Page 9 of Shape Of My Heart
She couldn’t do that, but she couldn’t leave, either. Her mother needed her, and as bad as the place was she had to put up with whatever crap he threwather.
“I was hired to be your PA. I’m just trying to clean the office.” She thought she could reason with him byexplaining.
“I don’t need a PA, and the office doesn’t need cleaning.” His eyes bored into her with darkness andanger.
She was trying to focus on what he was saying but she swore something scurried past again. The dirt was one thing, but there was one thing Amy hated more than anything andthatwas…
She screamed from the depths of her soul as she saw the long thick tail of a rat disappearing behind the desk. And again when said rat diverted and scrambled back towards her in a frantic pursuit with its thick brown furry body and beady eyes. She stumbled, not knowing which direction to run, and tried to gatherherself.
Higher ground. She needed higher ground, so she turned to make a run for the desk, trying to avoid the filthycreature.
However, she didn’t see the second rat that charged towards her in blind panic and ran straight over her foot. All Amy knew was she could feel its nasty claws over the exposed skin of her feet in her sandals, and its body was wet and slimy. The cherry on top of the horror was its disgusting long, pink tail whipping out at her ankles as itwentby.
That was all her brain was able to establish before the air left her lungs and shefainted.
* * *
Josh didn’t knowwhat the hell to dowithher.
Was it so much to ask to be left alone? He just wanted everyone to leave him to do what he wanted, but people kept forcing themselves on him. That damn Zelda.And his whole damn team, for thatmatter.
They all needed to back the hell off and leave him be. Now look. As if he didn’t have enough on his plate, he had this woman to deal with. She’d fainted before him and crumpled into a delicate heap with her mass of golden hair sprawled out on thefloor.
Shit. Who fainted at the sight of an animal? Sure, it was a rat, but fainting was a little dramatic. He looked at her wondering if he should just leave her there, but saw the creatures running around the room and felt abitbad.
From somewhere inside him, he couldn’t tell where, he felt bad to leave her there in the midst of something she was clearlyafraidof.
So, with deep annoyance, he picked her up and carried her to the sitting room so he could lay her onthesofa.
“Hey, wake up.” He nudged her, poking her arms. “Wake thehellup.”
Nothing, she was out cold and completely unresponsive. Panic made him check her breathing as the thought occurred to him that she may have hitherhead.
Her breathing was fine and her head seemed okay too; she just really had fainted at the sight of the rats. He’d call pest control later, right now he was going to call Zelda. She’d wound him up the wrong way and he wasn’t going to be forced intoanything.
He grabbed his phone and dialed the number. Zelda answered within the first ring. He opened with a mouthful of curses that fell off the tip of histongue.
“You ass-backwards bastard, don’t you dare speak to me like that,” Zelda retorted. One thing about her was that she didn’t tiptoe around him because he was grieving. He’d never known her to go soft on him and she wasn’t about to now. She served back twice as much as she got in anargument.
“I don’t needaPA.”
“Son, you seem to be living in a dream world, but let’s not pussyfoot around the situation,” she balked. “If you don’t want to play for the team, resign. It’s simple. Just resign. Until your management informs me of your resignation, you sure as my ass ain’t skinny will have a PA. Now deal with it and make sure you shape up for the ESPN show. Orleave.”
She didn’t give him the chance to reply. He heard the phone slam down on her end and the linewentdead.
Feeling frustrated, he threw his phone into the wall and watched it smash. He’d never felt so torn in his life and so damnconflicted.
Josh didn’t want to retire, and he didn’t want to play, either.Andhe didn’t want to go to this stupid ESPN show. After that it would be one public appearance after another. People would ask how he was doing and he wouldn’t know what to tell them. He wouldn’t know whattosay.
It had only been six months. Jesus, just six months since the accident that took away everything from him, and everyone was acting like he’d had enough time to grieve and be fine. Make decisions and be his old selfagain.
And as for this PA, it was all wrong. He didn’t want her there. She didn’t need to be there. He was certain he could do whatever was required of him in his own time. Besides, look at her, she didn’t look like a PA. He turned to face her and thought she looked like one of the dolls his sister used to play with when she waslittle.
She appeared smaller lying down than when she stood up, almost childlike. But the silky gray blouse she wore that molded to her fully rounded breasts enunciated that she was every inch a desirable woman and showed off her shapely femininecurves.
His eyes roamed over her figure, appreciating her assets. Unlike most women he admired, she had a sort of angelic, ethereal presence about her that really stood out. Maybe it was because he was always used to loose women who threw themselves at him and hadn’t taken note of women like her. Josh may have been off his face drunk yesterday, but he remembered the mortified look she gave him when she saw him checkingherout.
She shouldn’t be here. Truth be told, he was hoping that telling her to clean yesterday would have gotten rid of her. His last PA was a guy and he couldn’t stand the mess either. Back then Josh had a maid, but apparently she left because he hit on her. He couldn’t remember. So many people came and went, and his days all seemed to roll into one. Sometimes he didn’t know what he was doing, orsaying.
