Center Stage
Page 11

“Well, I don’t sleep around.” He let his hand drop, and then he walked back to their dinners. “I expect that if a woman is sleeping with me, she’s not sleeping elsewhere.”
“Are you a possessive man?”
“Over the women I care about, I am.” He hadn’t had to think about that.
“So, what do you want out of this?”
He picked up the trays and held them in his hands. “I want to enjoy my time with you as I always have. It just happens that I didn’t do so well keeping my hands off of you. I’d like to think if we’re going to be having sex that we’d have some kind of agreement to have sex with each other and not just when one of us isn’t busy with someone else. I’d like to think you’ll eat your cold dinner and climb into bed with me. Maybe we could have a little more of what we had upstairs before we fall asleep. Tomorrow I’d like to wake with you in my arms, have a cup of coffee, read the paper on my day off, and watch a playoff game. But I’d like you to be here for it.”
He walked to the table and set down their dinners. “That’s what I want, Arianna. I’m not going to ask you to marry me. I’m not even going to ask you to stay more than this one time. I’m too old to start over, but I’d sure like to make my time worthwhile. And, since I haven’t stopped thinking about you since Carlos’s wedding, I figure you must mean something to me.”
He pulled out a chair and motioned to it as if he wanted her to sit.
She did so, with the empty glass still in her hand.
“Honey, that’s all I got.”
She wasn’t sure she’d ever heard the man talk that much ever.
Now she was speechless. She nodded her head and sat down.
They ate in silence, and with John, that was comfortable.
And the more that she wanted to hate the fact that she’d crossed the line that she’d hope she wouldn’t cross because now things were a bit awkward, she couldn’t help but want to say she was his girlfriend. Was it completely crazy to think that perhaps she’d already fallen in love with him?
Chapter Seven
Monday mornings didn’t bother John, but this one had him itchy.
He didn’t want to be on edge. After all, he’d spent a great deal of Sunday lounging in his recliner with Arianna either on his lap or very nearby. They’d made love multiple times and eaten the last of his Hungry Man meals. The only thing that should have been making him so antsy was that he’d had to leave.
But now he had to face Zach.
John paced in front of Mary Ellen’s desk. He was too early. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t open the door and wait on Zach’s couch. He did own a key to Zach’s elevator, but it wasn’t right. The whole thing wasn’t right.
Production meetings on Monday mornings were supposed to be about the build, not about how he’d produced with Zach’s sister-in-law. To make matters worse, he was about to ask Zach for something that meant commitment—all for a woman.
He loosened the button on his shirt. The air seemed to be restricted from his head.
Zach’s office door opened from the inside, and Mary Ellen stepped out.
“John, you’re early.” She smiled as she sat down at her desk. “You can go in. He’d never mind having you early.”
“Is he in a good mood?”
“A little sleep deprived, but that’s to be expected.”
John nodded. “He should have taken more time off.”
Mary Ellen shook her head and opened the file on her desk. “Right. And when was the last time you took off?”
He couldn’t even remember, but suddenly taking a day, or even a week, off to hold Arianna in his arms on some secluded beach sounded more appealing than working. That told him he was in trouble. He loved his job. No woman had ever taken his mind off of it.
John stepped into Zach’s office and shut the door behind him. It was bad enough he was nervous. He didn’t need Mary Ellen hearing what he’d come for.
Zach was on the phone. When he saw John, he looked down at his watch and then back up at him. Yeah, he’d thrown everyone for a loop by being two hours early.
He sat down on the couch until Zach finished his phone conversation and then stood when Zach hung up.
“You’re early.”
“So I was told.”
“Everything okay? You don’t even have your files.”
John looked down at his empty hands and realized he’d had no intentions of bringing them. Dear God, he was losing his mind over a woman.
“I’ll come back for the meeting later.” He stood from the couch and walked toward Zach’s desk. “I had something else to talk to you about.”
“Sit down. What’s up?”
John took a seat. He wasn’t comfortable. This was what sleeping with Arianna had done to him. Now he wasn’t comfortable in Zach’s presence.
“Rockwell Theater.”
“Slated for demolition for an office building.”
John nodded. “But it’s still for sale. The owner wants someone to renovate it. He doesn’t want to sell so he hasn’t committed yet.”
“You know an awful lot about this.” Zach leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Arianna mentioned something about moving home and having a community theater. She’d like to teach or something like that.”
“And you’re thinking it would be a good place for her?”
“It was a thought.”
Zach moved in and rested his arms on his desk and clasped his hands together. It was a move John was familiar with. It meant he was thinking business.
“Can she afford property like that?”
John shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t even told her about it. I thought you should look at it. I’d be willing to invest in it and see what she could do with it.”
“You’d invest?”
“I live in a basement and drive a truck with two hundred thousand miles on it. I have some money stashed away.”
The business look changed and the corners of Zach’s lips curled into a tight smile. “You’d do this for her.”
“It’s an investment.”
“It sure is.”
John stood up. “Listen, if you think it’s a bad idea…”
“No.” Zach stood and walked around the desk. “I think it’s a wonderful idea. I just want to make sure that you’re sure about this.”