A Bride For The Boss. Maureen Child

he had short, dark blond hair that in another month or so would be shot through with sun streaks. His summer-green eyes were cool, clear and always held a sort of calculating gleam his competitors usually took for affability. He was lean but strong, his build almost deceptively lanky.

      Mac McCallum was the stuff women’s dreams were made of. Sadly, that was true of Andi’s dreams, too.

      Six years she’d worked for him. She wasn’t sure exactly when she’d made the supreme mistake of falling in love with her boss, but it seemed as if those feelings had always been with her. A part of her had always hoped that one day he might open his eyes and really see her—but the more rational, reasonable part of Andi knew that was never going to happen.

      To Mac, she would always be good ol’ Andi. She knew he saw her as he did the new laser printer in the office. Efficient, able to get the job done and nearly invisible. The raise he’d given her notwithstanding, he didn’t really appreciate just how hard she worked to keep McCallum Enterprises running smoothly—he just expected it. Well, it had taken her a long time to reach this point, but she really wanted a life. And as long as she was here, mooning after a man she couldn’t have, that wouldn’t happen. Andi had been working up to quitting for a long while now, and today had finally given her the last little nudge she’d needed.

      It was liberation day.

      “Go on, Andi. Go to your nephew’s game. Enjoy the rest of the day and we’ll talk about this again when you calm down.”

      He still didn’t get it, and she knew that she had to make herself clear. “I’m completely calm, Mac. I’m just done.”

      A slow, disbelieving smile curved his mouth, and Andi told herself to stay strong. Stay resolved. There was no future for her here. But watching him, she realized that he would spend her two weeks’-notice time doing everything he could to change her mind. Knowing just how charming he could be was enough to convince her to say, “I haven’t had a vacation in two years. So I’m going to take my vacation time for the next two weeks.”

      “You’re just going to leave the office flat?” Stunned now, he stared at her as if she had two heads. “What about the contracts for the Stevenson deal? Or the negotiations on the Franklin Heating project?”

      “Laura’s up-to-date on all of it and if she needs me,” Andi said firmly, “she can call and I’ll be happy to walk her through whatever problem she’s having.”

      “Laura’s the office manager.”

      True, Andi thought, and though the woman had been with the company for only a couple of years, she was bright, ambitious and a hard worker. And as a newlywed, she wouldn’t be spinning romantic fantasies about her boss.

      “You’re serious?” he asked, dumbfounded. “Now?”

      “Right now,” Andi told him and felt a faint flutter of excitement tangled with just a touch of fear.

      She was really going to do it. Going to quit the job she’d dedicated herself to for years. Going to walk away from the man who had a hold on her heart whether he knew it or not. She was going out into the world to find herself a life.

      With that thought firmly in mind, she turned and headed for the door before Mac could talk her out of leaving.

      “I don’t believe this,” he muttered.

      Can’t really blame him, she thought. This was the first time since she’d met Mac that she was doing something for herself.

      Andi paused in the doorway and glanced back over her shoulder for one last look at him. He was everything she’d ever wanted and she’d finally accepted that she would never have him. “Goodbye, Mac.”

      * * *

      Outside, the June sunlight streamed down from a brassy blue sky. Summer was coming and it seemed in a hurry to get here. Andi’s footsteps crunched on the gravel of the employee parking area behind the office. With every step, she felt a little more certain that what she was doing was right. Sure, it was hard, and likely to get harder because Andi would miss seeing Mac every day. But hadn’t she spent enough time mooning over him? How would she ever find a man to spend her life with if she spent all her time around the one man she couldn’t have?

      “Just keep walking, Andi. You’ll be glad of it later.” Much later, of course. Because at the moment, she felt as if she couldn’t breathe.

      What she needed was affirmation and she knew just where to find it. When she got to her car, Andi opened the door and slid into the dark blue compact. Then she pulled her cell phone from her purse, hit the speed dial and waited through five rings before a familiar voice answered.

      “Thank God you called,” her sister, Jolene, said. “Tom’s shift ended two hours ago and now that he’s home, he says he needs to unwind...”

      Andi laughed and it felt good. “So which wall is he tearing down?”

      Jolene sighed. “The one between the living room and the kitchen.”

      While her sister talked, Andi could picture exactly what was happening in the old Victorian on the far side of Royal. Her brother-in-law, Tom, was a fireman who relaxed by working on his house. Last year, after a brushfire that had kept him working for more than a week, he built a new powder room on the first floor.

      “It’s a good thing you bought a fixer-upper,” Andi said when her older sister had wound down.

      “I know.” Laughing, Jolene added, “I swear the man’s crazy. But he’s all mine.”

      Andi smiled sadly, caught her expression in the rearview mirror and silently chastised herself for feeling even the slightest twinge of envy. Jolene and Tom had been married for ten years and had three kids, with another on the way. Their family was a sort of talisman for Andi. Seeing her sister happy and settled with her family made Andi want the same for herself.

      Which was just one of the reasons she’d had to quit her job. Before it was too late for her to find what her heart craved. Love. Family.

      “And,” Jolene was saying, “I love that my kitchen’s about to get a lot bigger. But oh, Lord, the noise. Hang on, I’m headed out to the front porch so I can hear you.”

      Andi listened to the crashing and banging in the background fade as her sister walked farther away from the demolition zone.

      “Okay, backyard. That’s better,” Jolene said. “So, what’s going on, little sister?”

      “I did it.” Andi blew out a breath and rolled her car windows down to let the warm Texas wind slide past her. “I quit.”

      “Holy...” Jolene paused and Andi imagined her sister’s shocked expression. “Really? You quit your job?”

      “I did.” Andi slapped one hand to her chest to keep her pounding heart from leaping out. “Walked right out before I could change my mind.”

      “I can’t believe it.”

      “You and me both,” Andi said. “Oh, God. I’m unemployed.”

      Jolene laughed. “It’s not like you’re living on the streets, Andi. You’ve got a house you hardly ever see, a vacation fund that you’ve never used and a rainy-day savings account that has enough in it to keep you safe through the next biblical flood.”

      “You’re right, you’re right.” Nodding, Andi took a few deep breaths and told herself to calm down. “It’s just, I haven’t been unemployed since I was sixteen.”

      The reality of the situation was hitting home and it came like a fist to the solar plexus. If this kept up, she might faint and wouldn’t that be embarrassing, having Mac come out to the parking lot and find her stretched out across her car seats?

      She’d quit her job.

      What would she do every day? How would she live? Sure, she’d had a few ideas over the past few months about what she might want to do, but none of it