gave me an even more impressive report on you than last week. Keep up the great work, my girl. Youâre making the company look good.â
Holly closed her eyes briefly and gave her head a small shake. This didnât make any sense at all. It seemed they hadnât tattled that sheâd missed two daysâ work. That or they hadnât noticed, which didnât seem likely . . . unless neither the boss nor his daughter had bothered to show up themselves. But that couldnât be. Someone had to have been there to answer Gladysâs call and give that stellar report.
âSo, what did you call about, Holly?â Gladys asked when she remained silent.
Grimacing, she bit her lip briefly as she tried to come up with an excuse for calling, and then said, âI just wanted to remind you that I can only work part-Âtime again after this week.â
âOh, yes, your classes start again,â Gladys murmured, the sound of shuffling papers coming through the phone. âWell, thatâs okay. Iâll put Nancy on the days you canât work,â she assured her, and then asked, âYou did schedule your classes so you have two days free each week again, didnât you?â
âYes. I e-Âmailed my class hours to Beth on Monday,â Holly assured her and glanced toward the ceiling when James called her name from upstairs.
âOh, good, good,â Gladys said. âIâll get them from her and work out how to handle the Sunnyside taxes. In the meantime, I should let you go. You need to leave for work soon, Iâd guess.â
âYes. Thank you.â Holly said good-Âbye and hung up, then headed upstairs to see what James wanted.
She found him in the bathroom, staring down at the clothes sheâd stripped off earlier to take a shower. The black jeans, T-Âshirt, leather jacket and makeshift bandana all lay in a crumpled pile on the floor. Holly bit her lip, knowing he would want to know whose clothes they were. In his rush to get to work last night he hadnât seemed to notice the borrowed clothes she was wearing, but he wasnât in a rush now and there was no mistaking them for anything but a manâs clothes. He would want to know whose they were and how sheâd got them.
âJeez, Holl, you give me hell all the time for leaving my socks laying around instead of putting them in the hamper, and then you go and just leave all of your clothes where you take them off?â he asked with a combination of amusement and irritation. âI saw them there when I came in, but then forgot they were there and tripped on them on the way out of the shower. I could have knocked myself out or something if Iâd hit my head on the tub or toilet. As it is I think I wrenched my shoulder catching myself on the counter.â
Holly let her breath out on a slow sigh. He hadnât noticed they were a manâs clothes. She supposed it was hard to tell from a crumpled heap . . . maybe. Her gaze shifted to his shoulder as he rubbed at it with one hand, his expression pained. James was shirtless, wearing only his pajama bottoms. He had a nice chest, muscular enough to have some definition, but not overly so, and with just the slightest paunch. He was an attractive guy. Always had been. It had always made her wonder if she even would have caught his eye if they hadnât been thrown together by the lives their parents had led.
Hollyâs parents were archaeologists. Sheâd spent the first eighteen years of her life being dragged from one dig to another. Most of that time sheâd lived in tents and had been homeschooled in camp . . . by Jamesâs mother. His father had also been an archaeologist and a lifelong friend to her father. Theyâd worked together. Jamesâs mother, a teacher before sheâd married his father, had traveled with them to look after her and James and had schooled them both. Holly had grown up with James.
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