Joa jammed her hands into the back pockets of her jeans—so as not to touch you, my dear—and met Ronan’s eyes.
“Morning.” Excellent, Joa, you actually managed to croak a word.
“Thanks for coming over so early. The kids are still asleep since they got to bed late last night. I battled with them and eventually put them into my bed with a movie. I also overslept and I’m running so late,” Ronan said. “And I have a crazy day ahead of me.”
“How so?” Joa asked, grateful for the neutral topic.
Was it her imagination or did Ronan seem too eager to respond to her innocuous question? “General madness at work, and I’ll be home late tonight. I’m running a specialized sale on sports memorabilia.”
Was he expecting her to start her duties as an au pair tonight? Could he possibly be that arrogant, that presumptuous? She’d come over this morning to discuss—and only discuss—Keely’s wild suggestion, not to begin employment. She was here as a courtesy, that was all. She didn’t want to be an au pair anymore—why did nobody seem to understand that?
“Keely might think she’s boss of the world, but I saw your horrified face when she suggested you work for me. I know the situation isn’t as cut-and-dried as she made it out to be,” Ronan explained. “I made alternative arrangements for a babysitter tonight.”
Joa arched her eyebrows, silently asking who’d agreed to help him out.
“My brother Finn is on monster duty tonight. Luckily, I should be done by ten.”
Right. She remembered he was Murphy’s chief auctioneer as well as being their worldwide operations manager. “I thought you only ran the big sales.”
Ronan nodded. “Normally, I let the junior auctioneers run the smaller sales, but my sports guy was rushed to the hospital two days ago with a burst appendix. I do have other auctioneers, but there are some pretty big spenders in the audience so I thought I’d run the sale, connect with them on a guy-to-guy level.”
“I’d like to see an auction,” she admitted.
“You’re always welcome, though I am assuming you will be at the auction for Isabel’s collection. It will be one of the biggest auctions any house has conducted. It’s been billed as a once-in-a-generation sale.”
Oh, right. She’d temporarily forgotten that she and Keely had agreed to auction off their massive collection to swell the coffers of Isabel’s foundation. The money raised would fund many projects in the greater Boston area, including the shelter Joa had found herself in fifteen years before.
Ronan shrugged, his expression self-deprecating. “So it’s not a big deal or anything. Your lost Homer will be the last item auctioned, if Sadie manages to prove its provenance.”
“Do you think it’s genuine?”
“It doesn’t matter if it is or isn’t because I never emotionally invest in anything that passes through our hands. I can appreciate the skill and rarity and beauty, but I know we are only temporary guardians of the artwork. And I refuse to waste my energy worrying whether a piece is genuine. It either is or isn’t and I can’t change the result.”
“That’s a fair assessment,” Joa told Ronan, sliding onto a stool at the island counter.
Ronan’s eyes met hers and electricity arced between them. She saw his eyes widen slightly and drop to her mouth. She saw him swallow and when he ran his hands over his face, she knew he was also uncomfortable with the chemistry bubbling between them.
It was hella inconvenient... To put it mildly.
“If you come to work for me, nothing will happen between us, Joa.”
Wow, okay, that was blunt. Joa thought about the words he’d tossed down between them. She could ignore him, but that was taking the easy route.
As she’d learned from a lifetime of looking after herself, it was better to deal with a problem when it was small because unsolved problems usually led to bigger, bolder problems later on.
So a response was necessary.
“If I did come to work for you, and I’m not planning to, you can be damn sure nothing would happen.” She was happy to hear that her voice sounded even. And a little cool.
“I just don’t want you getting any ideas that, because you are Keely’s friend, and Isabel’s heir, I will change my stance. You’d be in my employ.”
Arrgh, was she speaking English?
Joa fought the urge to scream. “Again, I have no plans to be an au pair again. And I am under no illusions about the situation, Ronan.”
“You sure? Because I know you have been checking me out.”
God, he was blunt. And rude. She knew he expected her to blush, to stammer, maybe apologize. Screw that.