Authors: Debbi Rawlins
Tony grinned suddenly, his gaze focused on something in the distance, and he lifted his hand in a wave.
Dallas twisted around in time to see Dakota snub him and disappear around the corner.
“She turned for a last look,” Tony said, still grinning. “She likes me.”
“You’re too much.”
“That’s what all the women say.”
“Oh, please.” Dallas laughed, darted another look in the direction her sister had gone. Dakota was not the type to look back. Interesting.
She was about to take a bite of cheese when her cell phone rang. As she pulled it off the clip on her belt, she checked caller ID. Her heart skipped two beats. It was Eric.
“Hello?”
“Hey. It’s me,” he said. “Tell me you haven’t had lunch yet.”
“Just had it.” Giving Tony an apologetic look, she struggled to her feet.
Snorting, he tore open a bag of chips. “Nice having lunch with you.”
She glared at him before moving out of earshot.
“Uh, sorry.” Eric cleared his throat. “Sounds like I’ve interrupted.”
“No, not really. That was one of the guys I work with.”
“Ah, well, since you already had lunch, how about a drink after work?”
She glanced down at her miserable-looking nails. “What time?”
“I’m flexible.”
“Okay, well…” Her gaze on her watch, she started calculating the time it would take her to dash home and get cleaned up.
Several feet from Dallas one of the kids playing ball let out an ear-piercing scream.
“What was that?”
“Some kid.” She walked farther away as the fight between the little boys escalated.
“Where are you?”
“In a park.”
“You ate lunch there?”
“Yeah.”
Silence stretched and she knew what he was thinking. A park was a strange place to have lunch with a
business associate. God, she didn’t want Eric to think she was jerking him around.
“Okay, well, if you’re busy, no problem,” he said, his tone suddenly and achingly indifferent.
“No, really I’m not. I’d met my sister here. She left a minute before you called.”
“Ah, I didn’t know she worked in the city.”
“Yep. Not far from here.”
“Where’s here?”
Dallas smiled. “Where should we meet for a drink?”
He sighed, his impatience with her evasiveness clear. “Any preference?”
“How about— Oh, no!”
“What?”
“I can’t tonight. I’m meeting Wendy and Trudie.” How could she have forgotten? “My roommate and another college friend. We get together once a month. Tonight’s it.” Why did she feel compelled to give him an explanation? She didn’t owe him any. “Sorry.”
He hesitated for a long tense moment. “Is everything okay with us?”
“Yes. Absolutely.”
Tony approached carrying both their lunch pails. He pointed to his watch, she nodded and he headed back toward the job site. They had five minutes to clock back in. She couldn’t be late.
“Still there?” she asked, starting after Tony but keeping a safe distance so that he couldn’t hear her conversation.
“Yeah, how about tomorrow night then? Have you
seen
Aida?
I think I can get decent tickets, and then we could have dinner afterward….”
She cringed. “I can’t.”
“Okay,” he said slowly.
“I promised a friend I’d help her move out of her apartment. Tomorrow evening is the only time we can do it so she can be out by Saturday.”
“Need a strong back?”
“Who? You?”
“Very funny.”
She stopped several yards outside the door so he couldn’t hear the buzz of electric saws and drills as she scrambled for something to say that wouldn’t put him off. He couldn’t meet Nancy. Tony was going to be there, too. Eric couldn’t meet any of them. Not yet.
She swallowed hard, hoping she wasn’t about to make the biggest mistake of her life. “How about Saturday? Want to go to dinner at my parents’ house?”
E
RIC HUNG UP THE RECEIVER
and then stared at the phone. They’d been going out for one week and he’d agreed to have dinner with her parents. This whole thing with Dallas could hardly get more bizarre. One minute he thought she was brushing him off, and the next she was asking him to meet her family. Not just her parents but her brother and sister—they were all going to be there. Was he ready for this?
“Hey.” Tom strolled into his office. “You going out today or eating in?”
“What?”
“Lunch.” Tom frowned. “What’s the matter with you?”
Eric picked up a paper clip and absently twirled it around his fingers. “She asked me to go to her parents’ house for dinner.”
“Who?”
Eric blinked at him. “Dallas.”
Tom sank into the chair opposite Eric and stared. “You’re still seeing her?”
“I took her to Horn’s reception last night.”
“No shit.”
“So?”
Tom snorted. “Unbelievable. This is serious.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Dinner with her parents? Right.”
“It’s not like that.” Eric got up to get a cup of coffee.
“This means you must have boinked her already, right?”
“You asshole. Get out.”
“Whoa!” Tom laughed and got up to follow Eric down the hall to the coffee room. “This is serious.”
Too late Eric realized he should never have said anything to Tom. Except how would Eric know he’d receive such a juvenile reaction? They’d never had a serious conversation about a woman in his life. Hell, there never had been anyone with whom Eric had considered having a serious relationship.
He made sure no one else was in the coffee room and then turned to Tom and in a low voice said, “Okay, this may be going somewhere, so you gotta lay off.”
Tom’s eyes met Eric’s and the laughter disappeared. Surprise flickered and then genuine concern. “Sure. I get it.”
“Good.” Eric got his coffee and headed back to his office, hoping like hell Tom didn’t follow. He didn’t expect his friend to give him a hard time, but he didn’t want to field any more questions either. Questions that would expose the embarrassing fact that Dallas had revealed so little about herself.
He got back to his office, and sure enough, right behind him was Tom. Sighing, Eric sat down. “By the way, I’m eating in today. I have a couple of important calls to make.”
Tom hovered in the doorway, a dozen questions in his eyes. “Anyone picking up a sandwich for you?”
“I’m having it delivered.” Eric picked up his phone receiver for added effect.
“All right, tomorrow maybe.”
“Sure. We’ll go over to Pete’s for a Philly cheesesteak.”
“You got it.” Tom checked his watch. “Better go. I’ve got a meeting in an hour.”
“See ya later.” Watching with relief as Tom headed for the lobby elevators, Eric replaced the receiver. He picked up his coffee and took a sip. Today he’d skip lunch. He wasn’t really hungry. If he wanted it later, he had a Snickers stashed in his desk somewhere.
The phone rang, and he muttered a curse when the sound startled him into sloshing coffee onto an expense report. He grabbed the receiver. Before he could greet the caller, Lawrence Horn walked into his office.
“I wanted to give you a heads-up,” the receptionist said over the phone line. “Mr. Horn is on his way to your office right now.”
“Thanks,” Eric muttered and hung up.
“Poor girl, she did try to stop me,” Lawrence said as he sank into the chair Tom had vacated.
Eric didn’t even try to feign innocence. “What are you doing roaming around this side of town?”
“Oh, I thought I’d slum for a while.” Today he wore a royal-blue suit, cream-colored shirt and black tie. “See how the other half lives.”
Used to his harmless sense of humor, Eric paid no
attention to the obnoxious remark. “Great party last night. Thanks again.”
“You left early.” Lawrence wagged a finger and grinned. “Although I can certainly understand why. She’s exquisite. Truly exquisite. I applaud you.”
Eric snorted, glad Dallas wasn’t here to hear that. “Wish I could take credit.”
“Oh, was I being politically incorrect?” Lawrence frowned thoughtfully, and then a sly smile curved his mouth. “You’ll both forgive me when you hear my offer.”
“Offer? What offer?”
“I want you to design an ad campaign around her.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know.” Lawrence waved an impatient hand. “Her face haunted me all night. I even dreamed about her. Surely you can use her to link my companies or something. After all, Revlon and L’Oreal have models as spokeswomen or what have you.”
“They’re cosmetic companies. Of course they would use—”
“Oh, you sound like Bruce.” Lawrence muttered an expletive. “You’re supposed to be creative. Think of something.”
Eric shook his head. “She doesn’t model any more.” Actually he didn’t even know if that was true. He didn’t know anything about her.
“She will.” Lawrence stood and daintily dusted off his lapels with his manicured fingertips. “Money always talks. For her and you.” He smiled. “I guess I’ll
stop by the old man’s office on my way out. Haven’t seen him in ages.”
Eric recognized the veiled threat. Lawrence was going to fill Webber in. If Eric didn’t produce, Webber would be all over him.
Then again, maybe he was getting worked up for nothing. Maybe Dallas would be open to a modeling contract. Especially if the price was right. It still galled him that he knew so little about her. But that would change. Saturday night. She was finally going to let him into her private sanctum. Suddenly Saturday couldn’t come fast enough.
“Y
OU HAVE A DEATH WISH
. Y
OU
know that, right?” Wendy grabbed a handful of peanuts from the glass bowl the cocktail server had set on their table.
Trudie stopped sipping her margarita long enough to make a face at Wendy. “Why are you so negative?”
“Oh, please. Once he meets her parents, you don’t think they’ll be history?”
Dallas sighed, beginning to wish she hadn’t brought up the subject. “I think Wendy’s on to something. Maybe I do have a death wish.”
Both women looked at her as if she’d just told them she was pregnant. Dallas causally glanced at the guy at the table to the right of her, so close he might as well have been sitting with them. The place was crowded, every table taken, people standing four deep at the bar. Even the poor cocktail servers had trouble squeezing in between the tables bulging with yuppies in suits and
loosened ties. She would rather have gone somewhere else, but it had been Trudie’s turn to choose the place.
Dallas leaned closer and spoke more softly. “I mean, maybe I want him to find out but I’m too chicken to actually tell him myself. Does that make sense?”
“Yeah, in a creepy Freudian sort of way.” Wendy took a thoughtful sip of her club soda. She saved her calories for peanuts or any other snacks the bar offered.
Dallas did the opposite. Her calories generally went toward alcohol when she was out. Trudie, on the other hand, had no boundaries. She simply indulged in everything.
Trudie licked the salted rim of her glass and then put it down near the peanuts. “Well, kiddo, if you want him to find out, this will be one hell of a good way.”
“Except I really don’t want him to find out.” Dallas sighed. “I don’t think.”
The other two exchanged sympathetic looks.
Wendy spoke first. “Okay, I hate to point out the obvious, but once you take him to meet the parents, it’s gonna be out of your hands.”
“First, this isn’t about meeting my parents. Second, they rarely talk about anything but themselves and whatever research they’re currently involved in, and when they don’t have the floor, my brother does. Since they dismiss my job out of hand, they never ask about it. In fact, I think they like to pretend it doesn’t exist.”
Wendy reached for another handful of peanuts. “Yeah, but you don’t think they’ll be a little more chatty about you with a new face at the table?”
“Not if I warn my mother ahead of time.”
They both chuckled, and then Trudie said, “Like she’s going to listen to you.”
“She will. Otherwise she knows I won’t be showing up for any more—” Dallas hooked two sets of fingers in the air “—quote ‘family dinners.’”
“Ah, blackmail,” Wendy said, nodding. “Good move.”
Trudie frowned, clearly not buying the plan. “What about your father or brother? Or even Dakota, for that matter?”
“Dakota will be totally cool. Mother will take care of Cody and my father.”
“I still think it’s risky.” Wendy signaled the waitress for another club soda. “But, of course, I vote you just tell him. If he doesn’t like it, screw him. You don’t need that. You guys want another one?”
They both nodded, and Wendy took care of it with a few hand signals to the waitress.
“I don’t know,” Trudie said. “I just don’t think she should be hasty. Once he knows her better, he may be more forgiving.”
“Oh, jeez,” Wendy said loudly enough to earn her a couple of glares. “Like Dallas needs forgiveness. How would you like it if some guy told you he didn’t want you working at a department store?”
“That’s not what I meant. You always choose to take everything I say wrong.” Trudie got that huffy look on her face that meant the silent treatment wasn’t far behind. Which also meant it was time to call it a night.
Dallas sighed. “I think Trudie was talking about me playing a mind game with him. The whole mystery thing.”
“Exactly.” Trudie sat back, her arms folded across her chest.
“Whatever.” Wendy fished the lime out of her drink and popped it into her mouth.
Dallas winced. She liked the flavor of lime, but the actual fruit? Eew. “So, what’s happening with you, Trudie? Your boss has to love that display window. It really is something.”
Trudie’s entire expression changed. “They think I’m a genius.”
“You are. Wendy, you should go by and see the window. Totally awesome.”
The conversation went in a neutral direction and everyone seemed to relax. Pretty typical girls’ night out for them, actually. Dallas didn’t know why she insisted on throwing Wendy and Trudie together. They were so different. But both dear friends, and maybe she was more like Dakota than she cared to admit.
Dallas liked harmony, the scales perfectly balanced. It was the Libra in her. That’s why she couldn’t grasp why she’d set herself up as she had. Saturday could be disastrous. And totally avoidable. It wasn’t too late to back out. She had to really think about this. As if she hadn’t wrung herself out worrying already.
She took a deep breath, trying to stay focused on the conversation. But something kept niggling at her, something too horrible to admit. There was possibly another reason she wanted to take Eric to dinner at her parents’.
His meeting them, seeing the beautiful white Victorian in which she’d grown up, would legitimize her.
Prove she was more than a construction worker. That she was his kind of woman. And no matter how much she rejected the possibility, it sat heavily in her stomach, eating at her, making her sick. Because if it were true, that would make her a snob just like them.
E
RIC OPENED THE DOOR TO HIS
apartment, his eyes lighting with appreciation. “You look beautiful.”
“Thank you.” She hadn’t even made it over the threshold before he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. She sighed. “Maybe we should stay here.”
“Tempting.” He smiled and leaned back to look at her. “But I don’t want to disappoint your parents. That wouldn’t put us off to a very good start.”
She stifled a nervous laugh. Start? Tonight could be the finish. “You really don’t have to wear a tie, you know.”
He stepped back and studied the obscenely expensive red silk blouse she’d received as a Christmas present from her parents but would never have spent the money on herself. With it she wore casual cream-colored slacks and taupe flats.
“Okay.” He loosened the conservative gray tie and then pulled it off. “Better?”
“You don’t even have to wear a sports jacket.”
He looked doubtful. “What will your father and brother be wearing?”
She laughed. “You sound like a twelve-year-old girl.”
“What?” One eyebrow went up. “A twelve-year-old girl, huh?”
She backed up. “Yep.”
“Better take it back.”
“Or else?”
He grabbed her, and she came up against his chest, laughing, struggling for a breath. She tilted her head back, anticipating his kiss, but he only touched the corner of her mouth lightly with the tip of his tongue.
“Hey.” She raised herself on her tiptoes.
A cocky grin curved his lips. “Hey, what?”
“You don’t want to play this game with me,” she said sweetly. “You’ll lose.”
“What game?” He grunted when she rubbed against his fly and then quickly retreated. “You’re a cruel woman.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Not even going to deny it, huh?”
“Nope.” She smiled and rubbed up against him again. He was hard already.
His eyes closed briefly and he moaned. “You’re damn lucky the car is going to be here in ten minutes.”
“I don’t know why you hired one. We could have taken the train.”
“I don’t understand why you wouldn’t let me pick you up at your apartment.”
She stiffened and stepped around him to smooth her hair. Her blouse had come loose in the back, and she took her time tucking it in.
“Dallas, I’m not trying to give you a hard time. I figured that going to your parents’ meant the mystery stuff was over.”
“I was already in the neighborhood.” She shrugged,
finding it difficult to meet his eyes while she was lying. “It just seemed easier to meet you here. You still have time to change if you want to wear something more comfortable.”
He hesitated, staring at her as if deciding whether to push the issue. Finally he said, “Such as?”
“Jeans, if you want.”
“Jeans?”
“Sure.”
He cast a skeptical glance at her slacks. “I’ll pass on the jeans, but I will lose the jacket.”
“That works. Here.” She slipped around him to help take off his jacket, and he caught her wrist.
“Anxious to undress me?”