Swept Away (10 page)

“Is something wrong?” His stomach started to churn. Heather had disappeared suddenly. Now his new bookkeeper had found something weird. One plus one could equal trouble.

“I’m not sure.” She clicked through a series of screens, her brows furrowed in concentration. “It could be a glitch in the software. Or it could be something else.”

“What did you find?” His heart hammered in his chest. Was it from the accounting or simply from being so close to her? He could smell her shampoo, fresh, clean, not-too-sweet, with a hint of citrus.

“Well, there are duplicate entries on some of the transactions.” Lily adjusted the screen so she could view two windows at once. “It looks like the withholding was taken from both the payroll account and the main account. But I don’t know where…. I’m going to need copies of your bank statements, going back the last year, maybe longer.”

“I’ll dig them up for you.” Carson walked over to the filing cabinets; his feet felt like lead. This could be big trouble. And like always, it would all fall on his shoulders.

“Oh and I need copies of the payroll tax reports, too.” Her tone was focused, determined. She didn’t take her eyes off the computer screen. “State and Federal. How long did your last bookkeeper work for you?”

“Three years.” This was bad. Very bad.

“Bring me three years’ worth of records then.” Lily looked up then and must have seen the panic on his face. “It’s a good thing you changed the passwords on all your accounts. She can’t do any more damage.”

“How much?” He raked his hands through his closely cropped hair. He’d started to feel like his feet were about to be swept out from under him. “How much damage has she already done?”

“It could be nothing.” Lily sounded like it was no big deal. She dealt with this kind of thing every day. He imagined he’d sounded a lot like that when he told her it was no big deal to pull her out of the river. “Like I said, it could just be a computer glitch. Or a problem with the setup. I won’t know until I see the statements. Do you just have the two accounts?”

“Those are the only active accounts.” He logged on to the bank’s website. He had to navigate through a few screens to bring up the information on the main account and the payroll account. Both seemed to have a healthy balance. But if there had been an error on the withholding, there would be penalties. Not to mention having to deal with State and Federal tax agencies. What a nightmare.

This had happened right under his nose. How could he even think about leaving when he couldn’t prevent disaster while sitting a desk away? There was no way Cody could deal with this.

“Hey, we’ll figure this out,” Lily said. “Don’t worry.”

Sure. Nothing to worry about. Payroll taxes would just take care of themselves. Or he could let Cody handle it. That would be a catastrophe, unless the auditor turned out to be a lonely female willing to trade tax amnesty for sexual favors.

He was so screwed. They both were.

“Well isn’t this cozy?” Cody strolled in while Carson was digging out the old bank statements. He had the current year and the previous years’ statements, but he’d have to go into storage to find the rest. “What are you working on, spreadsheets?”

Translation:
Why don’t you come spread out on my sheets?
Cody needed to tone it down a bit. Like all the way. Carson didn’t have time to deal with his antics right now. Neither did Lily. They could be in for real trouble, and Cody was just in the way.

* * * *

“Nope. Just payroll tax reports.” Lily didn’t even look up from her monitor. She wasn’t in the mood for flirting. Especially not with Cody. “Nothing too exciting.”

“Oh, I think you’d make an audit exciting.” Cody leaned against her desk, not a care in the world.

“I actually like audits.” She looked up from the computer. “An internal audit can give you a clearer picture of your business. They can show the true value of your assets, including property values, equipment, inventory, and accounts receivables. Not to mention your investments in personnel, interest bearing accounts…”

“You remind me of this girl I met from Sao Paulo.” Cody leaned closer, a slow grin spread across his face. “I didn’t have a clue what she was saying—she spoke Brazilian—but she was sexy as hell.”

“Portuguese.” Lily resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “A woman from Brazil would speak Portuguese.”

“Really?” Cody shrugged off his mistake. “Anyway, all this accounting talk makes as much sense to me as Portuguese. Maybe you could explain it to me.”

“Some other time.” Lily tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. She was trying to keep her annoyance in check. He was her boss, but he was acting more like a child demanding her attention. “Right now I have a lot of work to do.”

“Hey, you don’t have to work so hard, you know.” Cody wasn’t taking the hint. “What’s that old saying? All work and no play?”

“Are you suggesting I’m a dull girl?” Lily turned her chair, squaring off against him.

“Oh, no, Lily. You’re anything but dull.” He flashed a lopsided grin. Did he practice in a mirror?

“And I already told you,” Lily gave him a stare that told him she meant business. “I don’t want to play with you.”

Cody shoved off the desk and held his hands out in front of him in a defensive pose.

“Hey, I’m just trying to be friendly.” He attempted one last smile. It wasn’t his usual cocky smile, hey-let’s-get-naked smile. It was more of a so-this-is-what-rejection-feels-like smile.

“I really need to focus right now.” Lily dismissed him with a backhanded wave.

“Wow.” Carson came over to Lily’s desk after his brother slipped out the door. “I have never seen anyone put him in his place like that.”

“Sorry.” Lily hadn’t meant to be rude. She was just in the zone. There was a problem that she wanted to solve. A mystery. And as every girl knew, the way to a man’s heart was through forensic accounting. “I guess I forgot my place.”

“No, it was great.” Carson stepped closer, taking the space Cody had just vacated. A smile teased the corner of his lips. “I think Cody is the one who forgot his place. If he makes you uncomfortable in any way, just let me know. I’ll take care of it.”

“And what if you make me uncomfortable?” She should not have said that out loud.

“Do I?” Carson’s voice deepened, making her feel a little bit nervous, slightly flustered, and a whole lot less than comfortable. “Do I make you uncomfortable?”

“No.” Lily held her breath, waiting for the smoke alarm to signal her pants catching fire. “I’m, uh, joking. Yeah, just joking with you.”

“Oh. I see Cody’s rubbing off on you.” His words were teasing; his tone was not.

“He wishes.” Lily was surprised by how easily the words slipped off her tongue. “But I’m a professional. I can handle your brother. He’s basically harmless.”

“Yeah. I guess you’re right.” Carson crossed his arms over his chest. Lily tried to ignore his bulging biceps, the heat radiating off him as he stood just inches from her, and she tried to ignore the way her heart rate had jumped up a notch once they were alone again.

She needed to focus. Find the anomaly in the accounting that could be a simple error or it could be fraud committed by the former bookkeeper. Numbers were simple. Numbers didn’t say one thing and mean something else. Numbers wouldn’t break her heart.

He handed her a file folder and her heart skipped a beat. The bank statements. Not a dozen roses, but eighteen months of financial records.

“Thanks.” Lily reached for her water bottle. Her mouth felt unusually dry. “I’ll go through these carefully and see what we can find.”

“I’ll head out to storage and dig up the rest.” Carson hesitated. He had to be worried. She sure was. “Let me know if there’s anything else you need.”

“We’ll get to the bottom of this.” Lily wanted to find the answers, not just to satisfy her accounting nerd curiosity, but because this was personal. She didn’t want to let him down. Let them down. Amazing that the minute Cody was out of the room, she forgot all about him. She couldn’t say the same for Carson.

Carson was much harder to forget. He was on her mind when she drifted off to sleep at night. He was on her mind when she woke up each morning. And he was on her subconscious mind while she slept. The fact that he was her boss didn’t seem to matter. It just made her that much more eager to get to work each morning.

It seemed to bother him, though. He fought the attraction between them. Like a fish caught on a line, he struggled to break free.

* * * *

Carson was in the back storage area of the boat barn, searching through boxes of old bank statements. Cody wandered in, followed by Fisher, one of their most trusted guides. Neither of them seemed to notice Carson was there.

“Hey, the river’s that way.” Fisher gave Cody a friendly nudge on the shoulder. “Or do you want me to meet with the passengers?”

“No, I’ll be right there.” Cody sounded a little defeated.

“So why are you so grumpy?”

Cody just grunted.

“Didn’t you have a date with Lily yesterday?”

“Yeah. We had a nice ride, but…” Cody parked himself on the rolled up boat. “I don’t know. What do women want?”

“It all,” Fisher said as if it were obvious. “And the perfect pair of jeans.”

“No, I mean it.” Cody was actually asking for advice. “What impresses a woman? Besides six-foot-three inches of lean muscle, abs of steel…”

“So you struck out, huh?” Fisher teased him, almost like a sister.

“I just was wondering what I’d do if I wanted to woo a woman.”

“How do you woo a woman?” Fisher sat down on the other rolled up boat. “Who are you and what did you do to my friend Cody?”

“Maybe I’m his evil twin.” Cody joked.

Fisher took a moment to answer.

“Take it slow. But not too slow. Get to know her, but don’t tell her everything about you all at once. Leave a little mystery.”

She paused again, as if was searching the inner recesses of her mind for that golden nugget of truth.

“Oh, how the hell do I know?” Fisher shrugged and hopped up. “I’ve had just as many serious relationships as you.”

“Come on.” Cody pleaded. “Help a guy out.”

“Why don’t you ask your brother?” She turned her back on him and mumbled to herself. “It’s not like anyone sees me as a real girl.”

She stalked off toward the river.

Carson stepped out from behind the stack of boxes. He could barely contain a chuckle. His brother really didn’t get women. Not their minds, anyway. He had a pretty thorough knowledge of their bodies. But that wasn’t going to help him here.

“I think what Lily wants is to be left alone. So she can do her job.”

“You don’t seem to be leaving her alone.” Cody accused, seemingly unfazed by the fact that Carson had overheard his conversation with Fisher.

“We’re working.” Carson clutched the thick file folder containing the bank statements. “Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with the details.”

“Of course.” Cody’s tone was light, like nothing bothered him. “None of my business. I’m just the pretty face on the webpage.”

“Oh, so now you’re interested in accounting procedures?”

“Sure. Why not?”

“You’re just interested in the accountant.” Carson shook his head. “Typical. But you need to be careful. She’s not here for your personal pleasure.”

“Or yours.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Carson was more than a little irritated. “You think I don’t realize that having her in that office means neither one of us can have her anywhere else?”

“Look, I’m not stupid.” Cody was frustrated, too. That much was obvious. “I’m not going to hit on her and then drop her just like that. I like her.”

“You like her?”

“Yeah. I like her. She’s different. Special,” Cody said. “She’s smart, too.”

“Smart enough not to fall for your tired old lines.”

“She inspires me.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Really. She makes me want to be a different person. A better person.”

“Wow. I had no idea she meant that much to you.” Carson
couldn’t tell if Cody was sincere, but he decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Frankly, he was surprised Lily had held his attention this long.
“Still, I think you need to try a different approach.”

“Like what?”

“You can’t just throw out one-liners. Not if you want more than a one-nighter.”

“I figured that.” Cody just hadn’t ever known any other way to relate to women. Except for Fisher, he’d never really interacted with women outside of his job. And part of his job was to be charming. Whether they were grandmothers or Girl Scouts, he put on the same act of the outgoing outdoorsman.

“Maybe you could show a legitimate interest in the bookkeeping.” Yeah, that would happen.

“I wouldn’t even know where to start,” Cody admitted. “I mean, it’s not like that stuff is really interesting.”

“It is to her.”

“Yeah, but…” His brother had always avoided anything to do with numbers and finances. As long as he had gas in his truck, beer in his fridge, and a roof over his head, money just wasn’t something he worried about. Besides, Carson took care of that stuff. He didn’t need to bother with it.

“I bet you don’t even know what bank we use for our business accounts.”

“Prospector Savings?” Cody was just guessing.

“Okay, what about our propane delivery? Who do we use for that?”

“The guys in the big white truck.” Of course he didn’t pay attention to those details. Propane was propane. As long as the heat came on when he needed it, that’s all that mattered to Cody.

“You know it wouldn’t kill you to take more of an interest in the business.” Especially since it would soon be up to him to run the place.

“I work hard. In fact, I have a group of sixteen that are counting on me right now,” Cody huffed. “I gotta go.”

And once again, the conversation they needed to have was put off.

It felt like a millennium since Lily had enjoyed a girls’ night out. She’d been too focused on work and the dual problems of duplicate withholdings and her inability to withhold her gaze from settling on Carson as she worked. Damn that man for having the restraint his brother seemed to lack.