The Executive's Decision (4 page)

Most of Mary Ellen’s information was on file, and she relayed necessary details to Regan, who filled in the blanks. By the time the forms were complete, a monitor had been strapped to Mary Ellen’s stomach, and Zach walked through the door with her husband right behind him.

Regan and Zach found themselves pushed to the corner of the room as people came and went. It would never cease to amaze Regan how many people it took to deliver just one baby.

“Are you all family?” The nurse asked as the room grew more crowded.

“No.” Regan answered for Zach and herself.

“You’ll need to wait outside. The visitor waiting area is just down the hall.” She pointed them in the direction.

Regan headed toward the door as quickly as she could. She’d become much too uncomfortable with the situation once Mary Ellen was in capable hands. The delivery room was not where she wanted to be.

“Are you all right?” Zach asked as they left the room.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You look a little shaken up now that it’s all over.”

Of course she was shaken. She was standing in a hospital with a very powerful man, and around them were birth, sickness, and death. “I’m okay. I just don’t like hospitals much.”

“Let’s get some coffee.”

She’d rather have gone back to the office, but that would be cowardly, so she followed him.

Zach fed quarters into the machine in the waiting room and checked his phone’s messages as they waited for the instant coffee to be dispensed into a cup. “I’ll bet you’ve never had a first day on a job like this one.” He closed his phone and placed it back in his pocket.

“No, this would definitely be one of the most exciting.” She took the paper cup he handed her and sipped the strong coffee as they sat at a small round table by the window.

“So your last job was in Hawaii?” He sat back in his chair, draping his arm over its back.

She despised small talk, but she’d let him attempt to get her to warm back up to him. Whether she chose to warm up was another matter. “Yes.”

“I love Hawaii. What would make you want to leave?”

Regan forced the lump down her throat. “The job ended,” she said and sipped again at the coffee, but it was as bitter as her attitude toward the subject of her last job. She pushed it to the center of the table.

“When was that?”

“Eight months ago.” She looked around the room at the other waiting families and wished for a way out of the conversation and the room.

“What has Regan Keller been doing since then?” He sipped his own coffee.

She dropped her hands to the table and looked across at him. Damn, she’d hoped the handsome man on the bus was going to be a steppingstone for her.

She’d hoped she’d be able to open herself up again. But finding that same man was her boss brought back the fear and anxiety all over again. She wiped her damp palms on her skirt under the table.

“Mr. Benson, do I still have my job?”

“Of course you do.” He drew his eyebrows together. “And it’s Zach.”

“Fine. Zach. Then is it necessary to interview again?”

He pushed his coffee to the center of the table and leaned in. His superior posture softened and, again, so did her attitude toward him. “I didn’t mean to pry, Regan. Things didn’t start as they should have. I apologize.”

“I wish you’d been honest with me.” She nervously adjusted the hair at the base of her neck, freeing it from its band. “I don’t see the people I work for socially.”

“I understand.” His eyes dropped, and he looked at the table like a child being scolded.

“As long as you do, then we’ll be fine.”

Zach sat quietly, trying not to upset Regan with any more questions. Obviously, she wasn’t someone who believed in crossing the line between employer and friend, like Mary Ellen had. He didn’t subscribe to the policy of no romance in the workplace. When two people were attracted, that was their business as long as they behaved like adults on the job. But Regan was very clear she would never date him, so he needed to let go the thought of her on his lap, quickly.

But that didn’t sit well with him. Maybe she’d recently gotten out of a relationship and wasn’t interested in starting a new one. He just needed to give her time.

Zach’s attention veered from Regan when a doctor in green scrubs burst through the door looking for someone. The frantic look on the doctor’s face settled, and he headed right toward Zach.

“Regan?”

He spoke and she turned her head toward him. A smile instantly formed on her lips.

She stood and easily fell into his arms. Zach’s breath caught. Maybe he was wrong. She seemed plenty comfortable in this man’s arms. Maybe it was just him she didn’t like.

“What are you doing here? I was scared,” he said, looking her over, touching her hair, and finally resting his hands on her shoulders in a possessive grip.

“My coworker went into labor. How did you know I was here?”

Zach looked for an ID badge to see the name of the man holding the woman who’d captivated him, but it was turned backward.

“Carlos went by your office to pick you up. They said you’d left for the hospital. He was worried.”

Zach watched the man’s eyes scan over her again. His hands were sturdy on her shoulders, and her hands rested comfortably on his chest.

When she kissed him on the cheek and hugged him tightly, Zach’s stomach knotted.

“I’ll call him and tell him I’m fine.” She patted the doctor’s chest with her hand.

“Do you have a ride home? I’m here for another twelve,” he said, looking at his watch.

“I can take her home. It wouldn’t be a problem.” Zach stood from his seat.

The doctor turned his eyes back to Regan and raised his brows.

Regan gave the man a nod as through to calm him before she introduced him to Zach. “Curtis, may I introduce my new employer, Zachary Benson.”

Curtis shook his hand. “Benson? Benson, Benson, and Hart? Audrey Benson’s son?”

“Yes, that would be me,” he said, feeling his shoulders go back and his spine straighten as he slipped into the role of benefactor.

“It’s nice to meet you. Your family has been very generous with the hospital.”

“Good fortune should be shared.”

Curtis smiled and turned his head back toward Regan. “You’re in good hands.” He kissed her on the forehead and hugged her tightly. “Dinner, Sunday night?”

“I wouldn’t miss it.” She was still smiling as Curtis pulled his beeping pager from his waist.

“Have to go.” He kissed her again. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Her affection for him shone in her eyes, and Zach realized this woman, who had his stomach tied in knots, was still a stranger, a complete mystery.

A working relationship, he reminded himself. That’s all it could be, much to his disappointment.

Zach kept his distance as they walked to the parking garage, and she was okay with that. She knew what he was thinking, and she was okay with that too. There were times when having a good-looking doctor for your brother was a benefit.

She’d seen Zach’s eyes when Curtis told her he loved her. Yes, he thought she was in love with the tall, handsome doctor who had sought her out in a panic. Let him think that. It served him right for not being up front about his own identity.

She’d do a good job for him. She was good at what she did. But never again would she be manipulated—or careless enough to fall in love with—the man she worked for. No, never again. The risk to her life and the lives of her family wasn’t worth it. If Zach Benson pursued her, she’d just have to leave.

“Thank you for coming with me,” he said as he started the car.

“My pleasure. But you would have been fine.”

“No, I don’t think I would have been. Mary Ellen takes care of me. Not the other way around.” He backed out of the parking space. “I was scared. I was really scared. I can negotiate million-dollar real estate deals. I can face historical societies and tell them I’m tearing down an old building, or head to court and face down a contractor who took off with the money for a job and didn’t finish it. I can do all that without even a bead of sweat rolling down my back, but seeing Mary Ellen like that… that scared me to death.”

“You handled yourself very well, Mr. Benson. I never would have known.” Even when things became complicated and out of his control, he hadn’t lost his composure. He’d stayed even tempered. He’d taken care of Mary Ellen.

He glanced her way. “I guess I’ll be in good hands, then.”

“That’s what I was hired to do.”

“It’s too late to go back in and finish your work. Would you mind coming in a few minutes early tomorrow? I know I toyed with your first day, and I’m not sure how much training you got. I wasn’t really expecting Mary Ellen to take her leave already.” He blew out a breath. “I’m going to stay there tonight and finish up what I should have done today. If we get started early, that’ll help us both out.”

“No problem.” She guided him through the streets of Nashville until they came upon her house.

“Nice place.” He pulled up in front of the old brick row house.

“It’s my sister’s. She’s in New York doing an off-Broadway play.”

“Really?”

Regan nodded. “I’ve seen it. It’s horrible, but she’s fabulous and she’s happy. So I get the run of the place until July.”

“Then what?”

She shrugged. “I guess I have to find my own place.”

“I know a company putting up some great condos downtown.” He laughed.

“Well, maybe if she strikes it rich, she can buy me one.”

“What about the doctor? Not ready to move in with him?” She saw the pulsing in his jaw and watched him shift in his seat.

With a smile, she shook her head. “No, he’s a slob, really. I’m not ready to be his maid. Besides he has a roommate and a big black lab who hogs the bed.”

Regan stepped out of the car and looked up at the front door of the house as it opened. Carlos, another of her brothers, walked out onto the front step, and she smiled and gave him a wave before she turned her attention back to Zach. “Thank you for the ride. I’ll see you in the morning.”

She shut the car door and hurried up the steps to the house without giving Zach a chance to ask about the man who awaited her there.

Inside, Regan threw her purse on the desk by the door and fell into the overstuffed chair in the living room. She kicked her shoes off and rested her feet on the table. Arianna would have been yelling at her already, but it was Regan’s home until July, and she’d put her feet up if she wanted to.

The smile on Carlos’s face must mean he had the same thought. He handed her a beer, sat down in the opposite chair, and kicked his feet up too.

“You had me scared to death. They couldn’t tell me why you were at the hospital, just that you darted out in an emergency.”

She caught the tone in his voice. There was reason for him to worry, and she knew it. Once upon a time they’d had to race to the hospital to find her. And what had they found but her near death at the hands of some man she’d thought she loved.