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PROLOGUE
March
Carolyn shouldn't watch Scott like this. She was a married woman, and simply because a guy had a great body didn't mean she should sit here checking him out while he was on the phone. The problem was that he didn't just have a great body. He was a great guy, too.
His back was to her, so he didn't know she was gawking - luckily. Her face was already hot with embarrassment. She resolutely turned back to her computer screen. Maybe she could write a few more lines of code before they left for their lunchtime workout.
She heard the receiver clunk into place and he said, "I've got to see Bob for a minute before we leave." His voice sounded strained, and she wondered what the phone call had been about. When he came back from her boss's office, he didn't look right at her. "Sorry about that. Let's get out of here."
She followed him to the back door, suddenly more uneasy with him than she'd been since the first few days of his assignment here. Back then, he'd thought she was an obstacle to overcome, rather than a partner in getting the job done.
As they walked, she pulled out her car keys. He was staying in an apartment complex only a few minutes from Providential Press, and there was a small shopping center just another block away. The athletic club where they worked out was the only place he went outside of walking distance, so he hadn't bothered with a rental car.
"I'm parked pretty far back today," she said once they got outside, more for something to say than because he needed to know.
Thirty seconds later, he said, "That was Marty on the phone." Marty was his boss, back in Chicago. "He needs me there for a new project."
Her keys hit the asphalt of the parking lot. She stood there, stupidly staring at them, until he scooped them up and handed them to her. "Are you okay?" he asked.
She blinked away the moisture in her eyes and nodded. "Just clumsy." Continuing on toward the car, she took a deep breath and asked, "When do you leave?"
"The end of next week. I told him we should be done by then. If not, you can finish things up, and call with any questions."
She nodded, not sure if her voice would betray her. Too bad she'd so thoroughly convinced him of her competence!
They were both silent on the drive to the athletic club in an elegant and gracious section of Providence's East Side, and parted with the unspoken understanding that they'd meet in the lobby in an hour, as always. Carolyn hurried to change into leotard and tights before her aerobics class started, and slipped into her usual spot in the front row just on time.
She tried to pay attention to her form and breathing, but her thoughts were so scattered that she was lucky to know which exercise she was supposed to be doing. It was probably a good thing that Scott was leaving soon. This - well, calling it an obsession wouldn't be inappropriate - for him was crazy. Sure, he was great-looking, fun to talk to, and smart as all get out, but so was her husband. Tony wasn't interested in computers, but that didn't matter. What was more relevant was that he'd never made her heart and stomach trip over themselves in excitement, the way Scott did.
Okay, so she had a crush on the guy. That was hardly of earth-shattering importance to anyone other than her, and it didn't change reality a single bit. She lived in Rhode Island, Scott lived in Chicago, and she didn't matter to him the way he mattered to her. The sooner he disappeared from her life and let her start remembering how good her life with Tony was, the better.
She could think that all she wanted, but she still spent the second half of the class glancing out the classroom door, waiting for him to walk by. He finally did, dripping wet from the pool, his dark brown hair plastered to his head. He walked just slowly enough that she could imagine he was searching the room for a glimpse of her. She heard the low murmur of the women around her, and she wondered how many were hoping that little half-grin was meant for them.
She raced through her shower and didn't bother to dry her long hair before heading to the lobby. He was already there, a vertical line creasing his forehead. "Good, you're here." On the way to the parking lot, he added, "I need to talk to you. Can we go to that park?"
He meant a park overlooking most of Providence, where they'd stopped to eat sandwiches a couple of times. "Sure. Do you want to get something to eat?" She hoped not. Her stomach wouldn't accept food right now.
"I'm not hungry, but stop at the deli for yourself, if you want."
The park wasn't far, and Scott didn't say anything more until they were standing by the fence at the far end. Beyond them was a cliff, and way below was downtown Providence, including Providential Press. "Carolyn, I probably should keep my mouth shut about this, but I can't. I can't leave without you knowing the truth." He gulped a breath and continued, "I want you to know I don't expect anything - I mean, I know you're married, and I'd never..." He didn't seem to know how to continue.
She wrapped her fingers around the top of the fence, a ball of anticipation filling her insides. "What truth?"
He swallowed a couple of times, his Adam's apple bobbing. She smelled the clean soap scent on his skin as he turned to face her. "I love you, Carolyn."
She felt like she was flying, careening around with reckless abandon and making herself dizzy. "Oh, Scott - I love you, too!"
This was how it was supposed to feel! She'd always known love didn't feel right with Tony. It was too calm, too everyday, not at all like this crazy euphoria.
Except he didn't seem to share her happiness. He looked - troubled? "What's wrong?"
"You're married, that's what's wrong!" He spun away and stalked off a few feet. "You can't mean that the way I want you to." He threw himself onto a nearby bench.
She sat at the opposite end, careful to keep a few inches between their bodies. "I don't know how you want me to mean it, but I love you so much I've been dying inside ever since you told me you were leaving."
"So you'll miss me - big deal. I'll miss you, too - every minute of every day for the rest of my life."
"Me, too," she said quietly, knowing it was true. "But what can I say to make you believe me?"
She wasn't sure he was going to answer, but finally he turned to her and said, "Divorce your husband and come to Chicago with me." His jaw tensed and he blew out a breath. "I know that's asking a lot, but I take love very seriously. I'm not in the market to be a bored woman's plaything. Either you love me enough to walk away from everything you have here, or it's not enough." He shook his head in disgust. "I'm sorry - this is ridiculous. I should have kept my mouth shut." Before she could respond, he stood and started back toward the car.
She sat on the bench, only a few feet from a cliff no higher than the one he was asking her to jump off. She wondered how frightening it would be to take that final step, and how painful the fall would be. But the answers didn't truly matter. She had no choice.
**
A week later, everything was different. Scott had spent almost every moment of the intervening days with Carolyn, and it was clearer than ever that what he felt for her was true love. And miracle of miracles, she loved him, too!
He knelt here today, on the ground in the same park where he'd confessed his love. Carolyn knelt facing him, and they recited together the vows they'd written. "You are my friend, my lover, and my soulmate. My love for you will never end. I pledge to you my heart, my soul, and my life, as long as the strands of this knot intertwine." And then, they slipped the Celtic knot rings onto each other's right ring fingers.
The jeweler yesterday had told them that the Celtic knot pattern dated back a thousand years or more. It was a symbol of eternal love because the knot had no beginning and no end, but instead turned in on itself forever. These rings were made of thin strands of gold, braided together, with small open areas in between the strands.
Carolyn had originally argued against this ceremony and these rings. She felt that their love, in itself, was enough. And it was plenty - more than plenty - for most purposes.
But not when he had to leave on Sunday without her. She would join him in Chicago soon, but not yet. Her husband had been away on business for the last several weeks, and she insisted on breaking the news to him in person. As much as Scott hated the prospect of being apart from her for even a single day, he had to admire her for not taking the easy way out.
He was the happiest and luckiest man on earth. And when he and Carolyn exchanged these vows again at their wedding, all would be right with the world.
CHAPTER ONE
June, Four Years Later
Carolyn repositioned the chair slightly before sitting down. She didn't mind men wearing cologne, but this guy didn't know how much was too much.
He gave her a too-bright smile and said, "I hope everyone's making you feel welcome today at Adams-Worthington." He put just enough extra emphasis on the Adams part to remind her that his last name was Adams. He couldn't be Mr. Worthington's partner, could he?
"They are, thanks. Excuse me for asking, but are you the Adams the company is named for?"
He laughed, an unpleasant sound. "Definitely not. That was my brother George. He's the creative genius responsible for the company's existence. He died several years ago."
She felt herself flush. "Oh. I'm sorry." Not a good way to start off a job interview.
He shrugged and glanced at her resumé, the only object on top of his desk. "I hear you wow'ed Seth at that conference this week."
"Mr. Worthington seemed interested in the paper I gave," she answered stiffly. "He says Adams-Worthington needs someone with my experience and skill-set."
"I suppose. Plus, we could use a female engineer - we've never had one. Do you think you could take being the only woman?" His look was challenging enough that she imagined an environment full of nude pinups and grossly explicit jokes.
That wasn't anything like the company she'd seen today. Everyone had been professional and polite, although the jury was still out on this guy. There was something a little creepy about him. "I'm sure I could."
Now, what was his first name? Tony used to tell her how using a customer's name made him feel more important, and she figured the principle applied in this case, too. "So, Bill, would you like me to outline my qualifications verbally?"
He smiled lazily as his gaze strayed down her body. "I don't think that's necessary, Carolyn. I can see that your qualifications are excellent."
She fought the urge to slide her chair even further from his. She'd pretend he was simply demonstrating the double entendres she might face in an otherwise-male work group. To prove that she was unfazed, she stayed silent, waiting for him to ask a question.
Looking amused, he said, "Why don't you tell me why you want to work at A-W? That's what we all call it, by the way. Adams-Worthington takes too long."
"To be honest, I hadn't considered changing jobs until I met Mr. Worthington the other day." She ignored his obvious disbelief and continued, "I've worked at Providential Press for ten years now, and it's a great place. It's small enough that I haven't been pigeonholed into doing any one type of thing, yet I've had plenty of chance to grow into new responsibilities and learn new skills."
"Oh, sign me up," he muttered. "It's clearly Heaven on earth. Yet you're going to give up your wings and rejoin us mortals?"
She ignored his sarcasm, determined to answer him, even if he didn't care about the answer. "The thing about possibly working here that appeals to me is the chance to develop software that will be broadly used. The code I write at Providential is important, but it's only used internally, by a relatively small number of people. Here, all your customers benefit from every small efficiency or extra feature that gets added."
He nodded - grudgingly, it seemed. "That's a double-edged sword, you realize. They see all the bugs and design butcheries, too. But I have to admit I like it when a customer buys our system, at least in part because of my code."
Apparently, Bill wasn't a complete jerk. She asked, "Have you worked here from the beginning?" The company was only about six years old, so it was possible. He seemed to be in his late twenties.
"Pretty much. When I graduated, TechDoc was in the first stages of development. None of the other engineers have been here that long. Which reminds me - who've you met, so far?"
She thought through the day's interviews. "The only developer's been Jake. There's someone else I was supposed to see, but he was delayed at a customer site."
Bill nodded. "That's got to be Scott. His title's Chief Designer, but it might as well be God."
"Is he demanding?"
"Only if you have your own mind, or can't write as many lines of code a day as he can - and none of us mortals can." He snorted, shaking his head. "I keep asking Francine how she puts up with him, but I guess she's used to the type after George."
"Francine? Is she his assistant or something?" Come to think of it, she'd met a Francine today - Francine Adams, her name was - but she'd seemed to be in charge of personnel, rather than being someone's assistant.
He shook his head, obviously amused. "His fiancée, George's widow, and last but not least, Seth's daughter. You must have talked to her earlier. I thought someone would have clued you in."
"Oh. No." This company might be too weird to work for. Was everyone related to everyone else?
"Well, now you know. To get back to our fearless leader, what you need to do to get along with him is let him decide everything that matters - and most everything does, from variable names to how you comment a subroutine." With a shrug that seemed more self-satisfied than anything else, he added, "I'm not real good at doing that. Then again, I've got seniority over him, and I think Seth would question it if he tried to can me. He wouldn't have the same problem with you, even though you're coming in here with Seth's stamp of approval up front."
She didn't like the not-so-subtle threat, but settled for saying, "I don't anticipate any trouble getting along with Scott." Another Scott had started out being impossible to please, too, and she'd changed his mind.
Bill smiled crookedly. "Carolyn Kelley versus Scott Richards. I wonder who'll come out on top?"
Scott Richards? It couldn't be!
**
As Scott pulled into the parking lot, he caught a glimpse of the woman waiting to turn into the street. Something about her reminded him of Carolyn - just like a thousand or more women he'd half-seen in the last four years. He was glad, now, that she'd stayed with Tony. So why wouldn't her memory leave him alone?
He stopped by his office just long enough to drop off his briefcase and let Milly, his group's administrative assistant, know he was back. Then he headed to Seth's office in the opposite end of the building. Seth needed to know that he'd managed to satisfy the top brass at the customer site, plus he was supposed to interview that woman Seth was so high on. Would she still be around, so close to quitting time on Friday?
Seth's office door was open, so he guessed she wasn't in there. He stuck his head inside, and Seth waved him in. "Glad you're back, Scott. I hear you performed miracles today."
When he first started at A-W, a comment like that would have thrown him. Now he remembered that one of the senior VP's where he'd been was a personal friend of Seth's. No doubt they'd been on the phone sometime while Scott was on the plane. "I wouldn't call them miracles, just a little ingenuity and some of the fast talking I've learned from you. They're okay for now, and I promised them a couple of new features in the next release that'll address their longer-term needs."
"Major new features?" Seth asked with a concerned frown. "Our schedule's already tight."
He shook his head. "Nah. It won't take me more than an evening to implement both."
Seth laughed. "We do have other engineers, you know. People we pay to write code and nothing else. I'd rather you'd take a few more nights and weekends off - maybe do something crazy like get married." The reminder was friendly, almost jovial, but pointed underneath.
"We'll give it some consideration," he promised, knowing Seth had no idea that Francine was the one who kept putting it off. His only guess about the reason was her marriage to George. She wouldn't talk about it, though, so he ended up either pleading with her to change her mind or letting the matter ride.
Almost apologetically, Seth said, "It's not that Annabelle and I disapprove. Young people lived together without marriage in our day, too. We're simply concerned about Francine's long-term happiness - and we haven't given up on more grandchildren, either."
Scott bit the side of his mouth to keep from saying that Seth was hassling the wrong person. Couldn't he see how much Scott loved being a father to Rachel? Didn't it make sense that he'd do anything so he and Francine could have babies of their own? But there was no point being annoyed with Seth about the situation. None of it was his fault. Scott would simply have to discuss the issue again with Francine - and it wouldn't hurt if his fast talking skill didn't desert him, like it usually did when they talked about marriage.
He decided to change the subject. "How did that woman's interviews go today? I guess I missed her." He wished he remembered her name. "That woman" sounded rude, or like her gender was the only possible reason to hire her.
"You did, but just temporarily. I wasn't sure when you'd get in, so I sent Carolyn back to her hotel a few minutes ago. I said we'd call to let her know when she can meet with you. Her interviews went really well, and as far as I'm concerned, we should hire her - depending on your evaluation, of course. There should be a copy of her resumé on your desk."
Had there been? "I didn't notice, but it's probably there. How soon is she flying out?" He didn't remember whether Seth had said where she was from, but if she lived in Oregon, he wouldn't have been so determined to have her interview this week.
"Tomorrow - morning, I think. She has to go back to the East Coast. I thought you might meet with her over dinner."
He suppressed a sigh. There went the relaxing evening with Francine and Rachel he'd been looking forward to. "Sure. Will you be home later, or should I wait until Monday to let you know what I think?"
"I'll be home. If you're as enthusiastic about her as I am, I'd like to make her an offer tonight."
"All right. I'll go call her now." But what if he wasn't enthusiastic about her? Would Seth try to influence his decision?
**
Carolyn wanted nothing more than to rip off this uncomfortable business suit, kick off her shoes, and throw herself onto the bed to relax. A full day of interviews should be considered cruel and inhuman torture! And she wasn't even done yet.
So, the business suit stayed on, and she sat cautiously in a chair in the sitting room part of her suite, not wanting to wrinkle her skirt any worse than it already was. If this Scott guy was as demanding as Bill implied, he'd probably hold the wrinkles against her.
But what if he was that Scott Richards? The one she'd ruined her life for, the one who'd hung up on her the last several times they talked?
Well, in that case, there wouldn't be any question of her getting the job. And that meant she wouldn't have to make the agonizing decision she'd been dreading ever since Mr. Worthington asked her to come up here and interview. Providential Press and Rhode Island were home to her, and the idea of leaving them was more than a little daunting.
The phone rang, its shrill summons giving her a jolt. "Hello?"
"Ms. Kelley? This is Scott Richards, from Adams-Worthington." She'd know that voice anywhere.
What should she say? He must not know who she was. But she couldn't think what to say, and finally, she had to respond. "Oh, hello."
"I apologize for not being in the office earlier. I was at a customer site, and things took longer than we expected. Would you mind meeting me for dinner? We'd like to finish your interviews before you head back home."
She should just blurt out her name - the name Scott knew her by. It would be over quickly then. But, now that she'd heard his voice, she couldn't. She couldn't let this one opportunity to see him again pass her by. But not for dinner. "We could meet in the bar, here at my hotel."
"All right. What time's good for you? I could be there in ten minutes."
"That's fine," she said, her stomach feeling hollow with nerves. She must be crazy.
"There are some booths on the right when you first walk into the bar there. Let's meet at the first booth - or by it, if it's already occupied."
They wouldn't have any trouble recognizing each other, but she couldn't tell him that. "Okay."
"Fine. I'm looking forward to meeting you. Goodbye for now."
She hung up the phone and went to the bathroom to freshen up. Now that it was too late, she wished she'd gotten it over with on the phone. She knew how it felt to have Scott hang up on her. She didn't know how it would feel to have him walk out.
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