Page 48

“I’d say so,” I said, letting my eyes travel the length of her bare arms. I watched as the hairs on her arms stood on end, and smirked.

I reached across the small table and dragged the tip of my index finger down her forearm, my own heart fluttering at the light touch.

“Cold?”

Her mask of indifference fractured just a little, and she stilled under my touch. I pulled back after a second too long and she quickly rubbed some warmth into her skin.

“Must be the air conditioning in here,” she said feebly, so at odds with the swagger with which she’d walked in.

“Shall I ask them to fix it?”

“No! Uh, I mean, no thanks. I’m fine.”

I smiled. “Okay.”

“Anyway,” she hedged, tucking her hands beneath the table to hide her arms. “Did you want to talk about something?”

I tilted my head, studying the delicate shape of her face.How?I wanted to ask.How are you unaffected by me?

A dangerous thought teetered at the very edge of my conscious, tempting and terrifying. Maybe Frankie just… wasn’t interested in me.

I shook it off as quickly as it had settled, reminding myself that I had nothing to fear in that department. She’d worn something pretty, after all.

“Can’t I just ask you to lunch because I want to see you?” I countered, watching her brows climb toward her hairline. Her freckles darkened as she flushed.

It was too easy to fluster her.

“You wanted things to stay professional,” she told me, and I frowned in consideration.

“Iambeing professional,” I said, the lie sitting like ash on my tongue. “I want to see my store manager. We don’t exactly work side by side, unfortunately. So I have to rely on our time together… elsewhere.”

She visibly swallowed and glanced away. “So, you just want an update on the store?” she asked. Was that… disappointment tainting her voice?

“I want a lot of things,” I said truthfully, my eyes never leaving hers. She blinked. “But let’s start with the simplest thing. Are you hungry?”

She stared at me for a solid second before nodding in silence.

The waiter took our order and vanished, and I turned back to Frankie.

“I’m glad you agreed to meet with me again,” I said quietly, resting my chin on my fist. “I’m guessing I have Vanessa to thank?”

“She only agreed to cover for me because it was you,” Frankie muttered, and her cheeks went pink. “B-because you’re the boss, obviously. So, it’s technically work.”

“It doesn’t have to be.”

Frankie frowned a little, a tiny dent forming between her brows. “But you said that-”

“We could be friends outside of our professional relationship,” I finished for her, though I knew that wasn’t what she’d meant to say. “Unless you’re feeling uncomfortable. I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do.”

“I’m not uncomfortable,” she said, and a small tightness in my chest loosened at that. “I’m just confused, I guess.”

“About what?”

“You,” she confessed and I went still. “I can’t get a good read on you. I think one thing and then you do the complete opposite. Like this lunch, I have no idea what your motive is.”

“I don’t have an agenda, if that’s what you mean.”

Her disbelief shone clear in her sharp eyes.