“No.” If she were going to sit in the big-girl chair, she needed to do the hard work. “I will.”
“Fair enough. I’ll keep you posted.”
“I’ll be here.”
He closed his file and got up to leave. He was halfway to the door before he turned back to face her. “Lizzie?”
“Ye
s?” She put down her pen and looked up.
“When you turned me down before...why did you say no?”
She blinked. It was the last thing she’d expected him to ask, and she wasn’t sure how to answer. In the end she figured honesty was best. “Because you were too sure of yourself. Cocky. Like you’d be doing me a favor.”
He smiled, an arrogant upturning of his lips that showed perfect teeth. “So I would have,” he replied, sliding one hand into his trousers pocket.
Lizzie couldn’t help but grin back because she could tell now that he was teasing. “Yeah, well, there’s a difference between confidence and arrogance. One’s sexy. The other...not so much.” She thought back to Chris and his quiet assertiveness and knew which she preferred. “But,” she conceded, “you’re a very good CFO for Baron so I’ve forgiven you for being a bit of a jerk.”
He laughed then. “Sitting in the big chair has made you more sure of yourself,” he observed. “Your dad better look out. You might get comfortable sitting there.”
Except in just under six months she’d be going on maternity leave. “I don’t think there’s any worry about that.”
He was just turning to leave when there was a knock on the door. “Lizzie?” Emory poked her head in. “There’s someone here to see you.”
She stepped aside and Chris walked through the doorway, carrying a white paper sack and a cellophane-wrapped bouquet of daisies.
She was surprised, and pleased, too. Chris’s answering smile lit up the office and Mark looked from one of them to the other. “Well. That explains a lot,” he remarked, still smiling a little. He held out his hand. “Mark Baker.”
Chris shifted the paper bag into his left hand with the flowers and shook Mark’s hand. “Chris Miller. Nice to meet you.”
“I’ll let you two catch up. Lizzie—let me know how it goes with your father.”
“Will do. Thanks, Mark.”
Mark left and Emory shut the door behind him, leaving Chris and Lizzie alone. “I didn’t expect to see you this morning.”
He smiled. “I called into the office after I ran back to the motel to change. I’m actually going out in the field this afternoon, so I thought I’d play hooky for another hour and stop by. I don’t want to tie you up, though, so I won’t stay long.”
She was stupidly pleased to see him, especially after last night. “What’s in the bag?”
“Muffins. Bran blueberry with walnuts. Something healthy for the both of you.”
“Are you saying I’m getting fat?” She was only teasing, but her question prompted him to move forward. He put the bag and the flowers on the desk and then put his hands on her hips.
“I’m not saying that at all. And I promise you that over the next few months, when you start showing and your curves get a little curvier...you will only be more beautiful.”
“Are you one of those men who have a thing for pregnant women?”
He looked deep in her eyes. “No. Just the one who’s pregnant with my baby.”
If he kept this up she’d be swooning half a dozen times a day. Her stomach rumbled again and she broke the spell with a laugh. “Looks like your muffins are well-timed. Oh, hey, guess what? I wasn’t sick this morning.”
“I was a good distraction.”
“Maybe. Maybe it’s just letting up, like the doctor said it would.” She turned away and reached for the bag. “Are you joining me?”
“Naw. I, um, might have had one on the drive over.”