Change of Heart (The Flanagan Sisters, #2) by Claire Boston Read Free Book Online Page A

verge of apologizing, but he was already out the door. It was for the best. She was his boss. They could be friendly, but they could never be friends. It would only complicate matters. It was far better if she kept the roles clear and defined. Far less messy that way.
    But the guilt hung over her for the rest of the day.
    ***
    E van spent the afternoon nutting out the details with Basil and doing some preliminary sketches. He was fascinated by the game and had a much better sense of what was needed. He was packing up when a tall, slim, African American man walked over to the desk.
    “Hey, Hayden,” Basil said. “What’s up?”
    “Nothing much. I thought I’d drop in on my way past and find out how everything is going.”
    Basil frowned. “Carolina not happy with something?”
    “Nothing like that. I haven’t stopped by the hub in a while and wanted to check things out.”
    Evan waited patiently for an introduction. He wasn’t buying Hayden’s excuse. There was something overly casual about it.
    “Sorry, we haven’t met. I’m Hayden.” He held out his hand and Evan shook it.
    “Evan.”
    “Hayden is Carolina’s personal assistant,” Basil told him.
    That was interesting.
    “What is it you’re developing, Evan?” Hayden asked.
    “I’m doing the artwork for Basil’s project.”
    “Fantastic. I know Carolina is really excited about it.”
    “She recommended Evan to me,” Basil said.
    “Really? How did you two meet?”
    Evan didn’t like the prying. He didn’t know this guy, didn’t know what his relationship with Carly was like, and he wasn’t going to give him more information than he had to. “We met at an exhibition on the weekend.”
    “Ah. She mentioned there was a good artist there. It must have been you.” He checked his watch. “I’d better get going. I’ll see you around.”
    Evan watched him go. What the hell was that about?
    Basil cursed quietly under his breath. “Do you think she’s going to pull the plug on her sponsorship?”
    “Why? Because her PA came down?”
    Basil nodded. “Hayden never comes down here unless he’s doing something for Carolina.”
    “I got the feeling he was checking me out,” Evan said, hoping to allay his fears.
    Basil snapped his fingers. “Of course. You asked her out. I bet he wanted to see who you were.” He sighed. “That’s a relief.”
    Was it? Who did this PA think he was – Carly’s minder? Evan shook his head, not sure what he was getting himself in for. Did he want to put up with this kind of shit?
    In his mind he saw Carly standing on the podium of the gallery, controlling her nerves, and then today, smiling so happily when she’d helped someone with their code. She was an enigma.
    Yeah.
    He definitely wanted to know more.
    ***
    C arly shut down her computer at six o’clock. She only had an hour before she was meeting the organizers of a charity fun run to discuss details. They had chosen the location – The Wooden Spoon – and she had no doubt she’d be expected to pick up the bill. She sighed and took her change of clothes into her private bathroom. She wanted to have a shower, but she didn’t have time to straighten her hair again. She’d have to make do with refreshing her makeup.
    She braced her hands on the sink and closed her eyes. What she really wanted to do was go home and go to bed.
    The lunch meeting with the owners eager to sell their software had gone nowhere. They had set a ridiculous sum on the sale price and weren’t going to budge. They’d been reading too many stories of developers making it rich, but the fact was, their software wasn’t different enough to warrant spending so much money. When she’d told them she wasn’t interested, they’d become nasty, effectively ensuring she’d never do business with them again. On returning to her office, she’d had Hayden put them both on her blacklist.
    She sighed. Some days she couldn’t figure out how she’d come to this. It seemed like one day she