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“I’ve been looking forward to seeing you all week,” he lied. “Are you ready?” She looked up into Josh’s eyes and let herself believe he actually wanted to spend time with her.
She knew he didn’t. He was known as a ruthless businessman, and he’d been cold and dismissive of her family before he stepped up and made amends last year. Yep, he was doing this out of some misplaced sense of family duty, but what the hell. It would get her out of this God forsaken bar and she could forget this night ever happened.
“Yes, I’m ready.” Turning to Mel, she grinned. God, she loved the look on her face. It was perfect—somewhere between stunned disbelief and jealousy. “See you Monday.”
With that, Josh turned toward Mark and, putting two fingers near his brow, saluted. Caroline thought Mark’s head was going to blow off, but she’d never know because Josh guided her out of the bar.
Once they were on the street and had walked about a block, he turned and faced her. “What the hell were you doing in that bar? If I had any sense I’d call your mother.”
He did not just say that. “My... excuse me? My mother?”
“Caroline, every asshole finance guy in Manhattan goes there looking for a Friday night hookup.”
Pushing her glasses up to the bridge of her nose, she felt the anger boil up as her face heated. He was the epitome of the flashy Wall Street executive. Perfectly groomed and well dressed, he looked like money. His family’s private equity firm, Campbell Holdings, was into everything, most recently real estate development. Just looking him over she could tell his suit probably cost more than her monthly rent. “You mean asshole finance guys like you?”
“Yes.NO! It’s a good thing I was there. I kept you from going out with Mark the Serial Killer.”
“First, he’s not a finance guy. Second, I had no intention of going out with him. I said no tonight, just like I’ve said no for the past six months.”
“He’s been hitting on you for six months? How often do you go to that place?”
“I don’t. It was my first time. I know him from work.”
“Work? Jesus.” Josh ran a hand through his hair. “Did you report him for harassment?”
She had. It had gone nowhere. But that wasn’t the issue. “Since when are you my keeper, Josh? Good God, there are times I wonder if you know I’m in the same room. Now you want to tell me how to live my life?”
“I always—” She didn’t hear the rest of what he said because a car horn blared and having had enough of Josh’s overprotectiveness, she walked away. Someone was always telling her what to do—her sister, her mother, her friends, and now Josh Campbell.
Caroline wondered when her IQ had started dropping. When had she stopped being able to make her own decisions? It seemed no matter how smart everyone kept telling her she was, no one trusted her to make her own choices. She considered herself an intelligent person, but maybe she was deluding herself about that as well. A stiff wind blew, reminding Caroline that if she didn’t do something soon, the life she was meant to lead would blow right past her in the same way.
* * *
Why wasshe so damned difficult? He’d always thought Caroline was the calm and reasonable Rossi sister, since she didn’t spin around everything like a whirlwind. But it appeared she was just as headstrong as her sister, Meg. And he’d gotten to know Meg a lot better over the past six months ever since she’d married his brother. They’d had a rough start to their marriage, but things were starting to gel. Josh was finally starting to feel welcome at their house, even though he still felt ashamed of his role in helping his parents try to break them apart.
Glancing at Caroline as she rushed down the street, he knew he had to go after her. He had no time for difficult women, but she was kind of like family, and that meant something to him. It always had.
He didn’t know why. Josh rarely dealt with the “why” of anything. He just acted, and so he didn’t question the surge of admiration that came over him as he skimmed Caroline’s retreating form.
From behind, he could appreciate her neat, compact frame. She was small, but with a nice, curvy body. Her blonde ponytail was swinging from side to side and she picked up speed with each step. Easier for her than a lot of women in Manhattan because she wasn’t clicking along the street in designer heels.
No, Caroline sped down Fifth Avenue in her little flats, and Josh had to put some effort into catching her. But once he started to close the distance, he was right next to her when she stopped at a busy corner.
“You’re fast.” He grinned when she looked up at him with pure contempt burning in her eyes. Yeah, she was seriously pissed. He liked it. He liked that the kid who had been picked on unmercifully by her siblings had grown a backbone.
“What do you want now?”
“I said we were going to have dinner. And we are.”
“No, we’re not. I’m going home.”
He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. “Come on. Don’t make me eat alone.” After the day he’d had at work, dealing with one shitty thing after another, he liked the idea of spending time with someone who didn’t want anything from him, who didn’t have an agenda.
Her body was turned partially into his and all he could think when she looked up at him was that she was the cutest thing he’d ever seen. This wasn’t the first time he’d noticed how adorable she was. He’d noticed at Meg and Jason’s wedding that Little Rossi, as they once called her, had grown up—beautifully. The dark-rimmed glasses perched on her nose almost consumed her tiny face and her smoky brown eyes were wide, surrounded by inky dark lashes. He thought he felt her shiver, which was nice.
“You’re being an ass.”
Yeah, he really liked her spirit.
