An Irresistible Bachelor(14)

As she measured his expression, she realized he was totally prepared to walk away and that eased some of her concern.

She took a deep breath. "Where should I meet you in Boston?"

Showing no particular reaction, he walked over to a desk.

"My house is in Wellesley. We live on Cliff Road." He bent down and wrote something with a gold pen. "That's the address and phone number. I'll make a point to be there by five on Tuesday."

He handed her the paper and she squinted at the wide scrawl. His handwriting was barely legible.

"Is this a nine?" she asked, surprised at how sloppy it was.

He nodded and smiled. "My penmanship has always been awful. It was one of many things my father never liked about me. A therapist would probably tell you my enduring carelessness is a passive-aggressive expression of independence targeted at a dead man. But I reject that theory out of hand."

She couldn't help it. The corners of her mouth lifted.

"You don't smile very often, do you?" he said softly.

Callie folded her napkin and stood up, clearing her throat. "Thank you for this opportunity."

Walker extended his hand to her and looked darkly amused as she just stared at it. When she finally stuck her hand out, his fingers wrapped around hers and she felt a surge of warmth shoot up her arm. She pulled back quickly and went over to pick up her coat.

He frowned as he looked at it.

"May I help you with that," he murmured.

She shook her head, draped it over her arm, and headed for the door.

"Callie?"

She halted and looked over her shoulder.

Jack Walker stared at her for a long time, his eyes lingering on her hair and then moving downward. She shifted her coat so it blocked his view of her body, feeling as though she was being measured against something. She wondered what the standard was.

When he said nothing, she got antsy. "Good-bye, Mr. Walker."

"Jack. Call me Jack."

She didn't bother replying and left his suite quickly.

As she rode down in the elevator, her body shaking and her head in a fog, she had to remind herself that she'd survived a hell of a lot worse than the job offer of a lifetime. Just because her new boss was capable of melting paint off a wall with those hazel eyes of his didn't mean she should be overwhelmed.

She just had to be strong.

And, fortunately, she'd spent a lifetime in training for that.

Jack stared at the door.

She was really quite attractive. He'd never bought that whole passionate redhead cliché, but there was a real fire in her. He loved how she stood up to him and the fact that she fought harder whenever she was especially uncomfortable.

Was she with someone? She didn't wear a wedding ring, but maybe there was a boyfriend in the picture.

He frowned, thinking that shouldn't be relevant.

The phone rang and he answered it. Grayson Bennett, his college roommate, was on the line.

"I've cleared my calendar," Gray said. "I'm ready to spend the next month or so assessing your candidacy in Boston."

"Excellent. "What's the first order of business?"

"We're going to set up your exploratory committee. We'll pull together ten or twelve people from different sectors in the state and do a quiet assessment of the landscape. We need to know who will back you and who's going to be trouble, what kind of money we can raise, how you're perceived. Should take four or five weeks."

"When are you coming in?"

"Tomorrow night. I'm staying at the Four Seasons."

"You bringing female company?" As a resounding no came over the line, Jack laughed. "No more—what was her name? Sarah?"

"Sophia. No, she's gone. She was starting to talk rings and as you know, I'm allergic to diamonds. She's a good woman—for someone else."


After they hung up, Jack headed for the bedroom to finish getting dressed. For a long time, he and Gray had shared the same view of marriage, namely that it was right for other people. But hell, if he could change his mind, so could Gray.

Just not when it came to Sophia, evidently.

The grandfather clock in the corner started to chime and Jack hurried up.

In a few minutes, he was going to meet with two brothers, one a physician and the other an engineer. Bryan and Kevin McKay had devised a new, faster, and cleaner way of processing blood products like plasma and platelets. They had the proper patents so the intellectual property rights were sewn up, and with some good contracts with a few hospitals, they had an income stream. Currently housed in a small shop on the West Coast, they wanted to expand and they needed some big money. If they had the right mix of debt to equity and some reasonable growth projections, Jack figured there was a potential to make some money.