The CEO's Unexpected Proposal

“What do you plan to accomplish today?”

“Not a whole lot. I just want Luke to get used to me. We’ll get into all the rest of it soon enough.”

“If you run over, I pay overtime.”

“We’ll talk about it if it happens.”

“Mikala, I am paying you for this. I won’t do it any other way.”

Gazing into Dawson’s eyes, she saw the integrity he’d always possessed, fairness that always made him a good leader. But it wasn’t integrity or fairness that practically mesmerized her as she stared into his eyes. It was something so much deeper than either of them were going to act on.

Yet even as she thought it, she noticed the tiny scar along his jaw that he hadn’t had as a teenager. She also caught a glimpse of a few silver strands in the hair at his temples. There was a swirl of chest hair in the V-neck of his shirt. In high school she’d seen him at their favorite swimming hole in his bathing suit and thought no boy in their class had looked as good.

Pushing all those memories aside, she said, “I’ve got to go in to Luke. Just trust me, Dawson.”

“I’ll try. I’ll be up in my suite. Call my cell if you need me. In fact, call my cell when you’re finished and I’ll come back over for him.”

Dawson was hovering again and he had to break the habit. “He’s my last appointment today. It might be better if we just walk over to the bed-and-breakfast and he comes and finds you.”

“Right. I guess I’m supposed to give him space.”

As she turned toward the studio, Dawson caught her hand. His fingers folded around hers, and she thought, No, don’t touch me. I feel too much when you do.

“I’ll talk to you later,” he said as if he expected results from her meeting with Luke.

She didn’t go over the ground rules again. She’d already told him she wouldn’t be able to report what Luke said without his permission. Yet she nodded, slipped her hand from Dawson’s and went inside.

When she returned to the studio, Luke didn’t pay her any mind. She went to her desk and picked up her legal pad, then crossed to the doorway of the music room. “Where would you like to sit and talk? In here? Or in my office?”

Luke sat at the piano with his fingers on the keys, yet he wasn’t playing.

“I don’t want to sit either place.”

“I know you don’t.”

He brought his hands down on the piano into two loud chords. Mikala quietly sat in the chair beside the piano bench and waited.

After a while Luke asked, “Aren’t you going to say something?”

“I know you’ve seen counselors before.”

“A psychiatrist and a psychologist. What are you?”

“Didn’t your dad tell you?”

“He just said you’re an old friend he went to school with, and you’re a music therapist. But I don’t know what that’s got to do with anything.”

“Your dad told me you can memorize pieces on the piano without a lot of trouble. That’s pretty cool.”

“I play them and I remember them.”

“Would you play something for me?” She was fully prepared for him to say no.