Cakewalk: A Calhoon Small Town Romantic Comedy Read online

  “Yeah, but you’re still the CEO of some multi-million dollar company. I’d happily go to jail for five years too if I knew I had that kind of money to look forward to afterward.”

  She was making good points—great points, really—if I was the man she thought I was. But I wasn’t, and if I couldn’t convince her of that, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to convince anyone. “Why don’t we do a trial run?”

  “What does that even entail?”

  “I’ll give you full access to everything, to all the books, all the contracts—but in a sort of read-only sense. You can see for yourself that this oceanfront development is legitimate, and that I’m doing things in a way that will benefit the entire town, not just myself.”

  There was a long pause. Another exhale. Then… “You gonna make me sign an NDA?”

  “Of course not. Everything can be as informal as our other agreement.”

  “Our other agreement,” Jade repeated, then laughed softly. “Even if I did work with you, I can’t walk all that way, you know. And you sure as heck aren’t picking me up on your motorcycle.”

  “So, as long as you can drive here, then it’s a yes?”

  “A yes to the trial. But how do I get there? We don’t exactly have Uber here, and I can’t afford—”

  “I’ll have a rental car dropped off for you. How about you begin Monday?” It was Friday now, so that’d give her the weekend to think it over, which I figured was fair.

  Another long pause. “Just remember, this will be very temporary unless you can somehow convince me that all those articles about you are wrong. I don’t care if you pay me a gazillion dollars. If you can’t convince me, then I can’t convince the town, I can’t convince my family, and I’ll end up excommunicated. No money’s worth that to me.”

  “The second you get a bad feeling, you can stop, and you can tell everybody that you weren’t really working for me. You simply used your wiles on me to get direct access to damning evidence that can bring me down. Tell them that had been your plan all along. But I promise you, you’ll see that this entire operation is clean.”

  “All right. Just know something. If it all turns out squeaky clean…”

  “What?”

  “I won’t be caught screwing my boss.”

  I shrugged, as if she could see me. “Okay. I promise you won’t get caught.”

  “I won’t do it at all!”

  “Was it that bad?” I asked, knowing she damn well liked it.

  “I mean, it was good. Like, really good, but I can’t ever do that again. I think we both got caught up in our… our shared dry spell, but now it’s all out of our system. Right?”

  Hardly. “Sure, Jade.”

  “You don’t sound convinced.”

  “You don’t either.”

  Yet another sigh. “Okay, I’ll see you Monday. You know the terms we’ve agreed to, and I am holding you to them.”

  “Of course. I look forward to it.” To the sweet torture of you beside me.

  With that, I gave her directions to my makeshift office, and we hung up.

  By that Monday, I had everything printed up that I thought Jade might want to look over. The bookkeeping, the business plan and mission statement, the contracts, some signed, some still in the works. I wasn’t sure how much more transparent I could be.

  She arrived at six in the brand new BMW rental I had ordered for her over the weekend. She stepped out of it, wearing heels and a skirt and top that made her look like pure sex. I clenched my fists, trying to fight back the growing pulse against my pants.

  Jade somehow looked gorgeous and awkward at the same time as she walked carefully down the dirt path to the temporary trailer.

  “Not used to heels?” I commented, trying to act casual even though she was killing me.

  “Yeah. And I swear the turn signal in that car is broken. I got honked at two times. Two! Nobody honks around here.”

  I scratched my chin. “Maybe I should have ordered you something more humble.”

  “You think?” She pulled out the key fob and locked it from afar. “I liked the seats, though. I didn’t know seats could have built-in cooling.”

  “Well, don’t get too used to luxury. This trailer only has one real office chair, and the other seating accommodation is a cooler.”

  She peeked over my shoulder. “You don’t even have a fridge in there?”

  I shook my head and opened up the flimsy screen door. “I didn’t see the point in fancier accommodations, considering what I got used to. You know, in prison. But I’ll upgrade things once everything is locked in. And locking it in is what you’re going to be helping me with.”

  Jade looked up at me with her big hazel eyes. “Don’t count on it yet. Open up the books.”

  I gestured at the only desk, upon which were various stacks of paper. “It’s all yours.”

  She went through it all in about two hours as I shifted my weight on the hard cooler, answering whatever questions she had.

  I waited with an exterior of utmost patience, but internally? I was a mess. I knew everything was above board, I knew I was going above and beyond with the various pledges and donations I had planned, yet I still wasn’t sure if it was enough. Not for Jade. I felt like I owed her the world.

  The last few hours had been pure torture. With her so close to me, with us in this private little trailer where we could get up to the dirtiest of deeds without a soul knowing… It took all my willpower not to stare at her, not to take her in, not to memorize her just in case… Just in case she smartened up and realized she shouldn’t be playing with this fire that was my life.

  I knew it was selfish to want her, because it meant exposing her to all of my baggage. The part of me that used to have so much fight, so much bite, my father had destroyed by betraying my trust in him. So that part of me accepted defeat yet again, accepted the idea that I wouldn’t be good enough for Jade once she was through with this audit.

  So I studied her, committing to memory the way her brows furrowed when she concentrated, the way her cleavage pushed up with every breath, the length of her legs, how the heels made her calves taught, how she played with her hair when she’d look up at me to ask a question. If it came to it, I was ready to have to subsist off this memory alone.

  Finally, she set down the last piece of paper and crossed her arms, leveling her gaze at me.

  “What?” I asked.

  “It looks good. I really can’t find fault in anything. But there’s still your past, Griffin.”

  Good. I wanted to get into this. “I took a fall for my father.”

  “How’s that supposed to make it any better? Even if he was the one committing tax fraud, you only enabled him by letting the charges fall on you.”

  I didn’t love talking about my father, but here it went. “It wasn’t my choice. And maybe I could have battled it, but I didn’t like my chances against his lawyers and his bottomless bank account. He froze me out of all my accounts too, so I wasn’t left with much of a choice. He promised he’d make up for it after, and he did, at least monetarily.”

  She was silent for a moment. I wondered if she disagreed with my logic.

  I reiterated further, “I decided to be practical and rich over prideful and destitute. At least then I could put my father’s money to good use.”

  “Your own father made his son take the fall for him?”

  “To him, family is just an image. Ever since my mother left us, he became cold. And so when he needed a scapegoat…” I had thought I’d be able to talk about it, but I found the words catching in my throat.

  “Couldn’t you expose him now that you’re out?”

  “That’d go against our agreement. When I saw how the cards were going to fall, I had to accept the deal he gave me.”

  “What was the deal?”

  “If I took the fall, he’d give me this business. It was only one of dozens he owns, and I could do as I pleased with it, run it however I wanted. It was either go quietly, or
else end up in prison anyway, but with mountains of legal debt as well. I went with the first choice.”

  Jade looked away, her expression softening. “Does that mean you can’t clear your name, then? You can’t let it be known that you had nothing to do with it?”

  “I can’t say anything. At least, not publicly.”

  “Well, this is a nightmare for me, your new PR officer.”

  My heart lifted. Was that confirmation that she’d be working for me? That she believed in my intentions now? Here I thought she couldn’t be more attractive, but something about her believing in me made her even more irresistible. I’m going to have to fire her just so I can touch her again. “That’s why I’ll be paying you the big bucks,” I said, trying to keep my cool.

  She laughed, though her somber expression didn’t lift. “Why don’t you just start some sort of development in the city? They’re used to people with your kind of reputation.”

  “I don’t like the city. The noise, the crowds… After five years in relative solitude, I find it overwhelming now.”

  She leaned forward, looking earnestly at me. “You went to one of those nice prisons, at least. Right? Those white collar crime type facilities?”

  I shook my head. “Remember… All my accounts had been frozen. I couldn’t afford much in terms of legal representation.”

  “Wow. So you did hard time.”

  If only she knew “hard time” was taking on a whole new definition lately…

  I nodded, and her sympathetic expression was almost touching. I hadn’t been afforded much sympathy since the charges. “So we can’t tell anyone I’m innocent. But at least, maybe, they’ll appreciate that I did my time.”

  “Maybe,” Jade said, but she didn’t sound too convinced that would be the case. “All right, if we’re going to make this work, I need you to do a few things for me.”

  Or to you? I silently mused. Instead, I nodded, waiting.

  “First. Get the rental company to switch out the BMW for something simple, like a Honda. Flashy’s not good when you’re trying to win people over, at least not around here.”

  “Noted.”

  “And you should show up at the town hall meetings regularly. Show that you’re involved and care about your place in this town. The meetings are every month, and most of the local business owners go, including my sister. You can address their concerns in person, where they’ll have a harder time dismissing you.”

  “Of course.”

  “Finally,” Jade concluded, “you’re going to be the best, most well-behaved boss there ever was, so I can report back to my sister and anyone else who wants to know what a great and principled guy you really are.”

  “Sure.” If only she knew about all the fantasies I had about her in just the last few minutes.

  “No, Griffin. I don’t think you’re picking up what I’m putting down.”

  “What?” I asked innocently, wondering if she could read my mind.

  “We can’t fool around. I’m a terrible liar, especially when Courtney puts the pressure on me. She’s going to ask, going to interrogate me, and I want to be able to say without so much as a blush that you’ve been entirely reformed since your time in prison, and wouldn’t do anything in the slightest that she’d find objectionable.”

  “I think she’d find our first date very objectionable.”

  “That was just some fun between two adults who were entirely willing and on equal footing. Now that I’m working for you, we can’t quite make that same argument. And anyway.” Jade cleared her throat. “That never happened.”

  It was going to be very difficult to pretend like I hadn’t touched her in the most intimate ways, like I hadn’t been inside her. But at least I learned some discipline during my five years inside.

  It’d be enough.

  Wouldn’t it?

  “If that’s what you want,” I said.

  She rubbed her temples. “Okay, I’m going to go grab us breakfast and coffee. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.”

  “We do?”

  “Yeah. That mission statement, for one. It’s fine, but it could address certain concerns a bit more clearly. And there are some other things, but just… Let me grab something to eat first. I assume you like my sister’s cupcakes, because who doesn’t? So, how do you like your coffee with them?”

  “Black.”

  Jade stood, grabbed her purse and keys, then paused. “Did I thank you yet?”

  “For what?”

  “The job. What else?”

  “The nice date, maybe?”

  She playfully side-swiped me with her hips as she headed out, saying before she closed the door, “That didn’t happen, Griffin.”

  Chapter 10

  Jade

  It was a relief to be out of that trailer—and not because I wanted to get away from Griffin. From the first moment I stepped out of the car and saw him at the trailer door, I wanted to rip my clothes off and beg him to take me like he did that night.

  It had helped that I read all of those horrible articles about him online. That at least gave me a logical reason to keep my distance, but now that he had explained the situation with his father and how Griffin had to take the fall… Well, what excuse did I have?

  Of course, there was the classic PR nightmare that would happen if he got caught getting handsy with an employee. And yes, even if I knew he was innocent of the charges, everybody else was going to take it at face value that he was a criminal, and that I was a fool to have fallen for him.

  No, it’d all be way too hard to explain to anyone. I doubted I’d even get a chance to explain. It’d just be ex-communication and ridicule, from my family, from the town, from everybody.

  I had to keep my damn wits about me, and my skirt on. I had to think of our relationship as nothing but strictly professional, even if I could barely resist him. Even if it was torture to be so close to him, to smell him, to feel his heat when I walked by…

  No. Bad Jade. Be a professional.

  I parked somewhere inconspicuous and around the corner, not quite ready yet to explain what I was doing driving a BMW. I already would have enough to explain, with the high heels and business attire.

  I still could hardly walk in these damn things, but I had expected a more formal setting when I imagined the office of Griffin freaking Reed.

  At least he was being budget-conscious. Note to self: Trade the heels in for sneakers tomorrow, before I give myself a grade 3 ankle sprain.

  The plan was to go in, order some cupcakes and coffee, then answer the inevitable “What are you wearing?” question Courtney would swing at me with a simple, “I interviewed for a new job.”

  I wouldn’t tell her with whom; I wouldn’t give her the slightest clue. I’d let her just stew on it, be happy and relieved for me, until we had dinner sometime this week. Then I would tell her the facts. I’d tell her I’m working for the most hated—but most misunderstood, I swear—man in Calhoon.

  I stepped into the cake shop, and Courtney’s head shot up over the customer she was tending to. “Jade?” she said, her eyes flicking up and down, from my hair in a bun, to my high heels.

  She completed the transaction she had been in the middle of without so much as glancing away from me, her eyes locked, her target acquired. She knew something was very wrong, and I wasn’t sure now that I’d be able to get away with an incomplete explanation.

  She moved around the counter and stood before me, still taller than me despite my heels. “What happened to you?”

  “I had a job interview,” I said, not meaning for my tone to sound so defensive. “What? I can dress up when I need to.”

  “What job opening around here would require this kind of outfit?”

  Oh boy. “Aren’t you supposed to dress your best for a job interview? Yeesh.”

  “I guess. I just never saw you in high heels before. Where’d you interview?”

  “A new place. I really shouldn’t say much, not here.” I nodded slightly at Mr
s. Salisbury, who was seated nearby, the most prolific town gossip.

  My sister sighed. “Fine. But you’re telling me at dinner this Friday.”

  I pointed ahead at the cupcake display. “Could I have four? And two coffees?”

  “They already have you doing coffee runs at this place? Did they hire you on the spot?”

  “I’ve… actually been in discussions for the past week.” Not a total lie. I did talk to Griffin about my college and volunteer experience during our date.

  Courtney huffed. “Well, all right, then. But they better know you’re more than just a coffee gofer.”

  “I volunteered.”

  “Only two coffees?”

  “It’s a startup. You know how I like my coffee. The other’s black.”

  My sister sighed and went back around the counter. At least she wasn’t digging further. I was used to her domineering over me, being five years older, but maybe now that I had secured a job, she’d stop seeing me as her kid sister to dutifully watch over.

  And maybe she wouldn’t blow her lid when she found out who I was working for.

  She put the two coffees in a cup holder and boxed the four cupcakes I had pointed out. “On the house,” she said. “Tell your new boss I said welcome to the neighborhood.”

  I carefully balanced the box and cup holder in my arms. “Will do. See you Friday.”

  “Count on it,” Courtney said, and I thought maybe, just maybe, I detected a hint of menace in her voice.

  She knew something was up, and she was definitely going to find out. But at least I had until Friday evening to live.

  Through some miracle, I made it to the car, then to the trailer with no coffee or cupcake casualties. I was done with the facade that I could suffer for more than thirty minutes in these heels, though.

  As soon as I walked into the trailer office, I set breakfast down, then sat, kicking my heels off. Griffin watched with a raised eyebrow. I shot a look up at him. “It’s business casual from now on. I thought since this was some multi-million dollar corporation that I had to look the part, but things clearly aren’t as they seem at Griffin Enterprises.”