“Okay.” She whipped around and faced him again. “You want me to talk, try this. You’re no better than your father.”
The words sliced through him. Ripped right through the layers of clothing and skin.
“I guess you should be the one to compare us since you kissed both of us.” When she just stood there, staring at him, he wanted to lash out even harder. “What, no comeback?”
“Stay out of my way.”
“Or?”
“Don’t push me, Spence. Other people might be afraid of you or want to impress you, but I know better.” She shook her head. “What you need is for someone to kick your butt. Keep talking and I will.”
Everything was weird now. For the last few weeks, Abby didn’t think twice about heading over to Ellie’s house on the tree-lined street in Georgetown for a visit. She lived with and was engaged to Derrick Jameson and their high-risk pregnancy had people at work, their friends—everyone—on edge.
Derrick was Spence’s older brother, and Spence was the nightmare that just wouldn’t go away, so Abby was torn. Being friends with someone tied that closely to the man who broke her heart promised more pain. That was the last thing Abby needed.
Ellie and Abby met by accident, really. Someone wrongly suggested Abby and Derrick were having a “thing” and Ellie stopped by Abby’s office to apologize for getting her dragged into their personal business and someone else’s vendetta. Abby still didn’t understand what happened, but she was grateful for the warning and the show of trust from Ellie, a woman who didn’t know her at all at that point. That was three weeks ago and they’d been friends since.
Trust was more than she ever got from Spence, the man she’d planned to date, sleep with, before he stormed off refusing to listen to her months ago. The awful day played out so clearly on a loop in her head.
Panic and frustration whirled together in her mind. “It’s not what you think.”
“I have eyes, Abby.” And that furious gaze switched back and forth between her and his father...and his hand on her waist. The noise rumbling out of Spence almost sounded like a snarl. “You want the top of the Jameson food chain? He’s all yours. Good luck.”
She tried to follow him but Eldrick held on. “Spence, wait—”
“I told you.” Eldrick smiled down at her as she yanked her arm out of his grip. “You’re going after the wrong Jameson.”
“I’m so happy you came...” Ellie’s smile fell as she talked. “What happened?”
The memory blinked out at the sound of Ellie’s voice. Abby snapped back into reality as she stood in the doorway to Ellie and Derrick’s bedroom, holding a box of brownies from that place in Foggy Bottom that Ellie had raved about a few days before.
Abby had no idea what conversation she missed as her mind wandered, but both Derrick and Ellie stared at her. Ellie was cuddled up in a blanket in the center of the gigantic never-seen-a-king-size-bed-that-big bed with pillows tucked around her body and the television remote control in her hand. Derrick, still wearing his dress pants and button-down shirt, sat next to her. Not on top of her, but close enough for the intimacy, the closeness, to flow around them. His only nod to being home and not at work came in the removal of his tie. It lay over the armrest of the overstuffed chair by the bed.
“Nothing.” That seemed like a reasonable response to most things, so Abby went with that as her answer.
“Huh.” Ellie made a face. “You look furious.”
Derrick let out a long breath. “So, Spence.”
“Definitely Spence,” Ellie said with a nod.
Well, they weren’t wrong. Derrick and Spence were brothers and her bosses. But still. “I don’t know how you two are related.”
“We’re actually a lot alike.” Derrick smiled at first but when Abby stood there, not moving, Derrick bit his bottom lip. “But I can see that’s the wrong answer.”
“Did something happen?” Ellie patted an empty space on the bed, inviting Abby farther into the room to take a seat.
Seeing the two of them, with Derrick’s arm resting on the pillows behind Ellie and his fingers slipping into her hair and massaging her neck, struck Abby with the force of a slap. A pang of something...jealousy, regret, longing...moved through her. She couldn’t identify the feeling or grab on to it long enough to assess it. But the idea that she was interrupting did crash on top of her.
She was about to drop the brownies and run when she saw both of their faces. The concern. Derrick was the big boss and he deserved to know Spence hadn’t really done anything wrong. This time.
She shook her head. “Nothing, really. He walked onto my job site unannounced.”
Derrick winced. “Yeah, about that.”
Ellie’s head slowly turned and she pinned Derrick with a you’re-in-trouble glare. “What did you do?”
“With you being on bed rest—”
“Don’t blame me,” Ellie warned.
“Let me try again.” Derrick, the tough, no-nonsense boss who sent employees scurrying, cleared his throat. “Since I can’t be in the office as much as usual right now—”
Ellie’s sigh echoed around the room. “You’re still blaming me.”
They were so cute, so perfectly in sync, that Abby took pity on Derrick. “Let me guess. Spence is overseeing some of the projects now that he’s back in town.”
Derrick closed his eyes for a second before opening them again. Relief poured off him. “Thank you and yes.”
She wasn’t willing to let him all the way off the hook. “Like the one I’m in charge of.”
“The key phrase there is that you are in charge. Spence watching over the project is in line with office procedure. It’s purely a we-need-to-know-what’s-happening check. You know that.”
“That was a lot of words,” Ellie said in a stunned voice.
“I wanted to be clear.”
This time, she rolled her eyes at him. “Uh-huh. You’re sure you’re not doing something else?”
Derrick smiled. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Abby got it. Derrick rarely explained himself. He’d gone into an office-manual description with his answer. That immediately put Abby on edge. The idea of Derrick playing matchmaker or trying to push people together to talk...forget it. That was ridiculous. He wasn’t that great with people, which is why his assistant, Jackson Richards, worked nonstop and everyone ran to him for everything.
It also explained why the entire office celebrated when Derrick fell in love with Ellie. Everyone hoped love would soften him. It had, except for the palpable panic that now hovered around him due to the endangered pregnancy.
Still, shortly after Spence left town, Abby had been promoted. She’d seriously considered turning the offer down out of fear of it being perceived as a payoff to get her to keep quiet about the Jameson men shenanigans. Then she decided she qualified for the position and needed the money because there was no way she was staying at Jameson for long.
She went from assistant to project manager. Now she had a seat at the manager’s table. She didn’t need a full-time babysitter, and certainly not that full-time babysitter. “Spence showed up at a site meeting