“Was there often this much pushback when your former assistant made suggestions?” she asked. She might have been mousy and withdrawn in high school, but working in such a cutthroat corporate environment had steeled her spine. Simon had said he welcomed her ideas. She intended to hold him to that.
“You ask a lot of questions, Heather.”
“You’re my boss,” she said smoothly. “It’s my business to find out everything I can so that I can anticipate your every need.”
Simon surged to his feet and grabbed his tray. “We’ll talk some more about the speech when your lunch break is over.” His eyes landed on her, the expression on his handsome face inscrutable. “Let’s see if you’re able to keep up with me.”
Chapter 4
One Week Later
Her first week at Dover, Inc. went even more smoothly than she could have ever hoped.
That should have put her mind at ease, but as she navigated her car to the front of her son’s school the annoyance she had tried to push aside all morning was starting to build.
At the sound of her son unbuckling his seatbelt in the backseat, she turned around and forced a smile. “Okay! Are you ready to have a good day, sweetie?”
Finnley didn’t return her smile. Instead, her six-year-old son stared forlornly out the back window.
Seeing her son in so much pain tore at her heart. Damn her ex-husband for disappointing their son again. Gary had sworn up and down that he would take Finn to school in the mornings, but he hadn’t shown up this morning and gave no explanation. She had bombarded him with texts and called him numerous times without a single reply from him. Her marriage ending was one thing. But that wasn’t an excuse to disappoint their son over and over like this.
Heather let out a soft breath. “Let me walk you up.”
She got out of the car, let Finnley out, and walked with him to class. When she gave him a goodbye hug he held on tighter than he usually did, but still didn’t say anything. His father’s absence today obviously hurt him deeply.
With Finnley safely in class, she got back behind the wheel of her car and headed to work. As much as she wanted to wring her ex-husband’s neck for letting their son down, she had to focus on work. This first week had gone by without much incident, and despite her mess of a personal life she needed her professional life to be a success. Even if that meant continuing this charade with her boss.
ONCE SHE ARRIVED AT her office, Heather immediately started checking work emails on her computer. Simon had sent her a copy of his upcoming speech, so she opened it up to start reading it. The phone beside her computer started ringing. It was Simon.
A tingle slid down her spine. Before she could even bother processing her body’s reaction to the prospect of talking to her boss, she answered the phone.
“Good morning,” she said, hoping he didn’t pick up on the breathlessness in her voice.
“Hey. I just sent you an email of the speech.” Simon’s deep baritone came through the other end of the call.
“I’m reading it right now,” she said.
“Excellent. Sorry I took so long to send it, but I was up all last night revising,” he said. “Listen, I’ve got an impromptu meeting with one of our engineers.”
“Oh, I didn’t know,” she murmured. “Let me come into your office and I can sit in on it. Take some notes—”
“No need,” he interrupted. “It’s nothing major. In the meantime, I’d like you to talk to our media relations officer, Linda. The original gal you were supposed to be working for. Feel free to ask her as many questions as you’d like. She can help get you up to speed on everything.”
“Will do.”
“Right,” he said, sounding distracted. “Also, go over the speech with her. Jot down her opinions on it and we’ll discuss it later today.”
“Okay. Will do.”
With that, he hung up.
For some reason, Heather found herself disappointed. Wishing he hadn’t been so professional. What had she expected? That her handsome, stupendously wealthy boss would declare that he had the hots for her?
She buried her head in her hands and groaned. If she wanted to prove herself within three months, she had to get past her attraction to Simon. Their relationship was not only long over, but she had to keep up the pretense that she didn’t know him. That she was a completely different person from the Heather he had partially credited his success to.