Chapter Six #4
Her beautiful mouth turned down at the corners, and he didn’t need her to tell him the guy had taken over her job.
But she did anyway. “Since he worked so closely with me, was familiar with everything I did, it made sense he be elevated into my position.”
“You didn’t fight back? Throw him under the bus like he’d done you?”
“No, because of a few reasons. First, two wrongs don’t make a right and my parents raised me to accept responsibility for what I did or didn’t do in life.
Pointing out he was the one who didn’t check on things didn’t matter because, ultimately, it was my job to ensure everything was done.
And second, well, I really hated working for that woman, so getting let go was a godsend in the end because I met Colleen a week later and we clicked.
She knew what happened because she knew the bride’s family from when she used to work at a wedding magazine before she opened her business.
” She lifted a shoulder and added, “She’s a believer in second chances. ”
“That she is.” Since she was being so open, he offered his own little confession. “She ever tell you how the two of us met?”
She shook her head.
“Speaking of second chances.”
Charity’s eyes drifted down to their joined hands, then gently pulled hers back.
He let them go, missing the touch immediately.
“I was as an assistant, too, when I met her at a wedding she was running. Guy I worked for was brilliant but a real tool. Colleen loved working with him because his pictures were perfection. I learned a lot from him.”
“So, what happened?”
He could feel the heat drifting up his neck and jaw. It wasn’t a situation he was proud of, but it was in the past.
“A guy at one of the weddings we shot was totally wasted and kept groping the bridesmaids while we were shooting. I’d finally had enough and called him out on it.”
Her head cocked to one side, and her eyes narrowed.
“I, well, I called him a few choice names, then when he went to slug me, I clocked him. Fell to the floor like a sack of lead bricks. My boss went ballistic, thinking we were gonna get sued. He fired me on the spot. Told me to get my ass and my gear and get out. So I did.”
He took a sip of his water, trying to forget how angry he’d been at both the drunken asshole and his mentor.
“Colleen followed me out to the parking lot, saying she saw the whole thing. She told me to meet her in her office the next morning at nine sharp. I figured she was gonna lay into me then, too. But I sucked it up and went.” He grinned for the first time in a while.
“She offered me a job. Said she knew I was a better photographer than the other guy and wanted me to work for her exclusively.”
“What did you do? I mean, aside from saying yes?”
“Kissed her. Full on the lips. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her as stunned since. And just so you know, nothing ever happened between us.” He nailed her with a hard glare. “Colleen is my employer and my friend. That’s all.”
“I never thought anything, you know,” she waved her hand, “like that.”
His brows remained raised.
“Really.”
Her expression told him she was telling the truth. A warm bead of pleasure dropped deep down inside him. Why having her believe him was so important was a bit disconcerting, but he’d take it.
“Seems Colleen’s gut instincts with the two of us worked out just fine,” he said.
Charity nodded. When their bills arrived a moment later, Charity went to pick hers up, but he beat her to it.
“On me,” he said, throwing cash down on the table with more than an ample tip for Ruthie. “You saved me from scarfing done a sandwich in front of the tv and a boring evening of laundry.”
He thought she might protest. In fact, he was prepared for it. But she didn’t. In fact, her eyes went wide again, the blue in them so startling his hand stopped as he was putting his wallet back in his pocket.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
Her head shake made the tip of her ponytail swish across her chin, and his fingers suddenly tingled with the desire to wrap a finger around it and cling.
“Nothing. I just figured...” she shrugged and looked over his shoulder.
He had a pretty good idea what she figured.
It was Saturday night, and they were both off early.
She probably thought he had a hot date waiting for him somewhere.
He wanted, so wanted, to press her on it, make her say her suspicions aloud.
But that would just make him look like a pathetic dick.
There was no need to force her to embarrass herself.
The fact she wouldn’t give voice to the words proved she knew they were hurtful.
That was something, at least.
He just wished she would realize he wasn’t the womanizing jerk she thought he was.
So, instead of calling her on it, he asked her something he’d been thinking of since the reception.
“Not to change the subject, but I saw you talking to Liv Joyner. You drumming up business for us?” He chuckled when he said it, but her response indicated his joke fell flat.
Her expression changed, the light that had just brightened her eyes glazed over.
He was certainly being treated to the full gamut of colors her skin could turn tonight.
Once again, a rosy, heated glow that mimicked ripened apples begging to be picked, crept up her jaw and landed square on her cheeks in the time it took him to take a breath.
Embarrassment? But why?
“N-no,” she said, swiping a finger at her temple as she tucked an errant tendril behind an ear, a tic that broadcast her anxiety. “It was a personal matter I wanted to talk to her about, not professional.”
He let that sit for a second.
Olivia Joyner was Heaven’s answer to cable tv’s Millionaire Matchmaker minus the millionaires.
Everyone knew the gorgeous platinum blonde had a ridiculous success rate when she put two people together and he hadn’t heard of one marriage that had ended in divorce when she’d facilitated it.
Many of Colleen’s clients had been set up by Liv.
A widow, she was a lifelong Heaven-ite, had a grown daughter, and was in her early forties.
She was also one of the nicest people he’d ever had the pleasure of knowing.
And Charity was discussing a personal matter with the woman.
To his mind, that could only mean one thing: Charity was looking to meet someone. Someone who mattered. Someone she wanted to make a life with. Someone who was her...match.
“It must have been some discussion,” he said, evenly, “because she whisked you out to the garden like both your feet were on fire.”
With a tiny shrug, Charity lifted her glass, the noise of the ice clanging together loudly as her hand shook.
“She wanted — we both wanted – to be able to speak without shouting,” she said, her cheeks still on fire as she placed her glass back down on the table after a sip. “The band was in the middle of a rock oldies set. And it was hard to hear.”
Once again, he could have pressed, asked her for the details, wondered aloud what she needed to discuss with a matchmaker, as if it weren’t obvious.
But she looked so damn uncomfortable-albeit cutely so-that he took pity on her, knowing he was already on thin ice where she was concerned.
This little dinner truce they’d just shared was something he wanted to continue, and prodding her to tell him what she’d discussed might just put her back up again. He wanted to avoid that at all costs.
So, clamping down on his curiosity, he nodded. “Yeah, they were a little louder than usual tonight. You done?” He pointed to her plate.
She glanced down at it and nodded.
Kolby stood and said, “Come on. I’ll walk you to your car.”
Without a word, she gathered her belongings, rose and followed him, both of them nodding to Ruthie as they exited the diner.
Sunset was just about overtaking the sky, the early summer horizon a mix of bright orange and pale yellow.
At her car, Kolby shoved his hands in his back pockets and said, “Have fun tomorrow, sleeping in and teaching.”
Charity looked up at him, her brows crawling together like he was a puzzle she was trying to figure out.
Good luck with that, sweetheart.
“Thanks. Have a nice visit with your mama.”
His grin came fast. He nodded, said, “See ya Monday,” and then walked to his truck.
He took his time getting in and starting up the engine, making sure she was secure in hers. Those protective instincts swirling about inside him had him wanting to follow to make sure she got home with no mishaps or problems. He shook his head. He could just imagine what she’d say to that.
When she turned onto the county road, pointed toward her apartment, he sighed and put the truck in gear.
Charity Quinlan and what to do about his unusual feelings for her occupied his thoughts while he did his laundry and tidied his apartment for his mother’s visit.
He was sure she’d hired Liv Joyner to find her someone with an eye toward marriage.
Charity was going to be thirty soon, a fact he’d discovered when he’d overheard her and Colleen talking recently about where Charity wanted her career to go.
Since she looked no older than a college student most days, to know she was almost a decade older was surprising.
And interesting. Very...interesting.
When he finally crawled into bed after an hour of watching some mindless television, he wondered what his mother would think of the pint-sized pixie with the black belt in karate.