The Boss's Urgent Proposal

As she strode to her car, she didn’t even see the celebrated blossoms of spring in Georgia, feel the warmth of the March sun or smell the fresh air that signaled new life. All she could think of was how poorly Josh had treated her, and how foolish she had been to let him.

With every mile she drove on her way to her apartment, huge chunks of grief and sadness dislodged from her soul, but more than that she got angry. Furious. She was so damned glad to be moving on with the rest of her life that she hoped she never saw Josh Anderson again.

She was grateful—thrilled—he had been obnoxious when she tried to say goodbye. It was painful to think she had wasted four years of her life being head over heels in love with the guy. This rude awakening was exactly what she needed to force her to face the truth and assure that she didn’t change her mind or have any regrets. After the way he had treated her, she was absolutely certain she wouldn’t have to worry about being nice to him again, let alone falling back in love with him. Let alone reversing her decision and staying in Georgia one minute beyond her deadline!

When there was a knock at her apartment door only a few minutes after she arrived home, Olivia peered up from the final box she was packing and wondered who the heck it could be. Positive it was a well-wisher, hopefully somebody with takeout dinner, she answered the door with a smile.

When she saw Josh, her smile faded and she said, “What do you want?”

“Hey, is that any way to treat a guy who is here to apologize?”

She only stared at him. It was odd. Now that she had faced the truth about him, and now that he was no longer her boss, she didn’t have the butterflies in her stomach that she usually got. They were equals. On even ground. He didn’t hold her future in his hands anymore.

Heck, she didn’t even like him anymore.

She could talk to him any way she wanted.

“I’m going to take a wild stab at this and guess that you’re here because Gina finally got you to understand that today was my last day.”

Josh shuffled his feet. “Yes and no. Come on, Liv, I’ve been busy. You know that better than anybody else. And I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry. I feel like a heel for not realizing you were going.”

“They had a cake for me sitting by the coffeepot. You ate three pieces, but didn’t see the Good Luck in Florida decoration? You’re a marketing whiz who graduated from Princeton. I’m just about certain you can read.”

“Come on, Liv,” he groaned. “I’ve been preoccupied. Florida? You’re moving to Florida?”

“My mother lives there.”

“Oh, so you’re moving to be with family?”

She almost told him she was moving to get away from him, but thought the better of it. Not that he didn’t deserve it, but she didn’t want him to know she had spent the past four years desperately hoping he would notice her, desperately wishing he would fall in love with her. He had embarrassed her enough for one lifetime—or maybe she had embarrassed herself by not waking up sooner. But she was awake now and she wasn’t letting her guard down.

“Look, Josh, I’m busy. I’ve got to pack these things in my car. And then I need to find a hotel and go to bed early so I can be on the road first thing in the morning to avoid some of the traffic.”

“What part of Florida?”

“What difference does it make?” Olivia said, getting angry. Now that she wanted him out of her life, it appeared he wanted to camp at her front door.

“I’m just curious. We’ve been together three years—”

“Four,” she interrupted him.

“Four years. Four long years,” he said, ambling into her living room, which was empty except for boxes. “And now you’re just going. It doesn’t feel right.”

For the first time since his arrival, Olivia began to weaken. He finally got it. Her leaving didn’t feel right. It felt forced and awkward.

Still, it was too late.

This time she shuffled her feet. “Yeah, it feels weird.”

“And it’s the worst possible time for Hilton-Cooper-Martin.”

Olivia swallowed. That was the one part she regretted. And her only Achilles’ heel. She hadn’t intended to leave when all hell was breaking loose for the company that had employed her and paid her generously for four years. But she had set a deadline of one year to get him to notice her, and she had promised herself she would leave if he didn’t. In the past twelve months she had tried everything under the sun to get Josh to see her as a woman, to ask her out, or even to hold a more personal conversation with her, but he hadn’t. So, keeping the deal she made with herself, she gave up what was clearly an unrequited love and turned in her two-week notice. She had actually resigned before Gina’s father, Hilton Martin, gave Josh the assignment that buried him with work. But in spite of the gravity of the situation, she wouldn’t let herself take back her resignation. She couldn’t. Forcing herself to admit that her life was stagnating and it was time to move on had been difficult enough the first time. She never would be able to do it a second time.

“Sorry.”

He caught her gaze and gave her the sweet, sheepish smile that always made her melt. “You could salve your conscience and save my career if you would stay another week and help me train a new person.”

She shook her head. “Can’t.”

“You already have another job?”

She shrugged. “An interview.”

“We can reschedule an interview,” he said, as if he still had the right to plan her life, and Olivia straightened her shoulders.

“There is no we, Josh. This is an interview scheduled between me and a new company—”

“What new company?”

Josh had never been this curious about her life. She knew part of his inquisitiveness stemmed from his natural gift for digging into a situation and finding a way to work it to his advantage. But she also sensed something else. He stood in her empty living room, gazing at her boxes as if they were strange, wonderful things he should explore, and Olivia got the feeling something was wrong. She knew he regretted losing her. She knew he regretted being rude. But the poor guy seemed like he was going to have a stroke or something.

“It’s a law office,” she mumbled, answering his question.

He looked at her. He really looked at her…and smiled. Olivia genuinely believed it was the first time that he was seeing her as a person, not just an employee.

“You’re going to be a legal secretary?”

“That’s actually what I trained to be.”

His smile grew larger. “No kidding.”

She shrugged, keeping her eyes downward because she was weakening. Really, really weakening. She had fallen in love with Josh Anderson because he was a workaholic who wasn’t any nicer to himself than he was to the people around him. Olivia knew he needed somebody in his life who would smother him with affection. She had fallen in love with him because underneath all that Princeton business knowledge was a simple, nice guy who took great pleasure in the most common, ordinary things when he finally got around to noticing them. To him everything was special and wonderful, because in an odd way everything was new to him.

“You ever work for a lawyer?” he asked suddenly.

“Yeah. When I first got out of college.”

“I hear they’re awful.”

“I’m sure Ethan McKenzie will be thrilled to hear that,” Olivia said with a laugh, referring to Hilton-Cooper-Martin’s in-house counsel.

“Hey, Ethan can be a barracuda when he wants to be.”

She smiled.

Josh smiled.

“Just give me one week, Olivia.”