Page 5 of Love Out Loud

Her brow furrowed like she was offended. “Is every interaction going to be used as a diagnostic tool?”

“Yes. The good news is your voice is clear and your enunciation good. You also have a sense of humor, which mitigates your reticence to some degree. Still, this will be a challenge.”

She put on her glasses and shifted uneasily in her chair. “This is a mistake.”

“Can you say that again while making eye contact?” he asked.

Her gaze flitted to his, lowered to his lips, then immediately fell to the magazine on the table between them. “Definitely a mistake,” she muttered.

Wait. Had she just checked out his mouth? Jake shifted in his chair, then leaned back again. He was just imagining things. She was probably right about this being a mistake, though.

He took another sip of his cooling coffee. Letting her back out now, even though it would be convenient, would screw up his record. He stared at her a moment and found his body reacting again. Okay. So it wouldn’t only be his record that was screwed if she walked away; his curiosity would take a hit. Something about her intrigued him.

“You say that this is a mistake, but I’ve been told this award you’re receiving is a big deal,” he said. “Claire Anderson indicated it was important for your business—a vet clinic, right?Notgiving the speech seems like it would be a mistake.”

She gave a defeated sigh. “Jane asked me to do this—both the speech and coaching for it. It’s the last thing I want to do. Claire asked you, and you don’t want to do it, either.” She leaned over and gathered her backpack from beside her chair, then stood. “So, why don’t we just make it easy on ourselves and let it go?” She removed the dog leash handles from under the chair leg and untangled them from each other, while the dogs pulled in different directions but, thankfully, not inhisdirection.

No way. There was no letting this go. He’d seen her humor and intelligence in the short time he’d spent with her. There was some good material underneath. He could bring her out, he just knew it. Besides, her name was already up on the client board at work, and he was one success behind Charise. Time for a more direct approach. “You don’t strike me as a quitter. If you were, you wouldn’t have ‘Dr.’ in front of your name.”

The side of her mouth quirked up, and he wasn’t certain if it was because he’d stroked her ego or because she saw right through his blatant ego-stroking. As if unsure of whether to bolt or stay put, she looked over her shoulder at the noisy group of tourists walking by, wearing matching lime green T-shirts emblazoned withI Heart New Yorklogos. They made a lot of commotion over her two little dogs, several stopping to pet them. She was friendly and animated as she talked to and about the dogs. He noticed she didn’t engage the strangers directly but rather spoke in a proxy approach through her dogs. “Otto loves to meet people. Oh, he thinks he’s adorable, too.” “Daisy wants to know where you’re from.” And the weird thing was, it all flowed naturally, and she got the responses and answers she was gunning for.

After a few minutes, the tourists moved on, and she shot him a glance before looking away.

“Okay. So how about agreeing to a trial run?” he said. “Don’t walk away until you give it a chance for a month. If it doesn’t work out after that time, I’ll refund the second month. Jane and Claire are counting on both of us.” He hated to throw down the duty card, but he figured she was more likely to give it a go for someone else than herself. Most people were. “I want to help you work to overcome your fear of public speaking and make this event a success.”

Her brow furrowed in concentration as she considered his suggestion, and he found himself inexplicably holding his breath for her answer.

“One month,” she said. “And, just so you know…” She met his eyes for a moment before looking across the street. “This is only about the speech I have to give. Nothing else. None of the working-to-overcome-fear crap you mentioned. Just fix the speech.”

Wow. Well, that was unexpected and direct. “Okay.”

She nodded and adjusted her backpack again, then added, “Seriously, this is who I am and who I’ll always be. I’m not some Cinderella story waiting to happen.”

Her voice was hard, which indicated there was a backstory there. One he’d need to get to the bottom of in order to make this speech work. And also, if he were honest with himself, because he wanted to know more about her as a person for some reason, which was a departure for him. “Let’s meet at my office tonight at five.” He handed her a business card. “From there, we can come up with a plan and schedule.”

She shoved the card into her scrubs shirt pocket, right over the finely formed breast named “Fiona,” and he fought back a smile.

She must have been thinking about the same funny moment, because after staring down at her pocket, she blushed. “See you at five,” she said.

As he watched her walk down the street with her little dogs, he backed the recording up a bit to see if it had taken. “I’m not some Cinderella story waiting to happen.”

He picked up the magazine she’d left on the table and slid it into his briefcase. Underneath that shy, awkward shell was a passionate, intelligent, funny woman waiting to break free. “Challenge accepted, Cinderella,” he said, snapping the case shut.

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