Free Back to the Drawing Board by L.L. Collins Page A

Now it’s mine. I’m shocked. Ever since I left there, I was psyching myself up to hear the letdown. Thank you for calling me. It’s a huge relief. If you would, let me know when your dad will be available so I can thank him personally as well. I’ll be there and ready to report in under a week. I’ve already got my eye on a few apartments near the office, and my family is leaving the beach in the next few days. I’m going to fly and have my car sent, so I’ll keep you updated on my date of arrival.” He paused. “Can I ask you a question?”
    I clenched my hand, my nails biting into my skin. Why did I have the feeling I wasn’t going to like this? “Of course.”
    “First, I wanted to apologize for the way I left things that morning.” He stopped, and I waited. “I was a jerk. I should’ve made sure you were okay. I’m so sorry I have to ask you this,” he said so softly I had to press the phone to my ear to hear him. “Did we, uh, sleep together that night?”
    I sucked in a sharp breath, tears pooling in my eyes. I knew we were going to have to deal with this, but I didn’t expect him to ask me this now. “Carter,” I said, trying to buy myself some time. “First of all, I get it. I know why you left and I don’t blame you. I should’ve never come back with you to your hotel room, and I shouldn’t have been drinking that much. It’s my fault, so please don’t apologize. As far as your other question, I don’t know. I’m sorry. I drank a lot that night. That’s not me, I want you to know that.”
    “I know it isn’t,” he answered. “I know we don’t know each other well, but what happened that night, the drinking and not remembering, that’s not me, either. I’m also not the kind of person that leaves a girl after spending the night with her, either. I’m sorry, Julia. I was terrified about what I’d just done, and even more petrified that I couldn’t remember. I never want you to think that of me. So neither of us can remember what happened that night.” He chuckled, and I swore I felt it all the way to my toes and back. “Okayyyy then. So, can we start over, Julia? I don’t want things to be awkward between us.”
    “I’d like that, Carter,” I answered. “I think we should try to forget that night ever happened. Well, at least the last part of the night. I did enjoy spending time with you and hanging out. You’re a great guy.”
    He cleared his throat. “Thank you. I think you’re right, that we should forget about it and move on. You’re kind of in charge of me now, and I think we should keep things as professional as possible.”
    I opened and closed my mouth. That wasn’t exactly what I meant by starting over. He wanted to be professional only. Well, I guess I didn’t blame him. But I didn’t want that at all. I wanted our fresh start to be that we figured out what this attraction was between us while we hadn’t been drinking too much. He’d been drinking away the stress of the job, and I’d been drinking away Johnny.
    “I may technically be ‘in charge’ of you,” I began, “but we will work together as partners. This project we’re going to start, the Adams project, is revolutionary, even for us. In fact, I’ll send you some information to your email so you can start reading up before you get here. That way you’ll be ready to hit the ground running.”
    “That sounds great,” Carter answered. “Thank you, Julia.”
    “Don’t thank me,” I said. “You did this yourself.”
    “No, thank you for not making what happened a big deal for me,” he said, his voice low. Ah, if only he knew. It was a huge deal to me. Just not the way he thought it was.
    “You took care of me,” I said. “I should’ve never been like that with you. You didn’t know me at all. If anything, I should be thanking you for not being turned off from our company because of my behavior, or going to my father and refusing to work with me. I promise that won’t happen