Page 34 of Naughty Heart

“Well, I guess time will tell just how wise of a decision this was,” Dad declared. “I’m sure your mother isn’t wholly convinced you don’t have some other plan here, and that’s got nothing to do with who Evelyn is as a person. It’s simply tough to believe that after just a few days, you’re suddenly going to change everything you do, when you’ve had no desire or motivation before. And Evelyn allows you to keep a pretty woman around you while you attempt to prove to us just how important the success of this company and its reputation are to you.”

I felt compelled to point out the obvious. “With only three weeks to make it happen, I didn’t have much time to sit around and sulk. Successful men don’t sit around doing nothing, so I had to act.”

My mother looked pensive, and my father seemed surprised. He nodded as he stood, reaching his hand out to my mom. She placed her hand in his and stood beside him. Then he said, “I’ll stop around sometime next week and see how things are going here.”

I stood and flashed a confident smile. When he showed up, I expected to be fully prepared to plead my case. “I’ll look forward to it, Dad.”

At that, my parents said goodbye and turned around to leave.

I watched them go, my eyes ultimately settling on Evelyn’s closed office door. Seeing that, my head tipped to the side.

She never closed that door. Not once had she done it all week.

Worried that she might have been upset about how things had gone down in my office with my parents, I decided it was best to cross the hall and go speak to her.

I knocked gently on the door and called, “Evelyn?”

I was met with silence. I didn’t want to just barge in, but my fear that something was wrong took hold of me.

Just as I was about to curl my fingers around the handle, the door opened. Evelyn looked up at me, and I could easily see something lingering in her gaze that I’d never seen before.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yeah. Why do you ask?”

I narrowed my eyes slightly at the same time I tried to fight against a smile. “Well, for starters, you had your door closed. You haven’t closed it all week. But aside from that, I can tell just looking at you that you’ve got something on your mind.”

Evelyn stared for another couple of beats before she broke that connection, turned around, and moved back to her desk.

I’d wanted nothing more than to drag her right back over next to me. God, she smelled fantastic.

Once she was sitting in her chair, she explained, “I wasn’t prepared for what happened today, Malcolm. I’m not mad or anything, but it was unexpected.”

“I’m sorry. I should have warned you that my parents were coming in for a visit. I knew since earlier today when my sister visited,” I replied.

Shaking her head, Evelyn insisted, “It’s not that your parents showed up. I was more caught off guard with the whole Christmas party invitation.”

Damn it.

I was hoping she’d be excited about it.

Of course, I knew I’d been pressing my luck when I wrapped an arm around her and simply declared she’d be joining me at the party, but I wanted to solidify that date with her. In front of my parents, I knew there’d be less chance of her turning me down, especially once she saw that they weren’t going to have a problem with it.

Maybe I’d been wrong.

“Are you unable to attend?” I asked.

“That’s not it. I don’t have any plans.”

“Okay. So, what’s going on?”

For several long moments, she allowed her eyes to roam over my face. She swallowed hard, and I could see the battle waging inside her, like she had multiple things bothering her, and she didn’t know which was most important to share.

Wanting to ease any of the tension she might have felt, I closed the door behind me, moved to sit in the chair across from her, and said, “Whatever it is, Evelyn, you can tell me. I want you to feel comfortable enough to share whatever is bothering you.”

She took another few seconds to allow those words to penetrate before she said, “Well, the first thing is that I want to be clear about the party. You had suggested I was going to be attending with you.”

“That’s correct. Would you rather not attend with me?”