her whole, it wouldn’t be enough to lessen her mortification.
This was just fabulous. On top of everything else, now he was going to see her as nothing but an office gossip.
* * *
His reputation preceded him yet again, Justin thought as he hesitated outside Carli’s office door. He’d caught just enough of the women’s conversation to realize it was absolutely about him. Also that it was mostly one-sided. Carli had barely spoken a word. In fact, she appeared ready to give her assistant a hard shake.
The other woman’s back was turned to where he stood, but Carli had clearly seen him.
Damn.
This was awkward. Unable to come up with anything appropriate to say, he simply cleared his throat. Jocelyn, the assistant, actually jumped in her chair.
Carli didn’t take her disapproving eyes off her when she spoke. “Justin, something else I can do for you? Jocelyn was just leaving.”
“Yes, yes, I was.” Jocelyn bolted up and ran out of the room, making sure not to look Justin in the eye.
Carli motioned to the newly abandoned chair in front of her desk. “Please, have a seat.” She glanced at her watch. “Though we don’t have a lot of time before the staff meeting.”
Her cheeks were flushed, and she wouldn’t meet his eyes either. Still awkward.
“It’s okay,” he began, then sat. “This won’t take long.”
“What can I do for you?”
Justin swore under his breath. This was going to be even more uncomfortable after he’d walked in on the previous conversation. But it was too late to back out now. Besides, he owed her an apology. He took a deep breath. “Listen, I know we got off on the wrong foot. I mean this morning. At my father’s house.”
She quirked an eyebrow in surprise.
“I’m not usually so...”
“Rude?” she supplied as he trailed off.
“That’s probably an accurate description. In my defense, I’d been traveling all night. Not that it’s any kind of excuse.”
“I agree. It’s not any kind of excuse.”
Wow. She was a tough one. He didn’t need this; he was only trying to apologize. Albeit doing a terrible job at it. But instead of being annoyed by her directness, he found it somewhat intriguing. Refreshing in a way. Most people didn’t bother to challenge him under any circumstances. Carli Tynan was clearly not like most people. Her gaze pinned him where he sat. He hadn’t noticed before just how her eyes appeared to go from deep chocolate to hazel when the light hit her face a certain way. Or the fullness of her lips, even as tightly pursed as they were at the moment.
“You’re right. I just wasn’t expecting to see anyone in my father’s house that early. Especially someone like you, coming down the stairs at that hour. My mistake.”
Her eyes grew wide, and the color in her cheeks heightened to a deep shade of red. Her grip on the pen she held grew so tight that her knuckles turned pale. This did not bode well, he thought.
“What are you saying exactly, Mr. Hammond?” she asked through gritted teeth. Uh-oh. He’d just gone from being Justin to Mr. Hammond in the span of a few moments.
“Nothing. I mean, I’m simply trying to clear the air. To explain my reaction upon seeing you.”
“Maybe you should do that. Explain exactly what your reaction was when you first saw me this morning.”
She threw it out like a challenge. One he wasn’t foolish enough to even attempt to accept. He’d begun this apology all wrong. But the conversation he’d overheard between Carli and her assistant had thrown him off. Heck, Carli herself kept throwing him off. It was like he didn’t even know how to behave around her.
Where was it coming from?
“Never mind. It’s not important,” he said, hoping she would drop the whole matter.
Apparently, that was too much to hope for. He should have known better. She immediately shook her head. “No, please clarify. I’m very interested in what exactly it is you’re trying to say.”
The woman was relentless. “Look, it’s not important. I simply wanted to offer an apology.”
She studied him in a way that made him feel like a lab specimen under a microscope. Perhaps some sort of insect. If he wasn’t so damn uncomfortable, he would have almost laughed at her scorn at him.
“Which you still haven’t done,” she said.
“What?”
“I’ve yet to hear an apology. Or a valid explanation, for that matter.”
His mouth grew dry. Damn it, he was a successful executive, known for his cutthroat business style and ruthless negotiation skills. How was this woman cutting him off at the knees? And why was he almost enjoying it?
“Um? Explanation?”
She gave him a smirk of a smile, like he’d been caught. He supposed he had. “For why you behaved as you did. I was simply delivering a file at your father’s request. And instead of introducing yourself, you dismissed me and practically shooed me out of the house.”
Justin cringed at her description. He couldn’t believe he’d been such a boor to her. Nor could he believe the way he was botching this apology now. Not only had be managed to insult a valuable Hammond employee, he couldn’t even apologize for it in a sufficient manner. True to form, when it came to anything Hammond related, Justin was woefully lacking. He may have started his own wildly successful consulting firm and grown it from a one-man operation to a major international business. But when it came to being a Hammond, all he’d ever managed was failure. More proof that he didn’t belong here back in Boston. Or at Hammond’s Toys for that matter.
He had to pull himself together. Find a way to explain himself. But how? It’s not like he could come out and admit to jumping to the worst conclusion—suspecting Carli to be his father’s mistress. Though it was obvious she’d figured it out. If looks could kill and all that.
Nothing to do now but be completely straight. And hope the damage could be repaired somehow. He and Carli would be working together for the next several days. She was clearly a major asset to this corporation, and he had managed to insult her in a major way. He had to fix this.
“The truth is there is no excuse or explanation for the way I behaved. Please believe that it had nothing to do with you personally and everything to do with my father.”
She remained silent, not ready to give an inch.
“I can only say I’m sorry,” he added. “And that I will somehow find a way to make it up to you.”
She shrugged with derision, and though she didn’t say the words, her response was clear: as if you could.
* * *
Maybe she was being petty, but Carli wasn’t going to give him the benefit of a response. Justin Hammond had made a horribly insulting assumption about her and the older man she worked for. That’s something she would not readily forget.
Still, she couldn’t help but feel more than a little touched at his genuine apology. Even given how badly he’d botched it up. He really did seem to feel remorseful. If the circumstances were different, if he weren’t the boss’s son and instead they were somehow new friends, she might have explained to him that she’d been dealing with such impressions all her life.
But he was a Hammond. And they definitely were not friends.
She would do her best to help him while he was here and hope that his tenure at Hammond’s Toys was a short one. The events of this morning proved that Justin was walking in blind. He’d had no clue who she was or just how much she was in charge of. She didn’t have time to babysit