Fifteen minutes later, Zeke emerged from Molly’s kitchen with two margaritas, the rim of the wide-necked blue glasses dotted with salt. Just as she’d come downstairs from putting Lucy to bed, he set one down in front of her and then sat on the opposite end of the sofa.
The last time he was on this sofa, he’d kissed her. The memory was so clear. He’d tucked her curl behind her ear and then their lips met and he’d wanted more. So much more.
Molly. His everything.
“Ooh, those look festive,” she said, her eyes sparkling with anticipation. “And definitely just what the doctor ordered. Today really was some day.”
“Was it?” he asked, thinking of what she’d had on her plate today. Nothing too hectic or out of the ordinary. But he’d been gone for a few hours, house-hunting with Danica. Perhaps during that time, she’d hit a hard patch of research in the case file he’d left her.
She sat up straight and cleared her throat. “I, um, mean with my parents. All that arguing. Oy.”
“Ah. Yeah, they were really at a stalemate. I’m glad you called me.”
She turned toward him. “To Dawson Solutions, Inc., saving the day again.” She held up her glass.
He held up his and they clinked. “We’re a good team.”
She smiled and paused with her glass midway to her mouth. “I meant you. Once again, you helped my family in life-changing ways. Seriously, Zeke—life-changing. When we left my parents’ house, I glanced in the living room window and saw my parents slow dancing.”
He grinned. “Yeah, I caught that, too. They’re a good team.”
“Yeah, they are. And when they’re both ready for a break, they’ll plan a vacation and my mother will still get to see those red rocks of Utah.” She took a long sip of her margarita. “Ooh, this is good.” Another long sip, then another. “So tart and delicious.”
He sipped his own. It was good. “I actually had to Google the parts. I almost put in way too much orange liqueur. But now I can add ‘makes a mean margarita’ to my list of skills.”
They clinked again and sipped some more.
When was the last time he had a drink? A good while ago, some business function. Zeke had a beer every now and then but he rarely ever had a second. Reminded him of his dad, he supposed.
“And I appreciate what you said about my helping your family. I love the work I do. Especially when it has fast results like tonight.”
“How did you do it?” she asked. “How’d you turn him around?”
Tim Orton had given Zeke blanket permission to bring in his daughter on all matters concerning the taco truck and Dawson Solutions, so he figured it was okay to tell Molly about her dad’s past with the man who’d offered to buy the business.
“Wow. Why does high school have such a hold on everyone?” Molly asked. She took another sip of her margarita.
“It’s when our identities are solidifying, when we’re discovering what matters to us, when our hearts are at their most vulnerable. It’s no wonder people tend to remember the slights and accomplishments back then with such force.” He smiled and shook his head. “And then just like that—” he snapped his fingers “—something you’ve been holding on to for decades disappears.”
“Like your crush on my best friend.”
“Exactly.” He tried to picture Danica but there was just nothing. He was really and truly over a twenty-year dream—a dream based on nothing but the superficial, he realized. “Maybe I’ve grown up, after all.” He took a sip of his drink and leaned his head back. “Maybe I should let go of everything.”
Molly gave an exaggerated nod. “A fresh start. Looking at the world through who you are right now, not who you once were.” She lifted her margarita and took a long sip, then another, then finished it in one full swoop.
“Definitely,” he said, feeling the warmth of the tequila in his chest. He downed the rest of his margarita, too.
He couldn’t take his eyes off Molly’s face. And she was staring at him, her brown eyes...smoldering.
And then they both scooted closer. Closer. Then closer still.
“I like you so much, Molly.”
“I like you so much, too. In fact, I—” She stopped suddenly and kissed him. Softly. She wrapped her arms around his neck, deepening the kiss. Driving him wild.
Put a stop to this, he thought. Now. “I want this, Molly. Believe me, I do. But I made a promise to both of us—”
Had that sexy beauty mark just above her right eyebrow always been there?
She lifted her face to his. Her beautiful face.
“Molly, we can’t kiss again. Can. Not. I’d leave like I know I should, but I guzzled the margarita and there’s no way I should drive right now. We could watch a movie and I could fall asleep in that chair.”
“Oh, that chair is very uncomfortable. So let’s just keep kissing and you could let that excuse go, Zeke. It’s a two-person office. There’s no HR department. I’m a grown woman making my own decisions. I will write out a declaration this moment that we really and truly fell for each other and therefore had to kiss. And hopefully more.”
“It’s not an excuse,” he countered, but his voice sounded kind of light when he meant to be serious. “It’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed.”
She held his gaze and he couldn’t drag his eyes off hers. “You know, Zeke, being your admin has its advantages. Because I have a solution to our problem. A Dawson Solutions solution.”
He raised an eyebrow. “And what’s that?”
“Change my title so that you’re not my boss.”
He smiled. “It’s my company. I’d still be your boss.”
“Not if we had the same title. What’s your title, anyway? Your business card and letterhead just says Consultant.”
“That’s my title,” he said. “I like that better than president or CEO or some other highfalutin title I could have given myself. I’m a consultant. I consult.”
“Well, I consult, too, really. Just in a different way than you do. I consult information all day long and work up reports. I consult my laptop to keep your client files up to date. If my title is consultant and your title is consultant, how are you my boss?”
He was dimly aware that he was giving in to this, that he was crossing a line he couldn’t backtrack from. “Okay, Molly, I just changed your title. You’re now a consultant at Dawson Solutions.”
A slow, satisfied smile spread across her beautiful face. “Yes. And you are my sole client.”
Her sexy voice lured him closer. She was so tantalizingly close, her lips just an inch away.
“So you’re not my boss anymore, Zeke. That means we can kiss all we want. And anything else.”
A very low-sounding alarm went off in the back of his head but he was too taken with Molly’s pink lips and the pure desire in her eyes to pay attention to it.
“You are so beautiful,” he whispered, one hand winding in her lush hair while the other drew her to him. She kissed him so passionately that he allowed himself to lean back against the sofa. The loosened tie was flung off. His shirt was next.
Then hers. He sucked in a breath at the sight of her lacy black bra. Sexy, sexy, sexy.
The next thing he knew, they were in her bed in a tangle of sheets and down comforter. Naked. Exploring.
And everything Zeke had been reining in for weeks let loose.
“Oh, Zeke,” Molly moaned into his ear.
And all he could think about was how very right everything about this felt right now.
The sun was rising when Molly woke up, a grin on her face like she was Sally when Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal finally slept together in When Harry Met Sally.
But when she glanced over at Zeke, naked next to her in her bed, he looked just like Harry had: staring at the ceiling in a state of wide-eyed absolute shock—and regret.
Oh, foo. This was not the face of a man in love. A man who’d made love to the woman he realized he’d loved all along.
This was a man who was about to break her heart.
She sucked in a breath and let it out. “How long have you been staring at the ceiling, looking like you just made the worst mistake of your life?”
He sat up and looked at her, something close to torment in his eyes. Just what every woman wanted to see in the face of the man she loved after they had sex for the first time. “Molly, I—”
“Shouldn’t have done this, can’t do this, let’s pretend this never happened. Do I have that right?”
He leaned his head back. “This is why I should never drink. One too-strong margarita and my inhibitions went out the window. Judgment canceled. Common sense gone.” He shook his head.
“Except last night was amazing,” she said, trying to keep the air of positivity she felt instead of the reality lying beside her. “Admit it.”
“Yes, it was amazing. I had no doubt it would be. But it doesn’t change anything, Molly.”
“I’m a consultant, not your admin. Everything’s fine now.”
That got a brief, sad smile out of him. “Except it’s not fine. I’m not...” He stopped talking and looked up at the ceiling. “You’re a...”
Tears welled but then anger blinked them away. “A what? A mother? A package deal? Damned straight I am.”
“And...” He looked truly pained at least. “I’ve been honest about where I am on that.”
She frowned, not wanting to hear this. She wanted him to be past this. Because she was worth it.
He took her hand. “You need someone who can offer you forever, someone who wants to be Lucy’s stepfather. I’m not that person. I never was.”
She slipped her hand away. “So you said. Many times. I see otherwise in you.”
“That’s not really fair, though. Is it?”
Tears threatened. She couldn’t take this.
He slid his legs to his side of the bed and grabbed his clothes.
Dammit. “I’m officially calling in sick, Zeke. Right now.”
He turned and touched her face, then got out of bed and quickly dressed.
“I’m sorry, Molly. I am.”
Don’t be sorry. Be who you really are—not who you’re hiding behind.
Or maybe that was wishful thinking—again—on her part all this time. He was right—he had told her over and over and she didn’t want to believe it.
I love you, Zeke Dawson, she wanted to scream at the top of her lungs. And I know you have serious feelings for me. Are you really just going to let me go?
“Come back to the office when you feel ready, Molly,” he said. “I need you and I don’t want anything to come between our great working relationship. I’ll understand if you feel otherwise, though.” He let out a breath. “I messed up.”
Humph, she thought. She couldn’t speak.
She just flopped back against the pillows.
“I’m sorry,” he said again, and then was gone.