One Night with her Boss Read Online Free Page B

not finding any words for explaining why a first date would be important
enough to miss a work trip for.
    “You just what?”
    “Nothing. I’ll be ready to go. What time
are we leaving?”
    “Not until five.”
    “Okay. I’ll run home to pack and be back
soon.”
    “Good.”
    He obviously wasn’t happy. He was
standing in the middle of the floor, glowering at her.
    “Okay.” She turned away from him,
telling herself this was for the best and she wasn’t losing anything she’d ever
really had.
    Even though that was exactly how it felt
right now.
    She glanced back before she walked out.
“Thank you for the book.”
    “You’re welcome.”
    “I’ll be back soon.” She’d already told
him that, so she wasn’t sure why she’d felt the need to say it again.
    “Okay. We’ll leave at five.”
    He’d already told her that too. They
both seemed to be in a strange sort of daze. She really needed to snap out of
it.
    If anything, she should be angry with
Jake for his response just now. She shouldn’t be ready to cry.
     

Three
     
    Jake
drove a three-year-old Mercedes SUV, and Anne was sitting in the passenger seat
at seven o’clock that evening, on her way with him to San Diego.
    It wasn’t a long drive down the coast,
but there was always a lot of traffic so it was slow going.
    Particularly slow today.
    Jake had been on the phone the whole
time, and Anne had been taking notes and drafting up emails she would have to
send, based on the phone conversations she overheard.
    He’d just disconnected with Max about
next quarter’s budget and was obviously thinking through who else he needed to
call.
    Jake hated wasting time—even driving in
a car.
    Anne finished the email she’d been
drafting and glanced over at him. “Anyone else?”
    After a few moments, he shook his head.
“I don’t think so. I need to talk to Michael Palmer, but I haven’t been able to
reach him in two days.”
    “He just got married. He’s on his
honeymoon until next week.”
    “Oh. I guess he’s out then. Why didn’t
someone tell me?”
    “I didn’t know you were trying to reach
him. If you’d put all your calls through me like I’ve suggested, I could keep
track of them for you.”
    He angled her a very particular look.
    “I’m not bossing,” she said, hiding a
smile at his expression. She’d felt awkward and tense before—after their
conversation in his office—but they always seemed to fall back to their
familiar rhythm once they got back into work. “Just giving you options that
might help.”
    “Your options are always much
appreciated,” he drawled.
    She was about to reply but then noticed
him shifting in his seat and readjusting one of his legs. “Is your knee
bothering you?”
    His expression tightened immediately.
“It’s fine.”
    “We should stop so you can walk around
and stretch it out some. It always gets stiff when you’re in the car a long
time.”
    “I don’t need to stretch it out. It’s
fine.”
    She felt a familiar rise of frustration.
She hated when he did this. Acted like he was invincible. Refused to admit his
knee was a physical weakness that he needed to accommodate.
    It might just be some sort of macho
pride, but it felt to her more like he didn’t think his physical discomfort was
important enough to stop working for.
    She bit back the response she was close
to snapping, about how he would end up back in surgery if he didn’t take better
care of his knee. Instead, she said lightly, “Well, I need to go to the
bathroom. So can we stop for me?”
    He shot her a suspicious look but didn’t
object. He pulled into the next convenient stop they passed, an open parking lot
near a beach entrance with a small strip of shops and food stands.
    Anne didn’t really need to go to the
bathroom, but she made a trip to the ladies’ room anyway, since that had been
her excuse for getting him to stop.
    She glanced at herself in the mirror
over the sink as she was washing her hands and was surprised