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he'd turn around and knock the
man upside his head.
    Not that Abbey was like a sister
to him, he still felt protective. She didn't deserve to have to deal with this
in the workplace—any place for that matter. Visions of soft green eyes, bouncy,
brown, shoulder-length hair, and wide-eyed innocence racked his gut, his chest
tightened. Bruce paused in the hallway outside his office, pulled out his cell
phone and called security. "Please escort Mr. Hartman from the building
immediately," he emphasized immediately. Otherwise, Bruce wouldn't be
responsible for his actions.
    Abbey was dusting bookshelves
when Bruce hobbled into his office. “Hi. I wasn’t sure what you wanted me to do
next,” Abbey said, waving the dust rag in her hand.
    Bruce nodded. “That’s fine. It
was probably better that you were in here anyway.”
    Pausing, Abbey twisted to look at
him. “What do you mean?”
    “I had to let… someone go.”
    “Oh.” Abbey’s brow furrowed then
she turned back to the bookshelves and began dusting again. “Anybody I know?”
    “Mr. Hartman.” Bruce waited a
moment to see what her reaction would be. Abbey’s rag stopped, but she didn’t
look at him. “Seems he’s prided himself as being a ladies man. Unfortunately, he’s crossed the line with a few employees. He’d even
threatened to fire people.”
    Bruce knew Abbey was upset when
she began dusting the same shelf she had finished minutes before. “Abbey?”
    “What?” her voice was barely a
whisper.
    Bruce maneuvered himself around a
leather wingback chair and stopped behind her. He carefully laid his hands on
her shoulders and gently eased her around to face him. A few tears trickled
down her cheeks. His heart constricted in his chest. “Abbey, why were you
really fired?”
    “I wasn’t fired.”
    “What? But I thought…”
    “Gary wanted me to… compromise
myself and I wouldn’t, so I quit. He followed me to his door and hollered,
'You’re fired!' and I knew that if I said anything, it would look like I was
retaliating for being fired." Abbey's tears changed from a trickle to a
stream as she told her side of the story.
    Bruce balanced his weight on his
good foot and embraced Abbey. The scent of apple shampoo tickled his senses—her
hair smelled delicious. He chastised himself for allowing his mind to stray.
Extracting a handkerchief from his back pocket, he handed it to her.
    “Thank you.”
    “Abbey, I’m sorry for what
happened. Mr. Hartman was out of line. It happened before my company took
over." Bruce inhaled a deep breath. "But I feel it is our duty to
reinstate you and compensate your pay. And since it appears we now have a
position open, I’d like to ask you if you would be willing to take over Mr.
Hartman’s previous job?”
    “I… I can’t.”

 
    Chapter Seven
     
    Week Four
    Abbey
chewed her lower lip while she drove. She'd contemplated Bruce's permanent job
offer, and as much as she'd like to take it, she couldn't. Somehow, during the
time of playing Good Samaritan, she'd started to develop feelings for Bruce.
Maybe her feelings only stemmed from helping right a wrong and caring for him
and inadvertently caused her to care too much. Whatever the reason, she
couldn't put herself in an awkward situation, especially after what happened
with Gary. The last thing she needed was to be accused of inappropriate
behavior in the workplace.
    She
tapped the index finger of her left hand on the steering wheel as she drove.
Normally she went to her own church on Easter. It wasn’t the thought that of a
different church that bothered her, or that she had feelings for Bruce. Today
she would meet Bruce’s mother. That thought alone terrified her. What if his
mother didn’t like her?
    “What
are you thinking about?” Bruce shifted in the seat next to her.
    “Nothing,
really.”
    “Nothing?
Well either you’re concentrating really hard on the road or you’ve taken off
into a distant land. I hope it’s not the latter of the