Until We Touch. Susan Mallery

in need of an organ donation—the cause Jack supported the most. Sometimes he was asked to reach out to a family personally. Other times he provided direct funding for the family to stay near a child in the hospital. He’d done PSAs and been in several print and internet campaigns. Larissa was his point of contact. She could gauge how much he was willing to do at any given time and when it was better for him to simply write a check.

      Her other duties were of a more personal nature. He was between girlfriends, so there were no gifts to buy or flowers to send. Because, in that respect, Jack was a fairly typical guy. He liked women and they liked him back. Which meant there was a steady stream of them through his life. Lucky for him, his parents lived on the other side of the world. So he didn’t have a mother demanding that he settle down and produce grandchildren.

      She’d barely taken her seat when Jack walked into her office.

      “You’re late,” he told her, sitting across from her and stretching out his long legs. His words sounded more like a statement than a complaint.

      “I told you I would be. I had to see my mother off and then go pick up Dyna.”

      One dark eyebrow rose. “Dyna?”

      “My new cat.” She rested her elbows on her desk. “I told you about her, remember?”

      “No.”

      Which was so like Jack. “That’s because you weren’t listening.”

      “Very possibly.”

      “She’s a rescue.”

      “What else would she be?”

      She waited for him to say more or tell her why he was here. There was only silence. The kind of silence that she understood as clearly as words.

      She’d first been hired in 2010 when Jack had left the L.A. Stallions and joined Score. He’d been a silent partner since the firm’s inception and Larissa would love to know how Taryn had reacted to Jack changing from the guy who had fronted her the cash to an actual working member of the team. She would guess there had been fireworks. Or maybe not. Jack and Taryn had a past.

      Larissa had graduated from college with plans to work for a nonprofit. Paying jobs in her chosen field had been impossible to find and she’d quickly learned she couldn’t support herself on volunteer work. So she’d gone looking for another job.

      She wasn’t the type of person who enjoyed faceless corporations and had settled into waitressing while putting herself through massage school. Then a friend had told her about a job as a personal assistant at a PR firm. That had sounded like a better paying option than her shifts at the diner.

      Her interview had been with Taryn. It had lasted two hours and had ended with words that Larissa had never forgotten.

      “Jack is a good-looking guy with beautiful eyes and a great ass. But make no mistake. He’s not interested in more than a couple of nights with any given woman. If you fall for him, you’re an idiot. Still interested?”

      Larissa had been intrigued. Then she’d met Jack and she’d been forced to admit Taryn hadn’t been lying about Jack’s appeal. She’d taken one look at his studly manliness and had felt the shivers clear down to her toes. But instead of flirting with her, the former quarterback had rubbed his shoulder and sworn.

      She’d recognized the pain and reacted instinctively. She’d dug her fingers into the scarred and tense muscles, all the while explaining that she was only a few weeks away from graduating from massage school. She’d gotten a job offer thirty seconds later.

      In the past four years Larissa had become a part of the Score family. By the end of the second week, she’d ceased to see Jack as anything but her boss. Six months later, they were a good team and close friends. She regularly chided him about his choices in women, made sure he used ice and anti-inflammatories when his shoulder acted up and offered a daily massage to any of “the boys” and Taryn. She loved her job and she loved that they’d moved to Fool’s Gold. She had a new kitty waiting at home. Life was very, very good.

      She returned her attention to Jack and waited. Because that was the kind of silence in the room. The one that said he had something to tell her.

      “You seeing anyone?”

      The question surprised her. “You mean like a man?”

      He shrugged. “You never said you dated women, but sure. Either sex will do.”

      “I’m not dating right now. I haven’t met anyone in town and besides, I’m too busy.”

      “But it would be a guy?”

      Amusement danced in his dark eyes.

      Jack was one of those men blessed by the gods. Tall, handsome, athletic, charming. He pretty much had it all. What very few people knew was that there were demons he carried around with him. He blamed himself for something that wasn’t his fault. A trait Larissa could relate to, because she did it to herself all the time.

      “Yes, it would be a guy.”

      “Good to know.” He continued to study her. “Your mother is worried about you.”

      Larissa slumped back in her seat. “Tell me she didn’t talk to you. Tell me!”

      “She talked to me.”

      “Crap. I knew it. She stopped by, didn’t she? I knew there was something going on.” Her mother was nothing if not determined. “Let me guess. She wanted to know if I was seeing anyone. I hope you told her you didn’t know. Or did you tell her I was? Because that would seriously help.”

      “She didn’t ask me if you were seeing anyone.”

      “Oh.” She straightened. “What did she ask?”

      “She wants me to fire you so you’ll move back to Los Angeles, fall in love, get married and give her grandchildren.”

      Larissa felt heat flare on her cheeks. Humiliation made it hard to think, let alone come up with something reasonably intelligent to say.

      “She already has two married daughters,” she muttered. “Why can’t she leave me alone?”

      “She loves you.”

      “She has a funny way of showing it. Are you going to fire me?”

      Jack raised both brows this time.

      She drew in a breath. “I’ll take that as a no. I’m sorry. I’ll do my best to keep her away from here. The good news is Muriel is due in three months and the new baby will be a distraction.” In the meantime Larissa would figure out a way to convince her mother that she’d moved to Borneo.

      “Anything else?” she asked.

      “Yeah, there is. Your mother said you’re never going to settle down and get married because you’re secretly in love with me.”

      * * *

      JACK HADN’T KNOWN how Larissa was going to react, but he’d guessed it would be a show. She didn’t disappoint. Her face went from red to white and back to red. Her mouth opened and closed. With her jaw tightly clenched, she muttered something like “I’m going to kill her,” but he couldn’t be sure.

      Nancy Owens’s words had hit him like a linebacker. Larissa in love with him? Impossible. For one thing, she knew him better than anyone except Taryn and to know him was to understand he was all flash and no substance. For another, he needed her. Love meant a relationship and having a relationship meant she would eventually leave. No. There was no way Larissa could be in love with him.

      But he’d been unable to shake the words and had realized he had to get the truth from the only person who actually knew.

      Larissa drew in a breath. “I don’t love you. We’re friends. I like working for you, and the charity work is terrific, and I know you have my back, but I’m not in love with you.”

      Relief eased the tension