Page 62

I thought of her all weekend, both in good and pleasurable ways. But now, sitting in this office waiting for her to come in, I felt like a kid waiting for Santa on Christmas morning. Excited, and as a thirty-six-year-old man, a little bit pathetic.

Her entrance to the room didn’t disappoint. She’d worn a short-sleeve, navy-blue dress that hugged her curves and showed her cleavage. As she drew closer, I noticed little white flowers on the dress, and they reminded me of the perfume she wore.

When she saw me, her face broke into a smile that brightened the entire room, and I realized I'd been right to anticipate this. “I got you dessert.”

Her eyes lit up. “A turtle mocha? Isoneeded this.” She sat down, taking the cup in both her hands and drinking deeply.

“Rough night?” I asked.

“More like rough weekend,” she replied.

“Everything okay?” I asked, searching for another bruise. “You didn’t get hit by another ball, did you?”

She chuckled, then she sighed, shaking her head. It took another sip of the turtle mocha to steel herself before she could tell the story. “Caleb decided to show up for one of Levi's games, which was great, until he decided to suggest that the only reason I have nice furniture in my house is because I'm having sex with my boss.”

I cringed, sucking in a breath through my teeth. “What the hell is wrong with that guy?”

“He's jealous,” she said, shaking her head and swirling her drink around in her cup. “He told me when I left that I’d never be able to make it on my own and that I’d come crawling back. And maybe that's why he hasn't seen the kids, because he thought we'd be back any day. But I think seeing me in my house and doing so well solidified for him that it's really over.”

“So what did you do?” I asked. I hoped she’d put him in his place. She deserved to be treated better than that, and her kids needed a better example of a man.

“Oh, this is where it got worse.” She set her coffee down, placing her hands on the table, like she wanted to flip it. “I can take Caleb saying crappy things to me, because, well, I've been dealing with it for a while, butthenhe walked in and told the kids that I was making him leave, and you should have seen the look on Levi's face. I'm pretty sure he’s going to hate me forever. Cora was crying, asking why Daddy wouldn't come back, and Andrew threw the baseball glove and bat that Caleb got him in the garbage. So I was dealing withallthe feelings.”

I shook my head. “All I did over the weekend was some extra work and hit the gym.”

She had half a smile as she picked her drink back up. “Do you know how lucky you are?”

I gazed at her. She was so beautiful, even frustrated and slouched over her coffee. “You have no idea.”

Her eyes met mine, holding my gaze for a moment. “He did say something else...”

My fists clenched under the table. “Something worse?”

She shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

“Farrah,” I ordered.

Meeting my eyes again, she said, “He said Griffen Industries dropped Green Line Mutual.”

My shoulders squared. He was still an idiot for leaving Farrah, but smarter than I thought to make the connection. “We did.”

Her lips parted. “Why? They have the best rates in Texas, maybe in the country... Wouldn’t that cost your company a lot of money to switch to another provider?”

Our eyes locked, and I tilted my head, wanting her to see me. The real me. Not just the hard exterior everyone knew. “I might be a businessman, but I’m also a human. I have no desire to work with a company that lets its employees cheat on the job and then keeps them on board.”

Her lips parted. “How did you know...”

“I have a PI.” And I’d learned way too fucking much about Caleb Elkins and his slimy boss to ever work with Green Line again.

Farrah nodded. Then nodded again. “Wow.”

“What?” I asked.

She looked up at me with wide brown eyes that were impossible to turn down. “You did that for me?”

For a woman who was so easy to read, she was gauging me just right. Seeing too much.

Deny. Deny. Deny. “It wasn’t for you—it was for the company,” I lied. “My conscience, if you can believe I have one.”