Could. Not. Believe. It.
Worse, now that he’d shown up at the Hot Zone to get his best friend’s support, Micki sat behind her desk, backing up Amy’s move both professionally and personally. “So much for turning to my best friend for support,” he muttered.
Micki raised her eyebrows at him, not looking at all sorry. “You turn to your best pal for the truth.”
He shoved his hands into his pants pockets and stared out the window at the gray sky, which matched his mood. “I had every intention of following Amy’s advice after I explained things to my family. She didn’t have to take it so personally.”
“Well, let’s see. Have you followed her advice since you’ve been home? Have you been as single-minded as you were at the lodge?” Micki asked.
No, he hadn’t been. Because as soon as he’d returned, so had old habits. “They need me.” But he planned to talk to them. Soon.
“You need you,” Micki said, her voice stern. “Have you spoken with Amy since you’ve been back?”
He turned to face her. “She was with me at the Sports Illustrated interview and she set up a few more media hits to counter the Hannah thing. Just so people would know I’m coming back stronger than ever.”
Micki nodded, a satisfied look on her face. “I’ve guided her through some of it, but she’s really got a knack for this job.”
“If you knew, then why did you ask?”
She grinned. “Because I am trying to get you to see the obvious. Which is that Amy is damn good at her job. She had you completely focused on your career, and the minute your family starts pulling at you, you forget all lessons learned.” She leaned forward, elbows on her desk. “Amy took it personally and I can’t say I blame her. That’s my professional assessment. Get your head on straight again or you might as well kiss your career goodbye. You can’t handle the distractions right now.”
She was right.
So was Amy.
“You said that was your professional assessment. What’s your personal one?” he asked, sure Micki had more to say.
“That you’ve fallen in love with Amy.” Micki smiled with a knowing certainty.
He had fallen in love but he’d never admitted his feelings aloud, not even to his best friend. “And?” he asked, wanting to hear what more Micki had to say.
“She’s not willing to see you on a personal level now that you’re back in the city and it’s driving you insane.” Micki shook her head and laughed.
“And for some reason you’re enjoying watching me suffer?”
“I’m enjoying the fact that you’re in love for the first time in your life. That you have to work hard for something for the first time ever. That Amy isn’t falling at your feet like every other woman in the universe,” Micki said. “But no, I’m not enjoying watching you suffer. I just think you two have more stuff to go through. Like all couples that are meant to be.”
He frowned. “You sound like a romantic.”
She rose from her desk. “Just telling it like it is. Have you?” She began to collect files from her drawer, which told him she had a meeting and their time was through.
“Have I what?”
“Told Amy how you feel about her? That you’re in love with her? Maybe knowing she’s the one will help her settle things in here.” Micki tapped her head. “She can’t read your mind, you know.”
“No, I haven’t told her.” He hadn’t put her first, either.
He missed Amy like crazy and Micki was right. Amy was driving him insane by not falling at his feet.
“Any reason why not?” Micki asked.
He shrugged. “It’s not every day I make a realization like that one. I guess I wasn’t ready.”
“You ought to get yourself ready,” Micki suggested. “Before you lose her for good.”
“Thanks for the advice,” he said, coming around the desk and pulling her into a big hug, which she easily returned.
“Anytime.”
He didn’t bother telling Micki he wasn’t holding out much hope that if he bared his heart and soul to Amy, they were guaranteed a future.
Amy wouldn’t consider returning to the way things were at the lodge. She claimed it was because she was his publicist, but he didn’t believe her. She had deeper reasons for avoiding him-and his bed. His life in the public eye was one heavy part of her reasoning, but he sensed there was more and he didn’t know what that more was.
He wasn’t even certain Amy, herself, knew why she was avoiding any emotional closeness between them. But Micki was right about one thing. Amy needed to know how he felt.
He needed to break through her defenses and hope that he was wrong.
That the three little words women loved to hear would actually make a difference.
He walked from Micki’s office directly to Amy’s. He was a man on a mission and not the gentleman she’d been dealing with during their time at the lodge. He was determined not only to make his point but to get her to see the error in her thinking. Either she listened or he was shit out of luck. He didn’t want to think about that possibility.
He entered without knocking.
Startled, both Amy and Yank, who sat across from her desk, turned to stare.
“Roper!” they both said at the same time.
Suddenly he felt like an ass. But his reasons for barging in hadn’t changed so he kept walking toward her. “Hi, Yank,” he said to his agent. “Bye, Yank.”
As if agreeing with Roper, Yank’s fluffy dog barked.
“Of all the nerve!” Amy strode around her desk and stepped between the two men. “You can’t barge in, interrupt a private meeting and expect to get your way. Yank, you aren’t going anywhere,” Amy said, her cheeks flushed pink with anger.
The older man leaned back in his seat. “You heard the girl. I ain’t goin’ nowhere,” Yank said, his tone not only smug but amused.
Roper wasn’t worried. He still held the trump card. “My career may suck at the moment, but I’m still worth money. If you want to be the one who gets me the deals, you’ll give me and Amy some time alone.” Roper stared his agent down because otherwise Yank, who loved drama and gossip as much as any female, would have kept his ass in the chair.
Yank groaned. “Man, you’re taking what little fun I still get out of my life,” he muttered as he rose from his seat.
“You’ll survive,” Roper said wryly.
“It’s my office. I have the final say.” Amy perched her hands on her hips.
Roper took a moment to admire her high-waisted black slacks and fitted buttoned-down shirt, which accentuated the curves he’d learned well, both with his hands and his tongue.
He shifted positions before dealing with the task at hand. “I’m sorry to tell you this, but I’m the client. And the client is always right,” Roper said to Amy. Then he turned to Yank. “Tell her I’m right.”
He ran a hand through his shaggy hair and groaned. “We’ll talk later, girlie,” Yank said. He pulled on Noodle’s leash and he and the dog strode out of the room.
They were alone. Roper might have won the battle but he didn’t kid himself. He hadn’t yet won the war.
Amy’s heart beat fast in her chest and her head pounded so hard she thought both might explode. “How dare you!” She faced Roper and poked him hard in the chest. “This is my office. Where do you get off walking in here and calling the shots?”
Despite her words, a traitorous part of her was glad to see him. In the time since she’d been home, she’d been fighting her deepest feelings. The rational part of her understood that she and Roper were trouble waiting to happen. But looking at him now, it was difficult to remember why.
“You need to calm down and listen.”
She inhaled deeply. “What?” she asked, her voice deliberately cold.
He shook his head and laughed. “You don’t make things easy.”