I noticed it the first time we met, sure. But sometimes when you met someone for the first time, it was hard not to look at them that way. He was sizing me up, obviously. Wrapping his head around this pushy stranger who’d just appeared in his home for the first time. I mean, I figured that to him I probably seemed pushy. Putting a note on his cat and all, and peppering him with questions in his living room.
But this was no longer the first time we’d sat here like this. And he was still looking at me that way. Like I was exotic and strange. And interesting. And he was trying to make sense of me.
Was I looking at him that way, too?
The doorbell rang through the house. It wasn’t loud, but you could definitely hear it in this room. He made no move to get up, though. He just kept staring at me.
“Would you like me to get that for you?” I offered.
“It’s just Rose. My housekeeper. She has a key.”
“Oh. Okay.”
It was odd how relieved I felt to hear that. That there would soon be another person in the house, so the two of us wouldn’t be totally alone. Another person to interrupt this strange tension.
On the other hand… I was kind of wondering how hot this Rose woman was.
I was starting to wonder if Cary Clarke had a thing for hiring women he was attracted to. Because he was definitely looking at me like that.
You know, like he liked my face.
He wasn’t checking me out, exactly. I hadn’t even seen him look directly at my chest or anything. It didn’t feel creepy.
It just felt like he liked my face.
I swallowed and cleared my throat a little in the awkward silence. We seemed to be waiting wordlessly for Rose to appear.
Finally, she poked her head into the room. “Oh! Good morning, Cary.” She looked utterly stunned to find him in here. Rose, to my relief, appeared to be in her sixties and highly unlikely to have been hired for the eye candy she provided. She also appeared to be the sweetest lady in the world. She smiled at me as I got to my feet.
“Hey, Rose,” Cary said. He was still looking at me, and he didn’t get up. “This is Taylor. She’s my new assistant. You’ll be seeing her around.”
Rose was still smiling at me, eyes and all. “Nice to meet you, Taylor.”
“You, too.”
“Rose is here on Tuesdays,” Cary informed me.
“How nice,” I said, because I didn’t know what else to say. I wondered what this woman knew about him. What kinds of things she saw, working in his house.
“I’ll put the groceries away,” she told him. “And then I’ll clean the studio now?”
“Sure. Thanks.”
I noticed he wasn’t as bossy with her as he was with me.
She smiled at me again, nodded, and ducked back out.
I sat down again. “She seems very nice,” I said. And then, because maybe I was fishing for something, I added, “You hire good people.”
“Yes, I do.”
“I’ll try not to let that go to my head.”
He didn’t smile. “The quality of the people in my life is really important to me, Taylor.”
“Of course.”
“I’m not used to having an assistant and I don’t know exactly how this will roll. So, I’ll want you here full-time.”
Huh. Definitely not what his sister said he’d want.
How had she put it?
You can work with him part-time, or whenever he needs you.
He won’t want you there all the time anyway.
“When would you like me to start? I can start today, if you need me.”
“I don’t need anything,” he said, his eyes never leaving mine. “Except a few days to get a contract together. And a Non-Disclosure Agreement that you’ll have to sign. If that’s a problem, you need to tell me now.”
“I hear you,” I said, digging my card out of my purse and handing it to him. “I’m totally fine with the NDA. I’ve had to sign them before. You can just have everything emailed to me when it’s ready. And full-time works for me.”
“Good.” He held the card between two fingers for a moment, studying it, before placing it on the coffee table. He leaned on his knees, locking eyes with me. “I’m used to working alone. I collaborate with other people, but I do it remotely. I’m not used to delegating. But if you’re willing to figure this out with me,