SUSAN MEIER - Cinderella And The Ceo

“But that doesn’t explain why you’ve never married. Was it because you thought no woman would want to be stuck with a man who traveled around the country playing sports? Or did you refuse to tie yourself down to one woman?”

Deke only stared at her. Because he had taken a long mental side trip, he wasn’t surprised she’d dragged him back into the conversation. But he hadn’t expected her to be so desperate to be rid of him that she would be brutally blunt. “You really don’t mince words, do you?”

“I can’t,” Laurel said, then dropped a stack of green papers onto the desk in front of him. “I’ve already gotten a million questions from the girls at break time. Tomorrow is our one-hour lunch. I won’t survive if I don’t have some details to give them.”

“Oh,” Deke said, suddenly feeling foolish. She was asking for her friends? He couldn’t believe he’d mis-interpreted her intentions. He knew she found him attractive. He also knew from those pajamas that she didn’t want to find him attractive. Still, her reason for probing made more sense than to think she was so determined to be rid of him she would be rude. She wasn’t rude. She was sweet and kind and deliciously wonderful.

Which was exactly why he had to stay the hell away from her. Rude he could combat. Sweet, sensitive and considerate made him want to confide in her. Trust her. And that was the bottom-line problem. He wanted to trust her. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t trust anybody. Especially not the woman who might know exactly why Tom Baxter had sent him to this tiny factory on the edge of nowhere.

The crazy part of it was, if he told her the truth about why he hadn’t married, their chemistry wouldn’t be a problem anymore, because she would stay away from him. She might even stop being nice to him—which would probably take away his desire to confide in her.

Suddenly he realized the truth would set them both free.

“I haven’t gotten married because I don’t think I’m a good candidate for marriage. I’ve always been very happy with my life exactly the way it is. I’m free to do what I want to do when I want to do it.” And free to take over when my stepfather stops working. No worry that I’m shortchanging a wife, no commitments to consider, no complications. Just a clear path to do what was required as heir to the Graham fortune. Getting married had never once entered his head because it would have confused things.

“I can’t understand why anyone would voluntarily make a commitment like marriage,” he added, so honest even he felt like a heel. “Except to have kids,” he decided on the spot. “I never realized how much I liked kids until I started coaching your daughter’s softball team.”

“Well, they certainly love you,” Laurel stated emphatically, then turned her attention to the green papers on his desk. “Anyway, these are purchase orders,” she said, realizing she had dodged a bullet by making that quick decision the night before not to kiss him. Just like her first husband, Deke Bertrim wasn’t right for her. He might not be the kind who would pick a wife to enhance his career, but in some respects his reasons for not getting married were actually more deadly. He was self-centered, self-absorbed and unable to commit.

Thank God. Now they could get on with the rest of his training.

“Purchase orders are issued by the Purchasing Department when they buy goods and supplies. So, every time something comes through that door,” she said, pointing to the Shipping and Receiving bay, “we should be able to find a purchase order for the goods received.”

Because this was a standard operating procedure for most manufacturing plants, Deke nodded his understanding as Laurel expected him to.

“When a delivery arrives, we look in there,” she said, pointing to a gray metal filing cabinet, “and find the purchase order that matches it. Once we check the packages to be sure they contain the items on the purchase order, we stamp both copies with our Received stamp and send the supplies to Inventory with the pink copy for verification.”

Studying the stamped green copy of the purchase order, Deke again nodded.

“Then we go into the computer, look up the purchase order and mark it in electronically.” She said this as she continued to sort and stack papers on the table in front of her. “After everything is recorded in the computer, the green copies are thrown away.” She nodded in the direction of the papers Deke held. “Those copies are from items received yesterday. This morning I’ll show you how to get into the purchase-order software and mark them Received.” She caught his gaze. “Think you can handle that?”

“I can handle that.”

“Good.”

They talked only about work for the rest of the day. When they got home, Laurel started dinner. Deke took Audra to softball practice. Aside from a few giggled comments from Sophie about junior kindergarten, dinner conversation centered on softball. Deke and Laurel’s mother cleared up the dishes. Laurel helped with homework. When Deke drove Laurel’s mother home for the night, Laurel got the girls ready for bed.

And the whole time Laurel saw—favor by favor, kindness by kindness—that this man was not at all who he said he was. But more than that, he wasn’t who he thought he was. He said he didn’t want to be tied down, but he easily committed to Audra and her softball team, he played with Sophie and even drove Judy home. He didn’t have a selfish bone in his luscious body.

He also liked company, evidenced by the way he had never used the TV upstairs. He sat downstairs with Laurel, Judy and the girls. He liked being part of a family, and he fit into Laurel’s as if he was meant to be there. Yet he honestly believed he wasn’t the kind to settle down.

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