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“We might need to go to San Diego this afternoon,” he told her now, glancing over with gray eyes that always saw more than his characteristically laidback demeanor indicated.
She tried not to make a face. She’d been experimenting with online dating recently, as one of her efforts to get over Jake, and she had a first date this evening. “Okay.”
“Is that a problem?”
For the twenty-thousandth time, she silent cursed his acute powers of observation. He could obviously tell she didn’t like the idea of the trip. “No. It’s fine.”
“How’s your car?”
“It’s working fine now. Your guy did a good job.”
She’d had a clatter in her engine that no one had been able to figure out until Jake recommended an out-of-the-way mechanic he used.
“How much did he charge you?”
“Not very much. Thanks for recommending him.”
“Sure.” The elevator doors slid open just then, so he stepped out into the hall and immediately reconnected the phone call with Stew.
By the time they’d reached their office suite, Anne suspected the trip to San Diego was likely to happen.
Her date would have to be rescheduled.
A year or two ago, she’d entertain daydreams about their work trips turning into romance, but she’d stopped torturing herself with those kinds of fantasies
When Jake was working, he was all work.
And he was always working.
She was trying to juggle the tray of coffees and dig her keys out of her satchel when Jake reached over to take the tray from her hand. He was still talking on the phone, but he held the coffees as she unlocked the suite.
It was a little gesture. No big deal at all. Certainly nothing to feel soft about.
Any halfway decent person would have done the same thing.
But her chest was feeling overly full when she took the tray back from him.
He was distracted with his call, trying to give Stew some advice about handling a difficult vendor, and he didn’t immediately release the coffee.
So, for a minute, they were standing about two inches apart, both holding onto the tray. Anne could feel the heat from his body, smell the scent of his soap and his clothes, see the faint stubble on his jaw, even though she knew he’d shaved this morning.
He met her eyes, and she lost her breath, suddenly wanting to touch him so badly she could hardly hold herself back.
He trailed off his sentence and lowered the phone slightly, gazing at her with an expression that looked deep and almost awed.
Then he asked, “Did you want something?”
She almost slumped in disappointment at the prosaic question, but managed to murmur, “The coffee.”
“Oh.” He released the tray and returned to his conversation.
She handed him the coffee she’d bought for him—Colombian, black—and went over to her desk to get ready for the day.
Damn, she was an idiot, always letting herself hope for no reason at all.
She’d worked for him for years, and he’d never showed her the slightest sign of real interest. An intense look now and then didn’t mean anything. Besides, he was her boss, and he would never make a move on her—simply because of that.
Maybe a lot of men had no qualms about having affairs with members of their staff, but Jake was not one of those men.
So she kept trying to put her feelings for him aside and find another romantic interest, one there might be a future with. She’d asked her friends to set her up, and she’d be doing the online dating sites, but so far she hadn’t had much luck in finding someone who even came close to Jake in her mind.
She knew Jake dated, but he hadn’t had a serious girlfriend in a few years. She suspected he just didn’t want to invest in a relationship, since work took up all of his time and energy. One day, that would change, though, and she dreaded the day he fell in love.
Of course, it might end up being a good thing. It might finally drill into her head the reality she should have accepted long ago.
There was nothing in the world wrong with her. She was smart and nice and competent and pretty enough on most days.
She had dark hair and eyes, a slightly-too-curvy figure, and a generally healthy appearance with clear skin and pink cheeks. Someone in college had called her appearance “wholesome.” Anne would have preferred to be sexy and glamorous, but that just wasn’t going to happen.
