Head Over Heels for the Boss (Donovan Brothers) (5 page)

Piper patted Isabelle’s hand. “She’s right. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make a move. He needs this.”

Ellie shook her head. “Yeah, but he’s been taking care of the family so long that I think he sees anything out of the realm of that job as being frivolous.”

The door of Petie’s Pub opened and Barbara Beth rushed in. She scrambled over to the table and sat by Ellie. “What did I miss?”

“Belle likes Devon.”

Not at all fazed by the change of name, Barbara Beth said, “I knew it.”

“Yeah, well, trying to put the moves on somebody I’m working with isn’t going to be easy.”

Barbara Beth laughed. “Or maybe all that time together will make it easier.”

“I feel like I need a plan.”

Piper shook her head. “You can’t have a plan. You either feel something for each other or you don’t.”

Ellie agreed. “That’s true.”

Isabelle sighed. “Okay, how about this? I think I need a makeover.”

Former beautician Barbara Beth reached across the table and caught a lock of Isabelle’s long, straight red hair. “You could use a trim.”

“I think I’d like a whole new look.”

Ellie’s eyes sparkled. “Really?”

Isabelle took a long, steadying breath. “Yes.”

Barbara Beth clapped her hands together with glee. “This is going to be so much fun.”

Chapter Four

W
hen Devon heard the sound of Izzy moving around in the outer office the next day, he looked up to say good morning, but the words died in his throat.

Her long straight hair had been cut in a smooth shoulder-length style that made her look like a woman, rather than a cross between a teenager and a migrant farm worker. So did the stylish top and skirt…really nice fitting skirt that showed off a nearly perfect behind.

She strolled into his office. “What’s on the agenda for today?”

He rose from the chair behind his desk. “Izzy…Belle…” The name change sank in a little more, cementing in his brain. She
wasn’t
Izzy anymore. He cleared his throat. “Wow.”

She lifted the edge of her blunt-cut red hair, as her cheeks turned pink. “It’s drastic, isn’t it?”

“It’s…” Fantastic. Sexy. Hot… “You look older.” He winced. “I hope that wasn’t an insult.”

She laughed. “It isn’t.” She casually sat on the chair across from his desk, taking control of the situation, and he slowly returned to his seat, glad one of them was thinking clearly.

“I looked like a college student the whole way through grad school and the past years working for my parents.”

She smiled across the desk at him.

His heart thumped. He couldn’t stop staring at her.

“It just felt like the right time for my wardrobe to catch up to my age.”

“You look great. Very professional.” Grateful for the reminder that they were at work and he was her boss, he shifted on his seat. “And speaking of professional, there’s no time like the present to get to work.” He didn’t mean to sound like an old man. Especially since, in Belle’s presence, he didn’t want to be old. Or young. He had no idea what he wanted to feel, but it wasn’t old.

He cleared his throat. “So how long can you work today?”

“The funeral is under control, but the wedding’s in two days. So I need all afternoon, tonight, and tomorrow to prepare.” She smiled slightly. “I’m assuming we don’t work on Saturdays.”

“No. No. Of course not.” She was nothing but professional, but inside he was a bundle of confusion. Her looks had caught up with her age. Her age had caught up to the point where it didn’t matter that she was in her twenties and he was in his thirties. They’d hit that place where people were just adults. She was pretty and happy and smart and everything inside him shouted that he should be allowed to ask her out.

Which totally confused him. Since when did he have thoughts like this about a co-worker? No. Scratch that. Since when did he have thoughts like this about somebody who worked
for
him?

“I noticed the stack of requests for investment money from yesterday is still on your desk,” he said.

“I think it’s going to take more than two hours to wade through.”

“Yes. It is.” He leaned forward and put his forearms on the desk. “So why don’t you jump into that, while I make a few phone calls this morning.” He tried a professional smile.

It worked. She rose from her chair.

“Since I’ll be busy, just poke your head in and let me know when you’re leaving.”

“Okay.”

She turned and walked out to her desk. Devon grabbed his collar and loosened it. The room was hot. His usual business demeanor seemed to have deserted him. But, luckily, there was work to do.

As he reached for his phone, she sat at the desk, turned on the computer, and lifted the first request for investment money from the big stack by her phone.

He squinted, looking across his office at her. He hadn’t noticed her fingernails the day before, but today they were a shade of pink that matched the pretty top she had on. Which intrigued him. Painting nails was a girlie thing tomboy Izzy wouldn’t have done. But, then again, everything about the way she looked today messed with his mind. Especially the way his thoughts jumped to how those pretty long nails would feel scraping down his naked back.

Completely oblivious, Izzy put her elbow on her desk and her chin on her closed fist, totally engrossed in her reading.

He shook his head. Good grief. He was acting like a fool. No. Not just a fool. A sex-starved fool. And this wasn’t him. He was a buttoned-down, hard worker, who took his responsibilities seriously. Sure, he had his adventures with women, but none of them on the job.

Pretty or not. Sexy or not. Interesting in a way that had him sitting up and taking notice or not… She was still an employee.

He reached for his phone and hit the speed dial number for Elias Fornwalt.

I
sabelle read for two straight hours. Devon’s reaction had been about what Barbara Beth had predicted. He’d be polite. Say all the right things. And then stare at her while he tried to get his bearings.

Barbara Beth had also told her not to be in a hurry. To let things happen. She hadn’t tried to push him. She hadn’t put them in close proximity or made up questions so she could go into his office, stand beside his chair, and bend close so he could smell her perfume. She’d been a good girl.

But the time she could afford to spend at the office today was up. She didn’t just have to get to Buds and Blossoms. She had to go home first and change into something suitable for making flower arrangements.

With a disappointed sigh, she rose from her seat, turning to say good-bye to Devon, but he was right behind her. He stood so close that they were toe to toe.

She looked up.

He looked down.

A crazy feeling of rightness flooded her. She swore she felt waves of heat radiating from him. But with her gaze held by his mesmerizing brown eyes, she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak. The feeling of rightness became a plume of longing. For two seconds, she thought about standing on her tiptoes and kissing him. Then she remembered Barbara Beth’s advice that it was always better to let the man do the chasing.

She cleared her throat. “I…um…was just on my way to Buds and Blossoms.”

He quickly stepped away from her and ran his hand along the back of his neck. “I just came out to see if you have any questions.”

“Actually, I have a lot of questions.” She pointed at the notebook on her desk. “I started writing them down. I thought it might be better for us to sit down and talk about everything at the same time.”

He took another step back. “Yeah. That’s a good idea.”

It hit her then that she made him uncomfortable, and her chest tightened. She didn’t want him to feel uncomfortable around her. The man was a dynamo who took what he wanted. If he wanted her, he wouldn’t hem and haw about it. He’d take her. Yet he looked at her as if she were a foreign object.

This stupid makeover was having exactly the opposite effect!

She grabbed the little beige clutch bag Barbara Beth had lent to her. “I won’t be in the rest of today or tomorrow. So I’ll see you Monday.”

He nodded, and she raced out of the office and up the hall to the front door, wondering how the hell she’d gotten herself into this position and if it was too late to back out. It might take months for her hair to grow back, but in ten minutes she’d be in jeans again and a T-shirt with a flower on the front. She could go back to being plain Izzy Cooper.

“Izzy, is that you?”

LuAnn.

Isabelle stopped, feeling caught like a criminal racing to escape the federal pen.

Turning in the direction of LuAnn’s voice, she called, “Just on my way out, Mrs. Donovan.”

She took a few steps toward the kitchen. LuAnn met her in the big open space between the kitchen and the fancy seating area.

“Well, don’t you look nice?” She smiled. “Doesn’t she look nice, Devon?”

She spun around. She hadn’t even realized Devon had followed her.

“She looks fantastic. She’ll be perfect as one of the faces of our business.”

Her chest tightened, then sprang free with something that felt a lot like joy. She’d never thought of herself as the face of a business. If she stayed here, working for Devon, is that what she’d become?

Some of the things Ellie and Piper had said about working for Donovan, Inc. played through her brain. Traveling. Dinners with wealthy clients. Jets. Limos.

She’d be part of that. She’d have a real career. Not that running a flower shop wasn’t a career, but it didn’t involve travel, or dinners out, or wealthy clients. Worldly clients. Really using her master’s degree. Her heart skipped a beat as the reality of it sank in. She’d loved her studies, and actually using that knowledge? The mere thought stole her breath.

LuAnn put her arm across Isabelle’s shoulder. “It’s going to be such fun having you around. In fact, why don’t you come to dinner tonight? I’ve invited Bob—”

Devon’s face scrunched. “Bob?”

“Bob Bailey,” LuAnn reminded him. “Every Thursday, Finn and Ellie, and Cade and Piper, come over for dinner. It’s nothing fancy. Just pot roast and family.”

Isabelle said, “I can’t,” at the same time that Devon said, “She can’t.”

Though she had work to do and would be eating a baloney sandwich as she made centerpieces, Devon’s quick answer felt like an insult. Almost as if he didn’t want her around his family.

He shrugged. “I thought you said you had arrangements to make for the funeral…or was it something for the wedding?”

“You’re making her work at night?”

“This isn’t my choice,” Devon casually pointed out. “Izzy took the order for the wedding flowers herself. Plus, flower shops don’t run on the same kind of schedule an office does.” He pulled a bottle of water from the fridge. “Izzy knows that.”

The weird feeling tumbled through Isabelle again, stifling the part of her that wanted to be insulted. What he said was true. Flower shops didn’t run on the same schedule as an office. And she had a lot of work to do. Orders to fill that
she’d
taken. He wasn’t keeping her out. He was acknowledging what she’d already told him.

But he’d called her Izzy.

Twice.

So much for the impact of her makeover.

“I am working tonight, Mrs. Donovan. In fact, as soon as I run home and get into some jeans, I have to get to the shop and start making centerpieces.”

“Oh, that sounds so nice. What did they order?”

“Square glass vases with short-stemmed roses.”

“Red?”

“Yellow.”

LuAnn sighed. “So pretty.”

“It will be,” Isabelle said, shifting Barbara Beth’s cute clutch bag to her other hand. “That’s why I have to get going.”

“We’ll see you at Mark and Rachel’s wedding?”

Isabelle’s brain shifted gears again. The girls had big plans for her at the wedding of a local girl and the man she’d met at college. Plans that involved a skimpy pink dress and making room for her at the Donovans’ table. Beside Devon. Where she could flirt to her heart’s delight.

In the dating gospel according to Barbara Beth, Saturday’s wedding was her chance to make her move. She should stick to the plan until then, at least. She couldn’t declare failure yet.

Her confidence returned and she smiled. “Yes, you’ll see me at the wedding.”

A
round six that night, Devon came down the back stairway and headed toward the kitchen. The entire house smelled like heaven. Pot roast and mashed potatoes. Fresh corn.

Tightening his tie, he made his way to the formal dining room, which was empty.

He finally figured out that his mother had invited the fire chief to dinner as a way to get a donation. Giving the fire company and ambulance association hefty checks was already on his to-do list. It was strange that his mom thought she had to invite the fire chief to dinner rather than just come right out and ask. But he was a busy person. Plus, his mom had trouble asking for things. His father had beaten her often enough that she’d become meek. The past three years she’d been getting over that. But she wasn’t entirely whole yet.

Devon would not make her ask for money for one of her favorite causes. He’d already written two checks. One he’d mail to the ambulance association tomorrow morning. The other he would give to Bob before dinner, so there’d be no embarrassment. No business at the table. They’d just be family and a friend eating a nice meal.

Stepping into the kitchen, he said, “So where are we eating?”

His mother said, “Outside,” just as Ellie and Finn entered through the front door.

Finn called, “We brought peach cobbler from O’Riley’s.”

“Yum!” LuAnn said. She took the box from Ellie before she kissed Finn’s cheek. “So you two are looking happy.”

Ellie rubbed her swollen tummy. “Three more weeks.”

“And then I’ll have a granddaughter to add to the grandson I already have.”

The front door opened again. Cade held one-month-old little Richie and LuAnn scooped him out of Cade’s arms. Devon leaned against the counter, feeling a pride that he probably didn’t have any right to feel. But his brothers’ lives would be very different if he hadn’t spared them the worst of his father’s fists. Now both were married and had plenty of time for family because he’d also taken the burden of managing the family fortune. Finn was an excellent businessman, but he had his own companies to run. Cade loved his ranch. The place made a small fortune, too, the way Finn’s businesses did. But just as Finn’s businesses were enough for him to handle, the ranch was enough for Cade.

“So when are you guys going back to Montana?”

Cade glanced over at Devon. “We were supposed to be leaving Sunday, after the wedding. Now we’re going to stay the three weeks until the baby,” he said, nudging his head in Ellie’s direction. “Because somebody doesn’t want to go.”

Cade shook his head as Piper said, “Of course I don’t want to go! I’m getting a niece. I’m not missing a minute.”

LuAnn laughed. “She’s going to be the most spoiled child in the world.”

Good
, Devon thought. Both of Ellie’s parents had passed, so the newest Donovan would have no maternal grandparents. Her paternal grandfather wouldn’t be allowed to get within two miles of the baby if the Donovan brothers had their say. The only grandparent Finn’s daughter would have was his mother. So, yeah. They’d all be getting involved with this baby.

The doorbell rang.

His mother’s face changed. Her eyes got bright. Her lips formed a grin. “That’s Bob.” She handed little Richie to Piper, whipped off her apron, and headed for the door.