She put her hands together as if she were praying.“I honestly hear everything you’re saying, but I’m not sure he’s the right guy.However, I promise you, I’ll be more open to dating.”
A frown turned down Cara’s mouth.“You’re saying that just to mollify us.”
“I’m not trying to mollify you.”Though she actually was.“It’s just that I like my freedom.I’m not in the right headspace for anything more.At least not right now.”
“Don’t let this one slip through your fingers,” Fallon warned.“He could be a keeper.”
Summer couldn’t help laughing.“Oh my God, you sound like a mother from the 1950s.”
Then Cara broke the tension, as if she knew her mother needed some space.“I’m starving.Let’s make sandwiches.”
When Summer put her hands on the chair to get up, Fallon pushed her shoulder.“We’ll do it.”
Then her two beautiful girls grabbed their swimsuit wraps and trotted off.
They were wonderful for thinking of her.And they were both amazing.She could call them girls, but they were intelligent, thoughtful women, with their own opinions and their amazing insights.
But could they be right about Knox?And she was all wrong?
19
The girls—no, her two beautiful, fully grown daughters—left around noon on Monday, before the out-of-town holiday traffic got too bad.
Once they were gone, her fingers itched to call Knox.Despite all her resolve not to contact him, she sent him a text telling him she was fine.
It was like opening a door.He texted back immediately.I need to check for myself.
She texted one line.I’m not ready.
Yesterday’s conversation with her daughters kept running through her mind.And part of her kept asking, why not?Would it be so terrible to take a chance?
But what the girls didn’t understand was that her relationship with Knox could harm her career, her chance at promotions.
It didn’t matter that Holt Montgomery had married his secretary.It didn’t matter that David Farris was living with the cost accounting manager.It didn’t even matter that Ward Restin was engaged to Holt’s daughter.
The VPs could do whatever they wanted, but she didn’t have the same luxury.There were different rules for underlings.So yes, she punished Knox for that infraction by not calling him.But the fear of what would happen Tuesday when she went back to work roiled in her belly.
She hadn’t seen Lee in a couple of weeks since she was still entertaining the dreaded mother-in-law.But Summer felt desperate for a workout, or a coffee date, or even a phone chat with her no-nonsense best friend.
“Oh my God, save me from my mother-in-law,” Lee hissed sotto voce before Summer could even say hello.
“I’ll save you.Have coffee with me.”
Fifteen minutes later they were seated at a corner table in their favorite café, surrounded by families giving sweet drinks to their kids that were guaranteed to send them off on a sugar high.
“So, did you call to rescue me, or am I supposed to rescue you?”Lee asked, licking a bit of foam off her lip.
“You know that dangerous VP?”
Lee waggled her perfectly arched eyebrows.“The delicious Knox Turner.”
“He kissed me in front of everyone at the company picnic.”
Lee gaped.“He didn’t.”
“He did.”
“And?”Lee hit her with a wide-eyed stare.
