Blue-Eyed Devil (Travis Family #2)(65)

"Look through your notes, then. You did make notes, didn't you?"

"Yes, but they were in my briefcase . . . and everything in it was trashed. I'll call Kelly and try to reconstruct the meeting as well as I can, but — "

"Honestly, Haven, couldn't you have managed to hold on to your briefcase?" She gave me a look of gentle chiding. "Did you have to go into a panic and drop everything?"

"Vanessa," I said cautiously, "the leak in the elevator was more than just a puddle on the floor." Clearly she didn't understand what had happened, but the last thing you could tell Vanessa was that she didn't understand something.

She rolled her eyes and smiled as if I were a child telling stories. "With your flair for drama, there's no telling what really happened."

"Hey." A rich, easy voice interrupted us. Jack. He came to the cubicle, and Vanessa turned to face him. Her slim fingers gracefully tucked a lock of pale, perfect hair behind her ear. "Hello, Jack."

"Hello, yourself." He came in, surveyed me thoroughly, and reached out to pull me against his chest in a brief hug. I stiffened a little. "Yeah, I don't give a shit that you don't like to be touched," Jack said, continuing to hug me. "You scared the life out of me last night. I stopped by your apartment a couple of minutes ago, and there was no answer. What are you doing here?"

"I work here," I said with a crooked grin.

"Not today. You're taking the day off."

"I don't need to do that," I protested, conscious of Vanessa's stony gaze.

Jack finally let go of me. "Yes you do. Relax. Take a nap. And make sure to call Gage, Joe, Dad, and Todd . . . they all want to talk to you. No one called you at home in case you were sleeping."

I made a face. "Am I going to have to repeat the whole story four times?"

"'Fraid so."

"Jack," Vanessa broke in sweetly, "I don't think it's necessary to make Haven take a day off. We'll take good care of her. And it might help to take her mind off the trauma of getting stuck on that elevator."

Jack gave her a strange look. "It was more than being stuck on an elevator," he told her. "My sister was trapped like a minnow in a bait bucket. I talked to the guy who pulled her out last night. He said the elevator cab was nearly full of water, and completely dark. And he didn't know any other woman who would have handled it as well as Haven did."

Hardy had said that about me? I was pleased and flattered . . . and I was also fascinated by the quick, subtle contortions that worked across Vanessa's face.

"Well, of course you should take the day off," she exclaimed, startling me by putting an arm around my shoulders. "I had no idea it was that bad, Haven. You should have told me." She gave me an affectionate squeeze. The dry, expensive scent of her perfume, and the feel of her arm around me, caused my skin to crawl. "You poor thing. Go home and rest. Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Thanks, but no," I said, inching away from her. "Really, I'm okay. And I want to stay."

Jack looked down at me fondly. "Get going, sweetheart. You're taking the day off."

"I have a ton of stuff to do," I told him.

"I don't give a crap. It'll all be here tomorrow. Right, Vanessa?"

"Right," she said cheerfully. "Believe me, it will be no problem to cover for Haven." She patted my back. "Take care, sweetie. Call me if you need anything."

Her high heels left deep, pointy gouges in the office carpeting as she left.

"I really should stay," I told Jack.

His expression was intractable. "Go visit Dad," he said. "He wants to see you. And it wouldn't hurt either of you to try to talk like a couple of civilized people for a change."

I heaved a sigh and picked up my purse. "Sure. I haven't had enough excitement in the past couple of days."

Sliding his hands in his pockets, Jack watched me with a narrowed gaze. His voice lowered. "Hey . . . Did Cates make a move on you last night?"

"Are you asking as a brother or a friend?"

He had to think about that. "Friend, I guess."

"All right." I continued in the softest possible whisper. "I made a move on him, and he turned me down. He said he didn't want to take advantage of me."

Jack blinked. "What do you know."

"He was really high-handed about it," I said, turning grumpy. "And that whole 'I'm the man, I get to decide' attitude doesn't play with me."

"Haven, he's a Texan. We're not generally known for our sensitivity and tact. You want a guy like that, go find yourself a metrosexual. I hear there's a lot of 'em in Austin."

A reluctant grin broke through my indignation. "I'm not sure you even know what a metrosexual is, Jack."

"I know I'm not one of 'em." He smiled and sat on the corner of my desk. "Haven, everyone knows I got no love lost for Hardy Cates. But I have to take up for him on this one. He did the right thing."

"How can you defend him?"

His black eyes sparkled. "Women," he said. "You get mad when a man makes a move on you, and you get even madder when he doesn't. I swear, there's no winning."