Secret Kiss (5 page)

Her vision was a little blurry, but even so, she recognized the face staring down at her. Why was Nikki at her house? Had she overslept?

While she was trying to puzzle these questions out in her sleep-fogged brain, Nikki smiled widely.

“Good morning. I’ve heard of people sleeping on the job, but I’ve never actually seen it.” Her tone was lighthearted.

On the job?
That didn’t make any sense. What job?

Oh, crap!

All at once, every puzzle piece to complete the big picture snapped into place. The night before. This morning. Adam. Everything.

“Oh no!” Jane gasped as she jerked up. Her heart was beating like a runaway train that was off the rails and going to full-speed-ahead its way right through her rib cage.

Looking around frantically, she tried to get some kind of bearing as to what situation she was in. Was Mike here? Was
Adam
here? Or was Nikki the sole witness to her Sleeping Beauty impression?

“Jane, are you okay?” Nikki’s tone changed from amusement to concern.

“Yes. I’m fine.” Jane nodded enthusiastically. The movement of her head caused her to feel that a large section of her hair was plastered to her cheek. Brushing it off clumsily, Jane tried to stand but her legs had apparently gotten the snooze memo and had fallen asleep, so instead of holding her up, they crumbled, causing her to fall down, but not before knocking her head on her desk and the chair out from under her. The next thing she knew, she landed with a loud thud, right smack on her backside.

“Jane!” Nikki screeched as she reached her arms out to assist.

It was a nice gesture, but the damage had already been done. She winced at the sharp pain the hardwood floor sent up her spine and the dull ache from the oak desk having met her head.

“Oh my God! Are you…okay?” Nikki tried to keep a straight face as she bent to help Jane up.

“I want to say yes, but I think all evidence points to the contrary.” Jane smiled as she brought her hand to her forehead to feel if there was a knot forming. And in what she could only imagine was the universe’s idea of a fun joke, there was.

Great
. Last night, when she’d seen Adam, her face had been covered in a green mud mask. This morning, she’d looked like the walking dead after a sleepless night. And now, she was going to have a lump dead center on her forehead.

Nikki must’ve appreciated the cosmic joke, because she busted out laughing.

Real funny, Universe. Real funny,
Jane thought sardonically.

“I’m sorry. You just… It was so funny when you…”

It was obvious that Nikki was trying to be as nice as possible about her current situation. But, even in her acute state of embarrassment, Jane had to admit that she must’ve looked pretty hilarious. All of her life, she’d found herself in what her nana had aptly named “Lucy” moments. As a kid, she’d loved
I Love Lucy
, and part of the reason for that was because she related to the way Lucy constantly ended up in embarrassingly comical situations.

Laughter bubbled up at what her fall must’ve looked like and she began giggling. As per usual, when two or more girls were gathered together, the laughter was contagious, and the harder Jane laughed, the harder Nikki did and vice versa.

They were cracking up so hard that Nikki gave up trying to balance in a crouched position and plopped on the floor next to Jane. Every time one of the girls would get their hysterics under control, the other would chuckle and it would start all over again.

Finally, when they were both able to compose themselves at the same time, Nikki asked, “What were you doing here? Did you sleep here?”

Sniffing as she wiped her watery eyes, Jane shook her head. “No. I couldn’t sleep last night, so I decided to come in early and get some work done before”—she hesitated, unsure how she should finish that sentence—“the week got crazy.”

Nikki stared at her with what Jane had recently started referring to as “therapist x-ray vision.” Since leaving her career as a flight attendant and completing her master’s degree in psychology, Nikki had co-founded Gowan Enterprises. She was putting her knowledge as a licensed therapist towards implementing programs to help youth. Oh, and also psychoanalyzing her friends. That, too.

A sly grin tilted on Nikki’s mouth. “Uh huh, and that crazy week you speak of wouldn’t have anything to do with a very good-looking, very charming, very intelligent programmer who is starting today…would it?”

As if on cue, a male voice filled the office. “Hello.”

Both Nikki’s and Jane’s eyes widened as their mouths fell open. Neither one of the girls said anything; they just stared at each other in shock.

When the floorboards creaked, Jane shot up like she was toy snake shooting out of a canister after the plastic top had popped open. Luckily, when she reached back to pull the arms of her chair towards her, it went much smoother than when she’d tried to stand the first time. In one swift movement, she was seated safely in her chair. As she settled in, Nikki greeted the new arrival.

“Hey, Adam.” Nikki stood and waved her hand with such grace and class—two qualities Jane had always wished she’d possessed. “We were just…” Glancing down at Jane, Nikki tilted her head.

Nikki’s eyes widened and she pursed her lips. Jane knew that her friend had no idea how to explain why the two of them were on the floor without embarrassing Jane.

“Looking for my contact,” Jane lied through her teeth before she looked Adam’s way for the first time. The instant her eyes met his, her mouth went dry and a lump that could easily rival the winner on her forehead formed in her throat.

Unlike the jeans, khakis, or sweats and T-shirt she’d seen him in over the past month, Adam was wearing black slacks and a charcoal-grey button-up shirt that looked like it had been tailored to fit his perfect form.

He looked like a runway model.

“You wear contacts?” Adam asked, scrunching his brow looking confused.

Considering the fact that they’d only said two words to each other when they’d sat with Mike and Nikki at Levi and Shelby’s wedding reception, Jane had no idea why he would look so unconvinced that she wore contacts.

She didn’t, but that wasn’t the point.

Jane couldn’t bring herself to lie for a third time in less than twenty-four hours. She wasn’t sure if it was like a
Beetlejuice
or
Candyman
thing and lying multiple times would cause something horrible to appear. Was there a
Liarman
? It didn’t matter if there was or not—she remained silent.

Which was awkward.

Breaking the sound void, Nikki clapped her hands together. “Okay, well. Jane, I was just stopping by to let you know that Mike got called to an emergency shareholder’s meeting in the Bay Area and we’re headed to Palo Alto. We might also be stopping by San Francisco for a few days, but we’ll be back by Saturday in time for the benefit.”

What the what?

Someone could’ve knocked her over with a feather. Her brain was short-circuiting. So many things about Nikki’s statement didn’t compute. There was definitely something fishy going on and it wasn’t Jane’s salmon lunch in the fridge.

First, she handled both Nikki’s and Mike’s schedules and knew nothing about an “emergency shareholder’s meeting.” It wasn’t like it was impossible that one had actually slipped past Jane, but the probability was highly unlikely.

Second, Mike and Nikki spent as little time as possible away from Hope Falls. Both of them had traveled so much in their former careers that they were burned out. Between the two of them, they’d probably racked up enough miles to circle the globe at least ten times. Now, all of a sudden, they were staying a few days in San Francisco? During Adam’s first week, no less?

Which led her to the third and final piece of the, this-doesn’t-add-up jigsaw puzzle. During the “meeting”—which had taken place at Levi and Shelby’s wedding reception—when Mike had convinced Adam to work for them, he’d stated that he would be working directly with Adam. How in the name of David Hasselhoff could that happen if Mike was in Palo Alto and San Francisco?

Jane wanted to believe that Nikki and Mike wouldn’t have planned this out in some elaborate matchmaking scheme. In fact, even mentally laying it out like that made her feel like she was dangerously close to having to add “paranoid” to her growing list of not-so-appealing personality traits.

Stalker, liar, crazy, and paranoid. What was this man—one she’d barely said three sentences to—causing her to become? Not that it was his fault. He had no idea of his effect on her.

Glancing up at him, she tuned back into the conversation. He and Nikki were discussing the mainframe of the system. His questions were obviously out of Nikki’s depth, and she continued to defer to her husband, saying that Mike would get back to him with the answers before lunch and to e-mail or call Mike at any hour with anything that came up.

Jane found herself mesmerized by the cadence of Adam’s deep voice. He spoke with the authority of someone who knew what he was doing, but that wasn’t what had lulled her into a trance. No, it was the melodic and sexy way he strung his words together. Like each one belonged to the other.

She could listen to him talk for the rest of her life and never get tired of it. And her chest rose and fell in a sigh that she prayed wasn’t audible.

“Right, Jane?” Nikki chirped.

The sound of her name snapped her out of the spell.

“Huh?” She had no idea what question had been posed to her.

Both Nikki and Adam were looking at her expectantly. The smile on Nikki’s face made Jane’s stomach feel like the one and only time she’d gone on the Tower Of Terror at Disneyland. Not good. Not good at all.

“I said that you don’t have a date for the benefit,” Nikki said matter-of-factly.

“Oh, no.” Jane nodded before stuttering, “I mean yes… I mean no… I mean yes.”
Deep breath.
“I don’t have a date.”

“Great! So it’s settled!” Nikki clapped and then turned to leave. “Call if you two have any questions this week while you’re holding down the fort.”

“Wait.” Jane stood. “What’s settled?”

Nikki paused as she reached the door and looked over her shoulder, a twinkle in her eye as she explained, “That Adam will take the extra ticket we have for the benefit and the two of you can go together. See ya guys Friday.”

The second that parting bombshell was dropped, Nikki was out the door. Leaving her alone with Adam.

“Nikki,” Jane called after her, but she didn’t stop.

Confusion was spinning so fast in Jane’s mind that she felt dizzy. What had just happened? Had her boss set her up on a date? Had she unwittingly agreed to it?

Jane wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but she was fairly certain she could cross “paranoia” off the growing list of her psychoses. The whirlwind that had just blown through the office in the form of Nikki Maguire-Gowan was definitely a setup in a not-so-subtle disguise.

With her heart pounding, her palms sweating, and her stomach turning, Jane attempted to get control over her body’s responses. She decided it would be a good idea to sit down. She was careful to make sure the chair was firmly beneath her before she lowered herself into it. As she laid her hands flat on the table, she took a deep breath in through her nose.

How had things in Jane’s life gone from predictable to out of control in such a short period of time?

“Are you okay?” Concern was etched on Adam’s handsome features.

Oh, that’s right.

That’s how.

‡

“Y
es. I’m fine,” Jane answered. She then sat up straighter, rolling her shoulders back as she skimmed her hands down her torso, smoothing her shirt.

The gesture shouldn’t have sent his arousal shooting through the roof, but it did. In fact, it shot it straight to outer space like a rocket. He’d had enough women attempt to seduce him to know what it looked like, and that wasn’t what Jane was doing. Somehow, though, her innocent gesture affected him with far greater results than any intentional one ever had.

Which was bad. Really bad.

In part due to his training and in part due to his natural instinct, Adam was fairly skilled at reading a room. But reading this room was like a blind man trying to read braille for the first time.

Initially, when he’d walked in, he’d felt like things had been off. Not just because both Nikki and Jane had been on the floor behind the desk. That’d been odd, but that wasn’t what had alerted his senses. There’d been an underlying tension between Nikki and Jane. He didn’t think that it was negative tension, but it had been there nonetheless. He was missing something; he just didn’t know what it was.

Which was unsettling. Very unsettling.

There was a distinct tension between him and Jane as well, but that could easily be explained away with the fact that he hadn’t been able to get the raven-haired girl out of his mind for the last month and his thoughts of her weren’t generally of the work-appropriate variety. With Jane’s reaction to his arrival, he had a sneaking suspicion that the tension might
not
be one-sided.