Page 5 of Opposites (Never) Attract
“Why does he keep calling you Sunshine?” Bethany asked me.
“Because it’s her name, ma’am,” Tag said, with a tilt of his hat in Bethany’s direction.
Bethany, who dated and dumped men and women for sport, was in danger of passing out she was blushing so hard.
It wasn’t her fault. Tag was laying on the cowboy charm thick. There was a time when he could make me blush just by looking at me.
I was happy to say those days were over.
Wait, were they? I wasn’t blushing, was I?
“Kaitlyn, do you know this man?” Kirk asked. He sat on the other side of Jeffery. His slicked back hair and gold pinky ring gave him a finance-bro vibe.
“Kaitlyn?” Tag asked me, one un-manicured eyebrow raised.
“It’s myprofessionalname.”
He looked me up and down like he was finally taking in my appearance. Two thousand dollar business suit, contacts, instead of glasses. A white gold Rolex watch. Shoes that cost as much as a horse, and not an oversized backpack in sight.
It took everything in me not to cock my hip and dare him to look all he liked.
That ugly duckling he once knew was long gone. I’d killed her with my Louboutin stilettos.
Tag snorted. “Your name’s Sunshine, Sunshine.”
“That’s it,” Kirk said. “I’m getting security.”
Kirk stepped behind me on his way to the conference room door. Tag held up his hand, and like a well-trained dog, Kirk stopped in his tracks.
“Excuse me, sir,” he told Kirk, like he was being totallyreasonable. “I just need a minute to talk to an old family friend.”
When I didn’t move, he cocked his head in a way that was entirely too familiar, even though I hadn’t seen him in years.
“Easy or hard, Sunshine? Either way, this is happening. You decide.”
“I think I just had an orgasm,” Ellen whispered, loud enough for the room to hear.
“Fine,” I said, behind gritted teeth. I walked toward him with an authority I hoped surprised him a little. Not at all like the Sunshine Calloway he’d once known. I hoped. “Everyone, if you’ll excuse me a minute? Please take this opportunity to discuss amongst yourselves strategies to increase those returns for Q4.”
I held my breath as I brushed past Tag out the glass door. I didn’t want to smell him. Wind and weather and rawhide. Horse and cedar and sage.
I didn’t want to remember what home smelled like.
The door slowly closed behind us, but I could feel all the eyes staring at us through the meeting room walls.
“Follow me,” I said between clenched teeth, and I strode past reception.
Matthew, my administrative assistant, stood nervously in front of his desk, which was the gateway to my office. “Kaitlyn, I’m so sorry. I tried to stop him. But he’s so…big.”
“It’s okay, Matthew,” I assured him. “We’ll need coffee for this meeting. Can you grab us a pot?”
“Yes,” he answered. “Of course. Coffee.”
Matthew sprinted off.
I opened the door to my office and stepped back to let Tag walk through. He hesitated, the idea of walking in front of a woman probably painful to him, but I gave him a lookI’d been perfecting for nearly a decade. A single raised right eyebrow that saiddon’t fuck with me.
He only chuckled.
