“You sure about this party?”

“I promised,” she said on a groan.

“How about a quickie?” He nuzzled her neck, loving the way she softened against him, so willing, as eager for more as he was. “There’s always time for a quickie.”

“Later, Matt.” She sighed. “It’ll have to be later.”

Every time they made love, his feelings grew stronger. Surely, that would be enough to get them through the troubles to come. Whenever he tried to think past this vacation, his brain shorted out. Wait and see was all he could come up with.

Weird. He wasn’t a guy who waited for things to fall into place. He knew you made your own luck, but, for some reason, he was content to ride this out. A bad sign, but looking into Candy’s sweet face, he refused to figure out exactly what this meant.

Inside the fence that marked off the Sin on the Beach party, he waited while Candy signed them up for some mortifying activity or other.

“Matt!”

He spun in time for Ellie to throw her arms around him. “Sara told me what happened. I’m so happy for you.” She kissed his cheek. “I knew this would work out.”

“So this was one of your setups? To get me and Candy together?” Not that he minded a bit now.

“I always knew you’d be good together.”

“You never said anything to me.”

“Would it have done any good?” She put her hands on her hips.

“No. But, I gotta say, I’m going to let you nose into my business more often if this is what results.”

Ellie laughed, her eyes shiny with triumph. “I’m glad to hear it. Candy wasn’t easy to convince, either. I had to twist her arm big-time. That Q-E-2 thingie-the personality test? Her results had her flipped out, but I convinced her that if she brought work here she could prove to you what a good team leader she’d make!”

“Team leader? What?” He stared at Ellie. “What do you know about the teams?”

“Just what Candy told me. That you have to appoint leaders to a bunch of teams and she wants to be one. Didn’t you talk about that?” She hesitated. “Sara said you’d worked it all out, so I just assumed-”

“No one’s supposed to know about the teams.”

“Uh-oh. Yeah, that was a secret. I forgot. Someone told her anyway. Pretend I didn’t say anything. She’ll talk with you, I know. The point is she’ll be great at it, right?”

“This is not good, Ellie.” His head spun. Candy wanted to be a product manager? That explained her obsession with showing him Ledger Lite and going on about new challenges and her ideas. No wonder she sounded as though she were interviewing for a job half the time. She was.

The music swelled, irritatingly loud, and bonfire smoke burned his eyes, thanks to the contacts he wasn’t used to yet.

“It’ll be fine. Just talk to her.” Ellie searched his face, worried, then seemed to notice someone approaching from behind him. “Here she comes. Don’t let me ruin this, Matt.”

He turned and saw that Candy held a margarita in each hand and wore a big grin.

This would be bad.

“You need to go, El,” he said firmly. “I need to talk to Candy alone.”

“Can I explain it to her at least?” She answered her own question. “No. You’re right. But don’t be blunt, for God’s sake. For once use some diplomacy.”

“I’ll handle it,” he said, making a shooing motion.

She turned and left before Candy reached him.

Candy held out a margarita. “Where’s Ellie going?”

Matt shrugged off the question. “Let’s find a quiet place.” He put his arm around her shoulder, his gut aching.

“You bad boy. At a party…?” She glanced at her watch. “We do have a few minutes before the first event. There’s a spot.” She pointed at a cove where the embers of a fading campfire glowed red.

She thought he was after that quickie. If only. Dread filled him, cold and gray, but delaying the truth wouldn’t help either of them.

When they reached the spot, Matt smoothed sand from a rock that would hold them both. They sat together and he placed his untouched margarita on the sand at their feet.

She sipped hers, then looked up at him. Her smile faltered. “What’s wrong, Matt?”

There was no easy way to approach this, so he just said it. “Ellie mentioned that you want to be a product team leader.”

“I…um…She told you?”

“She thought you and I had already discussed it. Something Sara said about us working things out. How did you hear about the teams anyway?”

“I overheard Daisy on the phone and-”

“Talked her into giving you the scoop?” He smiled, knowing how persuasive Candy could be. “So, this whole working vacation deal was about the promotion?”

“In a way.” Candy grimaced, seeming embarrassed. “I knew you had a bad impression of me, so this was a chance to show you what I can do.”

“I know what you can do, Candy. That’s never been an issue. My problem is figuring out which team to put you on-where you and the team would benefit the most.”

“You’re putting me on a team, not in charge of one?”

He nodded. “The team leader job is mostly coordination and facilitation. Meetings, planning sessions. Stuff you’d hate.”

“Do you like meetings and planning?” she asked sharply.

“No, but-”

“But you do them because you have to. So can I. The point is that you don’t see me as a leader. Why not?” She was angry now, he could tell, and hurt.

“You’d be bored in a week, Candy. You wouldn’t be using your strengths.”

“And what are those?”

“Creativity, divergent thinking, innovation.”

“I have other strengths. Leadership, for one thing. And I can do planning. My marketing plan references the strategic plan, for example, and if you’ll look at it-”

“I’m sorry, Candy. I’ll push your Ledger Lite idea with Scott, and I know you’ll make a great contribution to whatever team I put you on, but-”

“You won’t even consider me?” She looked utterly bereft. She blinked fast, fighting tears.

God, he’d made her cry. What a jerk. He had to fix this. “Maybe you have a preference for what team you want to work on? I can’t promise, of course. That would be favoritism and we have to avoid that.”

She stared at him, swallowed hard, made her hands into fists. She was shaking, too.

All he wanted to do was give her what she wanted somehow. “Would you prefer the financial products team? That’s where Ledger Lite is. It’s dialed in, though. Not much need for creativity, so I’m not sure you’d like that…”

He babbled on about the other teams, giving her details he shouldn’t be sharing with an employee-anything to help her feel better about the situation.

“You never considered me. I can’t believe it. And nothing I can show you will change that?”

“I know your talents, Candy. You didn’t need to scheme with Ellie to show me.”

“It wasn’t a scheme. It was a demonstration.” Now she was getting angry. “It’s because of my reputation, isn’t it? Because everyone thinks I play around too much.”

“Of course not.” He stopped, realizing there was some truth to her point. “It is true that if you were to become a team leader, we’d have to deal with staff perceptions about you, but that’s not the point. The point is-”

“And what are those perceptions? That I’m a party girl? That I’m not serious about work?”

“That’s not the issue.”

“The issue is that you don’t respect me, Matt.”

“Of course I respect you. I respect you too much to put you in a position where you can’t shine. Why would you even want that?”

“Because I want to get ahead, dammit. I want to move to the next level. But you respect me too much to do that for me, right?” Her words dripped with sarcasm.

“I can’t, Candy. It’s not right for you or for SyncUp. I want to make you happy, believe me, I do. I love you.”

“Then give me the job. That’s what will make me happy. If you love-” She stopped herself, as if shocked at what she’d been about to say and what he’d actually suggested-giving her the job because he cared about her.