Checking Every Box

On the way to my apartment, I noticed that Steve had a very confident and smooth driving style. He wasn’t in a hurry, and seemed to know what every car around him was going to do before they did it. Traffic here was usually a bit mental, but somehow he drove with the grace of a dancer. That was yet another detail that spoke well of him.

He walked me right up to my apartment door. “Would you like to come in?” I

asked.

He looked up and down the hallway, making sure they were no neighbors around. Pinning me against the wall, he kissed me almost roughly, his mouth claiming mine completely.

It seemed like he forced himself to step back. “Heather, if I come in, I might be tempted to have a drink. If I do, I’ll somehow justify not driving home, and staying over. And there’s no way I could keep my hands to myself all night.”

He kissed my nose, then winked. “I do try to hold everything together, darling, but you drive me absolutely wild.”

I had no idea what to say to that. “Thank you for a wonderful dinner,” I said.

“Thank you for helping me order everything I need for my new home,” he said. “At least, for now.”

I kissed him again quickly, then went inside, flopping on my bed and wondering how the hell I got so lucky. He was utterly perfect. I adored the way I felt about myself when he was around. I didn’t even know that was possible.

I was going to have to make Joel understand. If he could just see us together, or get to know Steve a little better, I knew that he would lighten up. If not, I might suddenly have to get another job in a heck of a hurry.

CHAPTER TWELVE

* Steve *

Sunday afternoon, while movers and decorators were unpacking and arranging everything, I hid in my office to set everything up the way I liked it. I was grateful that the staging company could recommend some personal assistants to help with the tasks at hand. I didn’t care what it cost, I simply wanted everything done and settled as quickly as possible.

There were some occasions when throwing money at a problem really did make it go away, and made life much easier. Since I had no particularly expensive habits, I felt that it was reasonable. Yet I couldn’t quite bring myself to begin working on a Sunday. Instead, I called Heather in the early evening.

“Hello, gorgeous. How is your day going?”

“Pretty good,” she said. There was some shuffling as if she was getting settled in a chair.

“You won’t believe this place the next time you visit,” I said. “I think it will be pretty much complete in another hour.”

“Wow,” she breathed. “You don’t waste any time, do you?”

“Time is never to be wasted,” I chuckled. “If you know something is right, run with it.”

I heard a tiny sigh. “I hope that works with us.” She sounded worried.

“As soon as Joel finds out that our relationship will not change your work life one bit, he will probably relax. Won’t he?” I asked.

“I’m not sure,” she said. “He really is quite overprotective, and you’re a stranger.”

I nodded to myself. “Okay, I’ll take care of that.”

Heather laughed lightly. “You can just snap your fingers and make everything turn out alright?”

“It won’t be quite that simple, but yes. There’s always a way of making things work out fine.”

“I like that about you,” she said softly. “I like that you see a problem, and just jump in to fix it.”

“Of course. Problems never get fixed if you leave them alone. So, what are you doing with the rest of your day?”

Heather told me about the wonderful book she was reading, and her haul from the local farmer’s market that morning. “Maybe next week I could come with you,” I suggested.

“Oh.” She sounded surprised. “You want to go vegetable shopping?”

“I’d like to do absolutely anything if you are my company,” I chuckled. “But I do prefer buying things directly from the farmers when I can.”