Putting It to the Test Read online

  Passing her desk, as well as Matt’s, she headed straight for the conference room, where she found him sitting at the table, alone.

  “How dare you!” she cried, slamming her hands down on the table in front of him.

  His eyes widened in shock. “What?”

  “Let’s explore this compatibility of ours? I think we might be perfect for each other?”

  He looked confused but backed from the table anyway, shaking his head and shrugging as his only response.

  She leaned in to take up the slack. “You knew about the survey. You knew my answers were bogus when you seduced me in the lab.”

  The confusion drained from his face.

  “Oh, yes. I found out about that,” she said.

  He held up two hands as if she were holding a gun to his chest. “Look, Carly,” he started. “I don’t know what you’re thinking—”

  “I’m thinking you’re a low-down, dirty degenerate who took advantage of the information you had to get me out of my panties.”

  Looking him in the eye and saying it out loud brought that clench back to her throat. The one that usually preceded a flood of tears. But she willed them away, wanting to make certain he didn’t see an ounce of the hurt and disappointment vying inside her.

  “Now wait a minute—”

  “No, you wait. As of this instant, I’m off this project. And if Mr. Hall wants to know why, I’m highly tempted to blurt out the whole story.” Matt’s eyes filled with fear and Carly couldn’t hold back her laugh. “Oh, yes. You think I won’t hang myself over what I did? You’re wrong. I’ll accept every consequence that’s coming to me before I spend another second working next to you.”

  He flicked his eyes to the door, then looked back at her. “Don’t be rash. We need to talk this over. Later. When you can be calm.”

  “Calm? You want me to be calm? You tricked me into having sex with you!”

  He eyed the open door once more, then had the nerve to shush her. “Carly, you seriously need to keep your voice down.”

  “And you seriously need to get a clue that I’m pretty pissed off right now and don’t give a squat who knows about it or who finds out why.”

  He lowered his voice. “We could both get in trouble here. You aren’t exactly innocent yourself, you know.”

  She gasped. “I think tricking a coworker into taking her clothes off is a little more serious than faking a few answers on a survey. And you know what?” she asked, leaning so far over the table she nearly lost her footing. “If they fire me, I don’t care! At least that means I won’t have to look at your slimy face ever again.”

  “I didn’t trick you.”

  “You knew about the survey before I walked into that lab.”

  “Yes, but I had every intention of telling you what I knew.”

  She choked on a laugh. “Really? Before or after you had your hands up my skirt?”

  “What the hell is going on in here!”

  Carly spun around to find Mr. Hall standing in the doorway, his expression not nearly as amused as Andy McGee’s, who was standing squarely behind him.

  Matt shot to his feet. “There’s been a little misunderstanding between Carly and me. If we could have a few moments alone, I’m sure we could square things away.”

  “I wouldn’t come within ten feet of you again, much less ever get caught alone,” Carly spat. “Go ahead and tell them why,” she threw in.

  “If you’ll just—” Matt said, but Mr. Hall cut him off.

  “Enough,” he said, his mouth pressed into a firm line. “Andy, I think we’ll need to reschedule this meeting. Carly, take the afternoon off and go calm yourself down. And you,” he said, pointing a firm finger at Matt, “I want to see you in my office immediately.”

  Matt looked as though he’d just been sucker punched, and though Carly was almost certain she was soon to be fired, she felt a slight flutter of glee over the thought that at least Matt might end up out the door with her.

  “Me?”

  “Now, Jacobs.”

  Clearly it was Matt’s turn to show a little rage, and Carly stood entirely smug as she watched him gather his papers and storm out the door, daggers shooting from his eyes as he gave her one last glance.

  But as the three men filtered out the doorway, leaving her in the quiet of the aftermath, a deep breath brought with it a question she hadn’t stopped to consider.

  What exactly had she just done?

  11

  “I’M NOT GOING TO ask what that was all about,” Brayton Hall said from behind his sleek glass-top desk. “The only salvation is that Andy McGee has found this entertaining. I’m not nearly as amused.”

  Brayton’s face had taken on the exact shade of pink to match his shirt, and Matt feared what that meant. He’d never seen Hall angry before. Usually jovial bordering on goofy, the worst Matt had ever witnessed was a serious tone in the man’s voice. This red-faced look of disgust was entirely new, and Matt wished like hell it wasn’t being directed at him.

  “I’m sorry, I don’t know what—” he attempted.

  “Let me bottom-line this for you, Matt. I pride myself in finding jewels in this industry and I happen to think you’re one of them. You’ve got the talent, creativity and salesmanship to do better than most.” He picked up a pen and began clicking the top. Click open. Click closed. Click open. Click closed. Hall rarely held a conversation of any length without fiddling with something, and at this particular moment Matt didn’t need the distraction.

  “I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors about this new design team I’ve been considering,” Brayton added.

  Matt nodded.

  “You’re my first choice to head it up. I need someone with charisma who can think outside the box and get clients excited about the job we’ll do for them, and you’ve got that in the bag.”

  Okay, this was good, and Matt might have allowed his mood to brighten if Brayton’s expression wasn’t hinting that a big but was coming up.

  “The only problem is I need a team environment with a leader who can inspire and motivate staff.”

  There it was. The big but.

  “I assure you I can do that,” Matt replied. “This thing with Carly—”

  “Funny thing about Carly,” Brayton interrupted. “She’s my toss-up. When it comes to everything you’re lacking, she’s spot-on, but she’s more traditional in her thinking and she doesn’t wow the clients the way you do. She’s my best candidate when it comes to team dynamics, but she won’t give clients the cutting edge they’re looking for.” He clicked the pen faster. “So here’s the rub. Do I pick what’s best for the client or what’s best for the staff?”

  “I can be both.”

  “It’s what I’d been banking on, but I’m not seeing it.” Matt opened his mouth to argue, but Hall’s clicking pen kept grating on his nerves. It beat in his head. And just as his annoyance with the thing brimmed, Hall tossed it on the desk with a clink, leaned back in his chair and crossed an ankle over his knee.

  “Let me tell you about this survey,” Hall said. “It wasn’t set up to impress Singles Inc., like everyone thinks. I’d already had their business before I came up with the idea, just like I’d already picked you for the job. The whole point of the survey was to give you the best chance to show me you could be a team player, share the spotlight and cooperate on this project.”

  “Come again?” Matt asked.

  “I used their survey to find the most suitable teammate for you, and that ended up being Carly. I needed to see you work together with someone, and in my best effort to help you succeed, I tracked down the partner most compatible with your personality.”

  “According to Singles Inc.”

  “They aren’t the top matchmaking business in the country for nothing.”

  No, Matt thought, but their customers didn’t typically cheat on the compatibility tests to get matches, either.

  “So the assumption is if I can’t get along with Carly, I can’t get along with any
one,” he mumbled.

  “That’s the conclusion I’m coming to.”

  Matt’s concern over his job and the spectacle Carly had made gave way to resentment. He was tempted to open his mouth right now and settle that score, knowing if Carly hadn’t tampered with the survey he’d not only be working with the right person, he wouldn’t have just blown another meeting on this project and he wouldn’t be sitting here in front of Hall, getting a lecture about his inability to play nice.

  But that would only prove one of Carly’s assumptions that irked him the most. That he was as big a jerk as she thought he was.

  “Here’s the deal,” Brayton said. “The cards are officially on the table. Now you know what I want from you and the challenge you’re up against. I don’t know what’s going on between you and Carly and my better judgment says don’t ask. But by Monday morning I want things squared away between you two.” He leaned forward, propped his elbows on the desk and grabbed the pen again. “I want to see two happy people working in harmony on this project. Show me what life would be like having Matt Jacobs in charge of a design team and all his employees thrilled to be part of the job.”

  “It might take more time—”

  “You’ve got until Monday morning. Fix things with Carly before I see either of you back in this office again.”

  Sure. No problem. And after that he’d chase down the Holy Grail, pull Excalibur from the stone and whip up a cure for cancer.

  The pen clicking resumed, further nursing Matt’s frustration, and staring at the man, he got the distinct impression this conversation was over.

  He cleared his throat. “You sent Carly home,” he said. “I won’t have the chance to see her until Monday, but—”

  Brayton held up a hand and turned to his computer. After typing in a few commands, he pulled over a notepad, scratched some information down on a page and handed it to Matt.

  It was Carly’s address and phone number.

  “Now you’ve got all weekend.”

  He stared at the note for a moment, feeling as if that little piece of paper held his career in its hands. And in reality he supposed it did. Though Hall didn’t have to say it, Matt knew he’d officially landed at the fork in the road. Make things right with Carly, and pass that golden threshold into bigger and better things. Or fail, and stare at another dead end he’d created for himself.

  The last time he’d come to this point, the decision had already been made for him. The Nationals had released him, and his choice had been a career in baseball mediocrity or nothing at all. This time he’d hit the wall while there was still another chance to scale it, and knowing how shitty life was with no options, he couldn’t consider turning back.

  So he rose from his chair, intent to make this work, though he had no idea how. He’d be lucky if Carly even talked to him, much less put on a happy face for work Monday morning. And given he was batting a thousand when it came to making things worse instead of better, he wasn’t holding on to a lot of confidence.

  But he had to give it a try, so as he walked to the door he contemplated the best way to get through to Carly in the hopes of making amends.

  And as if Brayton had seen the dilemma on his face, he called out just as Matt stepped out of the room, “You might consider giving honesty a shot.”

  THIRTY MINUTES later Matt stood in front of a quaint bungalow in northern Marin that looked as if it had been pulled from the pages of a little girl’s coloring book. Painted bright pink with white trim, it stood like a child’s playhouse in the middle of an oversize lot. A pathway lined with red and white rose bushes led up to a bright yellow door, an odd color considering the pulled-taffy look of the rest of the house. Then again, nothing in this picture seemed quite right. The driveway housed a silver Pontiac Grand Prix way too sporty and contemporary for the scene. He would have expected Cinderella’s pumpkin carriage instead or maybe a pink VW Bug with a weathered white silk flower attached to the antenna.

  He checked the address in his hand and wondered if Hall had written the number down wrong, but the street name was clear and this was a small court of only a half dozen houses. He supposed if he got the number wrong, the Disney character that lived here would probably know which house was really Carly’s. So, taking a breath, he headed up the path and rapped on the door.

  Footsteps on the other side were swift and sharp, and when the door flung open, he didn’t expect to see Carly actually standing there. This is really her house?

  The look on her face mirrored his.

  He opened his mouth to speak, but she stiffened her lip and slammed the door in his face before he could offer a greeting. Dammit. He wasn’t in the mood for any more games. He’d just had to take it in the backside from Hall and had valiantly kept his mouth shut about Carly and the survey. She owed him five minutes of her time.

  Pounding on the door with more vigor, he called out, “Carly, open up. We need to talk.”

  The door swung back open. “Who told you where I live?”

  “Hall gave me your address.”

  “Good. Then after he fires me I can sue him for breach of privacy.”

  She moved to slam the door a second time, but he jammed his foot in the threshold and braced it with his hand. “I’m serious. We need to talk this through.”

  “There’s nothing to talk about. Thanks to you, I’ve probably lost my job. I think we’ve done enough talking for one lifetime, and if you think—”

  “If anyone’s losing their job, it’s me, not you.”

  That shut her up. She clearly hadn’t expected to hear that, and in response she jutted her chin and said, “Good,” but the sentiment didn’t quite reach her eyes.

  He bit down his anger in the hope of appealing to that little soft spot she was trying to hide. “Please, Carly, I need your help.”

  She stiffened her spine. “Why should I help you?”

  “Because half of this is your fault.”

  She scoffed, and Matt used her momentary shock to push his way through the door and into…the strangest-looking pink oasis he’d ever seen. Three steps to the right was a pink kitchen remodeled circa 1985. To the left was a dining room with no table. Looking down, he found himself standing on a path of rose-colored tiles. Did marble come in that shade naturally?

  “I didn’t invite you in.”

  “I didn’t ask for an invite.”

  He heard the door slam behind him and her footsteps at his back.

  “I can’t believe you’ve got the gall to show your face here after what you did.”

  Now, there was another thing he was officially tired of hearing today. Turning on his heels, he folded his arms across his chest. “Tell me again what it is I did?”

  “You conned me into having sex with you, for starters.”

  “I didn’t con you into anything. I made a few seductive comments and you took the ball and ran with it.”

  She clasped her hands to her hips. “You knew we weren’t the least bit compatible when you seduced me in the lab.”

  “And so did you.”

  She opened her mouth for a comeback, but nothing came out. Yes, there it was. The slight technicality she’d like to conveniently ignore.

  “You knew as much as I did your answers were phony, but you were happy to go along anyway. Hell, I’d barely made the suggestion before you were tonguing my thumb and climbing up my lap.”

  She gasped as if she’d just been slapped, yet she was still at a loss for words. What could she say? She knew he had her by the horns.

  Closing the distance between them, he took her slack jaw in his hand. “Play the sweet prude at the office, but spare it on me. I’m well familiar with the hot-blooded sex kitten you’ve buttoned up under that collar.”

  She snapped her mouth shut and jerked her chin from his hand, but the tip of her nose had turned red, telling him he’d scored a direct hit.

  With slightly less conviction than she’d had a moment ago, she retreated a step and asked, “What do you want fro
m me?”

  “I want to clear the air between us so we can go back to work Monday happy as clams.”

  “You’re off to a heck of a start.”

  “I’m laying it all on the table, your crap, as well as mine.” He stepped in to make up the distance between them. “My job is on the line, and that’s too important to me to ride it all on a simple apology. I could come in here, grovel at your feet and hope you’ll lose the chip on your shoulder, but I’ve got too much at stake to leave this in your hands.” He pointed a finger to her chest. “Here and now, you and I are going to air two years of animosity between us, and I’m not leaving until every last morsel has been thrown on the table.”

  She pressed her lips into a slit. “You’re going to have a long wait if you think you can pin your problems on me.”

  “Trust me, I’ve got plenty to apologize for. I know I stepped in and walked all over your realm when you’d been sold another story by Hall. And in the two years since, I never went out of my way to make things better between us. I made the fool’s mistake in thinking I didn’t need you or anyone else at the firm to get ahead, and you’ll be happy to know that’s come back to bite me in the ass. I have a talent for putting my foot in my mouth when it comes to you and I won’t even begin to individually list and tabulate every ill-formed comment where that’s concerned.”

  Then he stepped close and pinned her against her entryway wall. “But the one thing I won’t cop to is this nonsense about taking advantage of you. And I’m sure as hell not going to apologize for making love to you.”

  Her eyes turned to wide blue saucers. The little blush at the tip of her nose spread across her cheeks. She parted those stiff lips and sucked in a breath when he dipped his chin to look her in the eye.

  Lowering his voice, he added, “Call me a lot of things, Carly, but I don’t take advantage of women. Say I’ve made some underhanded moves, but don’t tell me I had to trick you into having sex with me. If you want the real story, I’d only been teasing you, with every intention of coming clean about the survey. But I underestimated how damned sexy you are and your ability to drive me three shades of stupid.” He bent closer until his chest almost grazed her breast, and a heavy gulp slid down her throat. Her eyes dipped to his mouth and stayed there, fixated on every word as if she had to watch, as well as hear what he was saying.