She called her client, Mark Sutton, and assured him she was already working on a software patch to correct his issues. “While I have you on the phone, I wanted to apologize for William’s behavior this morning. With me out of town, he’s under a lot of pressure and I’m sure he just didn’t understand the seriousness of your issue.”
“No kidding. Now that I’ve seen William in action, I think I’d ask that blonde receptionist of yours to work on my operating system before I asked him. To tell you the truth, Honor, I really enjoy doing business with you, but I would appreciate it if you could arrange it so that I never have to interact with William again.”
Honor was confused. “But I thought you two had a great relationship. I mean, you guys play golf together so often…”
“Whatever gave you that idea? William calls me about once a month and asks me how things are going and I tell him everything’s fine. That’s about it. Whenever I need anything, I call you.”
“Really? I guess I must be confusing you with another customer.” But Honor knew she hadn’t made a mistake. She had frequently seen Mark’s name on company expense reports for client appreciation rounds of golf, lunch and drinks. In fact, she was certain Soft Fix helped sponsor a charity golf tournament Mark had supposedly organized last summer.
Honor was stunned, but hid her reaction. “Well, I better go now. I’m collaborating with Ellen Christiansen to figure out what’s wrong with your system.”
“You and Ellen are both working on this problem? Great! I can relax now that I know the dynamic-duo is on the job.”
After they hung up, Honor tried to convince herself that William simply entered the wrong client name on his expense reimbursement reports, but her mind kept posing troubling questions. How could William make the same mistake over and over? And if William wasn’t entertaining clients like Mark, then where did the money go? She decided to focus her attention on designing the software patch and add these concerns to her discussion with the company’s attorney.
Ellen Christianson was in rare form by the time Honor called. “Good God, Honor—you have to do something about William. The imbecile doesn’t possess enough business sense to run a bake sale and yet he’s trying to micro-manage the technical operations of a software design company!”
It took a while, but Honor finally refocused her colleague’s attention on resolving Mark’s operating system issues. Once they got started, their work processes were so harmonious, the project felt less like work and more like a challenging puzzle for them to solve together. The day flew by, but by late that afternoon, the software patch was finished and downloaded to Mark’s operating system. Honor was ecstatic when Mark called to happily confirm their solution worked.
Smiling with satisfaction, she hung up and immediately called Josh.
His voice sounded oddly hushed, but his words warmed her all over. “I’ve been missing you like crazy all day long.”
Honor could hear a chorus of men’s voices in the background, heckling Josh.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
He laughed. “Hold on, Honor. I can’t hear you. I’m going to walk outside so these idiots can’t hear our conversation.”
The laughing and good-natured taunting faded into the background.
“What’s that all about?” Honor repeated.
“It’s nothing, really. The ‘Js’ are just acting like a bunch of twelve-year-olds, teasing me about you.”
“Why?” Honor felt her insecurities beginning to surface.
“Well, I guess I was talking about you more than I realized and they aren’t used to that coming from me. They’re harmless, though. I remember treating Jeremy the same way when he first fell in love with his wife, Cathy. I think it’s our way of finding out how serious a relationship is. If you care about someone enough to accept all the abuse the ‘Js’ can dish out, then it must be the real thing.”
“How are you holding up?”
“They can tease me all they want. It runs off my back like water off a duck.”
Honor sighed with relief. “Do you still want to get together for supper?”
“I sure do,” Josh exclaimed. “I was afraid you were calling to say you had to work late. I’m glad I was wrong. Give me and Cody a few minutes to say goodnight to my family and we’ll be right over.”
***
When Josh knocked on her door, it was Honor’s turn to be surprised. Dressed in an open-necked black shirt and tailored gray sports jacket with dress jeans and boots, Josh took her breath away. It took Honor a few seconds to realize he was alone and holding a vase filled with fragrant, pink stargazer lilies.
Grinning at Honor’s speechless reaction, Josh set the vase on the entry hall table. “Cody was having fun playing with his cousins, so my brother James and his wife volunteered to keep him for the night,” he explained. “I thought I’d take you on a proper date.”
Honor slid into his outstretched arms. “God, you feel good,” he whispered. “I was planning to take you out for dinner, but suddenly room service sounds more appealing. What do you think?”
With some difficulty, Honor resisted his attempt to seduce her. “We have the whole night to enjoy the things that are on your mind,” she purred. “I want to savor the anticipation for a little while. Let’s have a romantic dinner out and, if you’re an exceptionally great date, I can guarantee there will be champagne, a bubble bath and maybe even a massage in your near future.”
Josh groaned at the thought of waiting, but obediently released her from his arms and opened the door. “After you, my lady.”
After selecting a nice, full-bodied chardonnay at the E & E Stakeout Grill, Josh told Honor the Js and their wives were anxious to meet her. “Of course, getting to know the whole gang at once can be a bit overwhelming, so I told them I would introduce you to a few of them at a time.” He smiled, his blue eyes sparkling. “I thought for starters, you might be willing to ride over with me to pick up Cody at James and Lisa’s house tomorrow afternoon.”
“Sure, as long as we can spend the morning working at my mom’s house. If I don’t start making better progress over there, I’m never going to get finished,” she lamented.
“No problem. I can even check out the house to determine what repairs need to be made to get it ready for the market.”
“Great!” Honor gladly accepted his offer. Then, between bites of succulent steak and lobster, she told Josh about her discussions with Mark Sutton and her growing suspicions about William’s financial dealings. But despite her concerns, Honor remained in high spirits, due in no small part to being able to talk things over with Josh.
Before long, they polished off a second bottle of chardonnay. Honor glanced around and noticed that only a few tired-looking employees were left in the restaurant. “Yipes!” she said with mock horror, “we’d better get out of here. If looks could kill us, we’d be goners.”
The restaurant hostess did her best to stifle a yawn as they walked past her on the way to the exit. “I hope you come back and visit us again soon,” she mumbled automatically.
As though reading the thoughts behind her polite expression, Josh joked, “But next time, we should make our reservation for earlier in the evening, right?”
The hostess just smiled.
Back in Honor’s hotel suite, they ran a bubble bath in the deep, Jacuzzi tub and opened a small bottle of champagne from the mini bar. It was fun to be naked without worrying about Cody walking in on them and so they stayed in the bath until the bubbles were long gone and their fingers began to wrinkle.
Eventually they both wanted to be dry. Josh helped Honor from the tub and wrapped a towel around her. He pulled her close, intoxicated as much by the scent of her as by the wine. When they began to caress one another, the towel dropped to the floor between them. Soon their kisses gave way to the thrill of passion. They tumbled into bed, inhibitions abandoned, each seeking to please the other as much as possible. Afterward, exhausted and completely sated, they fell asleep, absently pulling tangled blankets over their naked bodies as the chill began to fill the room.