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  His mouth dropped. He blinked his eyes twice. And left.

  Badeep deep.

  Yikes. Should she look at the message? Was there any point in doing so? They were done. Toast. And she had work to do.

  Badeep deep.

  Oh, hell. She grabbed the phone from her purse.

  Chapter Fourteen

  We’re done man. Couldn’t just leave this one alone, could u? Let me know when u grow up. Till then, go to hell.

  He crammed the phone in his pocket and stomped through the drizzle to his office. This wasn’t the first time Jackson had tried to horn in on his date. It had been a game since high school. He hadn’t really cared then. Much.

  Jackson was charming and everyone drew to him like flies to sugar. It wasn’t too far-fetched that when Carter had grown tired of someone, they clung to Jackson’s supportive nice-guy routine. Not to mention, the guy was filthy rich and hadn’t needed to work full-time his entire life. How they’d become such good friends was a puzzle.

  Well, not really. He remembered it vividly. Jackson moved into the house at the corner of his street when they were ten. Since everyone else on the street had daughters, not sons, their friendship was a no-brainer. And a necessity for both of them unless they wanted Barbie dolls and bows on their heads. The competitiveness seemed healthy then. Even in college, it had pushed them to succeed—be their best. Not with girls, but elsewhere.

  This was too much, though. Over the line. Carter frowned. He had no idea there’d been a line ’til now. Abby was it.

  Abby was it.

  The phrase caught in his head. He swallowed the boulder in his throat. Was she?

  • • •

  For a few weeks, Carter managed to throw himself so deep into work he barely looked up. The only thing he took time for was—more work. And he watered the damn plants. He hadn’t a clue why, but he did.

  He also decided to keep chatting with the girl who loved dogs … but didn’t have one. She was a lot less complicated. Pretty witty too. He almost rolled in laugher when she told him about her siblings. He liked her attitude. In fact if he could match her personality to the physical attraction he had for Abby—well that would be interesting. Physical attraction only lasted so long, though.

  At some point, Abby delivered the new order to the office accompanied by spy girl. Together they arranged the foliage quite well. He was gone then and every time since. The receptionist kept him aware of the scheduled visits and any questions or concerns she mentioned. There were few. One tree died and was replaced shortly after delivery. The ones in the kitchen had issues. Per the note, someone was dousing them with coffee, or some other beverage. If it continued, mold would grow and they’d have to replace them as well.

  He didn’t care. In fact, he had half a mind to tell her to take them all back. He started to write the note several times but couldn’t finish. One such note glared at him from the desktop when she arrived for the weekly watering. Crap. He looked at his watch and realized he missed his escape. The rap on the door was shortly followed by the door easing open, and she popped in.

  Her eyes widened. “Oops. Sorry, I thought you were out. I was just watering—”

  He motioned her in. “Help yourself.” He returned to the computer screen, noting her movement in the reflection. Shit. Was this as awkward for her as him? It shouldn’t have been—they hadn’t done anything more than share a few kisses. A few searing-hot-nearly-took-her-clothes-off kisses. Yeah, no biggie.

  With her back turned, he barely caught the words. “You’re wrong, you know, I haven’t … been … with anyone in over a year. A year and four months. Not that it’s any of your business. So, whatever you thought—it wasn’t right.”

  The chair let out a squeal as he turned and leaned to stare at her back, which still made him want to touch her. Dammit.

  “Seriously?” That was a hell of long time. So … if that were true, then anything between her and Jackson was ancient history. How could he hold that against her? Or him either.

  “Seriously. And don’t think I’m proud of it either. I just don’t get involved that easily. Or deeply.”

  Two more raps on the door announced they had a visitor. Holy shit. Speak of the devil. “Jackson. What are you doing here?”

  Abby sucked in a quick gasp and turned her back, which caught Carter off balance. Her shoulders were stiff and she hunkered down. She was hiding from him? It had been that awkward?

  “I thought we should talk. I know I probably should have done this earlier but I wanted to give you a little breathing time to digest the situation.” Jackson stood at the door as if ready to escape. His face was sullen. “It wasn’t like I meant it to happen.”

  Carter glanced from Jackson’s face to Abby’s back. She was a post. He held up a hand in protest. “Let’s don’t talk about it, okay? I don’t want to know.”

  “I met her a long time ago. Before you did, actually. It was just—random. We were having fun and then somewhere along the way everything changed.”

  Carter hitched a brow. “Changed?”

  Jackson shifted feet and glanced at Abby’s back. “Yeah. I would have told you but it all moved so fast and all of a sudden you were asking about a—”

  Abby shoved an elbow in his back and spilled water down Jackson’s pants. Not just a little either—she doused him good. Did she really do that? Wow.

  “Oh, uh. Sorry about that, Jackson. You should probably go change or something, right?” She stared at the wet spot. Jackson’s mouth opened then shut. He darted back to Carter’s face with disbelief.

  Seconds ticked as the two men glared at each other. Acceptance finally kicked in and Jackson shrugged. “Yeah, I guess I should. Later, man.” He stood but hesitated. “Where’s Roger? I need to kick his ass.”

  “I have no idea. Probably his office. Why?”

  Jackson left without answering. When the door was closed and the room quiet, Carter cleared his throat. “I gather things didn’t work out very well between you two?”

  She held up the empty pot and grinned sheepishly. “Not one bit. So, um, I’m out of water. I’d better go refill. Sorry about the mess. I’ll come back and clean it up later.” She rubbed a foot over the wet spot on the carpet then slipped from the room.

  She didn’t return as promised. When Carter went searching, the only person available was spy girl. Caroline. She eyed his approach warily.

  “She left, didn’t she?”

  “Yep. I don’t know what you said this time, but I’d recommend you seek out some dating advice. You suck at it.”

  “Apparently I do,” he admitted. As he walked back to his office he heard voices in Roger’s.

  Jackson’s voice, loud and clear, thundered. “That was the stupidest idea ever.”

  Roger stayed calm. “No. Give it a little more time. I think it’ll work out. Besides you could have done a better job with your part, you know. Mouthing off like that wasn’t cool.”

  “Maybe not, but how was I supposed to know she’d do that? You’d better know what you’re doing. Personally, I think it’d be better just to lock them both in a room and let ’em duke it out. Or whatever else comes naturally.”

  A chair leg screeched on the floor and steps approached. Carter strode to his office, grabbed his jacket, and left.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Caroline wasn’t letting Abby off easily, no matter how long a day they’d had at work. She snatched Abby’s purse from the counter and held it captive. “Drinks are on me tonight, girl. You need one. Or ten maybe. Let’s go.”

  Abby trailed down the street after her. “What I need is a kick in the ass. How could I do that to him? I mean the guy has already been through hell with his shitty best friend. Here I am lying to him every time I turn around. It’s awful. I’m a horrid person! And he’s incredibly … nice.”

  “Is he? I thought you were still pissed he felt you up and blabbed about it. Now you think he’s nice? Make up your mind. Do you like him or not?”

&n
bsp; “Yes. I mean, no.” She sighed. “I don’t know. Except for that fake boob trick, he seems pretty decent. Fun too. I mean, we like a lot of the same things.”

  “Yeah. Dogs. Running. Flowers. Baseball. Jackson. I mean you, of course—not the other dweeb.”

  They scooted into a booth at the back of the bar and ordered a round of beers.

  “I know, right? Although, he’s not much on flowers. I even like his smartass friend Roger. I’ve talked to him a couple of times at the office. He kind of grows on you once you get used to him. All I’ve done is lie, lie, lie. Carter will never get past that. I can’t believe I dumped that entire pitcher of water on Jackson, but hell, at the time it seemed safer than telling the entire story.”

  “You have to be kidding about Roger.”

  Abby laughed. Of everything she said, Caroline picked up on that? “It’s hilarious actually. He’s like this totally obnoxious misfit of a guy who can’t help blurting out the most inappropriate things in front of a woman. What’s odd is if you just observe what he does otherwise, he’s got a big heart.”

  Caroline rolled her eyes. “Sure. I believe that.”

  “He does. Every time he says something totally wretched, the secretary apologizes and says he’s really a closet teddy bear. He loaned her money to fix her car when someone sideswiped hers in the parking lot. She’s fifty and has three kids in high school. Her husband left and she’s barely able to pay her bills.”

  “He wants to make sure she shows up for work. Big deal, that’s a win-win for both.”

  “It was twelve hundred dollars, Caroline. Not exactly a homerun for him, in my book. Oh, and he thought you were cute.” That caught her friend’s attention.

  “Me? Cute? Ha, that’s a laugh. I haven’t been cute a day in my life.” She shuddered as if the words insulted. Abby noted she swallowed a grin and avoided eye contact.

  “Well, he thought so. He even asked if you were seeing anyone.”

  “Was that before or after he asked if my boobs were real? Or maybe he was still ogling yours?” Caroline gulped a couple of swallows of beer and raised her glass for a refill as the bartender darted by.

  “To be honest, he turned ten shades of red the first time I met him and didn’t have the balls to look me in the face which was kind of odd, considering he had no way of knowing I’d read the messages. It kind of made me wonder what else the dirtbags were saying outside of the text messaging. Then I ran into him in the hallway and he was forced to acknowledge me. Very polite, as a matter of fact. You should talk to him.”

  Caroline shook her head so hard the spikes on top rattled. “Not on your life.”

  Abby shrugged. “Your call.”

  An hour later, they were still in the booth. A plate of nachos sat in front of them, half eaten. Abby licked the sour cream from her thumb. The beer glasses had been recycled more times than Abby could remember and she’d switched to water.

  Not Caroline. “Hey, I’m off tomorrow, remember? I don’t have to get up early. Here’s to you, boss.”

  “Technically, we’re partners.”

  She held up the empty beer glass, peered at the drips in it and shrugged, then clanked Abby’s water. Caroline leaned forward over the table and winked. “You should stay out late tonight. Real late. Like maybe go water his plants or give him, I mean them, a little tender care.”

  “You’re wasted. And talking crazy.” Crazy but still an enticing thought.

  “Hey, you said he had a good set of tonsils. That’s not something one should waste. You know what I mean? Besides, you told him it had been a while.”

  Time for a subject change.

  “Forget him. Listen, I’ve meant to talk to you about this—we need to do something to drum up business. Even with the loan, we’ll have a hard time making it through the end of the year unless we do something more. I was thinking we should advertise. Maybe take on some more office maintenance projects like Carter’s. What do you think?”

  Caroline shrugged. “Sure. I still like the breakup package idea. That was stellar.”

  “Yeah, and mean. I can’t go through that again—it was excruciating.”

  “For you or her?”

  “Both. Besides, that might make things worse rather than better. How would you like to be the place that sends out hate flowers? Talk about a bad rep.”

  “Okay, the date thing then. Tell you what, while I’m off tomorrow, I’ll draw up some ads for you. I do Photoshop pretty well. I was real good at making prank pictures in college. I should show you some of them. It’s not an easy thing to—”

  Abby thrust a finger in her face. “I don’t even want to know. If you feel like taking a stab at an advertising campaign, I won’t stop you. Just don’t bring me anything that will get us into trouble, okay?”

  Caroline had a mouthful of nachos when she nodded. The sour cream on her bottom lip was in direct contrast to her complexion. She wiped it with the back of her hand and slipped out of the booth. “We should do a blog too, and maybe do promotional things on it. I’ll give it a shot and show you next week. See ya. I’m done. Be careful walking home, okay? Or go get your tonsils checked again—that would be fun.”

  She winked and was gone.

  • • •

  A few weeks later Abby smiled at her phone display then dropped her chin onto fisted hands. She’d opened the Justchat app. It was time to officially give up on Carter. With all the lies she told, he’d never forgive her. She wasn’t even sure she wanted him to, knowing the crap his friends had texted about her. Totally childish and so … so … caveman. The Jackson-dousing incident had sealed the lid on the entire fiasco. Besides, this guy had no baggage. Yet. Why couldn’t everyone be like the chat guy? She left the messages on her screen as a reminder that not all guys are dumbasses.

  Traveling To Survive: You said a while back that life would be less complicated if you’d taken the safe road … less complicated equals BORING. Doesn’t sound like you (from the little I know). I’m traveling out of the country for a while with work. Will try to talk but may not have a chance. Be good … and brave.

  She Hearts Dogs: Perhaps YOU should be brave if traveling … and safe. My curiosity is killing me—you’re not some kind of military spy or diplomat, are you?

  Traveling To Survive: LOL. I wish. Nothing that exciting, just an average-joe-business-guy with customers in strange lands. Talk to you later.

  She-Hearts-Dog: Later

  She kept smiling when the next customer entered then acknowledged a small crowd window shopping through their store before she rushed off to Carter’s building for the scheduled maintenance. She left Caroline in charge. Her friend had done a great job, not only with advertisements but also inventory. While Abby hadn’t looked, apparently the blogging thing was getting a lot of followers too. After the nacho and beer night, Caroline had recommended they add in a few gift items. Things that would catch someone’s eye in the window and offer an alternative to flower gifts—or complement them. They now offered amazing jeweled gift boxes that could be included or center-pieced in a bouquet or plant for any occasion. Perfect for, say, an engagement ring or anniversary item.

  The beer and nacho night had been a great idea, one they chose to repeat twice. In the kitchen/break room at Carter’s office, she felt the dirt in the ficus tree she prepared to water and fertilize.

  “Great,” she muttered. “Is it that hard to dump coffee in the sink? Plants don’t need caffeine. Neither do people.” She reached in her pocket for the fertilizer stick and hoped it would counteract the mold.

  “That depends on whether the person has spent two days on an airplane with a bunch of people who don’t speak English.”

  She squared her shoulders. She hadn’t seen Carter since the come-to-Jesus meeting with Jackson. Purposely avoiding him had been difficult at first, but then the office buzz said he was overseas on a project. Guess he made it back.

  Good, it was time to put this thing between them to bed. Ahem, scratch that. Time to put
it in the past. “How was the trip?”

  He shrugged and the shift of his shoulders was laden with stress and fatigue. “Long.” Judging by the shadow on his face, he’d come straight to work from the airport. Without a shave.

  She swallowed hard. Hadn’t bargained for the sexy, scruffy look.

  Nor the way his eyes seemed to dig right into her head and pull all sense away. She cleared her throat. “Have you talked to your friend Jackson lately?”

  He shook his shaggy hair. “Nope. I’ve been away for work. Haven’t had time. Normally we keep up through text messages but—I’ve been busy.”

  Even with the lapse in time, he was hard to ignore. He scratched his head with vigor and smiled. “Abby, do you like baseball?”

  “Huh?” She was brain dead. What did baseball have to do with anything?

  “Baseball. I have tickets to the Astros for tomorrow night. Do you want to go?”

  “With you?” Still brain dead.

  He snickered, “Yeah. Unless that’s a problem. I could give you both tickets, I guess, but I was kinda hoping to go.”

  “But you bought them to go with—” Oops, she snapped her mouth shut before she said her.

  “I bought them because I like baseball. If you can get away from the shop, go with me. If not, no problem, I know you’re busy.” He stepped away from the wall in the lounge, stuck his hands in his pockets and turned to leave. “You look great, by the way.”

  “I love baseball.”

  He’d already stepped through the doorway. He turned back. “Yeah?”

  “What time?”

  “I’ll come get you around six-thirty. Will that work?”

  She nodded. Would he last nine innings? The man was a walking zombie. She hoped he got some sleep before the game.

  • • •

  By the third inning, the Astros were down by five and had gone through two pitchers. This wasn’t going to be their year to make the playoffs unless something big happened. Carter frowned at the display over the stadium. Hey, if they couldn’t win, at least he had good company and plenty of beer while he watched. Abby seemed filled with nervous energy. Every time a ball appeared to head for the stands, she leaned into him and clenched his arm. The Astros couldn’t seem to seal the deal though. On the last one she groaned and slapped the counter. “Oh, my God. Get it out already!”