sipped. “This is perfect. Did you get your car fixed?” He tore the band holding his iPod from his arm and laid it in a drawer.
“Yes.”
“Well, I guess I’ll grab a shower. That stack on my desk needs to be organized, and the three bids on the top need to be typed up.”
“Not a problem, Mr. Benson,” she said, moving quickly to gather the papers.
“Regan.”
“Yes?” She looked up at him as he walked toward the bathroom. His legs were toned and tan, and she quickly averted her eyes to keep from examining his body. But she looked back up and caught his smile. Her breath hitched. He’d obviously noticed her reaction to him.
His smile broadened to a grin. “Just call me Zach.”
Forty-five minutes later, Zach, clad in a suit and ready for business, opened his office door and watched her work. She had on the headset, and she murmured, “Mm-hmm,” as she jotted notes on the pad before her. He noticed that the bids he’d needed written up were printed and on the edge of her desk. His agenda was on her computer screen. He noted she’d added a meeting at one and blocked out time to meet with her to go over “items,” it said.
When she pushed the button to disconnect her call, she turned as though she’d sensed him.
“Emerson Amelia Rothchild, born at three twenty-three yesterday. She weighed seven pounds, six ounces and has a full head of dark hair and her mother’s nose.” She smiled as she read the note to Zach. Her eyes had gone soft, and he longed to hold her. “You sent flowers with a little stuffed bear attached to them and will visit when they get home tomorrow.”
“How thoughtful of me.” He raised his eyebrows.
Regan stood and handed him the bids she’d typed up for him. Their fingers brushed, and she pulled away.
“Here are your messages. You’re a very popular man at eight in the morning.”
“How many times did my mother call?”
“Four in the last forty minutes.”
“You’ll become close friends,” he warned as he looked through the papers she’d handed him.
“Well, Curtis likes her. I guess I’ll find out.”
Zach found his jaw clenching when she mentioned the doctor’s name.
His eyes shifted to the office. It had started to come to life. Most of the staff would trickle in within the next half hour. He looked back at Regan, who had taken her seat behind the computer. She looked right at home.
“When you find Peterson, tell him I’m looking for him. I need an update on that conference call from yesterday.” He watched her grab her note pad and make notes. “Call John Forrester and make arrangements for us to visit the site sometime this week.”
She nodded as she kept writing as he continued the list. “And I need a suggestion on where to get tiramisu before Saturday to take to my mother’s.” That caused her to smile. “I don’t know where to begin.”
“I’ll take care of that.” She kept her eyes on her pad.
“Thank you. Chinese for lunch?”
Finally, she looked up at him. “Do you have a place you order from, or should I just take care of that?”
“No, just be ready at twelve thirty. We go out for Chinese food. We’ll take your office meeting when we get back.” He closed the door to the office and delighted in the shock that had lit her face. But there was something troubling in her expression. Though it was enjoyable to throw Regan Keller off her game, it worried him that someone had made her so distrusting of men.
Regan didn’t find Peterson. He found her.
Kirk Peterson sat down on the edge of her desk as if it were a bar stool and introduced himself with a handshake that included an unabashed attempt to peek down her blouse. He was a stocky man in his early forties. He’d been married long enough that the wedding band on his finger looked to have grown into place, but by his casual way, it didn’t seem to matter to him that there was a ring on his finger. While she told him what Zach wanted, he touched everything on