Her humor caught him off guard again, and he laughed. Even his bodyguard smiled. “I’m okay,” he said as they made their way to her apartment, and then inside. The bodyguard remained at the door.
William wasn’t surprised by how clean and airy the tiny apartment was. He could tell, the moment he first met Joy, that she was a neat freak. And the apartment smelled sweet like her. There was no way some man occupied this well-maintained space. And that reality pleased him too.
“The bathroom is right there, just off the living room,” she said.
He assumed it was a one-bedroom apartment. Which meant she had no ensuite.
But while he was using the restroom, Joy went down the hall to her bedroom and began gathering together a pair of jeans and a t-shirt she planned to put on after she got out of that tub.But she couldn’t wait to get in that tub and get every piece of that jail off of her. She planned to scrub and scrub until it hurt.
Although she was happy to be back home, coming back home only reminded her that she had failed. That her dream was down the pipe again.
She called Tess, who was still at work pulling a double shift. “I’ll come by when I knock off,” she said happily.
Then she called Gramps, who was happy she was out too. Although he forgot that she had been in jail. “I’ll come see you tomorrow, Gramps,” she promised. Which was enough for him. She ended the call.
“So this is your bedroom?”
Joy turned suddenly when she heard his voice. When she saw William standing there, leaned against her doorjamb, her heart began to pound. Was this the moment he demanded payment for driving her home? Was all that niceness just an act to get her in bed?
It seemed highly unlikely on second thought. Why would he get her out of jail and then drive her three hours to Bridell just to sleep with her? He was a very rich, good looking man. Surely he had tons of women that would be more than happy to make him happy. Women like the super-eager Sloane.
Willima smiled. “Don’t look so alarmed, Joynetta. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
“Oh.” His smile calmed her. She settled back down. “That’s okay. I just can’t wait to get that jail off of me.”
“I see.”
“I’ll walk you to the door.”
“About that,” William said as he pushed away from her doorjamb and walked further into her small bedroom. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“About what?”
“Sit down.Please.”
She was puzzled now as she sat down on the edge of her bed. He sat down beside her.
“What’s wrong?” she asked him.
“I’m getting ready to head back to Chicago.”
“Yes sir.”
“And I want you to come back with me.”
Joy stared at him. “Me? But I’m home now.”
“And you’ll go back home tomorrow. But the only way I can hire you is if you complete the paperwork in my Human Relations department.”
She still didn’t understand. “But I’m not going back to Chicago.”
“Even if your office job is there?”
Tears began to well up in Joy’s eyes. “When they first arrested me for doing nothing wrong, I didn’t wanna have nothing to do with Chicago or Skeffington PR or anything else in this town anymore. For real. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about it.”
That was what he was relying on. Her ability to see the whole picture. “And what have you been thinking about, Joynetta?”
“That if I leave town and never look back, it’ll be like giving up. On myself. But I’m no quitter.”
