“Well, I’m afraid that’s something you’re going to have to get used to,” she said. “I’m not going to be here for a while.”
His scowl was back and he rose from his chair. “What are you talking about?”
“I need to take a few days off.”
His frown deepened. “Why?”
She wasn’t really fond of his tone, so she developed a frown of her own. “I have some personal days coming,” she said defensively. “I’m going to take them.”
He looked angered and frustrated at the same time. “Why are you taking them now?”
She glared at him. “Do you have to know everything I do?”
“Yes.” He hesitated, as though he rather regretted having said that. “After all, you’re taking care of my children,” he improvised.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” She gaped at him. The nerve of the man! He had the decency to look chagrined—but only for a moment before his natural arrogance reasserted itself.
“Okay,” she said quickly. “This is what’s happening. Mimi has to go take care of her sister in Dallas, so I’m going to have to stay home with the twins until she gets back.”
He shook his head as though he couldn’t see what that had to do with anything. “Can’t you hire a sitter?”
“Mitch, these are babies. My babies. I would hire a stranger if I absolutely had to, but I don’t have to. I have the time accrued. And I’m going to take it.”
Frowning again, he rubbed a hand through his hair, making it stand up at crazy angles. “But you can’t go now. We’re wrapping up the Bermuda Woods job. That was your baby before I got here.”
She threw out her hands. “You know very well that is basically signed and sealed and only needs to be delivered. Skylar Mars can handle any loose ends.”
“Skylar?”
“I talked to HR and set it up. She’s taking my place. You know who she is. She was one of the ladies who had a morning party for you the other day. The redhead.”
“Ah.” His eyes lit up as he remembered her. And who could blame him? She was quite a beauty. But Darcy had to admit, that look on his face rankled. Still, it didn’t last long. Very quickly he was frowning again.
“Well, she may be decorative and know how to present a plan, but does she have any experience with anything like the Heartland Project?”
Darcy hesitated. That was a sore spot. “She can call me for advice any time,” she said. “I won’t be going anywhere. Except the park.” Come to think of it, she did have a few things planned. She began to count them off on her fingers. “And the market. And the doctor’s on Wednesday. And the boys’ playdate on Thursday. And …”
“Phone calls aren’t the same as having first class expertise sitting right here in the office,” he interjected impatiently.
Darcy knew that, but Skylar was about as good as he was going to get. “She’s done property before,” she reassured him. “She’ll do everything you need.”
He thought that over seriously, but when he met her gaze again he looked a little lost. “But you’re what I need,” he said, as though it surprised him, too.
Her heart gave a little jog, but she looked at him hard, sure he didn’t mean that the way it sounded.
“Sorry,” she said quickly. “I’ve got two weeks coming to me and I’m going to take them.”
His face hardened and his tone did, too. Pleading wasn’t working. He looked like he’d decided to resort to strong-arm tactics. “You can’t. Not now.”
She straightened her shoulders. “Yes, I can.”
“I’m your boss, Darcy. And I say you can’t.”
“I’ve been working here longer than you and have more street clout,” she asserted, knowing what she was saying was ridiculous. “More pull with the people who make this company work.”
“Oh, yeah?” “Yeah!”
He glared at her. “I’ll have you fired.”
Her chin was out a mile. “Great. You do that. That will solve all my problems.”
Well, not really. But it would solve one. The big one. The one she was merely avoiding by staying away from him for two weeks. But it was a step in the right direction. Maybe with time, the problem would find its own solution. On the other hand, maybe she was just kicking the can down the road. Either way, she would have two weeks away from this emotional cauldron.
She looked at him, so tall and hard and handsome, and something very much like a lump rose in her throat. He stood silhouetted before his big picture window, looking like a big tycoon. He was the boss and he looked the part. No more romantic renegade. He was a man of corporate power now.
But he wasn’t going to fire her and she knew it. She turned to go. He blocked her way, taking hold of her upper arms and staring down into her face.
“Please don’t do this, Darcy,” he said, his voice soft but hiding a core of steel. “I need you here.”
She looked up into his eyes and began to melt. Those gorgeous blue eyes, those thick dark lashes, that flash of excitement—she could hardly breathe. Everything in her yearned toward him. Closing her eyes, she thought of her babies and gathered strength.
“I have to go,” she told him, pulling away. “See you in two weeks.”
She walked quickly toward the elevator, sure that he would follow her, take her into his arms, make her stay. That scared her. But when it didn’t happen, there was suddenly a big empty hole in her sense of well-being. It should have been a relief, but instead, she wanted to cry.
Mitch was in a very bad mood. Office life without Darcy was a whole different animal—an animal he wasn’t very fond of. Skylar was definitely beautiful. Very easy on the eyes. Oh, yes. But there was one problem. Skylar never shut up.
It wasn’t so much that she talked to Mitch all the time. He could handle that. A couple of sharp comments and a raised eyebrow had pretty much nipped most of that in the bud. But she talked to everyone else—incessantly. Everyone who walked by her desk, everyone who emerged from the elevator, everyone who called on the phone, got at least a ten-minute conversation. Even when he shut the door to his inner office, her laughter penetrated. That sound could probably bend steel. It certainly raised the hair on the back of his neck, and not in a good way. It also set his teeth on edge. And most of all, it made him think longingly of Darcy.
It had been a long time since he’d worked in an office environment and he hadn’t realized how much Darcy had helped transition him back into the groove until she wasn’t there to help him anymore. He needed her here.
He needed her here for purely selfish reasons, but that wasn’t all. He’d thought that they would talk more about his idea. He’d had this feeling from the first that marriage was the only way to solve their problems, and he’d resisted because it went against everything he’d planned for his life. But the more he’d thought about it, the more he’d realized it might be an answer for them both.
He’d seen men out in the field who had cracked up over time. The work he did out there was stressful, to say the least. It wouldn’t hurt to have an anchor at home, something to help keep him on an even keel. He’d never known a woman he could even remotely imagine marrying. But Darcy—well, she was different. Maybe … maybe it would work with her.
He hadn’t taken her vehement rejection of his idea too seriously. She hadn’t had time to think it over yet. If she were here, they could talk it over and find a way