Return To Rose Cottage: The Laws of Attraction. Sherryl Woods
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about finished. Have you figured out how to cook them?”
“Rest easy,” she said. “My sister has coached me through it. We probably won’t die of food poisoning.” She regarded him with apparent amusement. “By the way, why are there four bakery boxes on the kitchen table?”
He shrugged. “I couldn’t make up my mind what you’d like best.”
“So you bought out the place?”
“Pretty much—at least everything chocolate,” he admitted. “You don’t have to eat it all.”
“But I probably will,” she admitted with a sigh. “Chocolate is what gets me through stress.”
“And you’re stressed now?” he asked.
She hesitated, then regarded him with surprise. “Not right this second, no.”
He grinned. “I told you there were advantages to a day in a rowboat.”
“Apparently so. I haven’t thought about work all day long. That’s like some sort of miracle.”
“Then let’s keep that track record intact and get dinner on the table.”
Ashley nodded at once. “Good plan. If I start to bring up anything work-related over dinner, cut me off.”
Josh wasn’t sure he’d be able to agree to that indefinitely, but he could for tonight. “No work. Got it.”
In the kitchen, they worked side-by-side. He made the salad while she fried the fish. When the plates were ready, they sat at the kitchen table and Ashley lifted a glass of wine in a toast.
“To relaxation,” she said.
“It’s a wonderful thing,” Josh added.
“Even if it can’t last forever,” she said, looking just a little sad.
“Hey, that borders on mentioning work,” he scolded. “Maybe we need to have a penalty.”
Competitive woman that she was, Ashley immediately seized on the idea, just as he’d known she would.
“Such as?” she asked at once.
“We each have a pot and put in a dollar for every infraction. We’re on the honor system. We have to put the money in even if the other person isn’t around. At the end of the week, the one with the fewest violations gets all the money.” He grinned. “And gets treated to dinner by the loser.”
She considered the scheme thoughtfully, as if weighing her odds of winning. “I can do that,” she said finally.
Josh doubted it, but he lifted his glass. “To relaxation,” he toasted one more time.
They’d no sooner taken a sip than his cell phone rang. He could have sworn he’d left it turned off on his dresser, but apparently it had been stuck in the pocket of his jacket.
“Aren’t you going to get that?” Ashley asked.
He debated the wisdom of it, then finally reached for his jacket and grabbed it out of the pocket. “Yes?”
“Have you lost your mind, Madison?”
“Mr. Williams,” he said, barely containing a sigh.
“I’ve spoken to Stephanie,” his boss said. “She tells me the two of you have called off your engagement.”
Josh barely clung to his temper. “We were never engaged, sir.”
“Semantics. We all knew you were headed in that direction.”
“You were the only one who really believed that,” Josh corrected. “Fortunately Stephanie and I realized before it was too late that it would be a mistake. Look, sir, this isn’t really a good time. Perhaps we can discuss this later.”
“Now’s good for me,” Creighton Williams insisted. “You realize what this is going to do to your future here at Brevard, Williams and Davenport, don’t you?”
“I assume it’s over. If so, that’s fine.”
His ready acceptance of the end of his career clearly caught his boss off guard. “Now let’s not be hasty, Madison. You’re a good lawyer. This might get you off that fast track, but I don’t want to lose you over this. Besides, Stephanie made it clear she’d be furious if I fired you. We’ll work something out when you get back.”
“That’s very generous of you, sir, but I’ll have to get back to you on that.”
“What the devil are you saying?”
He finally risked a look at Ashley and noted that she was listening avidly to every word. “I’m saying that I’m on vacation. We’ll discuss it another time. Thanks for calling. I mean that, sir. It was very gracious of you.”
He shut the phone off completely and barely resisted the urge to toss it out the back door. He waited for the litany of questions to begin.
“Go ahead, ask,” he said finally.
She grinned. “That was about work, right?”
He nodded, uncertain where she was going. It didn’t seem to be in the direction he’d expected.
Ashley held up a slip of paper with little marks on it. “I counted half a dozen references to work, minimum. That’s six dollars in your pot, please.”
Josh fought a laugh. “You counted that conversation in our bet?”
“Of course. We had a deal. We sealed it with a toast before the phone rang.”
“Oh, brother, you must be hell on wheels in a courtroom.”
She grinned. “That’s another one. Seven dollars.”
He frowned at her. “Dammit, I was referring to your work, not mine.”
“Did we differentiate?” she inquired sweetly.
He sighed. “No, we did not differentiate. This is going to be a lot trickier than I expected.”
“Which means we should probably change the subject, even though I’m winning,” Ashley conceded with a magnanimous air. “Do you know anything about baseball? I’m a Red Sox fan myself.”
Josh stared at her, not entirely sure if she was serious. “Really? When was the last time you went to a baseball game?”
She faltered a bit at that. “I don’t actually go to the games,” she confessed eventually. “That doesn’t mean I don’t follow the team.”
“Then you watch them on TV?”
“Not really.”
“Read the sports pages?” he asked, his amusement growing.
“Okay, okay, I don’t know a damn thing about baseball,” she finally said. “But people in the office mention it. Obviously it’s something some people care about. I thought you might be one of them. I was just trying to make conversation.”
Josh grinned and held out his hand. “I’ll take a dollar, please. You mentioned your office.”
She stared at him with apparent dismay. “That doesn’t count.”
“Of course it does. Office, work, it’s all the same thing.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sakes,” she muttered, as she dug in her purse and tossed a dollar onto the table. “I’m still winning.”
“And we have a week to go. Don’t get overly confident, sweetheart. It’s unbecoming.”
She frowned at him. “Seen any good movies lately?”
“Not a one. You?”
“No.”
“Read any good books?” he asked, fully