Page 1 of A Little More

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Great. Another man couldn’t keepitin his pants, so now they all had to take additional training. Nothing but a two-hour reminder that at their architecture firm, personal and professional relationships didn’t mix. Ever. True love be damned.

Lexi Caden jogged down the hallway, grabbing onto the wall as she skidded around the corner. Her short brown curls brushed against her neck with each step as her calves burned from balancing in her high heels. Thanks to Lionel Busby and his uncontrollable urges to screw his client, she’d wasted her morning listening to her boss’s repeated warnings of what would happen. Instant firing.

All the employees at their firm lived in Atlanta. Why did Lionel pick his client knowing the consequences when there were literally thousands of single women in the city?

Didn’t matter. It was his problem to find another job without a reference. Her focus shifted from the idiot back to her tight schedule. She had ten minutes until her client arrived. Five minutes until the bidding ended. She could do it.

Running into her office, she sat down in her leather desk chair and spun around to face her computer. Shoot. She looked at her watch and then at the countdown clock on the screen beside a picture of an old, dilapidated farmhouse. She was down to three minutes before her sixty-five-thousand-dollar bid won the house. This time she wouldn’t chicken out. The past two houses that she’d bid on had slipped away in the final few moments because of her hesitation.

It wasn’t the money that had kept her from bidding higher. Her job as a commercial architect paid rather nicely, but despite her confidence in her career, she lacked the guts to go for her dream. Renovating an old farmhouse from the ground up didn’t sound like a typical dream for a thirty-four-year-old living in the city. Some women wanted a husband and kids. Others wanted a Hermès purse. Her mom had dreamed of her marrying well. The typical thing, doctor or lawyer. That was how her mom operated in life. None of those things were important. This house was her dream.

Drumming her fingers on the table, she held her breath as the timer clicked down to one minute.

No one had outbid her. Yet.

“Ms. Caden,” Sarah said from the doorway.

Lexi jumped up from her seat. “Yes?”

“Mr. Holloway is here.”

With a quick glance at the screen, thirty seconds left, she nodded. “Okay. You can show him back to the conference room.” Give her time to focus and hopefully win the house.

Sarah’s eyebrows drew together. “Are you sure? I told him that you usually go over your vision in here before showing a client your sketches.”

Twenty seconds.

“Fine, Sarah.” She looked up at her receptionist and gave her an apologetic smile for the sharp tone. “Thanks for reminding me.”

Ten seconds.

“Good.” She clasped her hands together before making a motion like aPrice Is Rightmodel. “Because he’s right here.”

Sarah disappeared, and Nash Holloway filled up her doorway.

She didn’t know what to expect of a cotton farmer based upon their email exchange, but he wasn’t it. Broad shoulders. A deep tan. Blue eyes that she swore matched the bluest sky she’d ever seen.

What happened to overalls and flannel? And old men? Weren’t all farmers old men? It shouldn’t matter. The way their eyes locked together and caused a barely contained shiver to race down her spine could have happened with anyone. Although it’d never happened before.

She swallowed before she drooled. Whatever he did for a living, none of the men she’d dated before filled out a suit that well.

He slid his hands into his suit pockets. “I hope I’m not interrupting.”

The bid. She sat down. Big red letters spelled “FINAL” and covered the picture of her dream.

She checked the bid history. Someone had sniped the bid away from her in the last ten seconds.

Last.

Ten.

Seconds.

She dropped her head onto the desk. Maybe her mom had been right. She should focus on her job, quit wasting her energy trying to make her dream a reality.

“I can come back later…”

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