Head over Heels: A Single Dad Romance
Mia Madison
Chapter 1
“I am so screwed.”
I dropped my phone onto the desk and all but collapsed on top of it. With my head resting on the cool surface and my long blonde hair forming a protective curtain around me, I tried to process the last few minutes. After all that plotting and planning, scrimping and saving - all my hard work was going to be for nothing. I was so screwed.
"Hey, Devon!" My office mate Mimi breezed through the door with an armful of blueprints and dropped them on our conjoined desks. The rolled up paper bounced around like mallets on a conga drum, and I automatically put up my hands to protect my head from the onslaught. I managed to bat away one persistent tube only to be bonked in the shoulder by two others.
"This is a sign," I groaned, "the universe is beating me into submission for my abject failure." I couldn't believe this was happening. I thought everything was just fine, but I guess I should have been more on top of it. After all, this was my life… well, my future.
"I am well and truly screwed," I whispered.
Mimi, still preoccupied with gathering up the wayward rolls and completely ignoring my obvious distress, grunted out, "Dev, did you say something?"
I lifted my head and shouted as clearly as I could, "I SAID, I'M SCREWED."
"Yeah, aren't we all," Mimi absentmindedly twisted her engagement ring with the pad of her thumb. It was a nervous tick that I had seen off and on over the years and noticed a dramatic uptick recently. Mimi sighed and stretched over the desk to grab yet another roll before it disappeared over the edge - and that's when I saw him.
Michael Saunders.
Sitting in the Rainier Brothers Architectural firm's conference room, leaning back for a better view of my rant was was the most panty-melting gorgeous man I had ever laid eyes on. He was staring at me - well, not so much staring as laughing - well, not so much laughing as trying not to laugh. At me.
Fuck my life.
He caught my eye - or maybe I caught his - at that point it didn't matter. I know I should have looked away, he was a co-worker of sorts. Well, a co-worker who owned Saunders and Sons Construction and was regarded as the most sought after construction manager in the area.
He was also the kind of co-worker that made you forget your name and trip over simple sentences. I had been on a number of projects with him during my internship and I would say we were friendly, but certainly not friends. I mean, look at me, and then look at him. He was older for starters, which wasn't a deal breaker but certainly put a crimp in things. He had the height, the looks, and his body… oh my gawd his body. Enough muscles that he could hold you tight, but not so overdone that he couldn't pick you up and throw you on the bed.
How do you look away from that? I could tell a blush was creeping up my cheeks, but I couldn't stop. I tried to smile, but I swear it came out like a grimace.
He smiled his patented sultry smile, turned up at the corners with a glint in his brown eyes. It was guaranteed to make every woman in the office swoon.
I don't know what came over me, but I picked up a pencil to run along my lower lip - I saw it in a movie once and spent hours practicing the move just for a moment like this. The pencil whipped out of my hand, flew across the room, and hit the wall.
He relaxed back in his chair, clasped his hands above his head, and chuckled lightly. His starched shirt stained against his waistband, and I swear if only he would lean back a little more it would break free and show me his happy trail.
Oh, how I would love to take a trip down his happy trail. Just the thought made me drool.
I could see the senior partners trying to get his attention, but he never budged - he just kept staring at me.
Wow.
All I could think of was what I would do with him if I had him. In my arms, in my bed… I swear, the heat between my legs ratcheted up a notch.
A moment later the conference room door slammed shut - cutting off my view and snapping me out of my fantasy. My perfect view of Mr. Saunders was replaced with Abigail, my boss's assistant. She was standing tall with her long arms crossed across her chest and a deep scowl clouding her face. With a flip of her head, she turned on her heel and stalked back to her office.
I blinked a few times at the closed door and wondered how much she had seen and - more importantly - how long it would take before for my lustful ogling became water cooler gossip. It was like I could feel a change in the air and my humiliation was rolling in like a summer storm. My day was already shit and I could tell it was going to get a whole lot worse.
I had to get out of there. I needed something - anything - to change the trajectory of my day. "You know what I need Mimi?" I looked over at my friend and saw she had opened up one of the tubes and was peering inside. "I need copious amounts of alcohol followed by a very large pizza and a Ben & Jerry's chaser."
Mimi grunted and absentmindedly nodded her head. I wasn't even sure she heard me.
"Yeah," I announced and reached for my pocketbook, "that's exactly what I need."
I looked over at Mimi as she pawed through the remaining tubes looking for something in particular.
"Mimi, grab your stuff," I commanded as I grabbed my coat, "we're going to Smitty's Pub." It wasn't anywhere near 5:00 pm when I waltzed out the door and into the lobby, and as I glanced over my shoulder I could see Mimi slack-jawed and bug-eyed as she grabbed her coat. On a normal day that would have elicited at least a chuckle, but today I had other things on my mind. The first was to get liquored up and the second was to come up with a plan to turn my life around.