Page 29 of The Swap After Hours

TREVOR

The night air was cool, but it was warm inside Donovan’s car as we left the restaurant. When the bill had come, he’d insisted on paying, saying that he was the one who had invited me.

Soft music played through the speakers as he drove, but I couldn’t concentrate on anything except the man beside me. Or rather, the sight of him driving his Porsche. I watched him out of the corner of my eye as he wove in and out of traffic, jaw firm and eyes focused, dominating the road in much the same way he dominated the boardroom. It was sexy as hell and the sight of his long fingers flexing over the leather steering wheel took my mind on a wild ride of its own.

We were only about a block away from the restaurant when his phone rang through the speakers. I straightened in my seat, immediately intrigued when the word MOM flashed up on the display.

Donovan flashed me a wary look and I almost thought he was going to let the call go to voicemail, but then he answered. “Hi, Mom.”

“Hi, honey,” came a warm voice. “How was your day?”

“It was fine. How was yours?”

“Well, it was pretty good until I did something I shouldn’t have,” she admitted hesitantly.

“What was it? Are you all right?” My stomach clenched at the concern in his voice.

“I’m fine, I promise. I just messed up. I wanted to move my computer out to the barn. I figured it would make more sense to do my invoicing out there since that’s where I do most of my work.”

“Okay, so how did you mess up?”

“Well, I took everything apart and moved it out to the barn, but when I got there, I realized I hadn’t written anything down and now I don’t know where any of these darn wires go.”

I bit the inside of my lip to keep from laughing as Donovan shot me an incredulous look. To his credit, he didn’t let his exasperation bleed into his conversation with his mother. “It’s fine, Mom. I’ll be over as soon as I can. I just have to drop off my fr…PA.”

I raised my eyebrows at the notable pause. Had he been about to call me a friend? Before I could think too long about it, his mom let out an excited squeal. “Trevor’s with you?”

“Uh, yes, ma’am. Hello. Hi.” I blinked in surprise, stumbling over my words. How does she know my name?

“Oh, Trevor. It’s such a pleasure to talk to you. I’ve been meaning to come to the office so I could meet you, but I’ve been swamped with work lately and haven’t had time to make it into the city, but I’ve heard a lot about you from my son.”

A scowl was marring Donovan’s handsome face when I whipped my head in his direction. His jaw ticked and he refused to look at me, his eyes carefully focused on the road. “Well, it’s a pleasure to talk to you too, Mrs. Marshall. I hope your son hasn’t told you anything too bad about me,” I said teasingly.

“Please, call me Elaine, and it’s nothing bad at all. He’s told me what an asset you are to the company and to him in particular. In fact, he told me he’s never had an assistant as competent as you.”

“Reeeeaaallly?” I drawled out, my eyes trained on Donovan, my mouth stretched in an obscenely wide grin.

He rolled his eyes, huffing loudly. “All right, that’s enough of that. Mom, I’ll be over as soon as I drop Trevor?—”

“I’ll go with you,” I interrupted.

“What?” he practically shouted, looking at me like I’d suddenly grown a second head.

“That would be wonderful but are you sure?” his mother said at the same time.

“Absolutely,” I said, responding to both of them. “I know my way around computers. I used to work in IT. I should be able to get yours hooked up in no time.”

“Thank you so much. I’ll see you boys soon then. Be safe.”

Donovan looked shell-shocked as his mom ended the call and I bit back a laugh. “Your mom sounds lovely.”

He grumbled something but it was too quiet for me to make out what it was. I just had to hope he wasn’t too upset with me for finagling my way into meeting his mother.

My heart was in my throat as we pulled into a long gravel driveway twenty minutes later. As soon as we’d passed the city limit sign, Donovan pressed his foot on the gas and sped off into the night. He hadn’t said a word the whole way there and I was beginning to doubt my decision to come. Maybe he really was angry with me.

He pulled in next to a cheery yellow Volkswagen convertible with adorable flower decals over the brake lights. I smiled when I saw it, thinking how it matched the image I now had in my head of Donovan’s mom.

The house was charming with well-tended flower gardens along the front walkway, a large front porch that had an actual porch swing, and flower boxes on each of the windows. Lights glowed inside, giving it a warm and inviting feel, and I felt my chest tighten. This was the kind of house I could only have wished for as a kid.

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