A young woman with expertly highlighted hair and ridiculously long eyelashes is sitting behind a high reception desk and speaking on the phone. She smiles and holds up a finger, letting me know she’ll be with me in a second. Her desk is decorated with assorted sizes of modern-looking glass Christmas tree decorations in glittery red, green, and gold, making it look like a festive forest. Those would be perfect on the fireplace mantle at home. Christmas is in less than a week and my rental is woefully under-decorated..
“Hi, sorry about the wait. Can I help you?”
“Uh, yes. Thanks,” I say, stepping closer to the desk. “Can you tell me where I can find Archer Fade?”
She looks me up and down and grins when her gaze lands on Lincoln. “He’s probably in his office,” she says. “It’s down at the end of that hallway. His assistant, MaeLynn, will help you. She’s dying to meet you.” She points to a long hallway off to the right behind the reception desk.
MaeLynn is dying to meet me? Does that mean Archer told her about me? Oh god, what did he say? Wait. This girl knows who I am. What did he tell her?
“Thanks.” I nod to the holiday display on her desk. “I love your Christmas trees. Where’d you get them?”
“Aren’t they amazing?” She says with a chuckle. “We actually make them here at Fade Toys. It’s our Christmas Cheer bundle. Can you believe Archer didn’t want me to put up this display at first? He said they didn’t look festive enough to be used as a Christmas display.”
“You have a good eye. They look wonderful. I wouldn’t mind a set for myself.”
“Good for you,” she says with an approving smile—and was that a wink?—as the phone rings. “Oh, I better get that. You go on back and talk to MaeLynn.”
I give her a nod before hoisting Lincoln a little higher in my arms and going down the hallway. It opens onto a small reception area with a desk and two chairs off to the side, but I don’t see the assistant who should be here. I can hear voices coming from the open door beyond the desk, though.
It’s probably wrong of me to listen in, but…to hell with it. I’m sitting here. I can’t exactly turn my ears off, can I?
“That’s no problem at all, Roger.”
“Oh, thank you so much, Mr. Fade. It would be fine if it weren’t the holidays, but the wife and I went overboard on gifts for the kids. If I’d known I’d be replacing my kid’s braces three days before Christmas, I wouldn’t have spent so much on gifts.” The man, Roger, if I heard correctly, scoffs. “Leave it to my son to bust his braces at the height of the holiday season.”
“Don’t worry about a thing. MaeLynn will make sure HR gets that into your account before the end of the day. Okay? Don’t let this stress you out. We’ll get it all sorted out. You focus on enjoying your time off. And be sure to say Merry Christmas to Mary and the kids for me.”
“Thank you, thank you. I really appreciate it, Mr. Fade.”
A deep rumbling chuckle sends a zing through me, and I know it’s Archer. His laugh is as wonderful now as it was the night we met.
“No need to thank me, Roger. We take care of each other here. I am going to have to ask you to do one thing for me, though. Call me Archer, okay? I hate being called Mr. Fade. Makes me think my father is lurking around here somewhere.”
It’s the other man’s turn to laugh, and it doesn’t have nearly the same effect on me as Archer’s did.
“You bet, Mr…I mean, Archer. And thanks again. Thanks, MaeLynn.”
A moment later, a man walks out of the office with a smile on his face. He tips his head in greeting as he walks by me before going back down the hallway to the front lobby area.
“So you want me to call the orthodontist and have them put it on your credit card, don’t you?” I can hear the smile in the woman’s tone. “Instead of giving him the advance he requested?”
Archer laughs again, causing more of those infernal tingles to zip through my body. He has a girlfriend. He has a girlfriend. He has a girlfriend. Maybe if I tell myself enough times, it will finally sink in and I’ll stop reacting to him this way.
“Close. Put it on my credit card but still put the money in his account only as a bonus instead of an advance. If he notices that we never ask for it back, we can say it’s a computer error and there’s no way to reverse it.”
He’s going to pay for the kid’s braces? That’s…that’s so generous.My heart flutters in my chest. Lincoln’s father is a nice guy. So far, he’s sounding like the right kind of father to help my son grow into a good man.
“Archer, you know what your father would say about you handing out money like this, don’t you?”
He laughs again.Dammit, does the man have no consideration for the state of my panties? “Oh, I don’t know. Probably something rude about it serving a person right for not budgeting properly, or how people will never learn to be responsible if I give them handouts, blah, blah, blah. I don’t really give a shit what he would say, to be honest, because I learned something better from this amazing woman I know. It’s that if I can’t afford to pay my employees a living wage, or pay for emergency orthodontia occasionally, then I don’t deserve to be in business.”
Oh geez. He’s a really good guy. A really good guy that I’m eavesdropping on like a creep. My stomach drops into my feet.
I need to let these people know that I’m here. When they find out I’ve been sitting out here eavesdropping on their conversation, they won’t be happy. But I can’t stop. Listening to Archer talk to his staff is exactly the sort of insight I need into what kind of man he is. And so far it sounds like he’s the best kind. Damn it.
Why does he have to be gorgeous and kind? Can’t the man have some faults to make it easier to keep this friendly? Like, maybe he’s a closet nose-picker? Or one of those guys who doesn’t wash their butt?Ugh.It’s no use.There’s no way I believe Archer is anything other than a disciplined three-ply tissue-user with an immaculate ass crack.
Get it together, Phoebe. He has a girlfriend. A stupidly beautiful, ridiculously tall, gorgeously built girlfriend.
