Chapter 10

10

NIALL

O n Monday afternoon, I was still finding it difficult to focus. My attention span had been shit all day, and even now, I was barely able to get from one task to the next without thinking about Tallulah.

I’d spent all of yesterday thinking about her too, wondering how I could make this right. During our unbelievably hot make-out session, I’d been absolutely certain she wanted it, and I’d been completely committed to it.

I hadn’t given a shit about lines being crossed or boundaries being ignored. I’d been ready to take it all the way and then some, and I would have if she hadn’t slammed on the brakes so abruptly. I hadn’t seen it coming.

For possibly the first time in my life, I seemed to have totally misread the situation—and I’d been feeling like a dick about it ever since.

I needed to apologize, sincerely this time, and I needed to do it soon. The fault had been mine and I had to accept responsibility for it—before she quit and left us in the lurch just as we were really starting to gear up for the festival.

I couldn’t allow for that to happen. Having signed off on a few of her new ideas this morning, I now knew that Jake had been right from the beginning. Under Tallulah’s leadership, this project would thrive. The festival would be the best it’d ever been and I simply couldn’t imagine doing it without her any longer.

As such, I’d made a mess of things personally and professionally, and I needed to make up for that. I’d never made a blunder of this nature and I didn’t like the feeling I had right now, of having taken advantage of a woman over whom I had a measure of authority.

Professionally, I was at risk of losing the project manager it’d taken me months to find. I already knew there was no one out there who was better for this job, and as an added incentive, I’d opened the company up to a potential lawsuit.

While I doubted she was the litigious type, it remained a problem I couldn’t ignore. Mostly though, I just didn’t want to lose her.

Not as a project manager and, strangely, not from my life. I was growing used to the role she played in it as the anti-me, and as the days passed, I was beginning to enjoy the challenge she presented me with to dig deeper within myself.

When Jake opened my door, I turned to face him, unfazed by the interruption for once. I hadn’t been getting any work done anyway. I folded my arms on my desk and looked at my friend. “What’s up?”

“I have the portfolio of vendors Tallulah has put together for the festival. We need your approval for the new additions.”

I shrugged. “Just do whatever she wants. I’ve already signed off on her ideas, so whatever she needs to make them happen is fine.”

He nodded, sliding the folder he’d walked in with under his arm, but instead of leaving my office, he shut the door behind him and strode closer to my desk. “Okay, you’ve been off all day. What gives?”

“Nothing. I’m just busy.” I was supposed to be busy, in fact. “There’s a street fair for Halloween coming up in the Garden District and I’ve been asked by my neighbors to design a haunted house for a party after the event. I offered my place for it weeks ago and I forgot, so I’m paying for it now.”

“Just have Tallulah throw it together,” he suggested easily, his brow still furrowed as he swept his gaze across my face. “I’m sure she’d love to help with something like that, and it’ll allow you to see what she’s capable of for future projects as well. So far, she seems to be doing a great job for the festival, but it might be worth letting her take a stab at something else so we know what to expect for the smaller events she’d be organizing year-round if you decide to keep her on.”

“We’re keeping her on,” I said listlessly. “You were right. I was wrong. She’s the best person for this job. Honestly, I can’t believe we didn’t think of most of her ideas by ourselves, but we didn’t, and in addition to all that, she seems to have a tendency for sniffing out finer details that’ll bring everything together.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Can you repeat that please? I was what ?”

“Right,” I repeated, rolling my eyes. “I was wrong. Do you want to go grab your phone and make a video of me saying so for you to get off to later, or can we move on?”

“Nah, you can record it later and email it to me.” He ran a hand slowly through his hair, still looking at me like he was waiting for a neon sign to light up above my head telling him what was going on with me. “Anyway, I’ll ask Tallulah about the street fair.”

“It’s happening on Friday night,” I argued. “That’s not enough time for us to spring it on her now. I’ll handle it myself.”

He arched an eyebrow at me. “Yourself? Really? You’re going to put together a massive party and a haunted house for your entire neighborhood all by yourself in four days?”

I shrugged. “I’m just going to have to.”

“Just let her do it,” he said, exasperation in his eyes. “You just said it yourself that she’s the best person for the job. Why are you still fighting me on this?”

“We can’t expect her to drop everything for a party I forgot about,” I said. “It’s not fair. But she’s a new employee, so if you ask her, obviously she’s going to say yes and we’ll be the assholes she’ll be telling her friends about.”

“Since when do you care about being the asshole your employees tell their friends about?” He frowned. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

“No. I just don’t think it’s right to expect this of her while she’s busy with the festival as well.”

He blew out a frustrated breath. “If anyone can pull it off in so little time, it’s her.”

I sighed, but he wasn’t wrong. I needed help with this, and at least now, I had a legitimate reason to call her. “Fine, but I’ll talk to her about it myself. We’ll offer her some extra hands if she needs help.”

His eyebrows rose slightly before he nodded and took a step back. “Very well. Let me know if there’s anything I can do.”

“There won’t be, but thanks.”

Lingering in the center of the room as he backed away from my desk, he finally just came right out with it. “Do you still have a problem with her? Is that what’s going on with you today, or is it something else?”

“I don’t have a problem with her,” I said. “My mind is simply elsewhere. That’s all. It’s none of your concern.”

“Are you sure? Because you seem really out of it.”

“I’m not,” I lied, but I looked him right in the eyes as I did and he seemed to buy it. “Goodbye, Jake. From now on, remember that Tallulah can have whatever she needs for the festival. You made the right call when we hired her. I won’t stand in the way of her doing her job.”

These days, it really was true that good help was hard to find. When I managed to find it, I went out of my way to keep it and we had hit the jackpot when Jake had found Tallulah. I respected the work she’d put into this project enough so far to trust her to bring it together.

I’d keep overseeing things as I should, but I wasn’t into micromanagement. If I thought I could do it all myself, I would have. The fact was that I couldn’t and my attention was better served on my actual business than the events we put on, which was why I’d been searching for someone to manage those projects in the first place.

Jake nodded, strode to my door, and glanced at me once more when he reached it. “Are you sure that’s all it is?”

“I’m sure.”

He held my gaze for another beat before he left, once again leaving me alone with my thoughts. I was still struggling to come to terms with the fact that I’d misread what’d happened on Saturday night to the extent that I had.

Honestly, I just couldn’t seem to get my head wrapped around the fact that she hadn’t wanted to kiss me after all. I’d really thought there was something there, an undeniable chemistry that had drawn us together.

Why is it that I just cannot get a read on this woman?

It was frustrating as all get out and it was even worse now that I’d kissed her. I’d kissed a lot of women in my life. I’d fucked a lot of them too, and I’d done all sorts of things in between.

Yet Saturday night had been the first time that I’d lost myself to a woman.

The first time that I’d felt like I could bury myself in her for a week without needing to come up for air. Or food. Or even work.

Nothing else had mattered to me during that kiss, and I swore I’d felt the same thing from her. Knowing that I’d been wrong about something I’d been so convinced was so right was a mindfuck the likes of which I hadn’t ever experienced before.

Usually, when I was that certain about something, I was completely right, but apparently, I hadn’t been this time.

I let out a heavy breath and turned back to my computer, intent on finally getting some work done. My phone rang. When I picked up, I frowned at the number on my screen, but my heart also gave a strange jerk.

Because it was one of the Carmichael Plantation lines. There was a possibility, however remote, that Tallulah was the person calling me.

“This is Niall,” I said into the phone, knowing it probably wasn’t her.

First, because she usually only sent me emails, but second, because she’d never used one of those landlines as far as I knew. A male voice spoke up at the other end of the line, confirming my suspicions about it not being her and dashing the small amount of hope I’d been fostering that it was.

“Mr. Morrison, this is Derrick. I’m on the maintenance team at the old Carmichael Plantation.”

“Of course,” I said politely. “What’s going on?”

“We’re having some electrical issues with the guest house, sir,” he said. “Ms. Pruette chatted to us about it and we need to know what you want us to do. My team and I have tried everything we know, but we might need to call in some help.”

“Let me come check it out myself,” I said immediately. “Once I’ve seen what’s going on, we’ll make the call. I’ll be out there as soon as I can.”

A slow grin spread on my lips. First Jake had suggested that I speak to Tallulah today and now Derrick had called with an excuse to see her. It was starting to feel like the universe itself was pushing me toward her, and I couldn’t say I had any problem with it at all.