Page 10 of Back for More

And now I’m thinking about all the times I kissed my boss’s daughter.Thanks a lot, Kate.I rub my face with both hands. “You’re fired. Go home.”

She claps her hands gleefully. “This is so cute!”

“It’s not cute,” I grumble.

“Awww! You had a little young love thing with the boss’s daughter!”

“It wasn’t love.”That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

“Ooooh, but it was lust! And something more, I’ll bet!” She squeals. “Oh look at you!” She comes around to my side of the desk, messes up my hair, and kisses the top of my head. “I haven’t gotten any kind of reaction from you about any woman before now! You’re adorable.”

“I am definitely not adorable,” I say as I run my fingers through my hair.

“You are, though! Oh Em Gee… Lily Barnes is the one who got away, isn’t she?”

“Speaking of going away—don’t you have work to do?”

“Unearthing the emotional man beneath the workaholic stud muffin is my most important job here.”

“Do not refer to me as a ‘stud muffin.’”

Fortunately, Kate’s phone line rings, so I’m spared any more of this torture.

Instead of returning to her desk, she answers on my phone. “This is Kate… Good to know,” she says. I can tell by the way she’s grinning that HR is calling to tell her that Lily is on her way over. “I will let him know.” She lowers her voice. “What’s she like?” She watches me as she listens. “Ohreally?…Shut up. Seriously?” She giggles. “I can’t wait! Talk to you in a bit.” She hangs up.

“Kate, I do not want you telling anyone about—”

“Oh calm down, Mr. Huffypants. Your dirty little secret is safe with me. I shall send the lady in as soon as she arrives…” She waddles back out of my office with more of a spring in her step than when she came in.

“It’s not a dirty little secret.”

“You’re right!” she says as she closes the door behind her. “It’s huge!”

I tug down on the cuffs of my shirt and assemble myself so it looks like I’m in the middle of something really important on my computer. I mean, Iamdoing something really important on my computer. I’m trying to close an eight-million-dollar deal on a resort in Ashland. That’s my job. That’s my priority. This whole Lily Barnes thing is just a temporary glitch in my day. Things will go back to normal soon, I’m sure of it.

I’m pretty sure of it.

I just don’t know which normal it’s going to go back to—the way things were before she came back or the way things were before she left.

The truth is, I don’t want things to go back to the way they were before she came back. I was bored. I like my work, but when Lily left, she took a spark of life with her.

Probably best if we find a new normal.

A professional one.

For now.