Breathless, she pushed through the doors of the café. Mark pulled her into his side with a one-armed hug and kissed the top of her head. “Hey, Kiddo, been doing some jogging?”
Kiddo? He finally gave her a nickname and it was Kiddo? “Hi, Mark.” She reached up and kissed his cheek. “It’s so nice to see you in real life again.”
“You mean as opposed to office life?” He led her through the double doors and back out into the street, now lit by the glow of streetlights, steering them alongside the docks to the restaurant.
“Yes. Office life doesn’t count, really,” she joked.
His voice was suddenly serious. “I think it counts a lot, actually.”
It always took a while to warm Mark up; though once he shed his professional skin he could be quite sweet and funny. “You know what I mean,” she chided him teasingly. “Of course it counts. But it doesn’t compare to time spent like this, with just us, together.”
His mouth relaxed back into a smile as he glanced down at her. “You’re right, of course. Sorry about that. It’s just been a challenging few days, with you gone for the funeral and then running out on me to go to some ranch. And then going to L.A., where, by the way, you made a pretty great impression on the boss. So you can see, I’ve had nothing but work on my mind for a while now.”
“You poor guy. But I didn’t run out on you, you know. I did invite you to come along.”
“Well, you know, I’ve never much enjoyed funerals, particularly of people I’ve never met.” He stopped them for a moment and took her gently by the shoulders, his brown eyes serious beneath his shock of light brown hair. “But I am sorry I made you go alone, Samantha. I realize it was selfish of me.” He leaned down and kissed her mouth gently, his lips soft and undemanding. “Forgive me?”
It was hard to resist his apology. “Don’t worry about it. It wasn’t a very enjoyable event. I didn’t actually stay until the end. Plus—” she lightened the moment “—someone had to stay home and pick up all the slack!”
He pulled her toward him for another lopsided hug. “And speaking of all that slack, there’s still a bunch of things I need to run by you since we’re gearing up for the big pitch next week.”
“Now?” Samantha asked.
“Why not?”
Samantha tried to focus as he went through the talking points he was considering for tomorrow’s planning meeting, but her mind kept wandering away.
Maybe it was grief over losing Ruth, but one moment she was listening to Mark’s discussion of their next brainstorming session, and the next she was noticing how graceful the lines of the old shipping warehouses were. How had she never seen that before? And there was the familiar shape of Coit Tower, all lit up on top of Telegraph Hill, but tonight, wrapped in fog, its lights were blurry, almost mysterious.
Her mind wandered even further away, back to the intense look on Jack Baron’s face as he’d placed the Band-Aid on her skin. The memory scorched her. The resulting guilt shook her out of her reverie. What had gotten into her? How could she be picturing him at all when she was on a date with Mark?
Luckily Mark had a lot to say, and with a few well-placed yeses and I-sees they made it to the restaurant without him noticing her distracted state. Soon they were seated at their table right by the water, just as she’d requested, and were ordering exotic cocktails from the menu the waitress placed in front of them.
Noticing the waitress glancing and smiling at Mark, Samantha mentally kicked herself. San Francisco had many wonderful attributes, but a large supply of handsome, single, career-oriented straight men was not one of them. She needed to stop thinking about some random hick cowboy she’d known for a couple of days and start appreciating the good-looking, sweet and successful boyfriend in front of her.
As they ate their meal, she asked him questions about what else had transpired in the office while she was gone, and offered to take on some extra work to ease the burden he was feeling. It would mean that if she went back to the ranch this weekend she’d have to do some work, but there wasn’t much to do out there in the evenings anyway.
It wasn’t until Mark paid their bill and they were picking up their coats to leave that he finally asked, “So tell me about this ranch you inherited? Did you have fun playing cowgirl over the weekend?”
Samantha started for the door. “I wouldn’t exactly call it playing cowgirl. More like playing housecleaner, except unfortunately I wasn’t playing.”
Pushing the door open for her, Mark looked at her, surprised. “You stayed away the whole weekend so you could clean? You never really did know how to take things easy, hey, Kiddo?”
She winced again at the nickname. Kiddo? Not Beautiful? Or Sexy? Or pretty much anything else that didn’t make her sound like his little sister? “Probably one of the reasons you hired me, right, boss?”
“Well, that and the fact that you’re gorgeous, of course.” He stopped suddenly and swept her into a hug. “Missed you!”
Samantha wrapped her arms around his broad back and returned Mark’s embrace. It felt good to be with him again. Sure, maybe they talked about work too much, but she was glad to feel his strong, reliable arms around her. She turned her face up toward his expectantly, but he just planted a playful kiss on her nose then turned and continued walking, pulling her with him.
“I guess you’ll need to get a real estate agent, then?” he asked. “I know some good ones. I’ll email you their information.”
Tension coiled through her, and Samantha sighed, leaning her head against Mark’s shoulder. “I don’t really want to think about it, but yes, I guess I’ll need to sell it at some point.”
“I guess? You’re not thinking of keeping it, are you, Samantha?”
“Not forever, no. But, Mark, this has all happened pretty fast and I don’t think I’m ready to let it go just yet. Not this week, anyway. I’m still wrapping my mind around the fact that she left me her ranch!”
“Look, I understand why you’re feeling sentimental, Samantha, but remember, while you’re getting used to the idea, the tax bills are adding up.”
“I’m thinking of going there again this weekend, actually.” Samantha hadn’t really been sure until she said it aloud.
“What? You just got back from L.A. yesterday!”
“I know. But it’s like you just said. The tax bills are adding up and if I’m going to go through Grandma’s things, I should do it soon. Plus, I can’t really explain it, but I feel like I need to spend a little time there before I can let it go.”
“You’re sounding really groovy, there, Samantha. ‘Let it go’? Maybe your buddy Jenna’s rubbing off on you.”
Her temper flared. “Mark, if it was your childhood home, wouldn’t it be hard for you to sell it? Wouldn’t you need to go through it, pack things up and say goodbye?”
“You’re right, Samantha. I’m sorry. It’s just that this is a new side of you. I’m used to my practical, efficient Samantha, not this new conflicted one.”
“Well, maybe it’s a good thing I can still surprise you, right?”
“If you say so. You know me, I’m not too good with surprises. I’m too much of a planner, just like you are...er...were.”
She gave his arm a smack, laughing. “Enough! I haven’t changed, truly. I just have a ranch...which feels really weird to say, by the way. I’m still me, just with a bit more property.”
“Well, I’ll miss you this weekend, but I get why you need to go, I think.”
“Come with me.” She blushed as soon as the words were out. Why was she acting like a spineless, needy girlfriend? He’d already declined once.
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