he become interested in the minutia of a new hire?
“Such as giving the keys to my apartment to the landlord, working out the week at the restaurant, letting Gramps and Contessa know about my new job, and then I’ll come to Chicago to find myself an apartment.”
“I’m surprised Bobby didn’t offer you his spare bedroom.”
Joy laughed. “He did actually.”
“Decline the offer.”
“I already have.”
“And keep it that way,” William said bluntly.
Sloane was again baffled. She looked at him again.
“He’s a good man in his own way,” William continued, “but he’s not for you.”
“Funny how that’s the same thing he said about you,” Joy said with a smile.
William exhaled without returning her smile. “Wise man,” he said before he realized he was going to say it. Then he and Joy exchanged a glance. An uncomfortable glance.
“What’s up with you? Where are you headed?” Joy asked him.
“I’m on my way to England. To London.”
Joy didn’t expect to hear that. “Really? Wow. To see a client?”
“Yup.”
“You’ll go all that way just to meet with a client?”
William knew she had no clue what kind of clientele he dealt with. Presidents and Kings were routine on his client list. “Yes.”
“When will you be back?” She knew her voice sounded clingy, and she knew Sloane didn’t like her tone, but she couldn’t help it.
“I can’t say right now when I’ll be back. But hopefully before you begin in a couple weeks.”
Joy was already coming to terms with the fact that she wouldn’t see him for another two weeks.
Which should not have even been an issue.
But it was. She wanted to tell him to call her, and to do so every single night so that she’ll know he’s okay, but she knew that would be overstepping her bounds in a way that could get her fired.
He didn’t want everybody knowing about their relationship.
If they even had a relationship! And he certainly didn’t want to have to check in with her every night.
They exchanged another glance. She knew she looked confused to William.
She looked outright depressed to William.
Which he knew he should have expected when he went too far with her earlier that morning.
She probably wanted to go with him. And a part of him wanted to take her with him.
But she’d be stuck in a hotel room all by herself probably for all day and most of the night when she’d be better off going back to Indiana to wrap up her life there.
She had enough on her plate than for him to add his baggage too.
But he was going to miss her. He even found himself looking her up and down.
Remembering every inch of her. He wanted to kiss her and hold her.
He wanted to tell her not to worry and that they’ll be back together before she knew it.
But would they? Was that what he truly wanted?
To be saddled with somebody seventeen years his junior?
Was that what he needed? Was that what she needed?
And why would he make her his assistant?
To protect her until he could get Skeffington’s lack of diversity problem in order, he thought was the reason. But was it more to it than that?
A distressed look came over his face. He couldn’t answer any of those questions. “Behave yourself while I’m gone,” he said to her.
She smiled, but he could still see the sadness beneath her smile. “I’ll try.”
“Do better than try.”
She nodded. “Yes sir.”
Joy could see Sloane glancing at her wristwatch as if they were running late. But William and Joy continued to remain as they were. As if they didn’t want to part ways for a second, let alone for what could be weeks. And that reality concerned them both.
“Miss Johnson?”
Joy heard a familiar male’s voice suddenly beside her. When she looked and saw that it was Cory, she smiled. “I thought they were going to put you in the junior executive program?”
“I’m in it. But my class doesn’t start until Monday.”
“But what are you doing here?”
“Mr. Skeffington told me to drive you to his house.”
What? Why? Joy was confused. She looked at William.
“He was kind to you when you needed kindness. I trust the young man will continue to be kind to you.”
“I will, sir,” Cory said forcefully. “And thank you again for helping me get into that program.”
William gave a smile. He liked Cory. “He’s going to take you to my house so that you can pick out one of my cars to drive,” he said to Joy.
Sloane almost dropped her iPad when she heard that. He was going to what? She could not believe the generosity William was showing to that woman. It was so unlike him that she could hardly believe it on any level.
But she wasn’t the only one thrown. Joy was thrown too. “You want me to go to your house and pick out one of your cars for me to drive?”
“You don’t have one, correct?”
“I had one. But it broke down.”
They all seemed to wait for her to further explain, but that was the full story. When a car broke down in her neck of the woods, getting it back on the road was a major undertaking. She’d been without wheels for nearly four months.
William continued talking. “You’ll need wheels to bring your things back to Chicago, and to get around in general. So pick one. I have several. But pick one.”
“Yes sir. And thank you so much, sir.”
William placed his hand on the window button. Then he added “Behave,” as he pressed up his window.
Which floored Joy even more. Why would he keep telling her to behave? Was it because of Bobby? Did he truly think she was going to hop out of bed with him and then hop in bed with Bobby Latham? That was crazy to her.
But she realized just how little he knew of her.
Maybe he thought, because she consented to him before-day that morning, that she was loose like that.
Which only made her feel worse about what happened that morning as she watched his Mercedes drive him away from her.
She also noticed that the SUV filled with executives drove off behind him.
Whatever client he had to meet with in England was apparently a big damn deal.
But Cory wasn’t even watching any cars drive away. He was watching Joy and grinning. “Wow,” he said.
Joy looked at him. “Wow what?”
“You must be a very special lady to that man.”
Joy’s heart dropped. Did she have a scarlet letter on her forehead now? “Why would you say something like that, Cory?”
“Because,” he said as if it was obvious.
“For Mr. Skeffington to let you drive one of his fancy cars, and for you to pick out which one you want is stupid insane, Joy. I always thought of him as this super-mean, super-stern man that kind of hated everybody.” He grinned.
“But he don’t hate you. That’s for double-clap, snap-and-snap damn sure! ”
Although Cory was being his upbeat self, Joy didn’t know how to feel. Was everybody she worked with going to think she was somebody “special” too? Were they going to think she was sleeping her way to the top?
She knew it wasn’t true. She wasn’t that kind of person, first and foremost, and William had already offered her a job before they got together that way anyway. They could gossip all they wanted. She knew the truth.
But the fact that William treated her differently and everybody in that building would soon know about it wasn’t something she knew how to process.
She was used to gossip. At Maylene’s her coworkers told lies about her all the time.
But for a man like William, a man she actually cared about, to treat her like she was something very special to him did warm her heart.
And confuse it too. She didn’t know if his obvious interest was something to be proud of, or terrified of.
And since she had no ready answer for herself, she shelved her inward struggle and got on with it. It was going to be what it was going to be and she couldn’t do a damn thing about that.
Besides, she needed a car. That was a fact. He offered to loan her one of his cars. That was a fact too. She was going to stick to the facts.
“I’ll get my purse and let Mr. Latham know that I’m leaving, and then I’ll meet you down here,” she said to Cory.
“Cool,” Cory replied, with that mischievous grin that made it seem as if they were in on some sick joke together. But Joy could only shake her head with some level of annoyance as she made her way back into the building.
What in the world kind of office intrigue mess has she gotten herself into, she wondered.