More Than Chemistry | Kate Sherwood
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Chapter One
“S
O WHAT
’
S
different?” Jack Lawson asked, not trying too
hard to keep the impatience out of his tone. “What do you
guys have that’s unique?” He’d been listening to pitches from
various advertising agencies all morning, and he was tired of
wasting time.
The leader of the team looked at his colleagues, then
back at Jack. “At Bauerly-Brown, we focus on the
relationship. We work hard to get to know you and your
company, and we design a campaign that’s personalized—”
“No, I think you misheard,” Jack interrupted. “I asked
what’s different, not what’s exactly the same crap every other
agency has been spouting.” He was met with a blank, almost
panicked look. Not a good sign, but Jack wanted to be fair.
Well, maybe not fair, but thorough. He wanted to be
thorough. “Guy in the back—hey, guy in the weird-colored
suit. What is that, green? Blue? Damn, when you move, it’s
almost brown.” Jack liked to do this; he’d pick the one
person who clearly wasn’t supposed to speak, and see what
he or she had to say. It was a good way to see what was
going on at all levels of the company, and test how deep the
bullshit was layered. But this time, there was something
other than the man’s reticence that caught Jack’s attention.
“Hey. I know you, right? You went to Cartwright.” Jack
searched through his memory; high school hadn’t been a
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good time for him, but he didn’t think he had any negative
associations with this guy. “Noah, right? Noah… Noah
Mercier!”
“Uh, yeah, hi.” Noah didn’t look too interested in reliving
old times. “It’s good to see you, Jack.” He shuffled a little,
looking almost comically awkward.
Jack wondered what the hell the guy was doing as part
of a presentation team; if he was the best the agency had,
Jack was not at all interested in doing business with them.
Still, he was kind of cute. Actually, Noah was hot, in a shy,
nerdy sort of way. Jack could remember having noticed him
in high school, and he’d grown up pretty nicely. Tragic
fashion sense, but tall and lean, with an appealing if
somewhat unremarkable face.
Usually, once he’d found his victim, Jack would pepper
the person with questions, trying to rattle the cage a little
and watch the reactions. But he didn’t really feel like doing
that to Noah. “Do you want to get a drink?” Jack hadn’t
actually known he was going to ask that. The vast majority
of his business decisions were the result of painstaking
planning and rigorously following strategies that had taken
months to develop. But every now and then, he liked to wing
it. Apparently this was one of those times. “I think I’ve heard
enough from your team, and you guys are the last presenters
of the day. So if you have time, we could get a drink, catch
up.”
Noah looked like Jack had suggested that they slit their
throats together, but the man who’d been running the
presentation spoke up. “That sounds excellent. We’d love to
continue this in a more casual—”
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“I don’t think you’d be all that interested in getting
caught up on gossip from Cartwright High,” Jack
interrupted. He wasn’t all that interested in getting caught
up on gossip, either, but that wasn’t the point. “If I have any
questions about your firm, I’ll definitely give you a call. But I
think Noah and I can handle the drinking on our own.” He
stood up and let his height work the way it always did. It was
hard enough to contradict the owner and CEO of an
international corporation, but practically impossible when
the owner was six foot two and built like Tarzan. Jack
worked out as a stress reliever, but he couldn’t deny that the
muscles had other benefits, as well. “Noah, you good to go?”
Noah looked like he was trying hard to keep from
throwing up. “I, uh—I just came to help run the computer. I
don’t really know about the campaign as a whole….” He
trailed off and looked desperately toward the group’s
spokesman.
But as Jack had expected, that guy had gotten Jack’s
message, and he was no help to Noah. “But you know lots
about Cartwright High, right? Noah, buddy, you didn’t
mention that you knew Jack Lawson!”
“I didn’t really think he’d remember,” Noah started to
say, and then he turned toward Jack. “We only had one
class together, I think. Business, with Ms. Thompson….”
“Yeah, that’s right!” Jack smiled, trying to work his
charm on Noah. He wasn’t sure why he was bothering, but it
never hurt to give himself a little exercise. “Kind of
appropriate, I guess, considering where we are now. With
Ms. Thompson—damn, I’d forgotten about her. She was hot,
huh? With those low-cut sweaters?”
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“I didn’t….” Noah stumbled, then brought his face up to
look Jack in the eye for the first time. “I don’t really notice
women, that way.”
Jack laughed. He’d never seen any need to limit himself
by being attracted to only one sex, but he appreciated Noah’s
honesty. “You’re missing out, then, man.” He strode around
the conference table and headed for the door. “I’ve got to get
my jacket—then we can go down the street, get a drink, and
talk about Mr. Armstrong and his tight gym shorts.”
He didn’t leave any time for Noah to object. A variety of
people approached Jack as he headed down the hall; they all
had their pet projects, their questions that only he could
answer, and their political agendas. Normally, Jack craved
the energy and loved being in the middle of it all, but
sometimes, he just needed a damn break. “If it’s not on fire,
see me tomorrow,” he said to everyone at once. “And if it’s on
fire—put it out, for fuck’s sake. Then see me tomorrow with a
plan for repairing it.”
He reached the luxurious waiting area outside his own
corner office, and the crowd that had been following in his
wake melted away. They had learned from past experience
that his office was too well guarded for them to even bother
trying to get in. Jack grinned at the woman sitting behind
the desk in the outer office, the woman who protected him so
well. As always, she looked impeccable: conservative but
stylish clothes, tasteful makeup, her smoothly styled hair
carefully dyed to hide what he was sure must be
considerable gray. He was the majority shareholder and CEO
of a multinational company; he made more money than he
could ever think of spending; he was mentioned in every list
of top entrepreneurs, and got ample attention on the
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business pages. But as far as he was concerned, this
woman, with her understated elegance and casual severity—
she was the proof that he had finally arrived. Her willingness
to work for him was evidence that he was now a “have,” not a
“have-not.”
But just because he cherished her, that didn’t mean he
couldn’t have a little fun. “I’m leaving early, Claire. Don’t
even try to stop me. You’ll have to run the place without your
fearless leader, at least for a couple hours.”
His assistant raised one thin eyebrow. “I’m sure we’ll
manage, Jack.”
“Good girl—put a brave face on. I know it’ll be hard,
and, well, maybe you won’t all make it. But the troops will
need a leader, and you’re their best hope.”
She just nodded, her face molded into its familiar
expression of false disapproval. At least, he hoped it was
false.
“I’m serious, Claire—maybe you should call home and
say goodbye to Cliff and the kids.”
“I think Clive will be fine, Jack. Would you like me to get
your coat for you?”
“Well, that does sound fun, having you wait on me like
that. But I’ve got to tell you, Claire, I think you’ll need all
your strength for the coming ordeal. I’d better get it myself.”
“Whatever you think is best, Jack. Your first
appointment tomorrow is at eight thirty; will you need
anything special prepared for it?”
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“I don’t think—oh, wait! Can you get some of those tiny
little muffins? The ones they had last time? The cranberry
ones?”
“I’ve already requested those.” He saw the first crack in
her professional veneer as she smirked and added, “You
weren’t exactly subtle in your appreciation.”
He was tempted to stay and keep working on her; if he
tried hard enough, he could usually get her to relax
completely and just talk to him, like they were friends, and it
was fun. He knew it was a bit ironic that he took so much
pride in her smooth professionalism, and then took equal
pride in his ability to make her lose it, but he was fairly
accepting of his less-than-rational moments. However, he
had another person to torture into happiness, so Claire
would have to wait.
“Well, if there are cranberry mini muffins, then I can’t
imagine needing anything else.” He popped into his office
just long enough to grab his jacket and to take a quick
goodbye look through the wall-to-wall windows. The view
over downtown Vancouver all the way out to the islands was
one more symbol of his success, and he tried to remember to
enjoy it. Or at least notice it.
“Okay, then, I’m off. I’ll see you tomorrow, Claire.
Thanks.” She nodded easily, and he braced himself for a
fresh onslaught from his employees, then headed out into
the hall. He made it back to the foyer with only a few
interruptions, and found the entire team of presenters still
there; they had obviously been coaching Noah fairly
intensely, and the poor man looked even more dazed than he
had earlier. It was kind of sexy, really; Jack could easily
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imagine other ways to make the guy look unfocused and
disoriented. “You ready to go, Noah?”
Noah managed a feeble nod and didn’t wince too much
when Jack swung an enthusiastic arm over his shoulders.
“Excellent.” Jack started for the elevator, dragging Noah
along with him and speaking to the other presenters. “Nice
to meet you guys. I’m sure somebody will be in touch with
you—I don’t really know when—a couple days, probably.
Thanks for your time.” He let the elevator doors shut, and
then turned to Noah. “Okay, we made it—we’re free.” Noah
still looked apprehensive to the point of nausea, and Jack’s
conscience finally kicked in. “You can bail, if you want to. No
hard feelings. I just thought, you know….” He let his gaze
run down Noah’s lean body, then brought his eyes back up
to meet Noah’s. “I thought it would be fun to get caught up.
Get to know each other.” He gave his best sly, seductive
smile, and he could feel Noah thawing a little. He waited,
holding Noah’s gaze, and then asked quietly, “Is that okay
with you?”
He didn’t really need to hear Noah’s answer, but he
listened for it anyway, and when he heard the gentle, “Yeah,
okay,” he rewarded the man with another smile. Everything
was working out just the way Jack had planned. As usual.
“
S
ERIOUSLY
? Six kids?” Jack wasn’t sure if he was aghast or
impressed. “They must have started the day after
graduation.”
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“About four months before, actually. You didn’t know
she was pregnant?” Noah was sounding more relaxed now
that he had a couple beers in him. “I thought the whole
school knew.”
Jack shook his head. “I wasn’t too social in high school,
I guess. Wasn’t really in on the gossip.”
“Yeah, neither was I… but I still knew that. It was
practically in the school paper.” Noah took another swallow
of his beer, his blue eyes dancing behind his wire-rimmed
glasses.
“I missed it somehow. But, damn… six kids. They
weren’t really religious or anything, were they?”
“Nope. They just like kids.”
“Huh.” The Cartwright gossip was actually more
interesting than Jack had expected. Noah was more
interesting than he’d expected. Beneath the shy exterior, the
guy was pretty observant, and pretty funny. And on the
exterior, he was pretty pretty. Thinner than Jack usually
liked, but with a sweet, boyish face that showed every
emotion without artifice. Getting a couple drinks had
definitely been a good idea, and Jack was ready to ramp
things up a little. “You want to get something to eat? There’s
some good restaurants around here.” Jack wasn’t exactly a
foodie, but he knew the restaurants he was supposed to like,
and he therefore liked them. He’d worked hard to get where
he was, and he was damn well going to enjoy the perks, even
if he had to force himself.
But Noah was back to looking apprehensive. “I don’t
want to overstay my welcome….”
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“I invited you.” Jack leaned across the table and waited
until Noah lifted his eyes. “Do I strike you as someone who
lets himself get bullied into spending time with someone he
doesn’t want to?”
Noah’s grin was quick. “Well, not exactly, no.”
“Okay, then. If you’ve got somewhere to be, no problem,
but if you don’t, and if you’re hungry, and I’m hungry….”
Jack put just enough huskiness in his voice to make it clear
that he’d be happy to help Noah with any sort of hunger he
might be experiencing. And judging by the way Noah’s smile
faltered and then returned, Jack’s message was received.
“Yeah, okay.” Noah nodded way too emphatically; Jack
was tempted to reach across the table to be ready to catch
Noah’s head when it flopped right off of his neck. Damn, that
was a nasty mental image. By the time Jack had managed to
banish the thought, Noah was mercifully done with the
nodding.
Jack caught the server’s eye and gestured for the bill,
then turned his mind to the next task. “What do you feel like
eating? There’s a steak house, or a place with good seafood,
or….” Jack thought. “There’s a French place, but I’m not
crazy about French food, necessarily. Anton’s is just sort of
mixed contemporary, I’d say. There’s a sort of Asian-fusion
thing going on down the street, or… I don’t know. There’s
lots, right?”
“I’m vegetarian,” Noah said tentatively.
Of course he was. “So the steak house doesn’t really
work. Are you full on vegan? Is seafood out?”
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“Uh, not vegan, but, no, I don’t eat seafood.” He
sounded almost apologetic.
“Okay, no worries. I’m easy to please. Where’s good for
you?”
The waiter arrived, and Jack saw Noah shifting around,
trying to pull his wallet out. Jack handed a credit card to the
server without looking at the bill. It was easier to make an
executive decision than it was to have a big discussion.
Noah didn’t look totally comfortable, though. “I could
pay….”
“I did the inviting, right? So I should do the paying.”
That took care of that, hopefully. “So, where next?”
“There’s a café that’s not too far. But it’s not—you
know—fancy.”
“Well, I do like things that are fancy. But I guess I can
make an exception just this once.” Jack tried to make his
smile teasing but gentle, because somehow the whole
vegetarian thing seemed to have driven Noah back into his
shell. The guy was a bit peculiar, Jack decided, but for some
reason it wasn’t annoying. “And it will have a wide array of
delicacies that will suit your vegetarian needs?”
“They’re all vegetarian,” Noah said, then he raised an
eyebrow. “Will you be able to find something that will suit
your carnivorous appetite?”
“I prefer to think of myself as an omnivore,” Jack said,
and he smiled while he waited for Noah to draw the parallel.
“I can find something to appreciate on almost any menu.”
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Noah smiled, and his shoulders started to ease back
down away from his ears. Jack wondered how the guy had
managed to get anywhere in the business world with such
transparent body language. Not that Noah seemed to have
climbed very far up the ladder. It was just as well Jack had
paid for the drinks, because the place was pretty expensive,
and it probably would have blown Noah’s budget for the
month.
They walked down a few blocks and found Noah’s café.
It was cafeteria style, with diners taking a tray and filling it
as they walked along the counter, and Jack shook his head
in mock disgust. “I feel like I’m back in high school.”
“I don’t remember you spending a lot of time in the
cafeteria in high school.” Noah shook his head. “You were too
busy off being cool with your friends.”
Jack had experienced this before, with other
acquaintances from the good old days. It seemed like
teenagers were all so self-absorbed, so wrapped up in their
own issues, that they saw the whole world as a distorted
version of their own insecurities. Noah had apparently felt
like a nerd, so he’d assumed Jack was cool. And Jack… Jack
had felt like everyone else was rich. Usually, he let the
misunderstandings pass, but with Noah, it seemed worth it
to clear things up. “I spent lots of time in the caf. You just
didn’t see me.”
Noah frowned in confusion.
“Because I was in the kitchen, doing the dishes.” Jack
looked down at the innocuous plastic rectangle in his hands
and felt a quick surge of the old resentment. “Washing the
damn trays so you guys could all have a pleasant dining
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experience.” But none of this was Noah’s fault, and it was
hardly a tragedy, anyway. “Not that there was much chance
of any actual enjoyment—it’s not like they’d let me wash the
food, and until that happened….”
“The fries were good,” Noah said. “And I liked the grilled
cheese.”
“The fries—yeah. But you don’t want to know about that
grilled cheese.” Jack grinned at the doubtful expression on
Noah’s face.
“It’s grilled cheese,” he said, his voice small and full of
doubt. “What could they do to grilled cheese?”
“I told you, man. You don’t want to know.” Jack let
himself enjoy Noah’s expression for a moment, then turned
his attention to selecting his dinner.
The food was pretty good, he found, and the
conversation continued to be pleasant even after they’d
exhausted all of their shared stores of knowledge about old
classmates. When the talk turned to hockey, Jack decided to
take a chance.
“Not this Thursday, but the one after that, I’m going to
the game—the company has a suite. You want to come? It’s
the Leafs, so, you know—the hockey may not be great, but
it’ll be a good crowd.”
It was a little out of the blue, maybe, but not enough to
justify Noah’s surprised look. “Uh….” He frowned. “Actually,
I shouldn’t. My sister’s coming to town, and it’s her first time
back in quite a while. I should be there.”
“Your sister? I didn’t know you had one.” Jack tried to
think back. “Did she go to Cartwright? What’s she look like?”
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“Half-sister. She went to Cartwright.” Noah’s expression
was still strained. “And she looks like Hayley Meredith.”
“Nice,” Jack said, smiling in appreciation of the
reference. Hayley Meredith was an up-and-coming movie
star, and she was hot. “But that’s kind of a creepy way to
describe your sister.”
Noah looked like he was trying to judge Jack’s sincerity,
then smiled. “I said she looked like Hayley Meredith because
she is Hayley Meredith. I thought maybe you knew that.” He
glanced down at his plate, then back up to Jack. “I thought
maybe that’s why you invited me out.”
“Wait. Your sister… your half-sister… is Hayley
Meredith? Seriously?” Jack frowned. “I knew she was from
Vancouver, but I didn’t know she went to Cartwright. I didn’t
know she was your sister.” He took a moment to digest the
information. “It’s kinda lucky you’re gay, really. I mean,
otherwise—I know the incest taboo is ingrained, man, but
Hayley Meredith? That’d be a challenge to your social
programming, I bet.”
Noah wrinkled his nose. “That’s gross, Jack. And there
are plenty of straight guys with attractive sisters who don’t
seem to have a problem avoiding incest.”
“Okay, ‘attractive’ is not the word you’re looking for,
here. Hayley Meredith is not ‘attractive’, she’s… I don’t even
know. Smoking hot, gorgeous, stunning… something like
that.”
“Well, you’ve only seen her with a lot of makeup on. And
all styled up. She’s… I don’t know, I guess she’s pretty in
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person too. But, no, I don’t think it’s only my sexual
orientation saving me from incest.”
Jack decided to let that go. “She’s a couple years
younger than us, right? Was she at Cartwright the same
time we were?”
“She was in ninth grade in our final year. But she was
just a skinny kid with braces.”
“She grew up nicely,” Jack said with an appreciative
nod. Damn. Hayley Meredith. The wheels started turning in
his mind, and he didn’t notice that the conversation with
Noah had lost some of its earlier sparkle.
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Chapter Two
J
ACK
was in the office early the next morning, as usual. He
liked to get a good start on the day’s work before everyone
else arrived to harass him. It was a pattern he maintained
even after a late night, but he wasn’t suffering from lack of
sleep this time. He and Noah had parted ways with a casual
handshake outside the café right after dinner. It hadn’t been
Jack’s original plan, but he’d gotten distracted.
Distracted by Hayley Meredith. He’d gone home and
gotten on the Internet, found picture after picture of her, and
decided that Noah was crazy. The woman wasn’t just pretty,
she was absolutely perfect. She had porcelain skin and long,
strong legs curving into a tight ass, a tiny waist, generous
but not ridiculous breasts, and auburn hair that Jack could
just imagine wrapped around his fingers. He’d dated lots of
beautiful women, he supposed, but not like this.
He caught himself. Really? Hayley was that much better
looking than other women? He thought of Rachel. And
Kristina. Hell, even that one from Greece, whatever her name
had been. They’d all probably been just as beautiful as
Hayley. So why was he obsessing over this?
He heard Claire arrive in the outer office, and crossed to
his open doorway. He looked at his watch. “Half an hour
until mini-muffin time, Claire. Are you excited?”
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“I’m beside myself.” She calmly hung her coat in the
closet and then looked at her desk, where the white and
green cardboard cup was waiting. “I think it’s traditional for
assistants to bring coffee to their bosses, Jack. You seem to
be reversing the system.”
“I’m a free thinker—outside the box.”
“Do you need anything prepared for the meeting? Other
than the muffins?”
“Nah, I’m good.”
She lifted the cup and wrapped her hand around it to
judge its temperature before crossing to the kitchenette. He
followed her and leaned in the doorway, watching as she put
the coffee in the microwave. “Hey, Claire? Did you know that
Hayley Meredith went to my high school? She’s Noah
Mercier’s sister.”
Claire nodded politely. “Interesting. Of course, I don’t
know who either of those people are.”
“Really? Hayley Meredith? Man, you are missing out.
She’s very scenic.”
“And Noah Mercier?”
“Yeah, he’s pretty scenic too, but….” But what? Not a
movie star. Was that all? Was Jack really that shallow?
Probably, he decided with an easy shrug. Then he realized
that Claire was watching him act out the body language of
his internal monologue. “You should probably try a little
harder to stay up to date with these things. Knowing who
people are. In case you were looking for some feedback on
your job performance.”
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“I believe I have a formal performance review that’s
scheduled on an annual basis.”
“I told you, Claire, I’m thinking outside the box. Besides,
that review—it was pointless. There weren’t enough lines.
For example, there was nowhere to comment on your
knowledge of movie stars.”
“Ah. She’s an actress.” Claire retrieved her coffee and
eased past Jack as she returned to the office area.
Jack followed her and flopped down on one of the big
leather chairs in the reception space. “I don’t know about the
acting, really. I haven’t seen anything she’s been in, I don’t
think. But she’s pretty famous.”
Claire started logging on to her computer.
“Is there a line on the review for ‘pays attention to her
boss’? ’Cause there should be.” Jack stood up. “And I
wouldn’t be looking for an ‘excellent’ rating on that one,
Claire. That’s all I’m saying.”
“I very much doubt that, Jack. I’m quite confident that
you’ll have lots more to say.”
Well, that stung a little. But not much. “She’s coming to
town. Hayley Meredith. And since Noah and I are buddies
now, I’ll probably meet her.”
“You’ve met the prime minister, Jack. And, well, I
wouldn’t say you’ve met the president, but you’ve shaken his
hand a few times. You date models and accomplished
women… people… in a wide variety of fields. You regularly
socialize with billionaires, and, according to the last list I
saw, may actually be one yourself.” Claire looked up from
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her computer screen. “Is there a reason you’re acting like a
schoolgirl with a crush right now?”
Jack drew himself up to his full height. “I expect there is
a reason, yes. And I expect that reason to expose itself in the
fullness of time. Until then, though—I’m good for the eight
thirty, but can you resend the information for the nine
fifteen? I think I deleted it.”
“This is the third time you’ve lost that report,” Claire
said, her voice carefully devoid of judgment. “Do you
suppose there’s a reason for that?”
“There’s a reason for everything, Claire. Everything.” He
raised his eyebrows mysteriously, but she wasn’t even
looking in his direction. “Yeah, okay. You’ll send me that
file?”
“I’ve just done that. Do you think I should print you out
a copy, as well?”
He shook his head. “Think of the trees, Claire. The
trees.”
The phone rang and Jack turned away, leaving Claire to
her job. If the call was coming to her line, it had either
already made it past the screeners at the main switchboard,
or it was from one of the elite few who had her direct
number. So it likely wouldn’t be a short call.
He was only halfway to his desk when Claire spoke from
behind him. “It’s Noah Mercier, calling to follow up on the
meeting yesterday. Since you and he are buddies now, I
thought you might like to take the call yourself.”
Jack turned. “You were paying attention, you tricky girl!
And, yes, thank you, I’ll take it myself.” Not that he had
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anything to say, in terms of the meeting. But he liked talking
to Noah, so that was reason enough to take the call.
He settled himself in his chair and hit the buttons to
select the line and start the speakerphone, then turned
toward the window. “Noah! Morning!”
“Hi, Jack. Sorry to bother you. I didn’t actually ask to
speak to you—I mean, it’s not that I’m not happy to talk to
you, but I know you’re busy.”
Jack thought of the report sitting on his computer,
eighty-seven pages of overly detailed, jargon-filled writing,
and smiled. “No, nothing pressing. What’s up?”
“I was asked to call to follow up on the meeting
yesterday.” Noah sounded miserable, Jack decided. The guy
clearly didn’t have the personality for sales, or even for the
aggressive business meetings that Jack loved.
“The team hasn’t gotten together yet. I thought you guys
were fine, but you didn’t blow me away. But nobody else
blew me away, either, so….” Jack let his voice trail off.
“They asked me to see if there was any more information
you need, or….” Noah sounded desperate, and, worse, he
sounded aware of his desperation. “They said I should close
the deal. They said I should find out what you want and
promise you that we can give it to you.”
“I really like elephants,” Jack mused. “They’re so big,
but they seem so gentle….”
“I….” Noah wasn’t really getting into the game. “Are you
suggesting that I tell them you want an elephant?”
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“I thought you were supposed to just promise it to me,
no matter what. Come on, Noah—promise me an elephant.”
“Maybe a safari,” Noah tried. “Or we could try to work
elephants into the campaign somehow.”
“An actual elephant would really be nice. I could ride it
to work. And I bet it would fit in the freight elevator, so it
could come upstairs with me. Can elephants be house-
trained?”
“Damn it, Jack!” Noah’s voice cracked. Jack didn’t say
anything, and after a moment he could hear Noah exhaling
heavily. “This is all your fault. I’m not supposed to be doing
this! I—I sit in a back room and play with a volleyball and
come up with ideas. That’s what I’m good at. I wasn’t even
supposed to be at your stupid meeting, but Becky called in
sick and Carl was on vacation.” Another deep breath, and
still Jack didn’t speak, so Noah continued. “There were three
guys in from New York for that meeting. And all our top
people from this office. They think this account is going to be
huge, and they really want it. And if they don’t get it…
they’re going to be looking for someone to blame, and they’re
not going to have to look very far.” Another pause, and then
Noah’s voice returned, smaller now. “I like my job, Jack.”
Jack let that sit for a couple seconds, then said, “So
you’d prefer that I stop talking about elephants, then.”
“I really would, yes.”
Jack tried to picture Noah, hunched over his desk
somewhere, maybe not even in a private office, maybe in a
big room with cubicles. Was there someone standing over
Noah’s shoulder, listening in? Jack didn’t think so—he was
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pretty sure the plug would have been pulled by now, if
Noah’s superiors knew how poorly the conversation was
going. “How long’s Hayley going to be in town for?”
It took Noah a moment to catch up. “I’m not sure. She’s
just finished up a few big projects, I guess, and she wants
some time off.”
“Does she like hockey?”
“Does she—yeah, she likes hockey. She’s not a huge fan,
but she watches the big games.”
“So, I’ve rethought the whole elephant thing. You were
doing a good job of selling me on the idea, but I’m really not
sure he could be house-trained, and it’d be a hell of a mess if
he couldn’t. Instead, how about getting your sister to go to
the hockey game with me?”
“What? You want to trade an elephant for a date with
my sister?”
“No, I want to trade the advertising account for a date
with your sister. What is all this talk about elephants?”
“I really don’t think that would be right. She’s not for
sale.”
“I’m not talking about buying her. Just borrowing her.
I’d bring her back good as new. And you said she liked
hockey. You should ask her. Maybe she’d like to go with me.
You could make me sound good, right?”
“I could—yeah, I could make you sound good.” Jack
couldn’t quite get a read on the emotion in Noah’s voice, and
he wished they were face to face instead of talking over the
phone.
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“So? You could tell her the whole story. Or, you know,
not the might-lose-your-job part, if you don’t want her to feel
coerced. You could just say you ran into an old friend from
high school days, and he’d like to go to the game with her.
With both of you, if you want. If that’d make it less weird.
Like I said, it’s a suite, so there’s lots of room.”
“You want me to set you up on a date with my sister,
and you want me to chaperone?”
“Well, I don’t want you to, like, I’m afraid to be alone
with her or something. I just thought I’d put it out there as
an option.”
“Yeah. An option.” Noah’s voice was faint, and Jack
turned around to frown at his phone. Were the speakers not
working properly? But then Noah spoke again, at the proper
volume. “Let me think about it, okay?”
“Yeah, okay. But I’m meeting with the team at ten thirty,
so don’t take too long.” There was no answer. “Noah? You
there? Can you figure it out by ten fifteen or so?”
“Ten fifteen.” A pause, and then, “And you’re serious
about this? It’s not just another ‘I want an elephant’ thing?”
“I was serious about the elephant too, Noah. They’re
magnificent creatures.” Jack glanced at his watch and
kicked his feet down off his desk. It was almost time for his
meeting, and he’d skipped breakfast in anticipation of the
mini muffins. His stomach was growling. “Ten fifteen, Noah.
I’ll talk to you later.” He waited until he heard a
noncommittal grunt from the other end of the phone line,
then punched the button to disconnect the call.
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This was a good plan. Hayley Meredith was important.
He’d gotten the expensive clothes, first, and then the luxury
car and the penthouse apartment. He had the fawning
employees and super-efficient assistant, and he ate at all the
finest restaurants with all the best people. And he still felt
like a fraud. What he needed, probably, was a trophy wife. If
someone like Hayley Meredith would pledge to spend the rest
of her life with him, surely that would be the final evidence
he needed. He’d made it. He’d arrived. Once he had her, he’d
have his proof.
In the meantime, though…. “Claire! Hey, Claire!”
She appeared in the doorway. “Oh my goodness, what’s
wrong?”
“Wrong? Nothing’s wrong, exactly….”
“Oh. How strange. When I heard you bellowing like that
instead of hitting the intercom button, I assumed you must
have been trapped under a heavy piece of furniture.”
“Now, Claire. You know I like to see your smiling face.
Well, your face, at least. And a smile would be nice.”
“How can I help you, Jack?”
He leaned back and kicked his feet back up on his desk.
“Where’d you see those lists? The ones that said I might be a
billionaire?”
“I’ve forwarded copies of the articles to your press
folder.”
Of course she had. “Do you think I’m a billionaire?”
“I have no idea, Jack. I don’t have access to your
personal finances.”
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“I barely have access to my personal finances. But I
don’t think I’m a billionaire. Not yet.”
“Well, you’ll be sure to keep me up to date on this, won’t
you?”
“Is there a box on your evaluation form for ‘excessive
use of sarcasm’?”
“I’ll look into that.”
“Hey, Claire?”
“I’m still right here, Jack.”
“Yeah. Uh… are you super busy this morning? Is there
any chance you could maybe put together a little summary
of that report for the nine fifteen? You know, just pull out
the highlights for me?”
It was a sign of Claire’s professionalism that she didn’t
even smirk as she said, “You can find that in the ‘Executive
Summary’ folder on your computer.”
“Nice,” Jack said, as much in appreciation of her
smooth, low-key response as of her anticipation of his needs.
“You should jot down a note, remind me of this at your next
evaluation.”
“I’ll absolutely record this moment.”
“Excellent.” Jack reluctantly clambered to his feet. He’d
much rather stay and talk to Claire, or call Noah back and
request a tiger or something, but he had a meeting to go to.
He tried to console himself with the promise of the mini
muffins, but instead remembered the rosemary and chickpea
salad Noah had shared with him the night before. It had
been delicious, and it had been nice, the way Noah had
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offered it to him; he hadn’t been trying to impress Jack, or
butter him up, he’d just thought Jack might enjoy the
flavors. There weren’t enough people in Jack’s life like that,
people who didn’t want anything from him.
But that wasn’t really true anymore, Jack reminded
himself. Never had been, really. Noah was desperate to keep
his job, and Jack had the power to make that happen. Noah
had seemed naïve and guileless the day before, but maybe it
was all part of his plan. The guy was in advertising, after
all—it wasn’t exactly a laid-back field full of sensitive, caring
people, at least not in Jack’s experience. If Noah was being
chosen to attend big meetings, even as a third option, he
must have a driven, crafty side that Jack just hadn’t seen
yet.
Realizing this should have made Jack feel better; it
confirmed his worldview, and it was always nice to have his
perspective on things affirmed. But he didn’t feel better, not
at all. Instead, he thought of Noah’s shy smile, and the way
his eyes held Jack’s for just a second longer than usual each
time he laughed. Jack wanted to believe in that Noah, but he
really didn’t think that he could.
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Chapter Three
“S
O
…
CHEMICALS
,”
Noah said. He was lying on his back on
the floor, shooting a volleyball from his fingers up into the air
and waiting for it to fall back perfectly in place for him to
volley it again. He really did work in a back room, Jack had
been amused to discover, a windowless space that looked
like it had originally been some sort of storage cupboard.
“Yeah. Chemicals,” Jack sighed, and he leaned back in
Noah’s ratty chair and kicked his feet up onto the desk.
When he’d agreed to sign with Noah’s company, the
executives had wanted to send a team over to Jack’s firm to
gather information, and then take all that away to work on
for a while, and then present concepts, and then…. Jack had
said, no, he thought he’d like to just bounce some ideas
around with Noah. It would be a good way to reinforce
Noah’s position with the company, Jack figured. And it was
enough of a disruption that it might actually produce some
good ideas. And it was beneficial for him to get to know his
potential brother-in-law better. The one reason that Jack
hadn’t allowed himself to admit to was the one that he was
actually taking fullest advantage of: working with Noah was
fun.
“Okay. Chemicals.” Noah sent the ball up almost to the
ceiling, and it came down just crooked enough for him to
have to shift to the side to receive it. Jack forced himself to
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ignore the way the movement stretched the long muscles
along Noah’s sides, and the way the guy’s faded polo hiked
up a little at the waist.
“It’s not glamorous, I know. But—they’re everywhere.
Everyone needs them, for pretty much everything they make.
It’s a solid industrial foundation.”
“Well, that’s our tagline, then. ‘A Solid Industrial
Foundation.’ It practically sells itself.” In his own
environment, Noah was more confident, even a little snarky,
and Jack liked it.
“Oh, you don’t care for that? Well, that’s why you’re
hired. Come up with something better.”
“Actually, I’m hired because you have a crush on my
sister.” Noah caught the volleyball and squirmed around to
look Jack in the eye. “Just how crappy would I have to be in
order for you to pull the plug on this deal?”
“Well, I don’t know. Right now, you’re pretty safe. But
once I meet her, if she hates me, you would have to be just
about as crappy as you’re being right now. But if she likes
me, which I really think she will—I’ve got an excellent feeling
about this—if she likes me, I guess you’ll have a pretty easy
ride, if you want it.” Jack shrugged. “At some point, it would
be cheaper, and more ethical, certainly, from a business
perspective, to buy your underperforming ass out. I could
fire your agency, and when they fire you, I could give you a
job in the mail room or something, to keep the little woman
happy.” Jack smiled at Noah. “But I really don’t think that’s
going to happen. I think you’re going to keep playing with
your volleyball—nice control there, by the way—and you’re
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going to come up with some great ideas on how to make my
company look good.”
“Your chemical company.” Noah said the word like it was
sticking to the inside of his mouth.
“Chemicals are everywhere, man. Everything’s made of
chemicals. They get a bad name because of a few mishaps,
but overall—this desk is chemicals. The floor, the window,
the air… it’s all chemicals. Your volleyball is chemicals.
You’re chemicals, and if you want to see some of that at
work, come by our biochem department and see what they’re
up to with the pharmaceuticals.”
Noah had been looking thoughtful, but he wrinkled his
nose and went back to volleying. “Oh, yeah, pharmaceuticals
will be a much easier sell.”
“Well, that’s why I hired the best. So you can surmount
these challenges.”
“You didn’t hire the best, you hired the one with the
hottest sister.”
“Hey, Noah?” Jack’s voice was quiet, and it made Noah
catch the ball again and turn to meet Jack’s eyes. “I’m not
quite that bad of a businessman. Not quite that
irresponsible. I told you—your agency’s presentation was
fine, and no one else’s really stood out. You might have
gotten the job even without Hayley.”
“The company might have. But I wouldn’t have been
involved.”
“No. The other night—if that had ended up where I
initially thought it was going to end up—well, I don’t usually
make special requests to work with my one-night stands the
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next day. So if we hadn’t started talking about Hayley, you
wouldn’t have been involved.”
“You’re making a pretty big assumption, there, chief.”
Noah rolled up to sit cross-legged, and his look was
challenging. “Just because you were into me, don’t assume
that the feeling was reciprocated.”
Well, there were things Jack would allow, and things he
wouldn’t. He leaned forward a little and let his voice get
husky. “You were into it, Noah. And, yeah, I would have
gotten deep into you, and our feelings would have been
absolutely reciprocal.”
Noah held Jack’s eyes for only a moment longer before
swallowing and looking away. The air in the room crackled,
and Jack wondered if he’d made a mistake, pushed too far.
“You’re just—you can just turn it off?” Noah asked, his voice
uncertain.
“It? What do you mean?”
“The attraction. You were attracted, and then you heard
about Hayley and you just….” Noah raised his eyes to Jack’s.
“You just turned it off?”
“I don’t know.” Jack wished he had a ball of his own,
something to distract him from Noah’s face. God, even their
positions, Jack in the chair and Noah on the floor,
submissive but still bold… it was perfect. Except that it
wasn’t Noah that Jack had decided to be interested in, and
something happening with Noah would not be at all in
keeping with Jack’s goals. “I redirected it, I guess.” He leaned
over and snatched the volleyball out of Noah’s hands. He
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stood and bounced it on the floor a few times, then let it sail,
a perfect swish into the garbage can in the corner.
Noah’s eyes followed the ball, and he frowned. “There
was….” He stood up and strode over to the garbage can, then
pulled the volleyball out, holding it with his fingertips. There
was something brown dripping off the bottom of the leather.
“There was a cup of old coffee in there.” He lifted the ball a
little and sniffed experimentally. “Really old. With cream in
it.”
Jack wrinkled his nose. “Okay. Uh—obviously, that was
99 percent my fault. But if we could just focus on the other 1
percent for a second—why do you have old coffee in your
garbage can?”
“It’s garbage, isn’t it?” Noah was still staring at the ball,
and Jack stood up and found a box of Kleenex on the desk.
“Yeah, but—well, why did you keep it around until it got
old? And why didn’t you pour it down the sink? I mean, this
was an accident waiting to happen.” Jack pulled a few
tissues out of the box and handed them to Noah. “I think I’m
going to revise my earlier apportionment of blame. I mean,
I’ll still take most of it, but I’m thinking more like 75 percent
for me, 25 for you.”
Noah was mostly focused on wiping the ball, but he
looked up at Jack long enough to say, “This was my high
school volleyball. I got it for being the player with the best
sportsmanship.”
“Well, it still is your high school volleyball. It’s not like
it’s totally ruined or anything. It’s just a bit dirty. And if it
stains, it’ll add character, right?” Jack wasn’t completely
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sure what was going on here. Noah seemed to be taking the
incident fairly seriously. “I’m sorry,” Jack said. “I 75 percent
apologize. No, wait—I 100 percent apologize for the 75
percent that was my fault. Seriously. Fully sorry for the part
I played in this unfortunate incident.”
Noah looked like he had something to say, but he didn’t
make a sound, and then Jack’s phone rang. For once, he
was happy to answer it. “Jack Lawson.”
“Jack, the team from Minneapolis is here. They’ve been
waiting for fifteen minutes. Are you okay?” It was Claire, and
Jack knew why she was concerned: he was never late.
“Damn, sorry. I’m over at Noah’s, destroying priceless
mementos. I guess I lost track of time.”
“You’re at Noah’s? His home?”
“No, his office. Closet. Whatever.”
“You’re at the advertising agency? Already? You just
decided to sign with them yesterday….”
“I wanted to bounce some ideas around.” Jack winced a
little as he thought of the volleyball, and he glanced at Noah
and saw that he wasn’t the only one who’d picked up on the
word choice. “But, yeah, I should get back there. Ten
minutes, okay? Tell the Minneapolites I’m really sorry.”
“Minneapolitans.”
“Yeah, them. Thanks.” He turned his phone off and
turned back to Noah. “Seriously, sorry about the volleyball.”
He bit his lip to keep himself from babbling and ruining his
apology.
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“It’s okay.” Noah’s smile was a little weak, but seemed
sincere. “You’re right, it adds character.”
“Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. That’s all
caffeine is.” Jack shrugged at Noah’s blank look. “It’s
chemicals. The coffee as a whole is more complicated,
obviously. Depends where it was grown, what you put in it,
even what water you used. Might have leached a bit of
something from the paper cup, or the lid. And now it’s
interacting with the volleyball’s chemicals, and maybe
creating some new compounds. I could try to get a cleaning
product involved, and let those chemicals start doing their
thing….”
Noah looked thoughtful. “So you’re actually kind of a
nerd, then?”
Jack smiled. It took most people longer to figure that
out, but then he wasn’t usually quite this open about it.
“Science is sexy, man.”
Noah nodded slowly. “Yeah, it kind of is.” He was still
looking thoughtful. “And interesting, to look at the world that
way.”
“Somebody—I have no idea who—said that to a chemist,
nothing is dirty. You know? It’s all just chemicals. All just
elements, really, combined in different ways. You know what
the most common source of poisoning is, worldwide? One
carbon, one oxygen. That’s it. We’re carbon-based life forms,
and we need oxygen to live, so you wouldn’t see the problem,
would you? Add another oxygen, and it’s a harmless gas
produced by animals and consumed by plants, but you
knock one oxygen off, and it’s deadly. Totally natural,
whatever that means, but deadly.”
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“Carbon monoxide,” Noah said, and Jack nodded.
There was a knock on the door as it opened and a
woman’s head appeared. She smiled warmly at Jack, and he
tried to remember her name. “Things are going okay in here,
Mr. Lawson? We can empty the conference room for you, if
you’d prefer. Or one of the other offices—I’m sure we could
make one available.”
“I’m just on my way out, actually. But things went really
well. I think Noah’s got some great ideas.” That was maybe a
bit of an overstatement, but Jack was willing to run on faith
for a while.
“Good, good.” The woman looked a little doubtful, but
she wasn’t going to argue with him. “It’s too bad you can’t
stay longer. We can have the whole team together for your
next visit, if you like. Or we could come and see you, if you’d
prefer. We have some really creative thinkers on staff, and
they’re all really excited to do some work on this project.”
“Well, great. Whatever Noah needs to help him out,”
Jack said with an easy smile. “But I think I’d prefer to keep
him as my primary contact person on this. I don’t need to
see the whole team. Noah can let me know what they come
up with.” He turned to Noah. “I’ll give you a call tomorrow,
maybe? Just to check in.”
“Well, we may need a bit more time than that,” the
woman said, and her smile was patronizing in a way that
made Jack’s skin crawl. It made him feel like the poor kid
with the weird dad and no mom, the kid who’d never quite
understood how things were done.
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“But if we’re just at the idea-bouncing stage,” Noah
interjected, ignoring the glare from the woman, “tomorrow
would be great. I think I’ve got enough to work on, and I can
run my thoughts by you tomorrow.”
“We prefer to present our clients with a more polished
version of our concepts,” the woman said, and it was
amazing how she could almost simultaneously glare at Noah
and smile at Jack.
“I like the more casual, collaborative approach,” Jack
said firmly. “And, as I said, I’d like Noah to be the person I
communicate with on this project.” He gave her his best
“back off” look. “The two of us really seem to be on the same
wavelength with all this.” He nodded brusquely to the
woman, grinned at Noah, and headed out the door.
It was possible that Jack was doing Noah no favors, he
supposed, by tying him so closely to the campaign. If things
worked out, it could really boost Noah’s career, but if they
didn’t, it could be disastrous. For Noah, at least. Jack would
just have to make sure everything worked.
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Chapter Four
J
ACK
knocked on Noah’s office door and waited until he
heard “Come in,” from inside. He hadn’t liked the way the
woman had barged in the day before; Noah’s dark but
somehow pleasant cave deserved a little more respect.
Also, it was hard to get the door open with all the stuff
he was carrying. He’d kind of been hoping that Noah would
open the door rather than just issuing an invitation. Oh well.
He set down the largest of the bags and managed to get the
knob turned, then pushed the door open with his hip as he
reclaimed the lost package and shuffled inside. Noah was
watching him with a mix of confusion and amusement.
“Are you moving in?”
“Not unless you get a skylight. This place would mess
up my circadian rhythms.”
“Okay, I’ll work on that.” Noah was in his chair, for a
change, and it left nowhere for Jack to sit. He decided to put
off that problem for a little longer and pulled one of the
smaller bags out from under his arm.
“Coffee,” Jack explained. “Fresh. Just for variety. And
there’s sandwiches in there. I haven’t had lunch, yet. Have
you?”
“No, not yet.”
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“Excellent. There’s one with chicken, so be careful you
don’t get it. The other’s veggie. But I didn’t know how you
took your coffee, so there’s just fixings in there loose.”
“Great. And, for future reference—just cream.” Noah
jutted his chin toward the other bags. “What else’ve you got?
This is starting to feel like Christmas.”
Jack dropped one bag on the floor and said, “That’s
office supplies. I pilfered them from my company—your pens
suck, and I like to write on graph paper.” Noah nodded in
acceptance, and Jack reached into the other bag and pulled
out the top item. It was still in its box, but the front was
designed to be open, displaying the pristine white volleyball.
“I know it won’t have sentimental value, or whatever, but I
thought it might help with the loss.” He tossed the box
toward Noah, who caught it easily. Then Jack pulled out the
next items. “I asked the guys in one of our labs, but they
thought I was kind of mental. So I looked online, and it said
to clean volleyballs with laundry soap and a toothbrush.”
Jack held up the items as he mentioned them. “And then to
use leather conditioner,” he added, and he burrowed around
until he found that. “Have you already done all that?”
“I wiped it with Kleenex,” Noah said.
“Well, that’s not quite good enough. Give it here.” Noah
obligingly reached behind himself and found the ball, then
tossed it to Jack, who pulled out a bottle of water and set to
work.
“You don’t have to do that,” Noah said, “and I don’t need
a new ball. Sorry if I was a suck yesterday.”
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“No, man, it’s….” Jack had thought about this, and he
wanted to say it. “I can be a bit of a hurricane sometimes.
You were doing fine, and then, bam! It’s Hurricane Jack,
putting your job at risk, wrecking your toys….”
“I don’t think hurricanes go ‘bam’, Jack.”
“That was the sound of the doors slamming in the wind.
You should also be imagining a lot of rain, and, I don’t
know—is there thunder?”
“How would I know? We’re both born and raised in
Vancouver. The sound of endless drizzle, that’s our weather
experience.”
“Well, Drizzle Jack doesn’t have the same ring to it.”
“No, but Drizzle Noah might be pretty accurate. Sorry
again for being a suck.”
“S’alright.” Things were going better than Jack had
expected, so he pulled out the last item, the one he’d thought
was probably pushing his luck. Noah’s lips twitched when he
saw it.
“Is that for here?”
Jack didn’t answer, just ripped the box open and
reached up to attach the plastic hoop to the top of the
doorframe. He pulled out one of the foam basketballs and
showed it to Noah. “It wasn’t fair that you were the only one
with a toy.”
“Do you really have time to be over here this much?”
Noah didn’t sound like he was objecting, just curious. “Isn’t
this the sort of thing that would usually be handled by
someone on your staff?”
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“Absolutely. You should see them squirming. They can’t
decide whether to be outraged that I’m cutting them out, or
worried that they’re going to lose their jobs. It’s fun.”
“Torturing hard-working employees is fun?”
“It’s not torture. They’re fine. It’s good for them to be a
little uncomfortable now and then. It’ll keep them on their
toes.” Jack looked around the room. “Do I get a chair?”
“Oh, shit.” Noah stood up quickly. “Sorry. Here, sit here.
I can sit on the floor.”
“Noah. You should have two chairs in here. And you
should get some better lighting. It’s a weird space, but it’s
not terrible. But you need to think about how you’re
perceived. If people come to see you in the dungeon, they’re
going to think of you as the troll. Or whoever lives in
dungeons. You know what I mean.”
Noah looked around him as if seeing the room for the
first time. “We downsized last year, and we moved to a
smaller office space. I was so happy to have a job that I
volunteered to be in here.”
Jack wasn’t sure what to say. Maybe Noah really did
suck at his job, and really should be glad just to still be
employed. “It’s not a bad space. It’s quirky, but it kind of
suits you. But you should get them to fix it up a bit. Not to
make it flashy, just to make it workable. You’re going to go
blind trying to read anything in this light.”
“I have a desk lamp.”
“Noah. Get them to give you proper overhead lights.
And, yeah, damn it—I want a chair. A comfortable one.”
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“Maybe I could bring one in from home.”
This was getting ridiculous. “Who’s your boss? Who do
you report to?”
“Nicole Paterson.”
“Was she the woman who came in yesterday?”
“No, that was Alison DeWitt, Nicole’s boss.”
“Okay, well, Alison was offering us the board room and
a spare office, so I don’t think Nicole’s going to give you a
hard time about a chair.”
“No, she wouldn’t give me a hard time. But I shouldn’t
bother her….”
“You work for her. The work you produce makes her
look good. It’s part of her job to give you what you need in
order to do that work. It’s practically the feudal system,
really. You are a vassal, and you owe duties to your overlord,
but she owes duties in return.”
Noah looked doubtful. “She’s very busy.”
“So are you.” Jack took a step forward. “Noah, I don’t
care about the chair, and I’m not in here for long enough for
the light to wreck my eyes. But, buddy—you need to value
yourself a little. It’s good to not be a prima donna, but you
shouldn’t be a total pushover, either. These are not
extravagant things you’re asking for.” Jack caught himself.
“Not extravagant things that I’m trying to convince you to
ask for.”
Noah still didn’t look completely convinced, but he
nodded slowly. “Yeah, okay. I’ll—I’ll talk to her about it. But
in the meantime, I’ll just grab a chair from down the hall.
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You can sit in the desk chair.” And he was gone before Jack
could argue for a more direct approach.
Jack circled around the cheap metal desk and sank
down into the battered chair. He thought of his own office,
and the expensively minimalist furniture, the huge windows
with the beautiful view. He liked his office. But he liked
Noah’s office too, and he really couldn’t figure out why.
Then Noah was back, carrying a plastic chair and
looking proud of himself. “I saw Nicole. I think she heard you
were here and she was trying to decide whether to come by. I
said we needed a chair, and she was going to give me hers,
from her office.” He grinned. “I imagine that was for you, not
for me. But I said we were fine for today, but it’d be good if I
could have another one eventually, and she said sure.”
“Did you mention the lights?”
“No.” Noah shrugged. “I kind of like it dark.”
And Jack couldn’t argue with that. “Okay, then. Let’s
get to work.” He reached across and found his sandwich and
coffee, then pushed the others at Noah. “What ideas have
you got?”
But apparently Noah had a different idea of where their
conversation should go. “I talked to Hayley again last night.”
He looked hesitant. “I told you, when I first called her, I
asked if she’d like to go to the game with me and a friend of
mine, and she said yes. I told you—it isn’t a date, it’s just a
chance for you to meet her. That was the deal.”
“Yeah. That’s fine.” Jack had barely been thinking about
Hayley, really. He’d made up his mind that he wanted her,
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and he’d taken steps in that direction, so no further thought
was really required.
“But she asked who the friend was, and I told her. And
she called back last night because she’d Googled you.”
Jack tried to think about what she would have come
across. He’d certainly been widely mentioned in the business
press, but there hadn’t been much about him in the
mainstream news, and all of the coverage had been quite
shallow. He didn’t think there was anything too
incriminating available. “Does she share your irrational
hatred of chemicals? Is that going to be a problem?”
“No. There’s no problem. She actually—she asked if you
were single. Well, first she asked whether you and I were
friends, or, you know, friends. And then she asked if you
were single.”
“Yeah? Really?” Jack grabbed one of the mini
basketballs from the desk and shot it toward the net. It
missed, but only by a little. “That’s a good sign, right?”
“I guess so, yeah.”
“You don’t sound too enthusiastic.”
“Sorry.” Noah was holding his new volleyball, still in its
box, in his lap. “Yeah, I think it’s a good sign. But, anyway, it
got me thinking. You want the advertising to be for the
company in general, not for a specific product. Almost more
of a PR campaign.”
“Well, yeah. We’ll want specific advertising down the
line, if things work out, but for now, we’re just looking for
something to improve the company’s image a little. We’re
growing to the point where people are going to start
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recognizing the name, and I want them to have a favorable
impression when they do.”
“And you’re a big part of the company. Hayley said it
was your father’s company, when you were a kid. He’d do
experiments in your basement, she said, and come up with
crazy products and try to sell them.”
Jack nodded slowly. He didn’t really like to talk about
his father. It was hard to portray the situation properly. It
was hard to convey the naïve enthusiasm the man had for
chemistry in a way that showed how beautiful it really was.
“He has no head for business. Like, at all. But he came up
with some great ideas. In all different areas. I mean, all
chemical, but loads of different applications. He just loves
ideas. Experiments.”
“But you’re the one who made it a successful business.
You took some of his best ideas, and marketed them
properly, and got investors and set up production. You made
his hobby into a business.”
“It was always a business.”
“But it wasn’t a profitable one.”
Jack thought about his childhood and adolescence.
They’d only gotten by because Jack’s grandfather had left
the house to them, so they hadn’t had to worry about rent.
Jack’s mom had worked hard to scrounge up enough money
to keep them fed and clothed, and by the time she left, Jack
was old enough to work at least part time. “No. It wasn’t
profitable.”
“Well, I’m kind of stepping on toes, here, because this is
more of a PR campaign than a simple advertisement, but I
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think that’s what you want to be showing people. The family
history. The love of science. That stuff you were talking
about yesterday, about how everything’s chemicals—that’d
be good too. You aren’t some faceless corporate entity, you’re
Jack Lawson: the guy who made good on his father’s
dreams. Your products aren’t dangerous ‘chemicals’, they’re
just nature, broken down into its component parts.”
Jack was listening closely, and he was pretty sure he
liked what he was hearing. “So what would that look like?
Don’t worry about people’s toes for now, just tell me how
you’d see this playing out.”
“Education.” Noah seemed confident, and a little
excited. “Again, this is PR stuff, but you should sponsor
prizes at schools—maybe elementary schools or high
schools, rather than universities—focus on the family aspect.
And put up a really good, really informative website, not
directly tied to your products, but just with excellent
information about chemistry. Maybe some print ads, in
targeted markets, but it’d probably make more sense to get
things to go viral. Use humor—like, that thing you said
about nothing being dirty, use that. Find something really
dirty, and break it down into its chemical components. Or
reverse it—give a list of the chemicals, and have people guess
what the material is.”
“I like it.” It was true, Noah was stepping on a lot of toes.
Jack had an entire Public Relations department in charge of
this sort of thing, and Noah’s agency had been hired to work
on a much smaller scale. But Jack could work through that.
He nodded at Noah, encouraging him to continue.
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“And part two would be charisma. Personality.” Noah
smiled almost shyly. “Part two would be you. Yesterday,
when you were talking about it all—you practically glowed,
Jack. You really love this stuff, don’t you? It’s not all about
money and power. You think the science is cool.”
“Sexy, I think I said. But… yeah. It’s not all about
money and power.”
“Well, you’re not going to be young and hot forever. You
should be using your looks while you can. We should put
your face on all of this. It shouldn’t be some anonymous
spokesmodel giving the chemistry lessons; it should be you.
More public appearances, more attention paid to the great
guy who loves his job and believes in his company and really
wants to make his father happy.”
Jack wasn’t so sure about that part of things. “I’m not
sure I’d keep loving my job if it ended up being a string of
public appearances….”
“So we’d establish a mystique, then. Just a few
appearances, but lots of leaked information.” Noah nodded
enthusiastically. “That could work even better. And you’re
already a public figure, whether you like it or not. You might
as well use it for something useful.”
“Something useful like promoting the company so we
can more easily make more money?”
“It’s not world peace, although if you’re interested, I’ve
got a few ideas in that area as well. But, yeah, you might as
well use it for making more money. I guess you don’t need it,
but you have shareholders, right? They aren’t all super rich.
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They’d probably support the idea that you should use your
influence to support the company.”
Damn. Jack had thought he liked confident, snarky
Noah, but he was beginning to rethink that. “So I don’t have
any right to privacy? I work hard, make them a lot of money,
and I still owe them more?”
Noah shook his head and leveled his gaze at Jack. “You
absolutely have a right to privacy. But if it’s so important to
you, what the hell are you doing wanting to date my sister?”
Well, that was a good question. And, unfortunately,
Jack didn’t have a good answer. “She’s really pretty….”
“Yeah, okay.” Noah shrugged. “This is way over the line,
for me to be saying all this to you. This is the sort of thing
that gets me in trouble, usually. I forget who I’m talking to,
forget to be diplomatic….”
“You make the mistake of telling the truth,” Jack said,
and he smiled. “Tell you what. I appreciate your candor. I
really do. I’m not saying I agree with it, necessarily, but you
took the risk of telling me what you’re really thinking, and I
appreciate that. I’d like it if you’d continue. I mean, feel free
to lay off a little, you self-righteous bastard, ’cause I don’t
see you sacrificing every minute of your day to help the poor,
downtrodden middle-class shareholders of my company,
but… yeah. In general, I appreciate it.”
“And have I persuaded you to ramp up your role as the
face of the company? A suggestion which, of course, is
absolutely beyond the scope of any advertising campaign I’ve
ever worked on.”
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Jack grinned. “I wouldn’t say persuaded, exactly. But I
like the way you’re thinking. We just need to work out some
of the details.” Jack found himself strangely reluctant to
continue, but he thought of his shareholders and forced
himself to say, “And we should get some other people
involved. There’s a young guy in PR—Matt, I think—he has a
lot of good ideas about this sort of stuff. Nonconventional
marketing, using the Internet, whatever. I think my people
are a bit stuffy about it all—still living in the past, a bit.” He
took careful aim and sent a foam basketball through the net.
“This is good. This is going to work well.”
“Yeah?”
“Absolutely. Have you got time now? We can walk over
and find Matt, get the two of you working together.” It had
been fun to have Noah all to himself, but it wasn’t good for
the company to spend time in an inefficient way. So Jack
smiled as Noah stood up and grabbed his jacket, and he
firmly stamped down on the impulse to throw himself in
front of the door and keep Noah to himself, safe in their little
cave. Strange to think of it as a safe place, considering that
Noah had just challenged him more openly than anyone had
in years, but that was how it felt. But it didn’t matter that
Jack wanted to spend more time alone with Noah, and,
really, it was probably better if he didn’t.
Noah had been right; the money and power weren’t the
only things that made Jack interested in his company. But
Noah didn’t see the whole picture, didn’t see Jack for who he
really was. Sure, Jack loved chemistry, but there was more
to it than that. He didn’t care about the money and power
just for themselves, but damn it, he wanted to show people
that he’d succeeded. He wasn’t the outcast boy, looking in at
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all the other kids with their normal, stable lives, not
anymore. He’d gotten somewhere, he’d made something of
himself. And Hayley was still an absolutely necessary piece
of evidence for proving that. So Jack and Noah would be
friends. And that was all. Jack opened the door and stepped
aside to let Noah leave, and he forced himself to keep his
mind on business.
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Chapter Five
“I
THINK
it’s too casual. I should put the jacket back on.”
Noah was pacing back and forth across the floor of Jack’s
office, his face flushed anxiously above his crisp white shirt.
“You should set the jacket on fire. And the pants should
die while trying to save their partner.” Jack stood up and
took two long steps, placing himself in front of Noah and
stopping the pacing with firm hands on Noah’s shoulders.
“Your suit is a travesty, and I never want to see it again.
Your ideas, on the other hand, are excellent.” Noah didn’t
look convinced, so Jack shrugged out of his own jacket and
tossed it toward his chair. “Okay. We’re both going casual.
It’ll be a new thing. The other guys are going to feel
overdressed, I guarantee it. There’s going to be….” He
stopped to count. “Six men, not counting you and me and
Matt, and four women. I bet you ten dollars that at least
three of the men and two of the women, a full 50 percent of
the audience, take off their jackets within the first ten
minutes of the meeting.”
“And are you actually going to pay me this ten dollars,
or is this going to be another one of your ‘I don’t have change
for a fifty’ bets?”
“Okay, A, I didn’t have change for a fifty, and, B, you
still owe me from the bet about the lunch special and the bet
about how long it would take me to make Claire smile, so if I
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lose this one, we’ll just be even. If you lose, you’ll be down
twenty bucks, my friend.” Jack might be a multimillionaire,
but that didn’t mean he was going to let Noah get away with
this sort of robbery.
But Noah had his own agenda. “That wasn’t a smile, it
was a grimace. They’re totally different expressions.”
“Was the big purple guy from McDonald’s called
Grimace? Does that make sense? Why would you want
someone to associate your food with grimacing? As an
advertising expert, can you explain that to me?” Jack didn’t
care all that much about the fast food characters, but Noah
was getting distracted and calming down a little, so
everything was working out just fine.
“No, I can’t explain that to you. Can you explain to me,
in general, why it’s considered to be a good idea to personify
food in those ads? Does it make you more likely to want to
eat something if you imagine the food having a distinct
personality?”
“Spoken like a true vegetarian,” Jack said.
“As opposed to all the fake vegetarians out there.”
“People who eat fish? They aren’t vegetarians. But a lot
of them still claim to be.”
Noah looked like he had an argument to make on behalf
of the pescetarians, but then Claire appeared in the open
doorway. “They’re all in the conference room, Jack. And the
woman from Noah’s agency has called twice already—she
seems a little anxious.”
Noah groaned, and Jack could see the tension rushing
back into his body. That wouldn’t do. “Hey, Noah?” Jack
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could see Claire easing out of the room, but his focus was all
on Noah. “Whose company is it?”
“Whose…? This company, you mean?”
“Yeah, this company.”
“It’s—well, you’re the majority shareholder.”
“What else am I?”
“Uh—the CEO?”
“And?”
“Are you the chairman of the board?”
“Yeah, Noah, I am.” Jack stepped a little closer and tried
to ignore the minty scent that Noah always seemed to have.
“And I like your ideas. A lot. This meeting is a formality. It’s a
way of keeping people happy, and making them feel like their
opinions are valued, but in this case their opinions aren’t
really valued all that highly. Not if they don’t agree with
yours and mine. Okay?”
Noah’s voice was small. “I just… I want to do a good job.
The ideas are good, I’m sure of that. But I’m not good at
selling things, Jack. That’s not my thing. I don’t have… I
don’t know. But I know that whatever it is, I don’t have it.”
Jesus, it was not good that Jack wanted to kiss Noah. It
was not good at all. Hayley was finally in town, and the three
of them were going to the game together that night. Jack just
had to hold out a little longer, and then he was sure that his
new romance would totally erase any rogue attraction to
Noah. They’d just been spending too much time together,
that was all. And it wasn’t like the guy was hard to look at.
At least, he wasn’t hard to look at when he wasn’t wearing
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that damned suit. “Your presentation will be fine,” he
managed. “And if it isn’t… if it totally, totally sucks… oh
well. You’ll just start over.”
“Start over, like, with a new job. Maybe I’ll be able to get
the inside scoop on the Grimace thing, if I work at
McDonald’s.”
“That’s the spirit. Good silver-lining finding.”
“I don’t want to work at McDonald’s, Jack.”
“Maybe you’d get free fries. They really do have good
fries.”
“Jack….”
“You’ll be fine, Noah.” Jesus, he’d almost said “baby”
instead of “Noah.” And not in a mocking way. If it had
slipped out, would he have been able to pretend that it was
just an insult? This was getting serious. He needed to get his
head back in the game. Or out of the game. Into the right
game, was probably the way to think about it. The Hayley
game. “You’re not going to wear that suit tonight, are you?
Jeans would be good tonight. Just because it’s a suite,
please, please don’t think you need to dress up.”
“Tonight,” Noah said, and all the nervousness was gone
from his voice. Jack should have been relieved, but he didn’t
think he liked the new tone, either. It was lifeless and
remote. But Noah seemed to pull himself together a little and
smiled softly. “It’s been really great working with you, Jack.
I’ve really… I’ve really enjoyed it.”
“Me too, Noah.” Jack clapped Noah’s shoulder and
pushed him toward the door. “And, while I won’t follow you
to McDonald’s, I really think we’ll continue to work together
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after this meeting. So stop talking like this is the end of
something. It’s just the beginning.”
They were only a few steps from the boardroom, and
Noah didn’t have time to respond. It was just as well, really.
Jack was dangerously close to making a serious mistake
with Noah, and any more shows of vulnerability could
absolutely push him over the damned edge. He just needed
to get through this day, he told himself. If he could just get
through the day, everything would work out fine.
“
W
HAT
do you mean, you’re not coming?” Jack tried to keep
his voice level, but he wasn’t sure he was succeeding. “Who’s
going to chaperone? This is totally improper!”
“I’ll just have to trust you to be a gentleman. Also,
Hayley’s a black belt in three different martial arts. I think
her virtue is safe.” Noah’s voice was quiet on the other end of
the line, and Jack decided that he hated phone
conversations. He needed to be able to see Noah’s face in
order to figure out what was going on.
“I’m not worried about Hayley’s virtue,” he protested.
“I’m worried about mine. What if she tries to have her way
with me? She’s a black belt in three different martial arts,
you know.”
“You’ll be fine, Jack.” Noah sounded like he was starting
to get a bit impatient.
“Well, yeah, okay, I guess I probably will. But what’s
going on? How come you don’t want to go?”
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“I’m just tired, Jack. Going to the game, a big crowd…
it’s just too much, for tonight.”
That was hard to argue with. But Jack didn’t like to
admit defeat. “You could nap on the way there. Or even
there, if you wanted. The seats are pretty comfortable.”
“Jack, you should be thanking me. This is making it
more date-like, right? You won’t have me there cramping
your style.”
“My style is uncrampable.”
“Still. This is good for you. Or at least not bad.”
“Is this about work? I thought the presentation went
pretty well. I mean, you were nervous, and that showed….”
Jack tried to not think about how adorable it had been. “But
you pushed through it. I was impressed. Seriously.”
“It’s not about that. Not entirely.” Noah sighed, but Jack
was learning that if he didn’t jump in and push, Noah would
usually get to the point on his own. And sure enough, after a
pause, Noah said, “The deal’s off, Jack.”
“The deal? What do you mean?”
“The account-for-Hayley deal. It’s off. I’m pulling out.”
“Wait a second. Weren’t you just telling me where to
meet her? What happened in the last two minutes?”
Noah’s laugh was tight and bitter. “Nothing happened.
The date’s still on. But it’s not part of a deal anymore. As
soon as I saw Hayley, I knew I had to tell her the whole
thing, not just the ‘does she want to go to the game with
someone from high school’ story. So I did, and the thing is…
she didn’t care. She thought it was funny.”
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“Okay….” It was frustrating. Jack knew enough to
realize that he was in a minefield, but he didn’t know enough
to be able to navigate properly. “So what are you worried
about?”
“I was disgusted with her, Jack. I thought, ‘What has
she turned into, down in Hollywood, so that my sweet sister
thinks it’s funny to whore herself out.’ But then I caught
myself, and I thought, ‘What have I turned into, that I
thought it was okay to be my sister’s pimp?’”
“That is some strong language, Noah. I mean, I guess
I’m the john in this little morality play you’re writing, so
maybe you don’t care about my opinion, but, seriously,
Noah… nobody was being whored out. It was just an
introduction. I trade favors for contacts all the time. It’s the
way business works.”
“When you use ‘the way business works’ for romantic
matters, Jack—that’s prostitution!”
“‘Romantic matters’?” Jack was getting a little tired of
this. “Come on, Noah, there’s nothing romantic about
hookers. This was just an introduction—no guaranteed sex,
no guaranteed anything. You’re being overdramatic.”
Noah didn’t say anything for a while, and when he
spoke, the fight was gone from his voice. “I didn’t like the
decision I made. That’s all. I made a mistake, and I’m doing
what I can to fix it. So my part of the deal is off.”
“Okay, and this is where I get confused again. If Hayley
doesn’t care, I’m still getting what I want. And I really like
the work you’re doing with the ad campaign, so I’m happy
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there too. So pulling out of the deal—that’s just a ceremonial
thing?”
“I guess you’d have the right to pull out of the deal with
my agency.”
“Well, not really, Noah. I signed a contract. There’s a lot
of terms and conditions I could use to get me out of it, but
you being pissy really isn’t one of them. But the thing is, it
doesn’t matter, because I’m happy with the work you’re
doing. You’re taking a win-win situation and getting all tense
about it, and I have no idea why. None of this matters,
Noah.”
“It matters to me.” Noah sounded tired again. “Okay,
yeah, the language I was using—it was too strong. But I
don’t like what I did, Jack.”
Jack had no idea what to say. “I’m sorry. Seriously. I’m
still not sure I really get it, but I’m sorry if I did something
that made you do something you don’t like. I never… I guess
I forget that I can be kind of hard to say ‘no’ to.”
“I’d love to blame you, Jack, but I’m a grown man. This
is my thing. My problem.” Noah sighed. “I just need some
time, Jack. Some space. We’ve been spending a lot of time
together, and I think I let myself get a little blown away by
Hurricane Jack. It’s been intense, and I think I need to step
back.”
By any objective measure, that was surely true. And
maybe it was a good idea to have a little time away from
Noah, in order for Jack’s affections to transfer completely
and efficiently to Hayley. Jack didn’t like what Noah was
saying, and he wanted to talk about it some more, but he
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needed to think about it, first. Yeah, some head-clearing
time probably was a good idea. “Well, okay.” He tried to get
himself back on schedule. “Does Hayley still want to meet at
the arena, if she’s on her own, or should I come by and pick
her up?”
“She’s coming in from our parents’ place in Burnaby.
Taking the SkyTrain. Do you think you could meet her at the
station?” Noah sounded like he was putting some effort into
sounding normal, and Jack appreciated it and tried to
reciprocate.
“I think I can manage that. There’s a Stadium stop,
right?”
“Yeah. I’ll give Hayley your cell number, so she can
coordinate timing, okay?”
There was still something very wrong, here, and Jack
didn’t like it. But he didn’t think he was going to get
anywhere by arguing with Noah, so he decided to go along.
He’d meet Hayley, they’d fall madly in love, and Jack would
sort Noah out the next day at the office. Everything would
work out just fine.
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Chapter Six
“
Y
OUR
brother said you don’t look all that good in real life.”
It was an odd choice of opening lines, and if Jack had taken
the time to reflect, he probably would have chosen a different
one. He smiled to take the sting away and said, “But your
brother’s crazy.”
“He also wet the bed until he was seven years old,”
Hayley said, and her voice was sweet, with just enough
huskiness to be sexy.
“That is an excellent piece of information. Thank you
very much.”
“That’s what sisters are for.”
“Noah must be really happy to have you home.”
“Oh, yeah.” She smiled and held out her hand. “Hayley
Meredith. Well, Mercier when I’m up here, I guess.”
“The secret identity must get confusing; just one of the
drawbacks of being a superhero, probably. I’m Jack Lawson.
It’s really nice to meet you.” They shook hands, and her
fingers felt delicate, her skin soft and warm. “We’ve got a bit
of time before the game, but not a lot. Do you want to just go
to the arena and get a drink and something to eat there?”
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“Sounds good. I am officially off my diet for this week,
and I plan to take full advantage of it. Please expose me to
large quantities of beer and fried foods.”
“At a hockey game? I don’t know….”
“I will take my stomach elsewhere if it is not satisfied.”
“Well, that would be a shame. I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you.” She smiled easily, and they walked
together out of the station and down the street to the arena.
The conversation was quick and light, no awkward silences
or uncomfortable comments. Hayley briefly alluded to the
deal with Noah, they laughed about it, and it was over with.
The whole thing was quite pleasant. Jack wished Noah were
there; the guy could benefit from an example of calm,
nonanxious social interaction. But that wasn’t fair, really;
once he relaxed, Noah was lots of fun.
“You okay over there?” Hayley asked. They were
standing at the railing of the suite, looking down at the ice,
and Jack realized that he hadn’t said anything in quite a
while. So much for his self-congratulatory ‘no awkward
silences’ diagnosis.
“Sorry, I’m fine.” He gave her his best smile. “I guess it’s
been a long week. And for you too, right? Noah said you were
coming up here to relax a little. Got any plans, or just
hanging out?”
So she told him about her plans, and she asked about
his, and she was interesting and funny and beautiful. She
was perfect. She was absolutely what he was looking for.
When he went over to the buffet, Sanjay from accounting
said something about it being hard to believe that someone
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so charming came from the same family as poor, awkward
Noah; it maybe wasn’t a good sign that Jack wanted to
punch Sanjay in the face. But he’d never really liked Sanjay,
anyway.
Overall, Jack was reasonably sure he was pulling this
off. The affection transfer hadn’t gone quite as smoothly as
he’d hoped, but surely it would happen eventually. It would
just take a bit of time. And Hayley seemed to like him, so
hopefully there would be time, an opportunity for things to
straighten themselves out.
He was back at the railing, listening to Hayley as she
told the woman next to them a story about how Hollywood
life wasn’t quite as glamorous as it seemed, when there was
a buzz of excitement in the suite. He glanced around the
arena, and his eyes were captured by the Jumbotron. There
he was, his picture larger than life, for the whole arena to
see.
The camera was focused on Hayley, of course, and there
was a wave of applause through the audience as the
hometown celebrity was noticed and appreciated, but Jack
was up there too. Hayley looked at him, and he looked back
at her, and it was clear that they were together. The whole
arena saw it. It was the best announcement he could have
thought of, the most dramatic evidence of his success. He,
Jack Lawson, was at the Canucks game in a fancy executive
suite, with a glamorous and charming movie star standing
next to him, smiling at him. He had arrived. He had made it.
And he felt nothing.
Well, not quite nothing. Somewhere deep inside, roiling
and uncomfortable, a feeling was growing. A realization, he
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supposed. The camera left them, found someone else to
spotlight, and Jack knew that his smile was pasted on, and
he could tell that Hayley knew it too.
She let it go, though, just coaxed him back into the
conversation with a skill that would make her a great
success as a society wife. She was really much more than he
had hoped for. And she seemed to be reasonably pleased
with him too, although it was hard to be sure if that was
genuine or if she was just being polite. Either way, Jack
appreciated it.
They made it through the rest of the game and waited
around a while for the crowds to clear. The suite was
pleasant, they had food and drink—what was the hurry? But
Jack didn’t feel a compelling need to spend more time with
Hayley. She wasn’t the one he was thinking about, and he
began to have a sinking feeling that the affection transfer
just wasn’t going to take. He’d waited too long, allowed
himself to spend too much time with Noah. He thought of
Noah’s serious face, and the way it transformed entirely
when Jack made him smile, and somehow, it was hard to be
too disappointed by the way things had turned out.
He had planned to have a car waiting for them after the
game, but when Hayley had said she’d just as soon walk, he
hadn’t argued. Well, he would have argued pretty damn hard
if she’d wanted to walk all the way back out to Burnaby, but
it turned out she was staying at her brother’s place, and it
wasn’t far. They were at least halfway there before he finally
got up the nerve to broach the subject with her. “Uh, Hayley?
If this… in the largest hypothetical sense, no pressure, no
commitment, just… hypothetically…. Am I someone that you
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might have considered spending some time with? You know,
dating, or whatever. Just… in the broadest sense.”
Hayley looked confused, but she nodded. “I kind of
thought that’s what we were doing here.”
“Yeah, it was. Is. Totally. But you got pushed into this.
There was the deal, and it was supposed to be all three of us,
you and me and Noah. But… okay, I know I sound like a
lunatic, and maybe an asshole, as well, because I don’t think
I’m going to ask to see you again. But if I had asked, would
you have at least considered it? Considered going out with
me?”
“I would have said yes, Jack. I’m having a good time.”
She still looked confused, but she seemed to have realized
that this was about Jack’s issues, not hers.
“Yeah. Okay. Thank you. I think that’s enough. I think I
can be satisfied with that.” He was making no sense, he
knew, but he kept going. “The thing is… I really like you, but
I think I’m sort of involved with someone else. I mean, not
technically, but, if I’m being honest… yeah. I’m pretty well
gone.” It felt true as soon as he said it. Almost too true—it
was frightening. Hayley’s silence should have stopped him,
but instead it drove him on. “It’s not what I wanted. I wanted
to want you.”
There was a pause before Hayley said, “This is pretty
odd, Jack. I mean, I like a good mystery, but I feel like I don’t
have enough clues on this one.”
“Yeah, that’s fair. And I’d love to talk to you about it.”
That was actually true. Hayley seemed like she’d be a good
listener, and she’d certainly have some insight about her
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brother; she’d already given him the gem about the bed-
wetting. “But it’s kind of complicated right now. It’s still
really up in the air.”
“Okay.” They walked in silence for a while longer, then
stopped outside the door to Noah’s building.
“Maybe I could come up, say hi to Noah?” Jack
suggested. It was weak, he supposed, and almost bound to
be awkward, but now that he knew how he felt, he wanted to
indulge himself a little. And surely he could more effectively
deal with Noah’s issues face to face.
But Hayley shook her head. “No point—he’s not at
home.”
That made no sense. “What?”
Hayley looked mildly confused. “He had a date. That’s
why he didn’t come to the game with us. He texted me ten
minutes ago to be sure I knew how to get into the apartment,
because he’s still out.”
“A date?” Jack normally prided himself on being
mentally quick. Maybe he wasn’t the deepest thinker, but
whatever he was going to get, he got quickly. This current
conversation, though, seemed to be beyond him. “He had a
date? With who?”
Hayley looked like she was beginning to realize that she
was giving unwelcome news. “Someone from work, I think?
Matt, maybe?” Her jaw jutted out a little, as if she was
preparing to defend her brother’s honor. “Is there a problem
with that?”
“Matt? PR Matt? I introduced them… we’ve all been
working together all week….”
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“Yeah, he said it was someone he’d just met fairly
recently.” She looked like she wasn’t sure if she was getting
Noah into trouble or getting him out.
“But I thought Matt was straight. I think I met his
girlfriend, once.” But it was entirely possible that Jack had
been confused about that. There were a lot of people working
for him, and they came with a lot of romantic partners.
“Bisexual, I think. That’s what Noah said.”
“Well, that’s kind of sneaky.” Jack let himself keep
talking, but he wasn’t really paying much attention to the
words. He was thinking about Noah, out with stupid Matt.
Noah lying to Jack, for some reason, in order to go out with
damned Matt. Noah calling his sister to be sure she could get
into the apartment without him, because Noah wanted to
stay out late, maybe all night, with fucking Matt. Jack cast
his mind back over the last week at work. Noah and Matt
had seemed to get along, certainly, and they’d been working
together, but Jack hadn’t seen any sign of romance. But
maybe Jack, as usual, had been a bit clueless about what
was going on around him. “Did he say where they were?”
Jack wasn’t sure quite what he had in mind; some sort of
grand gesture, maybe, showing up at some bar and declaring
his love. Not that he was in love. No, that was too much.
He’d declare something else. He’d make a strong statement
of interest, maybe.
But he didn’t have to worry too much about how lame
that was, because Hayley was shaking her head. “He didn’t
say. I could try to call him back, if it’s important, but… do
you really need to interrupt? I think he really likes this guy.
He’s been talking about him for a while.”
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The swirling turmoil in Jack’s head settled and sank,
turning into a nauseating weight in his gut. Noah really liked
Matt. Matt would be crazy to not like him back. Matt
probably understood about Noah’s moral qualms, or
whatever they were; maybe he’d be the one to make Noah
change his mind. Matt and Noah, together. Which left Jack
out altogether. He looked at Hayley, and a nasty, destructive
instinct urged him to take back his earlier words. He could
still get her, maybe, if he tried. She was the real prize; Noah
was nothing. The stupid affection transfer didn’t matter,
because Jack didn’t need affection, he just needed
achievement. Noah and Matt could have their stupid fling,
because Jack would be busy sweeping Hayley off her feet,
wining and dining and romancing and proving himself to
everyone.
“I’m an idiot,” he said softly, mostly to himself, but
Hayley heard.
“What’s going on, Jack? Are you okay?”
He nodded slowly. “Yeah. I mean—like I said, I’m an
idiot. But that’s nothing you need to worry about.” He forced
a smile and nodded toward the door of the building. “Do you
want me to walk you right up, or are you okay once you’re
inside?”
“It’s a safe building; I’ll be fine. But, seriously, Jack, if
you want a cup of coffee or something, if you want to talk,
you can come up. I’ll keep my hands to myself, I promise.”
“No, I’m good, thanks. I’ve got work tomorrow, so I
should get some sleep. But it was really nice to meet you,
Hayley. I hope we’ll see each other again.”
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“Yeah, same here, Jack. This girl you’re interested in—
she’s really lucky.”
Jack didn’t bother to correct the assumption; his usual
boundless energy seemed to have deserted him, and he just
wanted to get home and get to sleep. He watched until the
door closed behind Hayley, and then started off toward his
own apartment a few blocks away. He’d go see Noah the next
morning, he decided. It wasn’t dramatic, but it was the right
way to do things. He had no claim on the man, no excuse to
be possessive. Not yet, at least.
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Chapter Seven
“
W
HAT
do you mean, he doesn’t work here anymore?” Jack
looked around Noah’s office. The desk was still there, the
chairs, the computer, even some files. But the volleyballs
were gone. The basketball net was off the door and laid out
tidily on the desk, the foam basketballs beside it. And, most
damningly, there was no Noah.
“We know you enjoyed working with Noah, and we
certainly admire the ideas that came out of that partnership,
but we’re sure we can continue the good work that he
started. We hoped you’d be by this morning, and we have the
whole team in the conference room, waiting to discuss the
next steps with you.” Jack still wasn’t sure whether this
woman was Allison or Nicole, but either way, he wasn’t
interested in hearing much more.
“Why isn’t Noah here? What’s going on?” There was an
edge to his voice that he needed to get under control. He
sounded almost panicked, and that wasn’t cool, not for what
was supposed to be a business relationship. Not for any
relationship, he reminded himself. It wasn’t like Noah had
disappeared off the face of the planet. The personal would
take care of itself, and the business… well, the business was
irritating, but not frightening. “He was a bit shaky in the
presentation yesterday, but he pulled it together. And
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considering how far outside of his area of expertise that was,
I thought it was pretty impressive.”
“We agree, Mr. Lawson—but Noah resigned yesterday
afternoon. We’ve been very pleased with his work for years,
and continue to be very pleased with him. Honestly, I
thought maybe you’d lured him over to work for you
directly.” The woman looked surprised enough to seem like a
human instead of a sales automaton, and Jack decided that
he really should figure out her name. “If that’s not it—we
have no idea what’s going on. We asked Noah to take some
vacation time and think this through, but he insisted that he
wanted a clean break.” She stepped a little closer and the
professional mask faded even more. “I’m worried about him.
If you can get hold of him, try to change his mind, won’t
you? I’ll hold his place here as long as I can.”
Jack thought of Noah, too insecure to even ask for an
extra chair, and tried to reconcile that with the expression
on the face of the woman in front of him. “I’ll talk to him,
absolutely.”
He had his phone out on his way to the elevator, but he
only got Noah’s voice mail. “Noah, I’m at your office, but
something’s missing. We’ve got work to do, buddy—why are
you flaking on me? If this is about the deal—we can figure
something out, Noah. Something that will make you okay
with it.” He paused, unsure of how much he wanted to say
over the phone, and then added, “And I need to talk to you
about other stuff as well. Give me a call, okay? Like, right
away. You’ve got my cell number, and I’ll leave the ringer on
all day.”
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By the time he was out of the building, he’d done
everything he could do using the phone, but it still wasn’t
enough. This was bullshit. He’d shied away from the grand
gesture the day before, only to wake up and find things even
more messed up than they had been. That had been a
mistake. He wondered if there was some way to get his
hands on an elephant. But that had been his little flight of
fancy, not Noah’s, and in case all this had to do with Noah
feeling like he was being ignored, or something, it would
probably be best to focus on Noah.
The problem was, Noah wasn’t really the grand gesture
type. He was all about little gestures. Lots of beautiful little
gestures, like the vertical line he got between his eyebrows
when he was really, really trying not to smile at something
Jack was saying. Or the way he’d get excited about someone
else’s idea; it was practically the only time Jack had heard
him raise his voice, when he was celebrating someone else’s
brilliance. The more Jack thought about it, the stupider he
felt. How had he not realized he was falling for this guy? He
thought it was adorable that Noah was obsessed with a
stupid volleyball, for God’s sake—obviously his judgment
was being unfairly biased by some other emotion.
And, really, things had been this messed up the night
before, he just hadn’t known about it. So he couldn’t really
blame the problem on the lack of a grand gesture. Damn it.
Jack really wasn’t sure how to proceed. He needed some
wisdom, and he needed it fast. He thought for a moment,
then smiled and lifted his phone.
It only rang once; then, “Morning, Jack. Where are
you?”
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“That’s not the most professional way to answer calls,
Claire. What if someone else had been using my phone? Call
display is a tool, not a toy. Something for you to keep in
mind.”
“Executive assistants aren’t toys, either, Jack.
Something for you to keep in mind. Also, are you planning
on coming by the office today? Your morning is flexible, but
Bobby would like half an hour to go over the revised
numbers on the Bangkok project before the meeting this
afternoon.”
“Um… I don’t know. I’m kind of… I’m in the middle of
something, I think. Did you know that Noah quit his job?”
There was a pause. “No. I didn’t know that.” Her voice
was carefully neutral, and Jack had been sparring with her
long enough to interpret that accurately.
“But you know something, don’t you? What’s going on?
Why am I in the dark, here?”
“That’s a good question, Jack. Maybe the answer to that
question is important.”
“Alright, Yoda, what the hell does that mean?” Jack
couldn’t have this conversation and walk at the same time,
so he ducked into the alcove by a store entrance and stared
fiercely at the display of shoes in the window.
“You’ve been spending time with Noah, and talking a lot,
but he hasn’t chosen to share this with you. Why do you
think that is?”
“I don’t know, Claire. Why do you think that is?”
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He could hear her sigh over the phone. “Maybe it’s
because his reason for quitting has something to do with
you.”
That couldn’t be good. “We were getting along fine. I
pushed him a little, with the presentation and stuff, but I
think he appreciated that. On some level, at least. I mean, he
did a pretty good job. It was good to see him stretch himself.
Are you saying that he didn’t want to be stretched? Or is this
all still about the deal? Did he say something to you?”
“He didn’t say anything. But I don’t think….” It was
unlike Claire to hesitate.
“What?”
“Are you sure this was a business decision?”
“I’m not sure of anything. I’m totally confused, and
you’re making it just a little bit worse.” He shuffled back out
onto the sidewalk and rejoined the flow of traffic. Apparently
this wasn’t a conversation he could have standing still,
either. “Listen, Claire—how do you think Noah would feel
about a grand gesture?”
“I don’t know. What would the message behind the
gesture be?”
Well, that was a good question. “Apparently he and Matt
went out last night. Did you know that Matt was gay?”
“I did not. I’m pretty surprised to hear that, actually.”
“Yeah, so was I. We may have to fire Matt, later. Pencil
that in for after the meetings this afternoon.”
“And why does it upset you that Noah and Matt went
out?” Claire sounded smug.
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“No, Claire, you’re way behind me on that one. I know
I’m interested in Noah. I know I’m jealous. I’m not looking for
a big reveal on that one. I just—I need help figuring out how
to let him know. So I was thinking about the grand gesture.
But he said he was tired of Hurricane Jack, so maybe I
should just give him some space.”
“You’re not like this in business, Jack. You’re not hot
and cold, you understand about sometimes just being warm.
But in your personal life, it’s all about extremes. It doesn’t
make sense. If this were a business relationship, what would
you do to get Noah onside?”
“Offer him an elephant?”
“I don’t think you would. I’ve seen you negotiate, Jack.
You keep your eyes on the prize, and you’re flexible with the
details. You find what works.”
“So…. Okay, so Noah’s the prize. I get that. But what
are you saying about the grand gesture?”
“Why don’t you just talk to him?” She sounded like she
was talking to a small, not very intelligent child.
“You mean, just—talk to him.”
“You could express your feelings in an honest, open
way. You could give him an opportunity to express his own
feelings, and you could respect whatever he has to say.
Doesn’t that sound like fun?”
“Hey, Claire?”
“I’m still here, Jack.”
“Guess where I am?”
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“God help me, I just had a flash of you sitting at my
kitchen table. Please tell me you’re not sitting at my kitchen
table.”
“That’s just weird, Claire. You’ve never even invited me
to your house—don’t think I haven’t noticed. But, no, that’s
not where I am at all.”
“Okay. Where are you?”
“I’m outside Noah’s building. I wasn’t even thinking, I
was just walking, and talking to you, and now—here I am.
It’s like fate.”
“I think it’s more like your subconscious mind having
enough sense to take over sometimes, but call it fate if you
want to.”
“Yeah, I’m going to call it fate. Do you think he’ll let me
in?”
“There’s only one way to find out.”
“Yeah, okay. Thanks.”
“Hey, Jack?” Her voice was softer than usual.
“Yeah?”
“Good luck, Jack.”
“Yeah. Thanks.” He clicked the phone shut and took a
deep breath, then pressed the intercom button.
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Chapter Eight
J
ACK
had forgotten about Hayley altogether, and when a
female voice answered his buzz he actually had to stop and
think before he realized who it was. “Oh, hi. It’s Jack.
Lawson. I’m sorry to bother you, but I’m hoping Noah has
time to talk to me.”
“He’s just in the shower.” There was no buzz to open the
door.
“Well—could I come up? Maybe by the time I get there,
he’ll be out.”
“He takes long showers.”
“I could wait.”
“I don’t think he wants to see you.” Jack had no idea
what to say to that, and it was just as well, because
apparently Hayley wasn’t quite done. “But… Jack, last night.
When you said you were interested in someone, and I said
she was a lucky girl… was there something not quite right
about that?”
Jack nodded, then remembered that there was no
camera. “Yeah. I didn’t correct you, but… yeah.”
“I’m going to buzz you in,” she said, and the intercom
clicked off as the door unlocked itself.
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As he rode the elevator up, Jack tried to rehearse what
he was going to say. He didn’t get very far. He thought about
riding back down and coming up again to give himself more
time, but then a door opened down the hall and Hayley’s
head poked out. “Hurry up,” she hissed. “If he knows you’re
coming, he’ll try to lock you out.”
Jack strode toward her, but he was already having
serious doubts. “I don’t want to, like, force myself on him. If
he doesn’t want me here, I shouldn’t be here.”
Hayley gave him a piercing look, then nodded. She
stepped aside and he walked past her into a totally generic
one-bedroom apartment. “I’m going to give you a couple
minutes to make your case, and then if he doesn’t want you
here, I’m going to throw you out.”
“I heard you’re a black belt in three different martial
arts.”
“That’s ridiculous. Have you seen me? I can barely walk
in a straight line… I’m a total klutz. I don’t think I even know
the names of three different martial arts.”
“Your brother may be a compulsive liar. Does that
bother you at all?”
“Not much. Does it bother you?”
“I find it strangely charming.”
“Well, okay, then.” The sound of running water stopped,
and Hayley looked around the apartment. “This place is
really small.” She looked down at herself, dressed in a T-
shirt and an old pair of shorts. “And I’m not really ready to
go out. I’ll go hang out in the bedroom, I guess, and give you
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guys some privacy. Unless he totally freaks and I have to
throw you out early.”
“Okay, if you don’t know three martial arts, how are you
going to throw me out, exactly?”
“I’m going to speak to you firmly, Jack.”
“Yeah, that might work.”
The bathroom door opened with a cloud of steam, and
Noah appeared, a towel wrapped around his waist. His torso
was uncovered, and Jack tried not to stare. He hoped it was
a good idea to act cool and controlled. “Hey, Noah. Sorry for
barging in. I went by your office, and then I called your cell,
but I really wanted to talk to you.” Noah didn’t look pleased
with the situation, and Jack’s pride wouldn’t keep him from
hiding behind a woman. “Hayley let me in.”
“Hayley,” Noah started to say, and Jack could have
handled it if Noah had sounded angry, but instead he
sounded hurt. Betrayed. Jack really, really didn’t ever want
to hear Noah sound like that again.
“It’s really important. I kind of made her. Sort of. Look,
Noah, she’s already threatened to throw me out, but she
won’t have to. If you want me to go, I’ll go. But… please.”
Jack wasn’t used to using his sincere voice. He was used to
using his fake-sincere voice, the ironically detached tone that
he usually found amusing, but his real, honest voice was
barely familiar to his own ears. It was scary, but Noah was
worth it. “I need to say some stuff. And then I’ll go, I
promise. I mean, I’ll go whenever you say. But I really hope
you’ll let me say some stuff first.”
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Noah looked helplessly at Hayley, who nodded toward
the bedroom. “I thought I could hang out in there for a bit.”
She glanced around and then grabbed a book from a nearby
table. “I’ll read.”
“That’s a book about coaching volleyball. I’m reading it
for the kids at the youth center.”
“I’m sure I’ll find it fascinating,” Hayley said, and with
that, she was out of the living area, closing the bedroom door
behind her.
“You coach kids’ volleyball?” Jack said. It was one more
thing to add to the already long list of excellent things that
Noah did.
“That’s not what you came to talk to me about.”
“Well, no. I, uh… have you talked to Hayley this
morning? About last night?”
“Not really.” Noah ran a hand through his wet hair. “I
was out late. I slept in, got in the shower, and now you’re
here.”
“Sorry. I should have brought coffee, or something.”
Jack tried not to think about what Noah had been up to the
night before. He wondered if there was anywhere that would
deliver just coffee. He was willing to throw quite a bit of
money at the problem, if that would help. But maybe he
wouldn’t be in the apartment long enough for the coffee to
arrive. Noah was watching him. Waiting.
“Okay, look. I don’t want to get in the way of whatever’s
going on with you and Matt.” He stopped. “Well, that’s
bullshit, I totally want to get in the way of whatever’s going
on with you and Matt, but I won’t. I won’t even fire the
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sneaky little bastard, if you don’t want me to. Although
maybe unemployment could be a bonding opportunity for
you guys, since you’ve inexplicably chosen to quit the job
you sold your sister to keep.” But that was veering off track.
“I just wanted to say… I mean, even if nothing’s going to
come of it, it still seems important that I say it, you know?
Just for my own peace of mind, maybe. Does that make
sense?”
“None of this makes sense. What do you think is going
on with me and Matt?” Noah looked like he wished he’d
stayed in the shower a little longer.
“I don’t know. Hayley said you guys went out last night.
She said you’d been interested in him for a while. I didn’t
even know he was bisexual, to be honest.”
“I don’t think he is.” Noah was squinting, but Jack
wasn’t sure if it was confusion or pain.
“No, I thought about it. I’ve met his girlfriend. I mean, I
guess some gay guys take a while to come out, but he was
definitely dating a female about four months ago.”
“I think he’s still dating her. I didn’t mean he wasn’t into
women. I meant he’s not into men.” Noah sank down onto
the couch, and Jack forced himself not to check if the towel
was riding up in any interesting places. “We didn’t go out,
Jack. We just went for beers. As friends.”
“Oh.” Jack felt like an idiot, but he was willing to accept
that label if it meant that Noah was still available. “Hayley…
Hayley made it sound like a date.”
“Hayley’s insane. She heard me say… something about
one person, and she got it confused with somebody else, I
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think. It’s not really her fault. I was pretty vague about it
all.”
“Wait a second.” Jack didn’t want to get carried away,
but he was beginning to think that his world had just gotten
a lot simpler. “She said that you were interested in some guy
at work. Somebody who dates men and women. She thought
it was Matt, but if it’s not Matt…. Noah—I date men and
women.” He stared at Noah until Noah looked him in the
eyes, and once that happened, everything was clear. Clear,
and wonderful.
But Noah didn’t seem too impressed. “You’re acting like
this is news? You were the one who was all arrogant about
it, with your ‘I would have gotten deep into you’, and all that.
You already knew this!”
Jack felt like doing a little dance, but instead he fell to
his knees in front of the couch, bringing his head to the
same level as Noah’s. “I thought you liked Matt. I didn’t
know… Hayley threw me off.” But Jack couldn’t really be
mad at her. “I had a good time with her last night. I really
like her—she’s excellent. But I couldn’t get into it.” He
smiled, and Noah was still staring him in the eye, so that
seemed good. “I kept thinking about you. I thought….” Jack
wasn’t sure if this was the time to get into the whole
“affection transfer” thing, but he decided he’d offer a slightly
less technical version. “I knew I liked you, but I thought once
I met her, it would go away. But it didn’t. At all.” He took a
deep breath and tried to smile. He couldn’t quite believe how
nervous he was. “If you’re still interested, do you think
maybe we could give it a try? I mean, not necessarily right
now—I get that you’re tired. And unemployed, which we still
need to talk about. But I really think there’s ways to keep
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Hurricane Jack under control. I mean, really, it’s just that
first deal that bugged you, right? And that was when we
barely knew each other. You’ve stood up to me lots of times
since then. You’re a bit pushy, to be honest.” Jack paused
for breath, but not for long enough for Noah to start talking.
Putting off the rejection for as long as possible seemed a bit
cowardly, but Jack was okay with that. “So, if you’re
interested, maybe we could go out for dinner tonight? Or
whenever’s good for you. I guess you want to spend time
with Hayley, right? We could wait until she’s gone….”
And then Noah leaned forward, and Jack stopped
talking. He managed to keep his head still, managed to not
totally mess things up as Noah’s lips found his. The kiss
wasn’t deep, but it was real, and sweet, and Jack thought it
might be all he ever needed, just kneeling there with Noah,
sharing each other’s breath, getting to know each other’s
mouths. Then Noah leaned forward a little further and
brought his hand up to the back of Jack’s head, pushing
forward, deepening the kiss, and Jack knew that he wanted
more. He wanted everything Noah had to offer.
There was a sound from the bedroom, maybe something
being dragged across the floor, and Noah pulled back. Jack
reluctantly let him go.
“What is she doing in there?” Noah asked.
Jack fought for coherence. “Maybe she’s rearranging the
furniture to make room to practice her martial arts.” Jack
made sure that his raised eyebrow was clearly visible.
Noah looked surprised, then grinned. “I have no idea
why I made that up.”
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“Maybe your compulsive lying is leftover trauma from
your childhood bed-wetting issues.”
Noah’s head jerked away. “Oh my God, she told you
that? We’ve already established that she gets stuff confused,
right?”
“Okay. Whatever you say.”
“She’s a liar.”
“Hey, Noah?”
“Yeah?”
“Kiss me again, and I’ll forget all about it. I promise.” So
Noah kissed him, and true to his word, Jack forgot about
everything, everything that wasn’t their mouths, and their
hands, and Jesus Christ, this was getting way too involved
for the setting. “Okay, time out,” Jack gasped, and he pulled
away reluctantly. “Your sister is trapped in your bedroom.
There’s a limit to how far we should be going, here.”
Noah nodded reluctantly. “Shit. Yeah. And we do need
to work some stuff out. I quit because—okay, mostly I quit
because I really didn’t think I could handle working with you
every day, knowing that you were falling in love with
someone else. But I really didn’t like it that I made that deal
with you. We need to….” He frowned. “Your business stuff is
your business. I can accept that. But if we’re going to be
spending time together….” And it was hard to pay attention
to the words he was saying when he was giving that shy
smile, but Jack managed. “In our personal lives, I think I
need things a little less free-wheeling. A little more
conservative.”
Jack nodded. “Yeah. Okay. I can work with that.”
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“It might not be simple….” He looked at Jack, and a
beautiful smile blossomed on his face. “But we’ve got lots of
time. Right?”
Jack nodded. “We’ve got as much time as you’ll give me,
Noah.”
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Epilogue
“
H
EY
, Noah?”
“Go away, Jack. I’m asleep.” Noah was snuggled into his
pillow with the comforter pulled up almost over his head.
“You’re not. You’re just lying there, even though you
know I want you to wake up. You’re not a kind person,
really.” Jack leaned down and kissed the top of Noah’s head.
“Have you made coffee yet?”
“I’ve made coffee, drunk it, and made more, made
breakfast but not eaten it because I want to share it with
you, checked the Internet in case something big happened
overnight, and I re-wrapped two of your presents. Not
because there was anything wrong with the original
wrapping, but because I had nothing to do. I think I actually
made them look a little worse.” Jack eased the comforter
down, gently, slowly, until Noah’s bare shoulder was
exposed. It got a kiss, and then a little nip.
“Jesus, Jack. I love you, but I can’t believe how
obnoxious you are in the morning.”
“As if you’re awake enough to know what I’m like most
mornings. I’m out the door an hour before your lazy ass is
out of bed.”
“Yeah, most mornings work really well.”
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“But this is Christmas, Noah. And I’ve been awake for
hours, and we have to pick up my dad in three hours if we’re
going to get to your parents’ place on time.” The comforter
was a little lower now, and Jack kissed down the ridge of
Noah’s spine.
“They just said ‘early afternoon’. That’s flexible. Go
away.”
“Hey, Noah?”
“Oh my God, Jack, I’m asleep!”
Jack was a little hurt. Noah was obviously not asleep,
but he was just as obviously not interested in sharing their
first Christmas morning together, at least not yet. But Jack
could be the bigger man, here. He lifted the comforter back
up, tucked it in under Noah’s chin, and kissed the top of
Noah’s head. “Okay. Sorry.”
He was halfway to the bedroom door when Noah
groaned dramatically and threw the comforter off his body.
“Aaargh! I’m such an asshole. I’m sorry, Jack. I’m just….”
“Sleepy?” Jack suggested when Noah trailed off.
“Not really.” Noah sat up cross-legged, the comforter
spread across his lap, and Jack peered around until he saw
the plaid of Noah’s pajama pants, confirming that they’d
been pulled back on at some point the night before. But
apparently there was something more than sex to think
about, so he tried to bring his mind back to Noah’s issue,
whatever it was.
“You’re not really sleepy?” he prompted.
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“I’m kind of hiding, I think.” Noah made a face. “The
meeting-the-family thing—you’re not freaked out about it?”
“You’ve met my dad lots of times, Noah.” Oh. “But I
haven’t met your family.” Jack went over and perched on the
edge of the bed. He didn’t think he wanted to touch Noah,
not right now, but he didn’t want to be standing up, either;
standing up made it too easy to walk away. “You aren’t sure
you want me to meet your parents.”
Noah looked miserable. “No, I do. I just… it won’t just be
my parents. It’s aunts and uncles and cousins and
grandparents. It’s a big scene, really.”
Jack nodded slowly, and tried to ignore the roiling
tension in his stomach. “It’s pretty early. I mean, we’ve only
been going out for a few months. We’ve moved really fast.”
He stood up, and that was probably a mistake, because the
way he was moving made his agitation pretty clear, but
maybe it was okay to let Noah see that. “It’s fine. It’s not a
big deal.” He tried not to think about his father, fussing and
worrying about finding the perfect gifts for Noah’s parents.
“We can do it next year. Or at a less stressful time. We could
just have dinner in the New Year, if you want, just you and
me and your parents. Or not at all. Seriously, it’s your call.”
He turned toward the bed. “It’s not like it’s my idea of a good
time, Noah. Hanging out with a bunch of people I don’t
know, trying to make conversation, sitting around and
watching overexcited kids melt down because they didn’t get
the exact toy they wanted.” He tried to calm himself down.
“My dad and I have some good traditions. I can hang out
with him today, and you can go see your people, and we can
do presents with each other tonight. It’s fine. Go back to
sleep—you’ve got loads of time.”
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Jack watched Noah’s face as it shifted from confusion to
what really looked like tenderness. “Oh, God, Jack. I’m not
worried about you. I mean, I’m not worried that they won’t
like you, or that it’s too early for us to be doing this, or…
whatever. None of that.” He worked his way out of his
comforter nest and stood up, walking quickly over to where
Jack was trying not to pace. He brought both of his hands
up to cradle Jack’s head in a way that always made Jack feel
safe and loved, and kissed him gently. “I’m worried about
them. You’re… Jack Lawson, for God’s sake. You’re the big-
time near-billionaire, with your luxury apartment and your
fancy cars and powerful friends. My family… they’re not
normal people, Jack.”
The tension huffed out of Jack as he laughed.
“Seriously? Come on, Noah. This is Cartwright territory we’re
going to. You really think I’m going to feel better than your
family?”
“My aunt smells like cabbage. I have no idea what it is. I
used to stay over at her house when I was little, and she’d
get out of the shower, fresh and clean, and she’d still smell
like cabbage. Hayley and I went through all her toiletries to
see if it was something she was putting on, but it wasn’t.”
Noah shook his head in bewilderment. “It’s just her. They
don’t even eat cabbage.”
Jack grinned and eased Noah around until the bed was
at the back of his knees. “Make sure to warn my dad. He’s
worse than I am for inappropriately honest comments.” He
kissed Noah and pushed him backward, easing him down
onto the bed.
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“Two of my cousins chew with their mouths open, and
they talk with their mouths full. If you’re not seeing their
food in their mouths, you’re feeling it as it sprays out toward
you.” Noah still didn’t seem totally calm, but Jack hovered
over him, his lips and tongue tracing all over Noah’s neck
and chest and down over his stomach, and Noah wasn’t
resisting at all.
“And my uncle is unemployed,” Noah started to say, and
Jack tore himself away from Noah’s skin for long enough to
look up and grin.
“Did he quit a perfectly good job because he was too in
love with the guy he had to work with there? ’Cause I bet
that would be embarrassing, especially if he had to go in the
day right after he quit and beg for his job back.”
“I think your mouth was better employed a little earlier,”
Noah said primly, and he guided Jack back to where his
teeth had been nibbling at the waistband of Noah’s pajama
pants. “And, no, that’s not what happened. He can’t keep a
job, and he always blames other people for it, and gets really
aggressive. He’ll probably hit you up for work.” Noah raised
his hips to allow Jack to ease his pants down. “Or cash,” he
added, and there was a little gasp on the last word as Jack’s
mouth found its target.
“And quite a few of them drink too much,” Noah
continued, but his voice was different, now, as if he was
fighting to keep track of his worries instead of having them
pour out of him unbidden. “These are just the predictable
ways for them to embarrass me. They’re pretty good at
finding new ways, as well.” His hands were already gripping
the sheets on either side of his hips, and Jack knew it
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wouldn’t take much longer. When Noah was tense, his entire
body was on a hair trigger, including his cock.
“My grandpa still thinks I’m just going through a phase,
with being gay,” he managed, but then he gave up on even
trying to be coherent, and Jack knew that he had won. But
that didn’t mean he wasn’t still going to put in a strong
effort, and he focused on his task, adding all the little tricks
and twists that he’d learned made Noah happy.
“Jack,” Noah moaned, and his body arched up as he
came, and it was the sweetest sound Jack could think of, his
name coming unbidden from Noah’s mouth, driven by
ecstasy.
He savored the victory, then slid his way up Noah’s body
until they could kiss. Noah was relaxed, now, his lips curling
into an easy smile when Jack said, “Hey, Noah?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you, Noah. There is literally nothing your family
can do to change that. Nothing.”
“Yeah. I know that. You know, in my head. I just get a
little tense sometimes.”
“I think we’ve found a pretty good solution to that, don’t
you?”
“It’s okay, I guess.” Noah’s smile almost interfered with
their kissing, and Jack pulled his head away.
“You’re damned right it’s okay. So if you’re feeling
better, do you want to have some breakfast? And maybe
open a couple presents? I’m telling you, if you go back to
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sleep, I will start unwrapping and rewrapping every present
in the house. I won’t be responsible for my actions.”
“Well, I guess I can help you out with that,” Noah said.
They shared one more kiss, and then they stood up and
went out to the living room to open the presents under the
tree and face the day together.
K
ATE
S
HERWOOD
started writing at about the same time
that she got back on a horse after a twenty-year break. She’d
like to think that she’s far too young for it to be a midlife
crisis, but apparently she was ready for a few changes!
Her writing focuses on characters and relationships, people
trying to find out how much of themselves they need to keep,
and how much they can afford to give away. Kate finds that
real-life monogamy is much easier to maintain when she gets
to spend time with so many different men in her stories.
More Than Chemistry ©Copyright Kate Sherwood, 2012
Published by
Dreamspinner Press
382 NE 191st Street #88329
Miami, FL 33179-3899, USA
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the
authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead,
business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover Art by Catt Ford
This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is
illegal and a violation of International Copyright Law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon
conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. This eBook cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No
part of this eBook can be shared or reproduced without the express permission of the Publisher. To
request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press at: 382 NE 191st Street
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http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/
Released in the United States of America
February 2012
eBook Edition
eBook ISBN: 978-1-61372-380-7
