Page 89 of The Work Wife

“Let’s spin this situation around for a moment, shall we?” Misty said. “Curt, let’s say Wendy did something that upset you. Has that ever happened?”

Curt shrugged and nodded. “Sure.”

“You don’t need to tell us what it was. But think about that situation.”

He nodded.

“Did she bring you flowers and offer a blanket apology?”

“No.” He laughed.

“What did she do?”

Another shrug and he pressed his lips together in thought. “She hugged me and said she was sorry she yelled.”

“And did you feel like she meant it?”

“Yes.”

“If she had given you a beer as an apology and walked away, would you have felt she was truly sorry?”

“Not as much, I guess.” He looked at his wife and let out a sigh. “Hell, I even mess up fixing what I messed up.”

The group laughed, but Curt and Wendy looked like they’d made a turn.

Jamie looked over at her partner and thought they might be making their own turn.

Chapter 16

Ben hadn’t come into the office yet on Monday morning, and Anna found herself hoping he wouldn’t be in at all. She wasn’t ready to face him. It was stupid, really. So he’d seen her as Bellz. What she did on her own time was her own business.

Except, that wasn’t the problem. The real issue was the way he’d responded to her alter ego. The way he’d looked at her in a way he’d never looked at her in the office. The way a man looks at a woman he wants.

Despite her wishes, Ben showed up at ten after nine, looking worse for wear.

“Call a staff meeting immediately and let me know when everyone’s ready,” he demanded before going into his office and shutting the door.

“Okay.” She took care of his request, sending out an invite for everyone to meet in the conference room at nine thirty. She called him rather than going in.

“Everyone will be ready at nine thirty. Did you need me to get anything ready for the meeting?” she offered.

“No. But thank you.”

Twenty minutes later she took her seat with everyone else in the meeting room and opened her laptop, ready to take notes. Ben walked in and took the seat beside her. He tapped two papers together in front of him and rubbed a hand over his jaw. The sound of his palm rasping against the stubble made her shiver with womanly approval.

“Thank you for dropping everything to come in. I’ll make it quick so we can get back to work. My uncle Richard suffered a mild heart attack late Saturday evening.” The night he’d run out of her show. “He’s doing fine and is expected to make a full recovery, but he’s going to be out of commission for a few weeks. The surgeon has demanded he take it easy, which means the doctor has a bigger job than we do.” Everyone chuckled. “I’ll be taking over in the meantime, so if you have any issues, let me know how I can help.”

The staff looked around the table, probably thinking the same thing she was thinking. Ben already took care of the company. While Richard had his own projects running, Ben was the one who kept the staff informed and managed the day-to-day business. He was already overworked. Everyone knew that, with exception of his mother. How could he possibly take on a larger role in the company?

Her normal defensiveness flared as Ben systematically went over what needed to be taken care of and reassigned some of Richard’s projects to different teams.

“That should take care of it. If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to come speak to me. Richard asked that I tell everyone he doesn’t want flowers, so I say we should send him enough balloons to fill his room.”

Everyone laughed as they were dismissed. A few people lingered to talk to him, so she went back to her desk to get started on her work.

She was so engrossed in an invoice, she jumped when he spoke.

“Annabelle, do you have a moment?” Her full name spoken in his deep voice gave her another shiver.