Page 4 of The Fix Up

“And you’re a CEO?”

He shrugged. “I am now, but I spent the last decade in the trenches of the company doing product development. This is—uh, new territory for me.”

“You don’t say.” She bit her lip, hoping she hadn’t sounded too judgmental. “Well, look, I have to run. I just came in to look for some new pillows on my lunch break, but I had no idea there were this many to choose from. Antimicrobial buckwheat? Spine alignment memory foam? Who the hell comes up with this stuff?”

“Probably those marketing and branding types,” he said, giving her a small smile that left her tingling all the way down to her kneecaps.

She smiled back, wondering if anyone had ever told him he ought to smile more. It did wonders for his features, which weren’t bad to start with. He could use a haircut, maybe, and a shirt that was a bit more tailored for those impressive biceps, and maybe?—

“It was lovely meeting you, Holly Colvin,” he said. “Thanks for saving me from Vampira the Sales Queen.”

She laughed. “Thanks for making this the most interesting lunch break I’ve had all week. If Vampira comes back, just tell her I had a family emergency.”

“Of course. I’ll explain that one of the twins threw up at daycare.”

“Twins?”

He nodded. “We’re married, right? Might as well toss a couple kids into the mix to make it believable.”

A chill raced through her body, and Holly fought to keep the smile pasted in place. “Right. The all-American dream with the kids and the power-hungry career man and the subservient, stay-at-home mommy in an apron. Just text me with whatever you want for dinner, sweetums.”

He blinked. “What?”

“Nothing.” She grinned to show him she wasn’t crazy, even though the jury was still out on that one. “It was great meeting you, buddy. Good luck with the new job.”

She turned and walked away, feeling his eyes on her and kinda enjoying the sensation. It wasn’t until she got halfway to her car that she realized she hadn’t even asked his name.

Just as well,she told herself, shrugging her leather tote higher onto her shoulder.The last thing you need is another career-driven workaholic looking for a wifey to chain to his stove. Been there, done that, burned the ill-fitting T-shirt.

She slung herself into the driver’s seat of her red Volkswagen Beetle and scrolled her music library to find something suitably loud and upbeat. She listened to Foster the People on high volume for the twenty-minute drive back to the office, enjoying the sunny fall weather and the spicy smell of leaves blowing through her open car windows.

It was almost enough to make her forget the meeting she’d been dreading all day. The meeting she’d dreaded for two years, come to think of it.

But the closer she got to her office, Holly felt herself shifting back into career mode. She had two hours until the appointment with her loan officer. There was a lot to get done between now and then.

By the time she walked through the door of First Impressions, the warmth she’d felt from her encounter with Magic Hands had all but faded. She had real business to deal with here, and today sure as hell wasn’t the day to get distracted by a sexy geek. If things didn’t go well with the bank, it wasn’t just her business that might fall apart. For Holly, this business was her whole life.

She ran a hand over the stylized purple reception desk, its retro chrome legs gleaming against the mosaic tile floor that lined the reception area. She’d picked this table out herself, along with all the rest of the furnishings. She and her best friend, Miriam, had worked hard to build First Impressions from the ground up, and not a day went by that Holly didn’t feel ridiculously proud about it.

Proud andlucky. There was still a risk she could lose it. Hell, she’d nearly lost it all two years ago.

How was she supposed to know her husband would go from sweet and supportive to resentful of her career before the ink had dried on the marriage license?

But she’d kept moving along these last two years, adding clients and employees and figuring out how to pay all the bills along the way. They were on the brink of becoming the largest PR and branding firm in the whole city, with a wall full of awards for their work.

Lucy the receptionist looked up from her computer and smiled. “Did you have a good lunch?”

“Not bad,” Holly said. “Drank a protein shake, squeezed some pillows, made out with a strange man in a furniture store.”

“All in a day’s work,” Lucy called as Holly ducked around the corner into her office.

She dropped into her custom-fitted Aeron chair and tapped her keyboard to bring up her calendar. She had a meeting at one thirty with the owner of a destination marketing organization looking for a new branding campaign. After her appointment at the bank, she had a phone conference to coach a hospital administrator on some public speaking tips, and after that?—

“Holly?”

Lucy’s voice over the phone’s intercom system jolted her from her planning. “Yes?”

“There’s a call for you on line three. A Ben Langley?”

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