Beyond Business: Falling for the Boss / Her Best-Kept Secret / Mergers & Matrimony

“You’re sure?” Meredith interjected worriedly. She’d never, ever been able to keep her straight-and-narrow self in check for long and now she followed her compulsion to make sure Lenny would be inoffensive, even though she knew—she knew, darn it—that she was supposed to be playing it cool.

Lenny looked at her and—she could have sworn—looked empowered by the fear he’d heard in her voice. “Oh, sure,” he said, with a confidence he hadn’t displayed for the past fifteen minutes or so. “The Doss Man can do whatever he wants.”

“Then I hope you want to succeed with Hanson,” Evan said, his voice free of any signs of tension or worry. “Because that’s what we have in mind.”

Meredith sat and watched, ashamed of her momentary exhibition of insecurity and grateful for the fact that Evan seemed to have recovered the situation.

“So I’ll be seein’ ya, man,” Lenny said. “And hopefully you, too,” he said to Meredith, making a grand gesture of reaching for her hand and giving it a gallant medieval kiss. “Here’s to our future.”

She nodded and gave her most winning smile because she couldn’t think of one clever or appropriate thing to say. “Welcome to Hanson,” she said lamely. “I look forward to your success.”

“Aw, honey, you can count on it.” Lenny tipped an imaginary cap and hauled his behind out of the bar, presumably hoping to leave his audience in awe.

Little did he know their thoughts would soon have far less to do with business than with pleasure.

Chapter Nine

Once Lenny Doss was gone, Evan and Meredith looked at each other and smiled with triumph.

“That was brilliant,” Evan said, reaching for what had to be a warm beer by now. He took a gulp and set it down on the table with a bang. “Acting like at the last minute you were uncertain of the wisdom of hiring him?” He smiled, and his smile melted her heart. Or her libido. Or something deep inside her. “That, Ms. Waters, was genius. Pure genius.”

She took just a fraction of a moment to bask in his praise before saying, “I didn’t mean to do that.” Why was she confessing? Evan was impressed with her performance. She’d made a Hanson executive feel she was doing a good job. Why blow it by admitting it had almost ruined everything by a misstep? “But I’m glad it worked out.”

“We make a good team,” Evan said, still smiling at her. His eyes met hers and his smile faded slightly at the corners. “We always did,” he added earnestly.

It would have been easy for her to come up with a smart-aleck retort but they’d fought about the past enough already. It was foolish of her to keep holding on to that when it was so long ago. She’d lived through it, grown up, finished her education, gotten a life. It wasn’t the end of her life and she shouldn’t act as if it was.

“That is assuming Lenny Doss is a good acquisition,” she pointed out. “We may have just put a nail in Hanson Media Group’s coffin.”

Evan shook his head. “No way. Your instincts told you the same thing mine told me—this guy’s a blowhard, but he’s a blowhard with an audience. And he wants to keep his job this time.” He finished his beer and put the bottle down with a hollow clatter. “Do you want anything else?” he asked, gesturing at her half-consumed wine.

“No, thanks.”

It was clear he was wrapping the meeting up, and that gave Meredith a strange feeling of disappointment. She watched him gesture toward the waitress and indicate he wanted the bill.

Meredith sat back in her chair, a little unsure what to do with herself. Part of her wanted to stay with him for just a few more minutes, looking at that handsome face by the flattering light in the restaurant, but logic finally prevailed. “I’d better get going,” she said, standing up and picking up her purse.

“Got a date?” Evan asked uneasily.

She smiled, without committing. “I just need to get some sleep, Evan.”

“Alone?” That half smile was on his face, making her wonder if he actually cared a little or not at all.

“That’s none of your business.”

“I’ll take that as a no.”

“Take it however you want,” she said, trying to sound flip but failing miserably.

“Then how about I at least walk you to your car?” he suggested.

By then they were both standing, and he put his hand on her elbow to guide her out of the restaurant.

It would have been difficult for her to deny him that, since all he was asking was to take her to the car. It wasn’t as if she could claim that an escort would slow her down so much she’d miss out on her imaginary date.

“Fine,” she said. “Thanks.”

“Look,” Evan said, as they walked outside into the muggy summer air. Navy Pier was alive with activity, and high above them the clear night sky shone with diamondlike stars. “I know this isn’t the ideal situation for you, working with me. And, truthfully, I never thought I’d be back here at all, much less asking you to help me save the company. Nevertheless, I think we did a good job together tonight. Maybe Helen was on to something when she asked you to work with me.”

Meredith took a short breath inward. “Do you think she knew about our history? Did you tell her anything?”

Evan scoffed. “I hadn’t talked to my father since—” he hesitated “—well, since I left, all those years ago. And probably not for a couple of weeks before that. I definitely didn’t talk to Helen. Hell, she didn’t show up until after I was gone.”

That was true. All of Meredith’s research confirmed that. Evan was merely a family member, called in at the last moment to try to salvage a company that wasn’t entirely salvageable.

At least, not under its current administration.

“Do you think it was to her advantage or her disadvantage that you and I were … previously acquainted?” she couldn’t resist asking. But she shouldn’t have asked. She knew that from years ago: never ask a question you’re not willing to hear the honest answer to.

Evan looked at her, considering. His brown eyes were warm, like melted chocolate, and Meredith figured it was the result of the beer he’d had rather than his proximity to her. “I think it was to her advantage,” he said at last. “Our advantage, the entire company,” he clarified. “You and I have a certain shorthand between us, I think. It helps in a situation like tonight’s.”

“Shorthand?” she repeated dumbly, though she thought she knew what he meant.

“We understand each other.” He must have seen something in her that resisted that idea because he added, “Just a little bit. A little better than strangers would, anyway.”

Meredith wasn’t ready to agree with any of this, so instead she just let out a long sigh and said, “Maybe. I guess whatever works, we shouldn’t justify it one way or the other.”

Evan appeared taken aback by this, but after just a fraction of a moment, he nodded. “Yup, whatever works.”

They were outside the restaurant now, close enough to hear the raucous music inside, yet far enough to feel distance from the merriment it brought most of the patrons.

Meredith turned her most confident smile on Evan. “I can get to my car myself,” she said. “But thanks for thinking to walk me out, I really appre—”

She wasn’t able to finish her sentence before a small, thin man—maybe a teenager—rushed past her like a cartoon villain, grabbing her purse and yanking it off her arm with such force that she actually fell to the ground.

“Meredith!” Evan was at her side in a moment. “Are you all right?”

“Yes, but—” she panted “—he took my bag. My license, credit cards …” The realization hit her like a ton of bricks. “He has my address.”

“Wait here,” Evan instructed, immediately on guard. “Or go back in the restaurant. I’ll come back and find you.”

“No, Evan, don’t try to catch him,” Meredith objected. “He might have friends, accomplices—”

“I don’t care if he’s got Tony Soprano himself waiting in the wings, he’s not getting away with this.”

Before she could object—and she was ready to—he had taken off, running like a thoroughbred into the night, so fast that she only saw him for a moment before he literally disappeared into the darkness.

Evan Hanson had failed her before, back when it really mattered, but now—at a time when she was at war with her memories—suddenly he was a knight in shining armor.