Twin Ties, Twin Joys: The Boss's Double Trouble Twins / Twins for a Christmas Bride / Baby Twins: Parents Needed

Though they’d been working together for days now, she’d managed to avoid too much direct contact. Luckily he’d been spending a lot of time in meetings. Even luckier, the requirements of her job kept her out of the office a lot of the day. She was planning to do as much fieldwork as possible from now on.

“I’ll agree you’ve got a strange sense of humor about you,” he was saying. “But wits? We’ll see.”

He was trying to make a joke, trying to lighten the mood between them. But she didn’t want it lightened. She made another careful pile of folders.

“I’m busy,” she said without looking up.

“As usual,” he noted. “But maybe you can spare me a minute or two.”

She finally raised her head and reluctantly met his gaze. She’d been right. He was silently laughing at her.

“What can I do for you?” she asked with as much regal chill as she could manage.

“You can type up these meeting notes for me.” He waved pages of yellow paper with a lot of things scribbled on them in her direction. “Okay?”

She looked at them. Her impulse was to grab them and start typing away. After all, it wouldn’t really take all that long. But she stopped herself. She had to guard against letting him put her into a role she didn’t deserve. So instead of accommodating him, she flashed him a look and shook her head.

“No, actually, I can’t. Give them to Paula.”

“She’s out this morning.”

“She’ll be back.”

“Maybe.”

He still stood there, waving the papers at her.

She glared at him. “I guess I need to remind you again. I’m not a typist.”

He frowned as though he didn’t understand the word. “You’re not a what?”

“A typist.” She rose and opened a drawer, pulling out her little molded purse. It was obvious he thought she was being silly, but she didn’t care. She’d worked hard to achieve her position and she wasn’t going to let him discount it.

“I’m also not a secretary. I’m not even an administrative assistant. In fact, if you think about it really hard, I’m sure you’ll recall that I’m a property acquisitions agent.”

She tucked the purse under her arm and started toward the elevator, looking back at him over her shoulder.

“And I’m off to do some acquiring work right now. In fact, I’m late for a meeting with a contractor on the Pearson Development. So if you’ll excuse me …”

He was following her, looking interested. “You’re meeting with him right now?”

“Yes. I’m going out to Shadow Ridge.”

“Great. I’ll go with you.”

Stopping dead, she swung around to face him.

“What?”

He shrugged, looking remarkably handsome and civilized now that he’d wiped off the lipstick and straightened out his dark blue suit and the silver-blue tie. “Why not? I’ve got to get to know more about this business. You can show me the ropes.”

She sagged. The last thing she needed was to spend the day carting him around and feeling resentful while doing it. “But Mitch …”

He was taking no arguments. “Look, Darcy. I’m like someone who’s been dropped out of the sky here. I mean, I know I used to work here part-time when I was in high school and college, but I never paid much attention. I only wanted to get out of this town as soon as I could. On the whole, you know a lot more about this business right now than I do. If I’m going to do a decent job, I’ve got to learn. You can teach me.”

She was supposed to teach him all she knew? Hah! That would be the day. She’d come by her knowledge the hard way, and he could do the same. Still, she couldn’t deny him a seat in her car. If only there was some way she could talk him out of coming with her.

“You’re going to miss lunch,” she warned him hopefully.

“Lunch.” He narrowed his eyes speculatively. “Are you talking about those cardboard slices of bread with some kind of fish substance slathered between them that they sell in the break room vending machine? Hmmm. Yes, that is a lot to give up just so that I can ride out into the warm sunny day to a rural area and listen to builders talk building. But sacrifices must be made.” He gave her a lopsided grin that was, unfortunately, totally endearing. “Besides, we can grab something on the road. A hamburger maybe.”

Folding her arms over her chest, she frowned, feeling sulky. “I don’t ‘grab things on the road.’”

He smiled, leaning across her to press the button for the elevator. “Don’t worry. There’s nothing to it. I’ll show you how.”

“Oh brother!”

“Besides,” he said, his smile fading and eyes darkening seriously as he leaned close to say it softly, “we have some things to talk about. This will give us a chance to do that.”

Her heart began to thump in her chest. So he wasn’t going to ignore their situation after all. Well, good. Maybe. But just the fact that he thought they could discuss things on the fly given an odd moment or two didn’t bode well. You just didn’t make life commitments that way, did you?

As they hit the highway and left city traffic behind them, her anxiety began to melt away. How could she stay tense when that big ole Texas sky was shockingly blue and almost cloudless above them? There was something irresistible about an open road. She relaxed, her hands loose on the wheel.

Mitch had been quiet since they’d left the parking garage. Glancing at him sideways, she wondered what he was thinking. Was he preparing what he wanted to say to her? Or was he still mulling things over? Why didn’t he just go ahead and get it over with? She had a feeling it must be really bad if he couldn’t just spit it out on the spot.

Now she was getting tense again. This was no good.

“What kind of music do you like?” she asked, suddenly wanting something to fill the silence between them.

“You choose.”

She hesitated. “Well, are you still Texan enough to take in a little country and western? Or have you become too cosmopolitan and sophisticated for us hayseeds?”

“Am I still Texan?” He turned toward her, appalled by the question. “Is the Pope Catholic?” She refused to give him a smile. “Last time I looked.”

“There’s your answer.” He snorted. “Am I Texan?” he repeated, and for good measure, he sang her a few lines from, a popular song, finally coaxing a smile from her.

“Not bad,” she had to admit. “You’re a man of many talents, aren’t you?”

He laughed softly. “Darcy, I have only just begun to reveal myself to you.”

She shook her head but she knew he was still feeling a bit full of himself after the way all those women had treated him that morning. He stretched out his long legs as best he could in the confinement of the car, and suddenly she was very much aware of him as a man—a man with a hard, gorgeous body, which she remembered only too well. She caught her breath as memories flooded her for a moment, pictures of his golden form stretched out on white sheets in lamplight.

Oh my. She hadn’t thought of that for ages—and she really should block those things out of her mind, if she possibly could. She started to reach to turn up the air-conditioning, then caught herself just in time. But she couldn’t stop the heat from flooding her cheeks, and she was only glad he seemed too occupied with the passing landscape to notice.

“You know, Darcy, you’ve got a few surprising facets to your persona as well,” he said a few minutes later, turning toward her again. “It was a real shock to find out you had … the twins.” His voice deepened. “I have to admit, though I thought of you often over the last two years, I never pictured you as a mother.”

Well, that was just downright annoying. Sure, she was a mother. But that very fact made him a father. He seemed to be forgetting that part.