Page 23 of Dance with Me on New Year's Eve

I gasped and then studied his expression. He didn’t look furious, nor did his frown look severe. He looked almost relaxed … no, he couldn’t possibly be. The man didn’t know how to relax. Especially not around me. It was always business first, middle, and last. Nothing but business.

Not that I should complain. Small talk and other kinds of discussions that weren’t directly work related tended to make me anxious and self-conscious. So Jeff’s all-business style kind of worked for me.

Of course, that didn’t mean I liked him.

When I finally started to reply, my voice sounded hoarse, so I coughed for a moment and drank from the water bottle I’d stuffed in my bag this morning. Breathing out steadily through the awkwardness consuming me, I resumed eye contact and tried to change the subject. “Anyway, so, the meetings with the contractors. Do you have to reschedule?”

Jeff looked at me thoughtfully and then shook his head.

“Oh, I thought you had to bring your daughter to the doctor or something.”

His mouth twisted to the side in a shape that was only a little less foreboding than his frown. “The dentist. Yes, I will need to miss the meeting. You can handle it without me, right?”

My eyebrows rose at the challenge in his eyes. “Since when do you trust me with anything in this project?”

“Consider it a trial run,” he said without a trace of humor in his tone.

I scoffed. “Seriously?”

“Yes, Roxanne. Seriously.” He crossed his arms. “Youcanhandle this, right?”

I wanted to screamnobecause even though my event planning work required a lot of communication with other professionals, I was a lot less confident about this project.

But I could never admit that to him. Obviously. “Of course.”

He eyed me warily. “All right, I’ll forward you the email with the address.”

“The email address? Do you mean to send the meeting invite?”

“No, I’m talking about his business address. It’s not that far, and you have a car, right?”

I felt my pulse jump as panic set in. “Uh … oh. He wants to meet in person?”

“Yeah, that’s pretty typical for a meeting like this.”

I didn’t even know if he said it condescendingly or not, as I couldn’t pay attention with my mind racing frantically. Why, oh why, hadn’t I asked for details before agreeing to this?

You need to find a way out of this.

Think, Roxy. Think!

After forcing myself to take a slow breath in and out, I managed to speak. “Oh, darn, I just remembered. I have a conflict tomorrow. It’s … uh, it’s for my neighbor … Janice. She’s having an engagement party, and I totally forgot.”

Jeff’s eyebrows rose. “Yourneighboris having an engagement party on aThursdayafternoon?”

I tried to keep my voice steady … even polite. “I’m helping her with the setup.”

He stared at me for a few more seconds before shaking his head slightly and looking back at his phone. “If we don’t take this meeting time, his next open meeting slot is June 10, over a month away. We can’t afford to lose that much time.”

“If he’s that busy, he won’t have time for our project anyway,” I snapped.

“He is probably booked out on appointments with new clients, but when I mentioned Mariana’s name, they offered the earlier time. She’s an important figure in the region now, you know.”

“I know that,” I said, feeling irritated. “But maybe this is a good reason to meet with Jill Sanders first.”

“We’ll meet with her next week,” Jeff said firmly, as though I had no say in it. “Are you serious about the neighbor’s engagement stuff though? I don’t want to reschedule this meeting unless we absolutely have to. I kind of think Hazel would agree with me on this one.”

I scowled at him. He was probably right.

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