Unfinished Business

“I know of five other guys that have hired their assistants from Lansing and ended up marrying them. I know two more guys that met their future wives at work. Wives that got their jobs thanks to the Lansing Employment Agency. Including your brother.” Jason’s lips thinned. “Still think I’m nuts?”

“How did you find all this out?”

Jason shrugged. “Do you really need to ask? After Dad started looking all gooey-eyed at Claire, I did a little research on the agency.”

“What did you find?”

“A spotless reputation. And one hell of a track record.”

“For what?”

“For turning executive assistants into wives.”

“Don’t you think that eight marriages out of hundreds of placements is a little insignificant?”

“It’s more worrisome when you take into consideration the ratio of single executives with single assistants to married executives with married assistants.”

“You lost me.”

“The bulk of the executives are already married, so when you look at the numbers in that way …”

“The ratio looks worse.”

Jason flung his hands forward in a that’s-what-I’m-talking-about gesture, before sinking back with a relieved smile. “Exactly.”

Max was still having a hard time swallowing the notion of Rachel as a matchmaker. “Well, you don’t need to worry about me. Where Cupid’s arrows are concerned, I’m wearing Kevlar.”

Jason pointed a finger at him. “You can’t be sure of that.”

“On the contrary, I’m very sure.”

“I’m not really feeling convinced,” the CFO said. “Maybe you’d care to make things more interesting.”

Max buzzed with the same adrenaline that filled him at the start of every race. “What’d you have in mind?”

“Your ‘71 Cuda.”

“Double my punishment, double your fun?” Max snorted. “I lose my freedom and the rarest car in my collection?” Suddenly, he wasn’t feeling much like laughing. “What sort of best friend are you?”

“The kind that has your best interests at heart. I figure you might not fight to stay single for the sake of your sanity, but you’ll do whatever it takes to keep that car.”

Interesting logic. Max couldn’t fault Jason’s reasoning. “And what are you putting on the table in case you lose?”

Now it was Jason’s turn to frown. “You want my ‘69 Corvette?” He shook his head. “I just got it.”

And Max was looking forward to taking it away. “What are you worried about?”

“Fine. You’ve got a deal.” Jason got to his feet and extended his hand across Max’s wide cherry desk. When you’ve met the girl of your dreams and gotten married, I’m going to miss you, buddy. But at least I’ll have the ‘71 Cuda to remember you by.”

Rachel sat at her desk outside Max’s office and tried to concentrate as her nerves sang a chorus of warnings. For the last two days, he’d been professional, making no further references to their past. But his gaze on her at odd moments held a particular intensity that promised he wasn’t done with her. Not by a long shot.

Despite his assurances otherwise, she suspected that his motives for strong-arming her into becoming his temporary assistant were personal. She wouldn’t put it past him to lure her into bed, enjoy his fill, and then walk away in the same fashion he believed she’d walked away from him. And that wasn’t her paranoia talking. Max wasn’t someone who forgave easily or at all in the case of his youngest brother, Nathan, and their father.

From what she’d gathered from her sources inside Case Consolidated Holdings, ever since Nathan had blown into town almost a year earlier, tension amongst the Case brothers had risen. She’d learned from Max five years ago that there was bad blood between the older Case brothers and their illegitimate brother that went way back. According to Andrea, however, things had recently gotten better between Sebastian and Nathan.

If Max couldn’t let go of the past where his family was concerned, he would certainly never forgive a woman he barely knew.

Shoving personal concerns aside, Rachel concentrated on something she could control. Max had a trip scheduled next week. The hotel arrangements and flight had been made some time ago, but she needed to arrange for a rental car, to work on a PowerPoint presentation and fix a hundred problems that hadn’t even come up yet.

The phone rang. Anxiety gripped her at the familiar number lighting up the screen. “Tell me everything’s running smoothly,” she said into the receiver.

“You sound edgy.” Devon’s amusement came through loud and clear. “Is Max on your case?”

While Devon laughed at his joke, Rachel signed on to the computer using Andrea’s ID and password. At the moment, Max was interviewing a candidate for his temporary executive assistant. If all went well, Rachel wouldn’t need to contact the IT department for her own computer access. She scanned the assistant’s contacts, searching for the phone number of the restaurant downstairs. Apparently, Max had his lunches catered in most days. Andrea’s contacts gave Rachel a pretty good sense of Max’s activities.

Restaurants. Florists. Even a couple jewelry stores. He enjoyed entertaining women. Clicking one particular restaurant Rachel had been dying to try except that it was way beyond her means, she saw the manager’s name, the particular table Max preferred, even the wine he enjoyed.

The man was a player. She hadn’t seen that about him during those days on the beach, although she’d figured it out since coming to Houston. Max didn’t know it, but she’d seen him in action during her early days in the big city.

Rachel stretched a barricade of caution tape around her heart. If Max wanted to start something with her with the express purpose of payback, she’d better be wary.

“… doing?”

Devon had been talking the whole time her mind had been wandering. Whoops.

“I’m sorry, Devon. I wasn’t listening. What did you ask?”

“How is it going with Maureen?”

“She just went in ten minutes ago. Max kept her waiting for half an hour.”

“I know that tone. Stop worrying. She’s perfect. Max won’t find anything wrong with her skills or her references.”

“I hope not.”

And she didn’t have long to wait to find out. Five minutes after she’d hung up with Devon, Maureen exited Max’s office. Unsure whether to be delighted or concerned at the shortness of the interview, Rachel stood as the assistant candidate headed her way.

“How’d it go?”

The beautiful redhead’s mouth drooped. “He didn’t seem to like me.”

“Max is very hard to read. I’m sure he found your qualifications and your experience exactly what he requested.” Rachel kept her expression cheery. “I’ll go have a chat with him now and give you a call later.”

“Thanks.”

As soon as Maureen disappeared around the corner, Rachel headed into Max’s office. “Isn’t Maureen great? She has a BA in business and five years of experience in a brokerage house. She’s great with numbers—”

“Not a self-starter.”