“Well, well, Evans. Quite a bit of salesmanship you have going on there.”
It was the only voice that could have cut through his fog of passion. Lifting his head he found himself staring into the steely-blue eyes of Drake Medford. Medford’s salt-and-pepper hair was perfectly styled and his suit impeccably pressed. Of all the sidewalks of New York, he had to walk down this one. Shit.
Slowly Zach released Hannah and straightened the jacket around her shoulders. He probably had lipstick all over his mouth. He resisted the urge to wipe it away. “Hannah Robertson, I’d like you to meet my boss, Drake Medford.”
She glanced quickly up at Zach and crossed her eyes. He choked back laughter as she turned and held out her hand to the tall man standing behind her. “Hello, Mr. Medford. I’ve heard so much about you.”
“Whereas I’ve heard zilch about you, young lady.” He took her hand in both of his. “Evans, you’ve been holding out on me.”
“The fact is, we’ve just-”
“Just reconnected after a long absence,” Hannah said. “Zach and I kept missing each other, but here we are, united at last.”
“You seem to be having quite a reunion party,” Medford said. “And maybe I can give you even more reason to celebrate. Ed Hasbrook gave me the key to his corner office this afternoon. I know the reports aren’t finalized for the month, but I see no problem with you moving in there tomorrow, Evans.”
“Uh, that’s great.” Zach felt his curried beef turn to cement in his stomach.
“Try to contain your excitement, will you?” Medford looked annoyed. “The corner office is only the obvious change. I’m promoting you to vice president.”
“That’s very good news.” Zach wished he could feel more jubilant, but he’d been a lot happier two minutes ago when he’d been kissing Hannah. “Of course, I can’t help wondering where you’re stashing Ed.”
“I’d relegate him to a coat closet if I could, but we don’t have an empty coat closet. I’m using some portable partitions in a corner of the outer office. Maybe he’ll get the hint. It’s one step closer to the front door.”
“How long has he been with the company?” Hannah asked.
“Too long, Hannah.” Medford had always been good about picking up on names. “He was good once, but he’s lost a step. Your guy Zach, here, that’s the kind of go-getter I’m looking for.” He shoved back his cuff and glanced at his designer watch. “I’m late. Nice meeting you, Hannah. Zach, bring her around to the company picnic next month, why don’t you? She looks like she’d play a mean game of volleyball.” He winked at Hannah and hurried off.
“So there you have my big, bad boss.” Zach sighed. “Poor Ed.”
Hannah turned to face Zach. “You need to quit your job.”
ZACH LOOKED AT HER AS IF she’d murdered a close relative. “Are you crazy? I’ve put eight years into that job.”
“You’ve tolerated Drake Medford for eight years?” If so, her estimation of him would take a serious nosedive.
“Well, no. He came on board last fall. The office was underperforming and he was sent in to straighten things out.”
She frowned. “By humiliating people like Ed?”
“Look, I may not like what’s happening with Ed, but Medford’s done what he was sent to do. Everyone’s working harder and making more, the ones who’ve stayed, anyway. All except for Ed, who’s close to retirement.”
“And is everyone happy? Except for Ed, of course, and you.”
“I’m happy!” He flung out both arms. “I’m ecstatic! I’m making more money!”
“Are you happy? At dinner when I asked about your job you made a face.”
His gaze was wary. “I don’t know that I made a face, exactly.”
“You most certainly did. Like this.” She pulled her mouth down at the corners and scrunched up her eyes.
“That didn’t have to be about my job. Maybe I bit into something I didn’t like right at the moment you asked.”
“It was about your job.”
“Okay, so maybe it was about the job. Nobody’s career is fun and games all the time. I can see now I wasn’t working up to capacity. I’ll bet that’s what Adrienne meant when she-” He stopped, coughed and looked away. “Are we going to Times Square or what?”
Although Hannah wanted to finish the discussion, especially now that a woman’s name had been thrown into it, she could tell that Zach’s heels were dug in on this issue. She shouldn’t have come right out and told him to quit his job. That wasn’t her place. But he kissed like an angel, and a man who kissed like that didn’t belong in an office with the devil himself.
She’d suspected the boss was bad news when Zach had told her about him during dinner. But now that she’d met the guy she knew for sure, and not just because he’d interrupted what had been the primo kissing experience of her life. Drake Medford was completely unacquainted with the concept of human kindness. He would kill himself laughing if he knew about her tuna project.
“Let’s go to Times Square,” she said.
“Good.” Zach sounded immensely relieved. He still made no move to take her hand.
She thought he might have, especially after that kiss, except that his boss had come along and messed up the mood. Hannah thought Medford took pleasure in messing up other people’s moods. He could have walked on by and left them to their kissing, but that wasn’t in his nature.
No, she really didn’t like the man. Neither did Zach, but he wasn’t going to admit it. “Would you do me one little favor?” she asked.
“Sure, as long as it doesn’t involve courting economic disaster.”
“It doesn’t.” She must have really scared him, suggesting that he leave his job. Maybe because she had no financial stability at the moment, she’d forgotten that most people liked to know where their next paycheck was coming from.
“Then ask away,” he said.
“When you’re in the office tomorrow, I’d rather you didn’t mention the thing about me giving away tuna.”
He glanced at her. “What makes you think I’d do that?”
“Oh, you know.”
“No, I don’t.” His voice had gone quiet. “Explain it to me.”
“Water cooler stuff. Medford makes some reference to catching us kissing, and you tell the very entertaining story about me giving away tuna to a guy who’s going to use the can for a hockey puck. I can understand how-”
“You think I’d make fun of what you’re doing to get a laugh from the people I work with?”
Whoops. “Obviously not,” she said quickly. “Sorry to imply that you might.”
“Apology accepted.”
She snuck a peek at his firm profile. She’d insulted him, no doubt about that. But she’d found out some valuable info in the process. The deeper she probed into Zach Evans, the more she liked what she found. It wasn’t realistic to think that the first eligible man she met in the city would become someone very special, but she couldn’t throw off the premonition that Zach was special.
TWENTY MINUTES LATER, Zach posed Hannah smack-dab in the middle of the gaudy, crowded, most neon-infested section of Times Square. Even so, she was the brightest thing in the frame. Her natural glow put the glittering lights to shame.
She’d taken off his jacket so her relatives wouldn’t get the idea that it was cold in New York. If she was cold, she didn’t act like it. Instead she flung her arms out and turned this way and that like a high-fashion model at a photo shoot.
He was fascinated with her. Too bad she thought he should quit his job, because he knew she really did, even though they’d dropped the subject for now. Well, he’d cut her some slack on that opinion. She was still very naive. Let her struggle in the big city for a while and see how she felt about throwing away perfectly good jobs just because the boss wasn’t a sweetheart.
Without his job, he wouldn’t be able to buy bouquets of flowers or take a date out for a nice dinner. He was finally making the money that Adrienne had thought he should make, not that he was doing it to prove anything to her. She’d never know.