Her Sexiest Mistake Read online

  “You were gone more than a minute.”

  Mia looked over at her. “What?”

  “You were gone like ten minutes. You get a quickie in his office or something?”

  “No, I didn’t get a—You know what?” She shook her head. Forced a laugh. “You are not going to make this my fault. You came to me, Hope. I let you stay in my house, eat my food—”

  “You don’t have any food.”

  “—rattle my windows, and then I ask you for one thing. To wait in the car for a minute—”

  “Ten.”

  Mia could actually feel brain cells exploding. She glanced at the teen, with her stringy black hair, black gloss, black eyeliner that looked painted on, and still had no trouble reading loud and clear the antipathy coming off her in waves. Nothing was going to be enough to break that, or her years of pent-up anger.

  Just as nothing was going to cut through the years it had taken Mia to put a shine and polish on her lowly early existence.

  There was no middle ground here.

  She turned off the engine and got out of the car, walking to her trunk where she kept a spare pair of shoes. Teardrop Jimmy Choo slides, and though the color was just a little off for her outfit, that was the least of her worries. “Remember, this is a professional place of business,” she told Hope. “No funny stuff, no loud music, and especially no sticky fingers.”

  “Gee, Aunt Apple Pie,” Hope said in a slow, exaggerated drawl, cocking her head slightly to the side as if maybe she wasn’t the sharpest crayon in the box. “Whatever will I do with myself if I can’t square dance or steal stuff?”

  Mia stopped short and turned to face her. “And don’t even think about calling me that again.”

  “Ma’am, yes, ma’am.” She snapped to attention, mockingly saluting her.

  Oh, yeah. It was going to be a helluva day.

  They entered the building. Mia had long ago stopped gawking at the gorgeous architecture of the glass and steel all around her, at the shiny marble flooring of the foyer bigger than her entire hometown. There was a flower cart, a donut shop where she bought Hope breakfast, an expensive jewelry shop, the glass elevators that rose so high into the sky they practically vanished, all surrounded by lush green tropical plant life cultivated throughout the bottom floor.

  Hope hadn’t even seen anything like it before, and she totally gawked, her hard, cynical face softening as it tipped back to catch all that she could.

  “Pretty amazing, huh?” Mia showed her badge to the doorman to get into the elevators.

  Hope closed her mouth and her expression and lifted that careless shoulder. “It’s okay.”

  Mia shook her head, and they took the elevator in silence, even when the high-speed electronics whirled them up at a dizzying speed.

  Hope merely clutched at the handrail, her face practically glued to the glass.

  On Mia’s floor, they entered a set of brass and glass double doors and stepped into the organized chaos that was Mia’s entire world. Phones rang, well-dressed people hurried back and forth carrying files and laptops, talking, laughing, more talking…

  Gen, behind the huge reception desk, covered the mic near her mouth and said to Mia, “They just got here.”

  Mia nodded and pulled Hope around a corner, where Tess sat at her large L-shaped desk. She also wore a headset and was talking into it. “No, that’s unacceptable. That’s right, but we’re nothing if not flexible. How ’bout we meet you halfway?” She began handing over a stack of phone messages and another stack of files to Mia while she continued her phone conversation. “That’s great, uh huh, gotcha. Buh-bye now.” She looked at Mia. “I’ve given them coffee and donuts and set them up in the conference room. You’ve also got that Danville account meeting right after this one, and they’ve called to confirm. Steven, Dillon, Janice, and Tami are all planning on being there with the artwork and presentation. And later the fire marshal is coming back to interview. Oh, and then a staff meeting where you-know-who is going to be hailing you with questions, so I’ve made a list—”

  “Tess.” Mia put her hand on Tess’s arm. “You stopped breathing. You know what the doctor said about that.”

  “Ha ha. If I’m anal, it’s your fault. You’re a slave driver.” But Tess let out a long breath, then drew another, pressing a hand to her belly. “This is all giving me ulcers. Did I tell you I put the Anderson people in conference room three because your office still reeks of smoke from yesterday, speaking of which, nice makeup job on the brow.” Taking another breath, she blinked at Hope, who stood off a little to the side, chewing on her black fingernails, looking more than a little out of place.

  “Hello,” Tess said.

  “This is Hope,” Mia said. “She’s my…” She broke off, because, damn, this was going to bring up a whole host of questions she didn’t want to answer.

  “Long-lost daughter,” Hope interjected in the thickest Southern voice Mia had ever heard. She held out a hand. “Yeah. My momma here gave me up at birth. Left me in the Piggly Wiggly Dumpster, actually, but don’t judge her, she’s served her time.”

  Tess’s mouth fell open.

  Mia resisted banging her head down on Tess’s desk. “Funny, Hope. Tess, this is my niece, car thief and wannabe comedian.”

  Hope rolled her eyes.

  “She’s going to need something to do,” Mia decided aloud. “Just keep her away from your car keys.”

  Hope rolled her eyes again.

  “What did I tell you about that?” Mia asked her. “I’m going to get a jar—”

  “Yeah, yeah, so I can just shake my eyeballs instead of roll ’em. I remember.”

  Tess smiled warmly at Hope. “Oh, my goodness. You’re just like her!”

  Both Hope and Mia gaped at her. “What?”

  Tess came around her desk to hug Hope tight. “I love your aunt dearly, and I’ve been dying to meet some of her family. The two of you are two peas in a pod.”

  Over her head Hope stared in shock at Mia.

  And if Mia hadn’t felt that same shock, she’d have laughed at the look of horror on Hope’s face.

  Alike?

  “You really need to lay off that morning crack pipe,” Mia muttered to Tess. “Now let go of the girl and give her some slave labor filing or something. You do know your alphabet, right?” she asked Hope.

  Hope started to roll her eyes, then stopped. “I know that my favorite Aunt Apple—”

  Mia bared her teeth and Hope stopped talking, but her eyes were still lit with more than her fair share of trouble.

  Damn it. Mia took an exaggerated deep breath. “Just try to be good until I can come for you.”

  Hope smiled sweetly. “You know it, my very dearest, dearest aunt.”

  What could she do? Child services would frown on locking the kid in the closet, so with no other choice she went off to her meeting and worked on forgetting it all. Ted, and the upcoming meetings. Tess, and the questions in her eyes. The impossible, Tums-inducing Hope. The irritating, infuriating Kevin McKnight.

  Okay, make that sexy as hell Kevin McKnight.

  Especially if he wasn’t talking. My God, when that man wasn’t intent on making her brain explode with frustration, he could really turn her on.

  She grabbed some things from her office to take into the meeting, then did a double take at her plant.

  Its leaves were dragging on the floor and no longer quite green. “Damn it, if you die, I’ll kill you.” She hurried out and stopped outside the conference room. Pasting a smile on her face, she entered.

  And an hour later she was in the midst of outlining her plans for the creative personnel, production department, media planners and buyers, and the goals and objectives of the campaign. When she needed access to another file, she picked up the phone in the middle of the big conference table and dialed Tess’s extension.

  “Danny’s Dunkin’ Donuts,” boomed a voice in her ear. “What’s your pleasure this morning?”

  Mia stared at the phone. �€