But this thing with Pam’s boss couldn’t continue. It would affect their working relationship and her ability to do her job. Tomorrow she’d inform Jared she’d do her best to cover for Pam but that outside office hours she wanted nothing whatsoever to do with him.
After a practically sleepless but mercifully dream-free night of trying not to think of the mess her life had become, Sophie spent the morning filing and typing up reports that had been accumulating in Pam’s inbox. She’d beaten Jared to the office by ten minutes, organised his agenda for the day and greeted him all cool, smooth politeness on his arrival. He’d been no less courteous, with hardly more than a flicker in his eye to remind her of last night.
But that single flicker was the killer.
It was more than hot enough to set her cheeks aglow and remind her that beyond these walls she wasn’t going to get involved with him. She’d needed to excuse herself and make a dash to the bathroom to pat cold water on her face with a tissue and think calming thoughts.
Jared was in the town centre somewhere busy with appointments all morning and this afternoon he was driving into the Gold Coast Hinterland. Good. He hadn’t asked her to come with him. Even better. Instead, he’d left her with a further list of proposals and phone calls to follow up. Those she could manage.
Then just before midday the helium balloons arrived. A dozen heart-shaped pink foil balloons tied to a small pink and white striped box.
‘This can’t be right,’ Sophie told the uniformed delivery girl who was touting the arrangement in front of her desk.
‘I was told to bring them over here.’ She glanced in Mimi’s direction, shrugged, then set them on Sophie’s desk with a smile. ‘Have a nice day.’
‘And you.’ Sophie’s smile felt brittle and, inside, her anger built like a tropical storm. Ignoring the attached envelope, she picked up the whole thing, carried it into Jared’s office and dumped it in front of his computer screen.
She scowled, its pretty, cheerful presence only infuriating her further. After his assurance to the contrary, how dare he bring their attraction and what had happened between them last night into office hours? And so publicly. She couldn’t believe it.
And yet…something deep down, something she’d almost forgotten how to feel, let alone respond to, fluttered around the region of her heart.
She shoved it down deeper. A solitary lunch in the fresh air would be a timely and welcome distraction so she took her sandwiches to the beach, a few minutes’ walk away.
She’d been back at her desk twenty minutes when she heard Jared’s voice. He was too far away for her to hear what he was saying but the relaxed delivery in those deep sexy tones sent her pulse into overdrive.
Suddenly she wished she hadn’t been so hasty with the balloons and, since she’d not read the note, she didn’t know what to accuse him of… She pushed out of her chair. If she could just duck back into his office and undo…
She swore inwardly. Too late, he was coming this way. With his sister. Her heart pounding, she grabbed a file she’d set aside to take down to Accounting on the floor below. Now seemed like a good time…
‘Sophie.’ He slowed as he passed her desk on his way to his office. ‘Any problems this morning?’ The expression in his eyes told her he wasn’t only referring to computer glitches and client complaints.
‘No.’
The denial sounded like a sharpened icicle, and he blinked in surprise. So she smiled—for Melissa’s benefit. ‘Everything’s fine.’
Jared paused, then must have decided whatever he was going to say could wait, nodded and kept walking.
Sophie turned to his sister, glad of an excuse to look away. ‘Hello, Melissa.’
‘Hi. You must think I have nothing better to do than hang around my brother.’ She grinned. ‘I assure you nothing’s further from the truth. But he’s giving me a lift back to uni after we’ve been to the hospital.’
‘Right, let’s go.’ Jared reappeared, briefcase in one hand, balloons in the other.
‘Oh, they’re gorgeous, she’ll love them.’ Melissa reached out and ran a hand over the foil ribbons.
Sophie stared. Uh-huh. R-i-g-h-t… The balloons were for the new arrival. How stupid and naïve of her to presume and she’d presumed so wrongly. She wished they’d leave now so that she could have her third—or was it her fourth?—hysterical breakdown.
But Melissa was in no hurry. ‘I want to show Sophie the baby bracelet first. We’re going to put it in the little box with the balloons.’
Jared’s phone buzzed. He muttered, ‘Liss, Sophie looks like she’s busy,’ as he pulled it from his pocket.