Rule of Three (4 page)

Out. Of. There.

“Thanks for dinner, Kassidy. You’re a great cook.”

She grinned. “Thank you. Any time. It’s been great getting to know you.”

And he got the hell out.

On the leafy street, he sucked in big breaths full of fresh morning air as he walked to his car parked at the curb halfway down the block. Oh man. All the emotional crap twisting and turning inside him was completely unexpected. There was no fucking way he could move back to Chicago.

He rubbed his face as he unlocked his car door then slid into the vehicle. His best plan would be to get through these business meetings he had lined up, and then get the hell back to San Francisco.

Kassidy had the day off Friday and planned to do some shopping. They needed towels for the main bathroom—Chris’s mismatched, well-worn towels didn’t fit in with their new condo. And they needed curtains for both the extra bedrooms. When Dag had slept over, it made her want to do up the rooms nicely. Not that she anticipated having guests very often.

Dag.

She got all warm inside when she thought about seeing him that morning. Jesus, the man was walking sex. Those worn jeans sat so low on his hips she could see the twin indentations at the base of his spine when she looked at him from the back, and facing him…well she couldn’t even look, afraid of what she might see. The lowest she’d let her eyes go was his six-pack abs and even that was dangerous. His silky dark hair had flopped over his forehead and those eyes had looked at her with such heat, she’d almost felt like she were burning up.

She’d felt so guilty for admiring his half-naked body she’d practically jumped onto Chris’s lap to force her attention where it should be—on her handsome boyfriend. Who was equally as sexy. There was just something about Dag that kept pulling at her.

And tonight they were going to see him again. He and Chris had had lunch yesterday but hadn’t invited her along. Not that she’d wanted to go. She’d had lunch with friends from work, as she usually did.

The doorbell rang just as she was checking her purse for cell phone, keys and shopping list, and when she peeked out she saw…Dag.

She didn’t know why her heart started thudding in her chest, heavy and slow, taking her breath away. She unlocked the door and opened it with shaky fingers, forcing a smile.

“Hey,” she said. “This is a surprise.”

He smiled back at her, that wicked sexy smile that crinkled his eyes and creased his lean cheeks. “I tried to call you at work but you weren’t there.”

Puzzled, she tipped her head to one side. “Yeah. I mean, no. I took the day off to do some errands.”

“That’s what Chris told me. I called him to find out where you are. I was hoping to pick your brain.”

“Me? Why?”

His eyes sparkled. “I’ve got this idea…met with a guy yesterday, and it got me thinking. And you’re the perfect one to help me.”

“Idea for what?” Thoughts buzzed around in her head.
Why me? What guy?
What was he talking about?

“Let me take you out for lunch,” he said, not answering any of her questions. “And I’ll explain everything.”

“Uh…okay. I guess.” She glanced at her watch. It wasn’t even eleven yet. “Kind of early for lunch, though.”

He shrugged and gave a crooked smile that sent a shaft of heat right through her. “I’m hungry.”

“Let me guess. No breakfast.”

“Yeah.” His smile deepened. “Okay, I’ll take you for a late breakfast then. No, you have lunch, I’ll have breakfast.”

“Whatever.” Amusement glimmered inside her. “Fine. Let me get my purse.” She grabbed it from the kitchen table where she’d been checking it then flicked off the lights. “I was just heading out. A few more minutes I’d have been gone.”

“Lucky me,” he said, and the husky timbre of his voice brushed over her. She licked her lips as she locked the door of the condo behind her.

His rental car was parked at the curb beneath the rustling green canopy of the big old maple trees in front of their building. He opened the passenger door for her and she climbed in.

“Where should we go?” he asked, fastening his seat belt.

She had no idea. There were so many places they could go, but since it was a gorgeous warm day, she tried to think of somewhere outside. “There’s a little place not far from here. In fact…” She made a face. “We could probably have walked.”

He slanted her a grin as he shifted gears. Something she’d always found very sexy was a man driving a standard transmission, shifting gears smoothly like he could feel the motor revving. When she saw his hand on the gear shift, she had to swallow hard.

“Turn left at the next light,” she directed him. “It’s called Lombardo’s.”

“Sounds fancy.”

“It’s not. It’s just a little place, but it has a nice patio.”

“Sounds good.”

He found the place easily, and with some kind of wicked luck he found a parking spot on the street and eased the car into it in a smooth feat of parallel parking. He did everything so easily—he seemed to Kassidy to be the kind of guy who had it all, who never had to work that hard, someone for whom things just fell into his lap.

They sat at a small table on the patio under a red-and-white-striped awning, surrounded by pots of scarlet geraniums and blue lobelia. Jazzy music played in the background for them alone, as they were the only ones there at that in-between-breakfast-and-lunch hour. Kassidy ordered coffee and Dag requested a Coke, making her smile, and the waiter left to get those while they looked at the menu.

She wasn’t hungry. She was burning with curiosity. She wanted to know what Dag wanted to talk to her about. All kinds of wild thoughts ran through her imagination, none of them appropriate. At all. But then, Dag had called Chris about where to find her, so it wasn’t likely that he wanted to talk to her about…inappropriate things.

He slapped his menu shut. “Steak sandwich,” he ordered when the waiter returned. Kassidy requested a spinach salad.

“A steak sandwich isn’t exactly breakfast,” she pointed out.

He laughed. “Why not? I’ve never liked following rules.”

That she could believe. Coke for breakfast.

He leaned back in his chair and linked his fingers behind his head. His snug black T-shirt outlined his buff torso, his arm muscles bulging from beneath the short sleeves, exposing a sexy tattoo. His teeth flashed white in his tanned face as he smiled at her. The power of that smile to captivate, to make her feel like she was the center of his attention, of his world at that moment, astonished her.

She looked away from him, down at the white mug full of black coffee. “So,” she croaked. “What did you want to talk to me about?”

He leaned forward, forearms on the table, hands clasping his glass of Coke. “You work in training and development, right?”

“Yeah.” She eyed him.

“And RBM is a big company, right? With more than one location?”

“Yes. We have offices in Detroit, Minneapolis and Seattle.”

He started asking question about traveling to design and deliver training programs. She’d been doing a lot more traveling over the last year and really didn’t enjoy it. She didn’t like being away from Chris, and there always seemed to be so much time wasted sitting in airports, traveling to and from the airport, sitting in the hotel, even with her BlackBerry.

“What about informal learning?” he asked. “Social learning?”

She eyed him. His knowledge surprised her. “What about it?”

“How do people in different locations learn from each other?”

“They don’t.”

“Tell me what you know about social learning.”

“What is this, a job interview?”

He grinned. “No. Just checking some things out.”

“Well, supposedly eighty percent of what people learn comes from social learning, on the job, just talking with coworkers.”

“That’s a lot.”

“Yes.”

“What about networking?”

She frowned. “Once again, I say, what about it?”

“The role of networking in developing staff.”

She could see how his mind was bounding ahead of their conversation and he had to slow himself down so he’d make sense to her. His intelligence was almost scary.

“Oh. Well, that’s huge too, of course. It’s not just what you know, but who you know. Knowing who to ask.”

“Are there a lot of younger employees at RBM?”

She nodded. “Sure. We’re a tech company. We’re always recruiting.”

“But being a tech company, I’m sure your older staff is comfortable with technology too.”

“Yes. I suppose. What’s this about?”

His grin was infectious and teased an answering smile out of her even though she had no idea where this was going. “I was talking to this guy yesterday. We got this idea for social networking.”

She rolled her eyes. “Not another social networking site.”

“You’re not into the FriendSpace thing?”

She hitched a shoulder. “I am. A little. It keeps me in touch with friends who’ve moved away. Obviously I’m not into it to meet people.”

“Okay, good, so you know how it all works.” He leaned closer across the table. “Picture something like that in the workplace.”

“We’ve banned our staff from accessing those kinds of sites,” she replied automatically, her forehead creasing a little.

“No. I mean your
own
social networking site.”

She stared at him, still not getting it.

“Designed for training and development. Information sharing. Networking.”

She gazed back at him, processing what he was saying. She had a hard time grasping exactly what he was telling her, but he continued to talk, enthusiasm coloring his voice, making his eyes gleam. Obviously he’d been thinking about this and the ideas came pouring out of him. “Think about the organizational knowledge you could capture,” he said. “Picture user profiles describing everyone’s experience, training, education…how easy it would be for someone new to the company to know who to contact with a problem or a question. Whether that person sits in the cubicle next to them or across the country.”

And her mind opened up to an incredible world of possibilities as she started envisioning it. “The relationships they could build, even long distance,” she said slowly. Their lunches arrived and they ate as they continued talking, asking each other questions and throwing out suggestions, and the interest and excitement built inside her as if she’d caught it from him like a virus. A good virus.

“So, that’s what you want to spend your money on?” she finally asked.

He smiled. “Well. I haven’t decided for sure. I didn’t plan to start off right on the ground floor with something, I was kind of looking for something already established that I could invest in. But man, I’m pumped about this.”

“It’s a lot of work.”

“Yeah. But I think I have enough connections that I can find the people I need.” He lifted a brow. “Wanna come work for me, Kassidy?”

Her mouth fell open and she stared across the table at him.

Chapter Four

“Are you serious?” she asked, blinking rapidly at him.

He laughed. “Yes and no. I’d love to have you, but I’m nowhere near ready.”

“You don’t even know me,” she protested. “How do you know I’m any good at my job?”

“I know you’re good.” He winked at her and watched her cheeks bloom with color. Christ, she was gorgeous, all animated during their discussion. Once she’d gotten what he was talking about, her quick mind had thrown out things he hadn’t even thought of—good ideas, but also barriers he hadn’t anticipated. Problem solving with her was a rush.

“What made you go into training and development as a career?” he asked.

“Well, I actually thought of becoming a teacher. All through high school, that’s what I intended to do.”

“You like kids?”

She blinked at him, but smiled. “Yeah. I love kids.”

“Me too. Not that I’ll likely ever have any,” he added. “Anyway, go on.”

“I started working at my first part-time job in this office that had really horrible management, and I had all these ideas how they could improve the place. I got interested in how businesses work and making things better. So then I wanted to go into business, but since I like the aspect of teaching, I decided to specialize in training and development.”

“Cool.” He had a sense from those words “make things better” that she also liked to make people better. Maybe sometimes whether they wanted it or not. Which was admirable but could also be annoying. He smiled at her, liking her sense of purpose. “Anyway. You’re probably happy where you are. But you never know, one day if things work out…keep it in mind. Maybe in the meantime, though, you can be a sounding board for me. Hey, I know—I could pay you a consulting fee.”

She opened her mouth then closed it. Then opened it again. “Great,” she said, glancing at her watch. “You owe me…two hundred dollars for the last hour.”

Laughter burst from his lips and he shook his head. “Nice try.”

“You’re loaded,” she said. “Why not?”

He studied her, hearing the slight edge in her voice. “That bugs you, doesn’t it?”

“No, of course not.”

“Bullshit.” He rubbed his forehead. “That night at Vincent’s, I wasn’t showing off when I ordered that wine.”

Her mouth twisted. “Yeah,” she finally said. “I know.”

“You and Chris aren’t hurting,” he said. “I know what VPs at RBM make.”

“A lot more than I do,” she said ruefully. She laughed. “I’m sorry. I judged you and I shouldn’t have.”

“Thank you. But I’m still not paying you for the last hour. Although I will buy your lunch.”

“Thanks.”

They exchanged a smile that now held shared experience, a link between them that was more than just Chris.

“What are you up to this afternoon?” he asked as they walked back to his car.

“Shopping. Errands. Things for the condo. How about you?”

“Hmmm. Not much.”

“Meetings are all done?”

“Yeah. Now I’ve got a different path though, have to give it some thought. Hey. I’ll come shopping with you.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“Nah.” He shrugged and they paused beside his car, the bright midday sun glinting off the windshield. “I got nothing else to do.”