Taylor was trying to figure out how she ended up sitting across from Reed Chapman at a pub downtown while they shared pretzels and cheese sauce.
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been out to eat with anyone—man or woman. She should probably try to take Angie out at some point, but she wasn’t sure she had the patience for it, and frankly, money had just been too tight before now.
The legal fees and then the move had drained everything she had to make the relocation here. Angie had to come first and even though Jack was paying her almost the equivalent of what her salary was in child support, it still didn’t go far in the state of New York.
She refused to live in an apartment with a child, so renting a home hadn’t come cheap, but it was so worth it. They had privacy and she could make it their own.
Daycare costs were crazy high, but it’s not like Taylor had much of a choice there either. She wasn’t about to ask Jack’s parents to watch Angie at all, even though Karen had never worked a day in her life and had hinted toward wanting it.
They had enough influence on her daughter’s life; she’d be damned if they were going to have even more on Angie’s life than Taylor had.
Angie was her daughter and she was going to make sure it stayed that way.
She could play nice. She could be accommodating since she didn’t have much of a choice with her back against the wall. But she was raising her kid the way she wanted.
“So what do you like about this area?” Reed asked her.
“Not much,” Taylor said. “Well, I like that it’s not so hot. But like I said, I could do without the snow.”
“You moved here mid-February, right?” Reed asked.
“Yeah. I was here a few weeks before I started working. I’ve been told February is the worst month of the year for cold and snow.” She was already dreading next winter, but she’d be better prepared for it.
“So what brought you here if you hate the cold so much?”
She wasn’t about to let him know about her situation or her daughter. No one at work knew she had a child and no one needed to know. All they had to know was that she showed up for work each day, did her job, and went home.
“I just needed a change,” she said.
He tilted his head like he didn’t believe her, but didn’t argue either. She was happy with that. “What about you? What brought you out drinking last night?” she asked. He was getting personal, she figured why not do the same?
He laughed at her and ran his hand through his thick hair. The scruff of beard on his face not detracting from his looks at all. If she were interested in finding anything attractive about him.
Well, that was a lie. Just because she had no interest in a relationship, didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate the rugged handsomeness of her boss in front of her. His sexy build that came from hard work and not machinery in a gym.
Jack was more a yuppie than anything. He wore his three-hundred-dollar jeans—she hadn’t even known they cost that much until he rubbed her face in it when she said she was pregnant—and five-hundred-dollar sunglasses as easily as she did her clothing from Target.
She wasn’t fancy and never would be, but she was attractive and liked to have fun. She’d made a mistake and she would forever be paying for that night she ran into him in a club with her friends.
Too much to drink and a sweet-talking guy got her number. They’d dated for a month while he was down there working on assignment. Or so he said. What he was really doing was taking a break from real work and partying in the guise of “closing a deal.”
She’d been too stupid to ask too many questions about his job. He’d said he had meetings with people and clients and she’d believed it. She’d seen his phone ringing more often than not, but then again, during the day she was working herself and had no reason to believe he wasn’t.
The minute she said she was pregnant, he turned into another person, said his assignment was up for work and flew back to New York without so much as a goodbye.
She used every bit of her savings to fight for child support and she got it. Lawyer or not, he was stuck on that front unless he wanted joint custody, which he didn’t. Thankfully.
Until his parents got involved and that was when everything changed in her life.
“This looks like a big change to me,” Reed said, avoiding her question.
She nodded her head and decided to change the subject. “So what fun stuff is there to do around here other than clubbing, which I’m not in to?” Never again, she vowed.
“All I pretty much do is work or grab a drink. And no, I’m not an alcoholic,” he said, laughing.
She hadn’t heard that he was, but she had heard he was a workaholic. After what Wendy had told her about Reed and his fiancée, she supposed he had reason to want to just drink and work all the time.
She could relate, that was for sure. The funny thing was, Reed might be the first man she’d come in contact with that she’d given her spiel to that didn’t go running in the opposite direction calling her a cold-hearted bitch the entire time.
***
Reed was trying to get a read on Taylor and so far he wasn’t very successful. She was hiding something, he was positive, but the question was—what?
Since she agreed to lunch, he figured it gave him a little bit of a license to probe some more. After all, she pretty much shoved it in his face that she wasn’t interested in him as a man, so why not lead with that?
“So you’ve had a bad experience with a man?” he asked.
She knitted her brows together, then looked around the pub as if she was trying to gather her thoughts. “What makes you say that?”
“You all but pushed it down my throat that you had no interest in me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying every woman I come across wants to jump me, but a fair share do and I don’t normally get told the little speech you seem to have memorized.”
She snorted. “I think most women have had a bad experience a time or two.”
“So because of that you’ve got no respect for a man?” he asked, pushing just a bit more. He had no idea why since it wasn’t as if he was looking for any relationship from anyone. The hot woman sitting across from him included. There was just something about her that relaxed him enough to verbalize what was really on his mind. And he liked her as a person, which wasn’t something he’d been able to say about another woman in years.
She narrowed her eyes. “Well now. I’d have to say you’ve got no respect for women based on your comment with them wanting to jump your bones.”
He laughed. “First off, I said not all want to and even those that do, not everyone does. And I said jump me, not my bones. There is a bit of a difference.”
“If you say so.”
He waited a second and finally said, “You know about my history, don’t you? I’m sure someone told you in the office.”
She had the grace to flush. “Yeah.”
“Then maybe we have something in common.”
“I doubt it,” she said, but he didn’t believe it completely.
“Maybe not to the extent of me, but close enough.” And because he’d never had a female friend before in his life, he wondered what it would hurt to have one now. It wasn’t as if she was jumping across the table wanting more from him. “So why not help each other out?” he asked.
“How?” she asked, looking skeptical.
“Neither one of us wants a relationship. How about friends? I can help you out with what a man wants or is looking for and you can do the same. Maybe be each other’s wingman so we can navigate a good time with no strings when we’re out?”
“You’re nuts,” she said laughing. “I don’t need a wingman and I know very well what most men want.”
He lifted his soda and saluted her with it. “Then how about helping me out?”
“By doing what? I’ve got a life and don’t plan on going barhopping with you and telling you which woman wants to just sleep with you and which one wants a relationship.”
“I don’t mean that way. I mean how about being my go-to when I’m asked to appear at functions? Maybe I don’t want women hitting on me all the time. If I show up with someone, then I’ll be left alone.”
“I’m sure you can find any number of women to do that. And how often are you asked to go places?”
“More than you realize. On top of that, I get a lot of pressure from my family to settle down and move on. Not interested in it.” His parents’ overbearing ways were getting to him worse than his sister, Rachel.
She shook her head. “You want me to be a fake girlfriend for you? Now I know you’re crazy. And I’m crazy for even agreeing to this lunch.”
She went to stand up, but he stopped her. “Fine. How about we’re just friends and maybe I can beg you to accompany me somewhere if I need it. Maybe I don’t always want to take a woman who wants me to take her to bed at the end of the night.”
“That is another crazy thing you’ve said.”
She was grinning this time, but it was true. He didn’t want a relationship, but he didn’t like being used all that much either. When everything was finally exposed about Whitney’s death…being used for her personal gain might have been the biggest blow.
Did he find a woman to get through the night at times? Sure, he did. But he was upfront with it and he didn’t do it as often as people accused him of. The problem was, most of those women still had their sights on him for more.
“Believe what you want,” he said, “but I’m telling you, I’m not like the rumors you’ve heard.”