A Holiday Temptation - Tiffany Patterson Page 0,25

I wanted Jackie, and she was in the wind.

Later that evening, I found out why. She wasn’t coming back. Now, sixteen years later, she’s back in my orbit, and my stupid fucking eyes can’t stop following her.

“That’s the correct amount, isn’t it, Mark?”

Blinking, I look up to see the accountant, Nolan, peering at me over his dark-rimmed glasses. He’s sitting next to Jackie.

“What was that?”

“The estimates for the upgrades are about this, correct?” He points his pen at a number on the paper he holds for me to see.

I quickly run the numbers in my head and nod. “It’s a few thousand off, but it’s about right.”

Nolan’s eyebrows lift. “Whoa, you ran those that quickly? You should’ve considered taking up accounting.”

“Mark’s always been good with numbers,” Jackie adds.

That stupid, tingling thing that’s been happening the past few weeks occurs in my chest again. Funnily, it only happens when she’s around, particularly when she flashes her smile at me, which she’s doing at the moment. I’ve done my absolute best to ignore the feeling, but, like those damn fruit flies in summer, it just keeps showing up.

“Science was never my forté.”

She snickers. “No, it wasn’t.”

Nolan looks between us. “Did you two know each other?”

I peer at Jackie while answering. “We went to high school together.” That’s the basic explanation of how we know each other. The buzz of the conversations going on around me reminds me that we’re at work—no need to get into our history with these people.

“Yeah, so, Nolan, how is the report coming along for the numbers regarding the insurance claims?” I question, changing topics.

“Chris,” he calls from across the room, waving another one of the accountants over.

We soon delve into the conversation on Cypress’ history of insurance claims, in particular claims that have to do with the government’s nationalized Medicare system. That’s enough to get us to forget about Jackie’s and my relationship from years ago and down to business mode again.

“That’s going to be a big deal, isn’t it?” Jackie inquires about three hours later, as I’m shutting off the light.

“What?” I ask, closing the boardroom door behind me. We’re the last two to leave the office, and it’s approaching five o’clock on a Saturday.

“The Medicare thing? It doesn’t look good for Cypress.”

Sighing, I run my hand through my hair, stopping my chair at my desk at the front of the top floor’s lobby.

“It’s going to be a problem. The numbers looked inflated to me, but I’m no accountant.”

“But you’re still good enough with numbers to impress one of Cypress’ top accountants. Do the numbers make sense to you?”

I shake my head, hating that doing so increases the worried look in Jackie’s eyes.

“Didn’t think so.”

“I’ll have to speak with Aaron on Monday when I update him on what we found.”

“Could this push back the deal?”

I shake my head. “There’s no pushing back. Either it gets solidified by New Year’s for the announcement, or we move on.”

Her shoulders slump. I allow my gaze to trail down the length of her body as she stands before me with her hip propped against my desk, arms folded.

She’s tucked her hair back in a tight bun, which allows her high cheekbones to show through. Even though her mocha skin shines, I can tell she’s not wearing any makeup, save for a nude gloss on her lips. Those dark brown colored eyes of hers don’t bother trying to hide the apprehension she feels at the news around this Medicare issue.

It’s a Saturday, so everyone dressed casually to come into the office. The dark blue jeans she’s wearing states as much, but whereas most of the men matched their jeans with sneakers or some sort of casual show, Jackie is sporting another pair of black high heels. Same as she does Monday through Friday. Not even the Devil himself could lie about how damn good she looks in those jeans.

“Are you hungry?” I ask, needing to pull myself out of a daze.

“I think I’m too disappointed to eat. The ending of this deal would be a huge loss for Cypress and would assuredly put most of my colleagues out of a job.”

“Hey, no one’s pulling out of anything yet. We simply need to give a second or third look at the numbers. There are likely some workarounds that we can look into. I’d bet my ass on it.”

Her head perks up. “You think so?”

I nod. “Aaron has invested too much time into this project to let it fall through his hands. Besides,