My Fair Fortune. Nancy Robards Thompson
about—like an employee who was about to cost them the inspection they desperately needed to open and a costly consultant who was... Speaking of... Where was he? She glanced around the waiting room. Restroom, perhaps?
His absence was a stroke of luck. She’d have time to get rid of Brodie before the situation became sticky.
“Walk with me,” she said to him.
“I’d love to. However, I have an appointment.”
“What a coincidence. So do I. Could you please tell me why you’re here?”
He narrowed his gaze at her. “Do you work here?”
She quirked a brow at him. “You might say that. I’m not usually in this office, but my father is ill, and I’m filling in for him. Who is your appointment with?”
She watched the color drain from Brodie’s formerly tanned face. “You wouldn’t happen to be Cait Moore? Er...Caitlyn Moore?”
“The one and only.”
“Fancy that. I’m Brodie Hayes, Hayes Consulting.”
Caitlyn opened her mouth to say something and then closed it, because what was there to say? Nothing. Or at least nothing they could say out loud or discuss out here in the open, with Janie’s eyes on them, mentally recording everything they said and did.
“Can we please go into your office?” Brodie asked.
“Not right now. I have a situation I need to take care of. You can wait for me in there, though. Make yourself comfortable, and I’ll be right back. Janie, please show Mr. Hayes into my office.”
“A situation?” Brodie asked.
Caitlyn glanced at her watch. She needed to hurry; she didn’t want to end up chasing Clark Ball down in the parking lot. “Yes, a situation. So you’ll have to excuse me.”
Brodie’s large body blocked her path, and when she looked up at him to send the you need to move message, she remembered how that body felt moving on top of her that night nearly three months ago. Heat started in her cleavage, which was modestly covered up today—as it should’ve been that night—and crept up her neck, spreading to her cheeks.
He crossed his arms. The body language was so defensive that she couldn’t help but glance up at his face, which was stone cold and lacking any hint that he might be glad to see her.
She groaned inwardly, silently admonishing herself.
Of course he wasn’t glad to see her. This wasn’t a date. This was...awkward.
For God’s sake, how was it that the one and only one-night stand she’d ever had in her life would turn up again—not because he’d been so smitten that he’d tracked her down. Oh, she could’ve handled that. But this...having him show up right now, right here. In the last place in the entire world she wanted to be reminded of her indiscretion.
“If there’s a problem, I should come with you.” His voice was all business. “You can brief me on the way.”
She bristled, but before she demanded for a second time that he go into her office and wait for her, she remembered he father saying Hayes Consulting was expensive and in demand. Even if he had arrived early, she had him for one afternoon, and she intended to get Moore Entertainment’s money’s worth.
“Okay, Brodie Hayes, if you’re willing to hit the ground running. Prepare to show me what you’ve got.”
He smirked.
Oh, God. He could take that a couple of different ways. She imagined him thinking, honey, you’ve already seen everything I’ve got. But that was inappropriate, and she wasn’t about to let him know his appearance here today was fazing her in the least.
She turned to Janie. “Mr. Hayes and I are going out into the park. I have my cell phone if you need to get in touch with me.”
Caitlyn kept walking toward the door without looking back to make sure Brodie was following her. He could keep up on his own. Plus, there was the problem that every time she looked at him, all she could think of was how he’d made love to her so thoroughly that night. There went the heat bomb, exploding in her lower parts and raising the temperature in her entire body.
Damn him.
Damn her for not having more self-control.
He was walking beside her now. She would not say another word about that night. Not on company time.
“Since I only have you for an afternoon, I’ll start bringing you up to speed with all that’s happening.”
She dared a glance at him, if for no other reason than to prove that she was a professional...and immune to those broad shoulders.
Stop it.
Stop thinking about shoulders.
He was looking at her as if she had two heads. It knocked any wayward thoughts of broad shoulders and meteor showers right out of her head.
“What do you mean you only have me for an afternoon? Alden Moore booked me for the entire month of May.”
* * *
Bloody hell.
How could he have been so stupid to not realize what he was walking into?
Brodie prided himself on never being surprised. How had he not known his client—the client he’d worked so hard to land—the client whose business could make or break the Tokyo deal—had a daughter.
He would’ve never slept with her if he’d known Cait from Chicago was even remotely related to Alden Moore, much less his daughter.
Way to get off to a rocking start.
He needed to get a hold of this situation and fast, before it blew up in his face.
He drew in a deep breath to steady himself. How was he to know Cait from the wedding was Caitlyn Moore?
They hadn’t exchanged last names. In the moment, it had seemed sexy and edgy. One night of bliss with no strings attached. Or so they’d agreed.
A few days ago, after he’d learned that Alden Moore had fallen ill and his daughter would be standing in, he’d done a cursory internet search of Caitlyn Moore, and all he’d turned up was a very private Facebook page with a profile picture of a very large dog—or maybe it was a pony?—and a dated photo with Alden Moore and a little girl who looked to be five or six. The photo looked like it was taken in the early 1990s. Nothing that would’ve cued him in to the fact that Cait from Chicago was not only Alden Moore’s daughter, but also the executive in charge at Cowboy Country.
Still, what was done was done. His only choice now was to regroup and move past this unexpected turn of events. After all, that was how he made his living, helping people spin bad into good.
“We seem to have a miscommunication here,” he said to Caitlyn as they left the office. “Your father had contracted me to work with Moore Entertainment until Cowboy Country opens successfully.”
She was speed walking slightly ahead of him.
“Wonderful,” she said. “Just wonderful.”
“Hey, will you please stop for a moment and talk to me?”
She stopped walking so fast, he nearly ran into her. When she turned, she looked him square in the eyes. It was almost as if she were looking through him.
“Look, I need to be on the other side of the park in about five minutes to deal with a personnel issue. I don’t have time to talk about what happened between us. Frankly, this isn’t the time or the place. If you’re going to be here for a month, I say we just move on and forget the Fortune wedding. Okay?”
The last thing he wanted to do was talk about them.
“That’s