Who's the Boss? & Her Perfect Stranger. Jill Shalvis

      “But you will.” Vince stared into the crowd where Caitlin had disappeared. “You will.” A muscle twitched in his cheek. “Tell me you didn’t fire her.”

      “We’ve done fine without a secretary before.”

      Joe and Vince went way back, but Joe had, in all that time, never seen Vince’s temper. He saw it now. The redhead flushed from roots to neck, and his eyes narrowed. “I can’t believe you did it,” he said furiously. “Fired another one! And she was the nicest, sweetest one we ever had.”

      “Sweet?” Joe laughed. “Nothing that looks that good is sweet, believe me.”

      Vince was disgusted. “If I didn’t know better, Joe, I’d say she scares you.”

      “She terrifies me. She’s going to destroy our office.”

      “You know what I mean.”

      “I didn’t fire her, Vince,” he said wearily.

      Vince relaxed marginally. “But you wanted to.”

      “Look, I’m stuck with her because of a stupid promise. Yeah, I wanted to.”

      “No, that’s not it—it’s not the promise,” Vince said as he studied his longtime friend. “I know you better than that. You’re running scared.” He shook his head in amazement. “And I thought you were fearless.”

      “I’m not afraid of her.”

      “Uh-huh. Well, whatever you do, don’t hurt her. I like her.”

      Vince’s voice gave away nothing, but the way his eyes were trained on Caitlin’s disappearing figure in the crowd did. Not that Joe cared, but Vince clearly did like Caitlin. A lot.

      He’d probably even ask her out eventually, Joe thought, his gut tightening yet again.

      Caitlin would probably say yes.

      Dammit. He really hated working with women.