Putting It to the Test Read online

  Instead of answering her question, he leaned a hand against the wall and asked, “So what do you think about this survey? You think it’s legit?”

  She shrugged casually, though he noticed a faint blush coloring the tip of her nose. “They’d said in the staff meeting a lot of the questions had been ignored. They only pulled out pieces they felt were pertinent to the work environment.”

  “So they ignored the section on sex?”

  The blush on her nose spread to her cheeks. “I can’t see how that would apply to work.”

  “Which means our scores could have gone even higher.”

  She swallowed.

  “Or lower.”

  He stared her down, a knowing look crackling between them as he sank his gaze into those deep baby blues. He couldn’t deny their sensual chemistry. It thickened the air and heated the space they encompassed, and unless he’d completely lost his touch with women, he’d bet she sensed it, too. The rise and fall of her chest had gone shallow, her breath growing faint as he stood inches from her breasts. She always seemed to tense up around him as if she were holding something back, and a side of him wanted to yank off the restraint and see what she held inside. Her eyes stayed fixed on his, speaking words he couldn’t quite hear, whispering something sweet yet too softly to decipher.

  Take away their bitter differences and there was definitely promise there. But as much as he’d like to explore that path, what he really needed to uncover was what she thought about this survey so they could clear the air and get down to the business of this project.

  Was she being the good corporate soldier, going along without asking questions? Or was she skeptical, like him, and wondering what kind of fast one was being pulled on them both? Because, heat or no heat, buying a match that high was simply out of the question.

  “That percentage is pretty high,” he said. “Almost…unbelievably.”

  Her eyelids began to flutter. “Like I said, who knows how much of that survey they used. If they’d used all the answers, the results might have ended up very different.”

  “Yes,” he agreed, still trying to read her expression but not knowing her well enough to trust his instincts fully. His gut told him he was getting a practiced line, but he couldn’t put money on it.

  “Hey, you two, get a room.”

  He glanced over his shoulder. It was Craig Hale winking and wearing a wide grin.

  “Get a room?” he asked.

  Instead of answering, Craig simply began humming the Singles Inc. television jingle as he slipped by and continued down the hall.

  Carly didn’t look amused. “That’s right—you missed the meeting this morning.” She sighed. “The survey results have made us the latest in watercooler humor. I’m hoping everyone loses interest over the weekend.”

  Still watching Craig disappear down the aisle, he said, “Sounds like I picked a good meeting to skip.”

  “Yes, and why did you, by the way? People have been itching all week for those survey results. I thought you would have been there, as well.”

  Matt shrugged. “I didn’t figure I’d get the job.”

  Her eyes darkened and in an instant the mood cooled. “So you didn’t go to the meeting because you didn’t think it would be about you.”

  “No. Not exactly. I just…” He searched for a way to rephrase that but came up empty. Okay, maybe that was true. Maybe he hadn’t been interested in Singles Inc. or who got the job because he’d expected it wouldn’t be him. Too many other people in the office had been likelier choices. But he wouldn’t have said it like that.

  “I had better things to do.” There. That was much better.

  “Like what?”

  “Like my job.”

  There was that glare again. What was this woman’s problem with him? One moment he could swear the space around them was about to ignite, the next she was scoffing him off as a cad.

  Opening her folder, she flipped to a page that looked like a print of her calendar. “I’m open early next week. Will that be enough time for you to look over the project documents?”

  “Ample.”

  “Then how about I schedule some time for us to get together?”

  “My schedule’s open.”

  She forced a smile. “Okay, then. I’ll do that.” Then she stepped past him and strode back to her desk without another word.

  Great. His first team project at the firm had already started off on two left feet, and they were barely an hour in. And they were supposed to be perfect for each other? If this was their idea for right, he’d hate to see wrong.

  “WHERE ARE YOU?”

  Carly pressed her cell phone to her ear. She could barely hear the caller over the screams of a nearby toddler clutching a pink-and-yellow soccer ball in her aisle of Thriftees Sporting Goods. Carly moved on to an area quiet enough to continue her conversation.

  “Bev, is that you?”

  “Where the heck are you, in a torture chamber?”

  “The toy section at Thriftees, so I guess that would be a yes.” Zigzagging down the aisles, she added, “Did you know there isn’t a single purple backpack for sale in the entire San Francisco Bay area?”

  “Did you try Deal-Mart?”

  “I’ve tried everywhere, but I’m going back there right now. At least the one I saw there had a couple of pretty purple flowers on it.” She all but ran toward the exit.

  The double doors slid open and she stepped out into the heat of an unseasonably warm evening, enjoying the weather while it lasted. Anyday now the fog would return over Marin County, bringing a chill to the evenings again, but for now she was comfortable in shorts and a tank top even though it was nearly eight o’clock.

  “What’s that sound? Are you eating?” Carly asked.

  “Uh-huh,” Bev said. “I found a box of Froot Loops in the back of the pantry. I’m a little stressed out right now. They’re talking about cutbacks at Kurt’s work, and he’s the new guy on the job.” Carly pulled out her car keys and unlocked the door to her Grand Prix, sliding behind the wheel and starting up the engine as Bev continued. “Kurt says not to worry, but you know me.”

  “If Kurt says not to worry, don’t. He’ll be fine. He always lands on his feet.”

  “Yeah, and I always end up gaining fifteen pounds in the process.” After another moment of crunching, Bev added, “But seriously, I wasn’t calling about that. I wanted to know how your meeting went with Matt. I was surprised he didn’t show for the meeting. Do you think he knew he’d already been chosen?”

  “It didn’t seem like it when we met this afternoon. I think he genuinely didn’t expect to get the project, so he didn’t give a squat about who did.” Shaking her head, she muttered under her breath, “How self-absorbed is that?”

  She backed out of the parking space and made her way through the lot.

  “Do you think anyone suspects you tampered with the survey?”

  “Not a bit. In fact, you should have seen Mr. Hall. He was crazy over the fact that Matt and I matched so closely. He and Andy McGee were practically giddy, which was a little weird.”

  “And what about Matt?”

  “I think he was skeptical at first, but I put that to rest after the meeting.” Carly smiled as she waited at the light. “You should have seen me. I was smooth as silk.”

  “You?”

  Carly didn’t miss the humor in the tone. “Yes, me. I can pull off a scam on occasion, and this was one of them. Basically, the project is mine and all worry and doubt are behind me.”

  “You sure? I was a bit concerned when I saw how high you two matched. You didn’t have to come that close, you know.”

  Accelerating into the on-ramp of Highway 101, Carly relaxed and headed north for the purple-flowered backpack. “Trust me, this deal is signed, sealed and delivered. Hall has completely bought into this. As of this afternoon, how I got on the project is history. Now my only task will be dazzling the boss with my talents.”

  “So you did it. You actuall
y pulled this off.”

  “Oh, yeah. I’d say it’s safe to declare this round a victory.”

  6

  MATT SPENT THE BETTER part of Monday going over the preliminary specifications for the Singles Inc. job. The next time he had a meeting with Brayton and Andy, he intended to have his bases covered, so he went over every page, making notes along the way. Then he read it all again before he felt satisfied he’d gotten the gist of what they were looking for and a solid outline of discussion points and ideas. And when he was done he leaned back in his chair, rubbed his face in his hands and decided he needed a break, which for him meant heading back to the lab.

  He loved the lab, the large project room used primarily to store their servers and test programs on various platforms. It was a quiet place where he could get away from the chatter and lose himself in his work. Slightly cooler than the outside offices, the temperature kept him alert in the afternoon when his energy dipped, and the hum of the PCs and servers created a soothing white noise that helped him think.

  Since most programmers on staff were familiar enough with how their site designs would translate to other operating systems and browsers, the lab wasn’t used often, which meant Matt was often alone.

  Long and rectangular, one end of the room held a coffee table, a couch and four stuffy chairs, old furniture from the Lake Tahoe cabin Brayton’s wife had remodeled. In the center was a large project table. The other side of the room was partitioned off to house the company servers, as well as shelves full of spare cords and boneyard equipment, broken, outdated and waiting for the annual recycling drive.

  But Matt’s favorite spot was at the helm of the dozen or so Macs and PCs that lined the long wall. Over the vinyl tile flooring he could roll from workstation to workstation, whisking his chair back and forth, doing three things at once like Mr. Spock at the console of the starship Enterprise. In this room he got in his groove, trying an animated graphic on one PC while dicing through a digital photograph on another. Only a dozen computers could keep up with him when he got on a roll, and it was then when he felt the rush he used to feel back at the plate, back in the days when he hadn’t yet learned to appreciate the natural gifts he’d been given.

  But Matt was luckier than most. When he’d blown his first career in baseball, he’d discovered another in photography and Web design, and being smarter than he’d been the first time around, he had no intention of taking this second chance for granted.

  Taking his seat at the helm, he loaded Photoshop on one PC, then brought up Flash on another. He’d been working on a Web site for ErgoSystems, a local energy company in the East Bay, and given the new assignment on Singles Inc., he’d be turning this one over to Neil to complete. But before he did, he wanted to have the primary design in place. He’d just clicked to bring up the program from the server when he heard the door behind him and turned to see it was Adam.

  “What brings you to this corner of the floor?” he asked.

  “You, and a little information I thought you might be interested in.”

  Adam stepped over to the couch and took a seat, lifting a basket of stress toys Hall kept on the coffee table before tossing his feet up. Sifting through the basket, he bypassed a number of small handheld massagers and squishy balls and pulled out a Slinky.

  “Information?”

  Eyeing the partition at the other end of the room, Adam asked, “We alone?” When Matt nodded, he went on, “I got a line on the Singles Inc. survey that put you and Carly together.”

  That got Matt’s attention.

  “What about it?”

  “It seems one young and cocky programmer by the name of Brian Shanahan was overheard leaking the fact that he’d hacked into their databases last week.” Adam toyed with the Slinky in his hand, his expression practically smitten. “And, when pressed by yours truly, he told me everything he knew—confidentially, of course.”

  “Of course.”

  “When you suspected something fishy? You were right. Those survey results were the fine work of one Carly Abrams.”

  “I knew it!” Matt said, slapping a hand to the table. “I could have bet money that survey was rigged.”

  “Rigged by your new partner.”

  “You wouldn’t kid me about this.”

  Adam sobered and held up two fingers. “I swear this is no joke. I wouldn’t do that to you, pal.”

  Matt shook his head, not certain whether to be relieved, angry or bewildered by the news.

  On one hand, he was thankful those survey results hadn’t been for real. He’d been distracted by that prospect all weekend. Life was hard enough at the office trying to keep his interest in Carly strictly business.

  On the other hand, what kind of man could turn down the perfect woman? Particularly a man who had ideas of having a family someday. Granted, now wasn’t the ideal time for him, but he knew that rarely did the right woman come along at exactly the right time. Usually it happened when a guy wasn’t looking. He’d gone over that scenario a dozen times, recalling oft-told stories of friends who’d been hit by Cupid’s arrow when they’d least expected. By Sunday afternoon Matt had nearly convinced himself Carly Abrams was the One and that he was starting off his week having to deal with the idea that his perfect mate might be standing in the way of his perfect career.

  Now he didn’t have to. His initial instincts had been right on target. Carly was a woman he could definitely create some heat with, but that’s where their compatibility ended.

  But that didn’t explain the situation.

  He looked inquisitively at Adam. “What exactly did she do? And why?”

  Adam’s smile widened. “Apparently, she discovered Hall had already picked you for the Singles Inc. project.”

  “Is that true?”

  Adam scoffed. “Come on. Did you really think they’d put just anyone on the biggest account we’ve acquired to date?”

  Matt guessed not, and as it all sank in, it began to make more sense. He had been Hall’s number-one man since signing on with the firm, and these were the types of projects he’d been hired to take on.

  “You were given that job before they even came up with the survey idea, according to what Brian heard. And Carly wanted it, too.” He slipped the Slinky back and forth between his hands. “She figured the only way to make sure she got the project was to cheat her way in.”

  Matt’s eyes narrowed. “That’s the same thing she’d accused me of trying to do last week.”

  “Ah, deflect the guilty by blaming the innocent. Clever.”

  “And she almost had me, too.” Matt leaned back and propped his feet on a spare chair. “Are you sure this is all true?” he asked. “Where did you say you heard this?”

  “Right from the horse’s mouth…Rocky.”

  “No way!”

  “Though it is just Brian’s word, I don’t know why he’d lie about something like that.”

  Matt would have taken the opportunity to agree with his friend, but he was too distracted by this new information—most notably, what he should do about it. There was no way he’d see this project to completion letting Carly think she’d gotten one over on everyone. And he knew for a fact that’s exactly what she thought. She’d been smooth as cream in the meeting with Andy and Hall, practically serenading them with her charm and wit.

  Annoyance burned in his gut. If those two only knew what she’d done, they’d bounce her off the job quicker than one of his fastballs. And if he was the jerk she thought he was, he’d be the first in line to tell them.

  But he wasn’t.

  He was better than that. But just because he had no intention of ratting her out didn’t mean he’d let her get away with it. She’d screwed with him and this project, and a move like that deserved some sort of payback.

  And Matt had just the thing in mind.

  Carly Abrams wanted everyone to think the two of them were compatible. Then that’s exactly what she’d get.

  STOP BY THE LAB when you get a chance. Matt. />
  Carly held the sticky note she’d found on her computer as she walked down the long aisle toward the lab. Matt had all but disappeared recently, and she’d been on the cusp of worrying that this working relationship would fall flat before it got started. Matt wasn’t considered much of a team player and he especially hadn’t come across warm and cozy over the idea of working with her. The note at her desk had lifted her spirits and given her hope that even if she wasn’t his first choice for a partner, he’d at least planned to work with her on this.

  She pushed open the door to the lab, and he greeted her with a wide grin that tipped her off balance. For a short beat she felt compelled to stand and stare.

  The sight was nearly awe-inspiring, those gunmetal-gray eyes tipped up at the corners and those sinful lips curved into a smile. She wondered how anyone could deny him when he beamed like that and she found it a shame he didn’t show this side more often. A look that powerful got a man anything he wanted—but to her knowledge, he never put it to use around here.

  Which was a good thing for her. When Matt was around, she already had a habit of forgetting her name; she didn’t need a regular dose of this charm obliterating her senses completely.

  “Come on over,” he said. “I’ve got some samples for you to look at.” He was sitting in front of a PC, and as she stepped toward him, he grabbed a chair and wheeled it up to his side. “I took the new Singles Inc. logo and have been testing it against different color schemes. I’m curious to know which one you think we should go with.”

  He began hitting keys on the PCs to bring up the sample Web pages so they could view them side by side, and while he tinkered with one, she took the seat he’d offered, using the motion to scoot slightly away. It was bad enough he looked so good, he smelled good, too, and if she intended to keep her mind on business, a little distance would be in order.

  Unfortunately, Matt didn’t share the same concern. After bringing up three screens to his left, he made his way toward her, leaning over to click into the Macintosh at her right. His thigh grazed her knee, the sensation of that simple touch splaying like sparks through her. She was about to scoot away farther, but he placed a casual hand on the back of her chair and reached over to the next PC, flashing one hard, molded chest squarely into view.