Page 19 of Reunion With Benefits

Abby flicked the pen back and forth between her fingers. She seemed calm, maybe even a little amused.

Spence was smart enough to know quiet sometimes meant dangerous. He seriously considered ducking.

She waited a few more minutes, drawing out the tension and letting it build before she talked. That pen kept twirling in the air. “Is your plan to walk into every meeting I have and bully people?”

The tone. So judging. “Have you always been this dramatic?”

She eyed him up. “Yesterday you sat in on a meeting at the office and never said a word.”

He suddenly felt sorry for the people who worked under her. She knew how to use that voice, that look, to set the tone. No one had to guess her mood. “I’m confused. You want me to talk, then you don’t.”

“It made people uncomfortable.”

He knew the feeling. “You mean you?”

The invisible hold pulling between them broke. She looked away as she shook her head. “Your ego is amazing.”

“Thank you.” He stretched his arm out along the table. Almost touched her but was smart enough not to try. “About Rylan.”

She straightened up the stack of papers in front of her. “We need him to sign off on a variety of environmental issues. He’s dragging his feet, but it will happen. You know that.”

So professional.Every word was true. That’s how the process worked, but Spence was talking about something very different. He sensed she knew that. “And you know he’s interested in more than hazardous waste.”

“He’s still within a reasonable time frame for getting the work done.”

An interesting answer. One he decided to hit head-on. “Are you ignoring his crush in order to smooth the way for our approvals?”

“You didn’t actually accuse me of using my looks to get what I want, so I’ll let that pass.” She stood up.

“I’m not a total jerk, Abby. I’m concerned that he’s making you uncomfortable or that he’s harassing you. Neither is okay.” Not liking the way it felt to sit while she loomed over him, he stood up, too. Kept his distance, or as much as being around the corner from each other at the table would allow. “I don’t want him crossing a line.”

Her eyes narrowed. It looked like she was studying him, trying to figure out if he was lying or not. “Women in the workplace have to maneuver through a labyrinth of ridiculous male behavior to get things done. But I have hard limits. I don’t sleep around to get what I want.”

The words struck right at the heart of their issues, but that’s not where he was going, and digging into the past would only shut down the conversation. “I wasn’t suggesting that.”

“You did before.”

He could not go back over that ground one more time. Part of him wanted to forgive and forget and move on. He didn’t know if he could, but he was sure she was not up for the “forget” part. “Abby.”

She went back to the papers. Stacked and restacked the same group twice before looking up at him again. “I’m just making my position clear since you think this has been an issue for me in the past. Don’t want to be wrongly accused again.”

“You’ll tell me if you need me to—”

“That’s the thing, Spence.” She dropped the papers she was holding and they fell against the table with a whoosh. “You can’t swoop in and fix this.”

“First, I do not swoop.”

She snorted. “If you say so.”

“Second, I don’t want any woman in this office to deal with nonsense.” And he meant that. The last few generations of Jameson men had issues with women. He was determined to break the cycle and he knew Derrick and Carter wanted that, too.

“That last part is a responsible and appropriate thing for a boss to say, and maybe even a little sweet, but it’s also impossible. There will always be some level of nonsense.”

The words deflated him. “I’m sorry.”

“For?”

The list was so damn long and went far beyond the topic they were discussing. “Everything? I’m really not sure, but I hate this feeling. The wall between us. The anger. The broken trust.”

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