Page 43 of Betting on her Best Friend
Once the call was disconnected, Maddie thanked the sweet woman again. “And make sure he keeps his paws out of your turnovers.”
“Will do, Ms. Aleksander.”
Taking a deep breath, Maddie reshouldered her Kate Spade laptop tote and entered the office, shutting the door behind her. Head bent over an open file, his neat, dark hair gleamed from the afternoon light spilling in from the floor-to-ceiling windows. His broad shoulders and muscular arms stretched the fabric of his crisp white shirt to where the sleeves were rolled up, revealing tanned forearms braced on the desk. Never one to waste a single second, he continued scrawling something on the papers in front of him as he spoke.
Lincoln Patterson. Ages ago, he’d been her friend. Then, for a moment in time, he’d been so much more. Afterward, he’d been almost nothing. And now…well, now he was more of a pain in her ass than anything.
Finally, he put the pen down.
“Ms. Waternoose, it’s a pleasure to—” The rest of his proper greeting fell away. His demeanor slid from professional to amused in an instant, his large frame easing back into the supple leather of his chair and his mouth hitching into that annoying smirk he usually had around her.
“Well, now,” he said, his deep brown eyes giving her an appreciative up-down perusal. “I didn’t realize you’d changed your last name, Mads. Lot of paperwork to go through for such an awful choice, don’t you think?”
“Who’s to say I didn’t elope and get a quickie, unexpected marriage like everyone else in my family? Maybe that’s the reason for the name change.”
Hot possessiveness flashed in his eyes, sending tingles up her spine. It was gone so fast, she wondered if she hadn’t imagined it. Imagined? Or hoped? She mentally scowled at her subconscious and told it to mind its own beeswax. She did not hope that Lincoln Patterson felt possessive of her. She hoped the exact opposite, in fact.
“Impossible,” he said, back to his good-natured self. “You’d never settle for anything less than the wedding of your dreams, so that’s not it.”
Maddie both hated and loved that he knew that about her.
“Aha!” he said as he pushed to his feet, then rounded his desk to lean back against the front edge. “Mr. Waternoose. That was the name of the purple villain dude in that animated movie you like.”
Her lips quirked up against her better judgement. “Monsters Inc. I’m surprised you remembered.”
“There’s not much about you I’ve forgotten, Mads. Of course, some things stand out in my mind a lot more than others.” His voice had dropped low on that last part. His gruff words crossing the distance to tease out their shared memory of stolen kisses and scorching passion.
The night that everything changed. And everything stayed the same.
Refusing to play his favorite game of Getting Under Madison’s Skin, she forced herself not to outwardly react. (Unfortunately, she had zero control over the flighty things in her stomach and the heat pooling between her thighs.) Instead, she asked, “Aren’t you going to ask why I’m here?”
“I think that’s pretty obvious. You’ve finally accepted that we’re inevitable, so you devised a plan for a surprise seduction in my office wearing nothing but red lingerie and a trench coat.”
“I’m wearing a blouse and slacks,” she deadpanned.
“And somehow you look just as sexy in them as you do in lingerie. I’m assuming, anyway.” He smiled and winked, making her roll her eyes so hard she was lucky they didn’t get stuck looking at the back of her skull. There was no way around it; she needed to be blunt and get to the point of the meeting because he never would.
“I want to sell you my shares in ACI.”
Somewhere a record scratched. His expression turned serious. Contemplative even, with his brows knitting over the bridge of his nose. “Why the hell would you want to do that?”
“I’m starting my own business. I’ve been pre-approved for a 504 loan. The only thing I need now is the money for the down payment. I’ve been saving for this from the time I received my first paycheck from ACI, but it’s not enough. By selling you my shares, I can make up the difference.”
Lincoln rubbed two fingers over the sexy stubble—no, not sexy stubble; just regular old, late in the day like every man gets, stubble—on his chin. “Why not sell them to Dylan? If I buy enough of your shares, I’ll have more stake in the company than he does. Don’t you think that’ll bother him?”
“First, you know damn well Dylan couldn’t care less if you have more shares than him. It’s not like you’d be the major shareholder or anything, so he’s not about to let that ruin your disgusting bromance.”
He broke out in a goofy grin. “You’re right. He’ll always be my bro-tato chip.”
Cue another eyeroll. “Second, I can’t go to him or my dad for this because neither of them will treat this like a business transaction. They’ll look at it like they’re helping Maddie with her little side project and tell me not to worry about the shares. That’s not what I want. I don’t want charity or leniency. I want a proper business transaction to start my business. Full stop.”
He nodded. “I can respect that. Okay, I’ll get the paperwork drawn up,” he said, straightening and heading back to his chair. “How many shares do you want to sell?”
Maddie took a deep breath and released it quickly. “All of them.”
Lincoln stopped so suddenly he had to brace himself to prevent face-planting on his desk. His eyes were practically bugging out of his head. If this wasn’t such a serious matter to her, she’d be laughing her ass off. “All of them? That’s like half a million dollars.”
She winced. “I know. That’s the other reason I’m asking you. You were obsessed with money even when we were kids, learning how to invest and play the stock market like some kind of freakish finance prodigy. So, I know—or at least I hope—you have the capital to be able to buy my shares until I can buy them back.”
