No Time Like Mardi Gras by Kimberly Lang Page A

in-box of women who wanted him sight unseen—and didn’t seem to care what he did for a living.
    After a week of wondering and worrying, this was not at all what he’d pictured their reunion would be but Jamie’s attitude was cold and distant, as if she was a one-night stand he’d neglected to call the next day.
    Which was quite ironic, now that he thought about it.
    But what had he expected, really?
    Screw it. “I’ll get your watch.”
    “What?”
    He opened the drawer where he’d stuck her watch the other day and pulled it out. As he walked around the desk, he held it out to her. “Your watch. I assume that’s what you came for.”
    The watch suited this Jamie—expensive, well-coiffed, aloof—further adding to the mystery. She reached for it and their hands touched for a second. It sent a shiver of electricity and excitement up his arm, giving his temporarily tamped-down libido a jolt of awakening. Jamie, though, practically recoiled from the contact, pulling away quickly as though she’d been burned.
    Enough was enough. “Unless there’s something else, I really need to get back to work.”
    “Actually, that’s not why I came.”
    “If you’re not here to get seriously involved—” he nearly choked on the words “—and you’re not here for your watch, why are you here?”
    Her eyes flashed, calling him an ass without saying a word. Then she took a deep breath and seemed to compose herself. “I’ll make this quick, since I know you’re busy. I need you to make this Cinderella crap stop.”
    Ah, so that’s what pulled her out of hiding. “I’m not sure I can. And even if I could, why do you even care?”
    Clearly exasperated, she stalked over to his couch and sat. “I had a job interview this morning, Colin. When the HR person saw that I was brunette and named Jamie, she laughed and asked me if I was your Cinderella. I was too horrified to deny it quick enough, and she was rather shocked to realize I was. Needless to say, since your little article didn’t paint me in the most flattering light, it was a very uncomfortable interview, and I doubt I’ll be getting a second one.”
    The fact she was job hunting meant not only had she not left town, she wasn’t planning to, either. The frustration and anger spiked again. What else had she been less than truthful about? “Not my article,” he corrected. “That was all Callie. I didn’t know about it until after.”
    “I’ll admit I’m glad it wasn’t you who wrote it. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s out there. Announce you’ve found her or that you made it up as a joke, something, anything to make people quit talking about it.”
    Granted, this was an annoying mess, but Jamie seemed way too upset over it. Especially considering that there was no way to prove—aside from her elbows—that she was the Jamie in question. “You’re overreacting just a little, don’t you think?”
    “I just got out of a relationship that ended in the most ugly way imaginable.” While he’d normally dismiss a statement like that as hyperbole, there was an undertone to her words that made him believe it. “I moved here to get away from all that and start fresh. Now I’ve got a reputation to live down and I’ve barely had time to unpack yet.”
    He had his pride and Jamie was doing a damn good job trying to dent it. As juvenile as it was, it made him less willing to swing into action—even if he could push back against it, which was questionable. “It will fade away on its own. That’s the nature of these things.”
    “I know that. But it doesn’t really help me now. When I’m job hunting.”
    He could mention that this wasn’t really an ideal time for him either, but other than the inconvenience of it, he really couldn’t say it was a bad thing. For him. He lost nothing letting it play out.
    At the same time, he knew how hard it was to build something, to make something of yourself. He’d been in a similar place before, feeling