Julia
Present day
This was the third day I’d spent at the dining room table immersed in all things Wade Pharmaceutical. I’d awakened early and eased my way out of bed, making my way to the table before the sun rose. It was the first time I could recall waking before Van.
With my hair piled on top of my head in a messy bun, I was certain there was at least one or two pens buried in the mess—it could be more. The button-down shirt I wore as a dress had the long sleeves rolled up. The shirt was on its second day—first for me. Van wore it yesterday, and in the darkness of the bedroom, I couldn’t resist gathering it from the floor while he slept. Every now and then, simply seeing it and catching the aroma of Van eased my mind.
Now, it was almost noon and despite the copious notes, I felt that I was no closer to understanding the information. Beside the large computer monitors Van had had delivered, I had two notebooks filled with notes, chicken scratch really, of points of interest and files I wanted to revisit.
The deeper I dove into the data, the more I realized that my last year working at Wade was for nothing more than show. I hadn’t been a contributing employee. While I was guilty of not asking, I hadn’t been given the tools to be useful.
As I sipped a new cup of coffee, I vowed that had changed. From this point on, my employment and involvement wouldn’t be in name only.
Taking a deep breath, I lifted my arms over my head and stretched. As I did, strong hands came from behind me, fingers searched beneath the neck of the shirt, massaging my shoulders. Before I could comment or tell Van how good it felt, warm lips teased my exposed neck. Van’s kisses were the epicenter as goose bumps scattered over my skin.
Surrounded in a cloud of Van’s spicy aftershave, I turned, meeting his green stare as his deep voice rumbled through me.
“You haven’t moved from this chair since before we had breakfast delivered.”
“I know. I want to do my best.”
“I have no doubt.”
“I feel like there is something I need to find, something I should know. I feel like whatever it is it’s right there. I just don’t see it.”
Van reached for my hand, his fingers surrounding mine as he urged me to stand. “I was thinking it would be good for you to move around a bit.”
My lips quirked to a grin. “Do you have any ideas how I could do that?”
“I have a lot of ideas.” He teased a button from its hole. “Most of those ideas include losing my shirt.”
I playfully pushed his hand away. “I like wearing your shirt.”
“I like you wearing them. I like you wearing nothing even more.”
It was at that moment I realized that unlike me, Van was not only showered and shaved, but he was also dressed in his suit, sans the suit coat and tie. I reached up to his collar. “You look very handsome. Are you going somewhere?”
He nodded as his forehead came to mine. “I’ve been avoiding someone who’s also in town. And this afternoon, that’s coming to an end.”
“Avoiding? Why?”
“Someday, Julia, when we have a few days to spend uninterrupted, I’ll tell you the whole story. Right now, it’s an old friend who has information that can apparently only be shared with me in person.”
I stood straighter, wondering if this old friend was male or female. I’d never been the jealous type. Then again, with my track record of what Skylar did to me, I should have asked more questions. “Should I be concerned that you’re off to meet a beautiful woman?”
“Not in the least.” He left a soft kiss on the end of my nose. “I won’t be gone long. I plan on being back to accompany my fiancée to her parents’ home for New Year’s Eve.”
I shook my head. “I told Mom we couldn’t attend. Besides, it will be formal attire, and my formal dresses are in my closet at their house, not here.”
“I told Gregg we would be there.”
Leaning against the dining room table, I crossed my arms over my breasts. “I know why you think we should go. I get it, the whole show-I’m-strong thing, but if I could have one New Year’s Eve wish, it would be that it was only the two of us, in our cabin with a fire and what remains of our tree.”
“We can do that. I will miss my meeting. You can leave all of this” —he gestured toward the table— “behind for a few days, and Ruth and Andrew can have the plane ready to leave in an hour.”
“Do you know how tempting that is?”
“Say the word. Avoiding your parents’ gathering would be much less complicated if we were in Ashland.”