“Every pitch you go into, you end up winning,” Dexter said. “Yes, this is a different industry, but the underlying business of what you do is the same. You’ve got this. I have no doubt.”
I exhaled. This was why I’d cancelled on Kelly. I needed someone to tell me this was doable. Who better than the men who knew me better than I knew myself—and all of them titans in their own industries?
“And in the meantime, you have a hot new neighbor you can distract yourself with,” Tristan said.
“I can tell you now that I’m never going to touch Hartford. Not like that. Not at all.”
There were lots of logical reasons to stay away from Hartford that mainly involved her connection to my family. More than that, the overriding reason I planned to avoid Hartford was because today, riding home with her in the car, I’d felt like a teenager again. Like I’d done before I’d launched Luca Brands. Before I’d made my first million. Before I’d been dumped by my fiancée. It was unsettling—like traveling backward through time in my own body—which was exactly what I didn’t need at the moment. Saving my business and my employees meant I had to be laser focused. Nothing about the next few months was going to involve unsettling women who’d moved in next door. I was going to be fighting for my professional life. Hartford might be a doctor, but she didn’t have a cure for my condition.
Four
Joshua
As I headed out of the lift after my Saturday morning session in the downstairs gym, I couldn’t keep my gaze from Hartford’s door. Despite the concerns about my business that should have been occupying all my waking hours, over the last few days, my thoughts kept sliding to Hartford. What was she doing? How was she getting on with that broken leg? Maybe I had imagined those feelings she’d stirred in me. Most importantly, why couldn’t I get this woman out of my head?
Just as I turned the key, her door swung open and Hartford appeared, a knotted bag hanging from her right crutch.
“Joshua!” she said, her smile so wide my heart tripped in my chest. “How are you?”
“You want a hand with that?” I nodded toward the bag. I’d been a selfish dick, not checking on her. She had a broken leg and probably could have done with some help unpacking and getting settled.
She laughed. “It’s just rubbish. I’m going to the chute. I’m a bit obsessed with it to be honest. Any excuse to use it.”
“You’re obsessed with throwing things out?”
She wrinkled her nose. “No, just the chute bit. Pull it open, drop it in, and voilà, it’s gone.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Okay.”
She gave me a one-shouldered shrug as if she couldn’t care less what I thought. “It’s so convenient.”
She’d switched out her scrubs today but replaced them with what looked like pajamas. I was getting the distinct impression that Hartford didn’t really own normal clothes.
“Are you unpacked?”
“I am. It didn’t take long. I was just about to go to the supermarket. Want to come?”
I should go inside, run a bath, put on some music and relax—ready myself for the next week of chaos—but I hadn’t seen Hartford for a few days and . . . Well, I had promised my mother I’d make sure she was okay. “Is there one around here?”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Joshua Luca, tell me you shop for your own groceries.”
There was just something about this woman that made me smile, even when she was semi-scolding me. “I can’t do that because I’d be lying.”
“Then I insist you come with me.” She hobbled past me and I caught the scent of cinnamon. “I’ll just use the chute and then we’ll go.”
It didn’t seem to occur to her that I might have plans. Or that if I didn’t shop for groceries, it was because I didn’t have time or didn’t want to or had someone to do that sort of thing. Something about her assumptions drew me in. That, and the fabulous arse I couldn’t stop staring at as she limped down the corridor.
She turned back after using the chute. “There.” Her eyes were wide and bright and completely focused on me. “I just need to wash my hands, grab my bag, and we’ll go. Yes?”
I got the feeling she wasn’t looking for an answer as she disappeared back in to ready herself. I let myself into my flat and shrugged off my jacket, then pulled it back on. This was ridiculous. I didn’t want to go shopping. I was looking forward to some thinking time or “Genius Time” as Tristan liked to call it. I hadn’t told Tristan that I liked to have my Genius Time in the bath. There was such a thing as oversharing, even among best friends. The bath was where I figured out solutions to problems. I’d had a bath every day since I’d learned about the Merdon acquisition. I was still waiting for inspiration to strike.