Adopted Parents. Candy Halliday

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СКАЧАТЬ about Hallie’s stepmother, however, sent Nate’s thoughts in a different direction. As soon as he had an opportunity to talk to her alone, he needed to win Roberta over to his way of thinking.

      Roberta had a lot of influence over Hallie even if they did butt heads on a regular basis. If Roberta sided with him, eventually maybe Hallie would, too.

      The bell dinged and the elevator doors opened.

      Nate stepped aside and politely motioned for Hallie to go ahead of him. She stared at him for a second before she shifted her purse strap to her shoulder and stepped forward. Nate was not prepared when Hallie suddenly grabbed his arm and marched him into the hallway.

      “We need to talk before this meeting.”

      She pointed to the unisex restroom directly across from the elevator. The next thing Nate knew, they were in the tiny bathroom together with the door locked. Hallie had her back against the door as if to prevent his escape.

      So much for flying under the radar.

      There was no getting along with this woman.

      “Talk about what?” Nate demanded.

      “You know exactly about what,” she said. “What we should have talked about ten years ago. We should have had it out back then and gotten it over with.”

      Nate frowned. “And that’s what you want to do now? Stand here in a public bathroom and finally have it out?” He hoped she would see how ridiculous that sounded.

      The determined look on her face said she didn’t.

      “That’s exactly what I want to do,” she said. “We’re minutes away from meeting with a psychologist. If we don’t put our differences to rest before this meeting, we’re both going to end up in therapy.”

      “Fine,” Nate said, throwing his hands up in the air. “You want to have it out, Hallie? Go for it. Blast away.”

      She crossed her arms. “That Friday night after my first week at the station when we all went out for drinks after work at the club. Tell me the truth. If you weren’t interested in me, Nate, why did you insist on taking me home?”

      Nate’s laugh was cynical. “You mean after you took your blouse off on the dance floor?”

      Her chin came up. “I was hot and I had a camisole on underneath my blouse and you know it. In fact, even without it, I was wearing more than most women in that club.”

      “Then maybe it was the way you twirled your blouse around over your head like a stripper before you threw it into the crowd. Yeah. I’m pretty sure that’s when I realized you’d had a little too much to drink and it might be wise if I made sure you got home safe.”

      “Safe?” She snorted. “I sure wouldn’t call what we were doing in the back of that taxi any kind of safe. If I remember right, we were all over each other.”

      “I’d had my share of alcohol that night, too,” Nate said in his own defense.

      One eyebrow came up when she said, “But you were sober on Saturday when you went to see the station manager to have me transferred, Nate. And that’s what I’ve never understood. Why didn’t you just call me and tell me you weren’t interested in me? Why did you let me walk into the station on Monday morning when everyone knew we’d left the bar together Friday night and embarrass me like that?”

      Nate let out a long sigh and ran a hand through his hair as he tried to sort out what he wanted to say. And yes, he was stalling. And who wouldn’t? He was trapped in a bathroom with a woman who had been seething for ten long years over what he’d done to her.

      Nate could tell the truth.

      Or he could lie about it.

      Either way, he doubted Hallie would ever be satisfied.

      Nate opted for the truth. “You were a kid, Hallie. You were too young for me. But I knew if we continued working together, we would end up in bed. That left me with two choices, and both of them sucked. I could be a jerk and sleep with you. Or I could be a jerk and have you transferred. I did what I thought was best for you under the circumstances. And that’s the honest truth.”

      IT WAS THE LAST THING Hallie had expected Nate to say.

      And the worst thing Nate could have admitted.

      She couldn’t even take any satisfaction in his admission that he had been attracted to her—which came as a shock to Hallie. Maybe that satisfaction would come later. But at the moment, Hallie was pissed.

      “And you couldn’t have told me I was too young for you? To back off? That it wasn’t going to happen between us?” Hallie demanded. “You really thought destroying my self-esteem and humiliating me in front of everyone at the station was the best thing you could do for me? Under the circumstances?”

      “I guess this is the wrong time to point out that transferring you to the production department actually worked out pretty well for you.”

      Hallie’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t you dare make light of what you did to me, Nate. I won’t stand for it. Everyone thought we slept together, even though we didn’t. And that left me looking like the stupid bimbo you tossed aside after you got what you wanted.”

      His expression softened. “You’re right,” he said. “I shouldn’t have embarrassed you like that. And I should have apologized to you a long time ago.”

      “Then why didn’t you?”

      Nate kept staring at her.

      Hallie stared back. In fact, it felt good staring openly at Nate like this, instead of one of them doing what they usually did and looking away if their eyes happened to meet.

      Maybe too good.

      “Let me ask you this,” Nate said. “What if I had apologized to you after I had you transferred? And what if I’d told you the truth that I thought you were too young for me? Would you have backed off and accepted the fact that it wasn’t going to happen between us?”

      He caught Hallie off guard with those questions.

      She thought of all the times she’d brought a date to Thanksgiving dinner, or to Christmas, or to any other function at Janet and David’s when she knew Nate was going to be there. It had been her way of thumbing her nose at Nate’s rejection, her proof that other men desired her whether Nate did or not.

      Over the years, she’d dated more men, she’d broken up with more men and she’d turned down more men than she cared to remember. And the sad truth was, not one of them measured up to this man.

      But did she have the guts to ’fess up and tell him the truth?

      “Yes, I would have accepted your apology,” Hallie finally said. “But no, I wouldn’t have backed off. I was crazy about you. I would have pursued you to the depths of hell and back trying to prove you wrong.”

      “And that’s why I had you transferred,” Nate said. “I knew I couldn’t survive another taxi ride.”

      Hallie СКАЧАТЬ