The Daddy Wish

“So you do remember it?”

She scrolled through the notes on her tablet. “I remember that it was late, there was mistletoe, we both had a little too much to drink and got caught up in the spirit of the holiday.”

“Do you want to know how I remember it?”

“I’m actually a little surprised that you do.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“I would have thought your sojourn with Melanie would have eradicated one meaningless little kiss from your mind,” she said.

“Let’s put aside the inaccuracy of your description until after you explain who the hell Melanie is.”

“Melanie Hedley,” she said.

“The name sounds vaguely familiar,” he admitted.

“Perky blonde, works in marketing.”

His confusion finally cleared. “You mean Lanie?”

“Yeah, I guess I have heard some people call her Lanie.”

“And the sojourn?” he prompted.

“Your ski trip.”

He shook his head definitively. “I didn’t go with Lanie.”

“And yet she couldn’t stop talking about the wonderful lunch you had at a fabulous little café by your hotel.”

“We did have lunch together one day,” he admitted. “I ran into her in the lobby of the hotel when I was heading out to grab a bite and invited her to join me. It wasn’t anything more than that.”

“You don’t have to explain anything to me,” she told him.

“Apparently I do,” he said. Because he could tell by the tone of her voice that she’d arrived at her own—and obviously erroneous—conclusions. “Do you really think I was sleeping with another woman the night after I kissed you?”

“I really didn’t give it much thought at all,” she said, shifting her gaze to the clouds outside the window.

If he hadn’t already suspected that she was lying, her refusal to even look at him would have triggered his suspicion. “Yes, I went away with some friends. And yes, I received a couple of offers to hook up while I was there.

“But I didn’t consider any of them for more than two seconds—” he shifted so that his shoulder brushed against hers, and lowered his mouth closer to her ear “—because since that kiss we shared under the mistletoe, I haven’t been able to go much longer than that without thinking about you.

“And when I think about that kiss, I remember how good your body felt against mine, and how surprised—and incredibly turned on—I was by the passion of your response.”

“You’re right,” she said shortly. “Our memories are different. But considering that we’re going to be working closely together, I think it would be best if we both just forgot about that kiss.”

“I already know that I can’t,” he told her.

“Maybe you just need to try a little harder.”

“Are you saying that you have forgotten?”

“I’m saying that I’m not going to let anything interfere with our working relationship.”

“I know how to separate business from pleasure,” he assured her.

“Let’s keep the focus on business,” she suggested.

“That doesn’t sound like nearly as much fun.”

“I like my job and I want to keep my job,” she told him. “Which means I’m definitely not going to sleep with my boss.”

His lips curved. “I’m not your boss yet.”

She lifted a brow. “Your point?”

“We could use the next few weeks to get this...attraction...out of our systems, so that it won’t be an impediment to our working together.”

“Thank you for that uniquely intriguing offer,” she said primly, “but no.”

* * *

Despite his blatant flirtation on the plane, when they got to the St. Louis store and started to review the books, Nathan proved that he did know how to separate business from pleasure.

Allison was impressed by his knowledge of the company’s history and employees and the diligence of his work. She hadn’t assumed he was moving into the CFO’s office because his name was Garrett, but she had suspected the familial connection had paved the way. Watching him work, she realized that had been her error. Nate was going to be the new CFO because he was the most qualified person for the job.

Still, it took several hours before the discrepancy was found. Working together to match invoices to payment receipts, it became apparent to both Nate and Allison that some numbers had been transposed when the deposit was made. Instead of $53,642 being deposited, the amount was noted as $35,264—a deficit of $18,378. But what seemed like a simple accounting error was further complicated by the facts that the payment had been made in cash (apparently office furniture for an upstart law firm that didn’t yet have a checking account) and no one seemed to know where the $18,378 had gone—or they weren’t admitting it if they did.

To a company that did hundreds of millions of dollars in business annually, the amount was hardly significant. But the misplacement of any funds, whether careless or deliberate, was unacceptable from an accounting perspective. The head of the store’s finance department agreed and promised to locate the missing money before the end of the week.

“I’m surprised you’re going to leave it for Bob to deal with,” Allison said when they’d left the man’s office.

“They’re his people,” Nate said. “And I have no doubt he already knows who is responsible for making that eighteen thousand dollars disappear.”

“So you don’t think it was a mistake?”

“I would have believed the transposing of the digits was a mistake if the correct amount had actually been deposited—the fact that it wasn’t proves otherwise.”

“You don’t want to know who did it?”

“I will know,” he said confidently. “But I don’t need to know today.”

“In that case—” she glanced at her watch as they made their way toward the exit “—we should be able to get to the airport in time to catch an earlier flight back to Raleigh.”

“That would be good.” He stopped to pull his phone out of his pocket and frowned at the message he read. “But I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

“Why not?”