Redeeming the Billionaire SEAL(31)

“You’re my assistant, aren’t you?”

“I am and a darn good one,” she countered. “I’ve kept your life running on schedule for the last six years, Mac. No matter what you throw at me, I handle it and add it into the mix I’m already juggling.”

“You’re a damn fine juggler, too,” he said.

She kept talking as if he hadn’t said a thing.

“Then when I asked you for this afternoon off so I could go see my nephew’s baseball game, you said you had to think about it. Think about it?”

“I appreciate a good Little League game as much as the next man,” Mac said slowly, keeping his gaze fixed on hers, “but we’ve still got some details to be ironed out on the Double D deal and—”

“That’s my point, Mac.” His eyes widened when she interrupted him. “There’s always something that needs to be handled and I’m so busy taking care of those things I haven’t had time to find a life.”

“You’ve got a pretty good life from where I’m standing,” he argued, pushing up from his desk. “Great job, terrific boss—” He paused, waiting for a smile that didn’t come, then tried to continue, but he couldn’t come up with a third thing.

“Uh-huh. Job. Boss. No life.” She took a deep breath. “And that stops today.”

“Okay,” he said flatly. “If it’s that important to you, go. See your nephew’s game. Have some popcorn. Hell, have a beer. We’ll talk more tomorrow morning when you come in.”

“I won’t be in,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s time for a change, Mac. For both of us. I’ve gotten too comfortable here and so have you.”

He laughed abruptly. “You call dealing with what all that’s been going on around here comfortable?”

She nodded. “There’ve been problems, sure, but we handled them and things are slowly getting back to normal. Or, as normal as life gets around here.”

Mac sure as hell hoped so. It had been a wild time in Royal, Texas, over the past couple of years. A lot of turmoil, more than their share of trouble. There was the tornado, of course, then the drought that held most of Texas in a tight, sweaty fist and then a man he used to think of as one of his oldest friends, Rafiq “Rafe” bin Saleed, had come to town with the express purpose of ruining Mac’s reputation, his business and his family. And he’d come damn close to pulling it off.

Remembering that was still enough to leave Mac a little shaken. Hell, he’d trusted Rafe and had almost lost everything because of it. Sure, they’d worked everything out, and now Rafe was even his brother-in-law, since he and Mac’s sister, Violet, were married and having a baby.

But there were still moments when Mac wondered how he could have missed the fact that Rafe was on a misguided quest for revenge.

Without Andi to help him through and talk him down when he was so damned angry he could hardly see straight, Mac didn’t know if the situation would have resolved itself so quickly.

So why, when life was settling down again, had she chosen now to talk about quitting? Mac had no idea what had brought this nonsense on, but he’d nip it in the bud, fast. Now that things were calming down in Royal, Mac had plans to spend more time actually working and even expanding the family ranch, which Violet used to handle. With his sister focusing on the place Rafe had bought for them, Mac wanted to get back to his roots: being on a horse, overseeing the day-to-day decisions of ranch life and working out of a home office to keep his wildly divergent business interests growing.

Life was damn busy and Andi was just going to have to stay right where she was to help him run things—the way she always had.

“Where’s this coming from, Andi?” he asked, leaning one hip against the corner of his desk.

“The fact that you can even ask me that is astonishing,” she replied.

He gave her a slow grin, the very same smile that worked to sway women across Texas into agreeing with anything he said. Of course, Andrea Beaumont had always been a tougher sell, but he’d use whatever weapons he had to hand. “Now, Andi,” he said, “we’ve worked together too long for you to get snippy so easily.”

“Snippy?” Her eyes fired up again and Mac thought for a second or two that she might reach up and yank at her hair. “That is the most insulting thing...”

She took another deep breath and Mac idly noticed how those heavy breaths she kept taking made her small, perfect breasts rise and fall rhythmically. For such a tiny woman, she had curves in all the right places. Funny he’d really not taken the time to notice that before.

Andi was simply there. She kept on top of everything. Nothing ever slipped past her. But apparently this had slipped past him.

“This is coming out of the blue and I think you owe me some sort of explanation.”

“It’s not out of the blue, Mac,” she said, throwing both hands high. “That’s the point. I’ve worked for you for six years.”

“I know that.”

“Uh-huh. And did you notice I didn’t even take a vacation the last two years?”

His frown deepened. No, he hadn’t noticed. Probably should have, though, since every damn time she did take some time off, he ended up hunting her down, getting her to solve some damn problem or other. The fact that she’d stayed here, working, had only made his life continue on its smooth, well-planned path, so he hadn’t had to think about it.

“Is that what this is about?” He pushed off the desk, braced his feet wide apart and folded his arms across his chest. “You want a vacation?”

Her mouth flattened into a straight, grim line. “No. I want a life. To get that life, I have to quit. So, I’m giving you my two weeks’ notice.”

“I don’t accept that.”

“You don’t get a vote, Mac.”

“See,” he said tightly, “that doesn’t fly with me, either.”

It was like talking to two brick walls, Andrea thought, staring up at the man who had been her focus for the past six years. About six foot one, he had short, dark blond hair that in another month or so would be shot through with sun streaks. His summer-green eyes were cool, clear and always held a sort of calculating gleam his competitors usually took for affability. He was lean but strong, his build almost deceptively lanky.

Mac McCallum was the stuff women’s dreams were made of. Sadly, that was true of Andi’s dreams, too.

Six years she’d worked for him. She wasn’t sure exactly when she’d made the supreme mistake of falling in love with her boss, but it seemed as if those feelings had always been with her. A part of her had always hoped that one day he might open his eyes and really see her—but the more rational, reasonable part of Andi knew that was never going to happen.

To Mac, she would always be good ol’ Andi. She knew he saw her as he did the new laser printer in the office. Efficient, able to get the job done and nearly invisible. The raise he’d given her notwithstanding, he didn’t really appreciate just how hard she worked to keep McCallum Enterprises running smoothly—he just expected it. Well, it had taken her a long time to reach this point, but she really wanted a life. And as long as she was here, mooning after a man she couldn’t have, that wouldn’t happen. Andi had been working up to quitting for a long while now, and today had finally given her the last little nudge she’d needed.

It was liberation day.

“Go on, Andi. Go to your nephew’s game. Enjoy the rest of the day and we’ll talk about this again when you calm down.”

He still didn’t get it, and she knew that she had to make herself clear. “I’m completely calm, Mac. I’m just done.”

A slow, disbelieving smile curved his mouth, and Andi told herself to stay strong. Stay resolved. There was no future for her here. But watching him, she realized that he would spend her two weeks’-notice time doing everything he could to change her mind. Knowing just how charming he could be was enough to convince her to say, “I haven’t had a vacation in two years. So I’m going to take my vacation time for the next two weeks.”

“You’re just going to leave the office flat?” Stunned now, he stared at her as if she had two heads. “What about the contracts for the Stevenson deal? Or the negotiations on the Franklin Heating project?”

“Laura’s up-to-date on all of it and if she needs me,” Andi said firmly, “she can call and I’ll be happy to walk her through whatever problem she’s having.”

“Laura’s the office manager.”

True, Andi thought, and though the woman had been with the company for only a couple of years, she was bright, ambitious and a hard worker. And as a newlywed, she wouldn’t be spinning romantic fantasies about her boss.

“You’re serious?” he asked, dumbfounded. “Now?”

“Right now,” Andi told him and felt a faint flutter of excitement tangled with just a touch of fear.

She was really going to do it. Going to quit the job she’d dedicated herself to for years. Going to walk away from the man who had a hold on her heart whether he knew it or not. She was going out into the world to find herself a life.