Page 51 of Broken Boundaries

Her shoulders slump in disappointment. “Seriously? He just… took you home?”

“Yes. I don’t exactly know what you think is going to happen between me and my ex’s father. He is not interested, and he is my boss, remember? It would be so inappropriate.”

“I know, but damn. I was really hoping for something. A little slip-up, maybe.”

As much as I want to give her all the details of my night, I know it’s not a good idea. It would just give her hope that something might actually happen. We flirted. I checked him out. He checked me out. That’s it. There’s an invisible line that neither one of us is willing to cross. And I’m fine with that.

“Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you. But hey, at least Dawson got my number. So maybe that will be something.” I don’t really want it to be something, but I feel like it will make Jazz feel better if she knows I’m not sitting around moping.

“Yeah. Dawson’s a good guy, too. I’m surprised he hasn’t already blown up your phone.”

“You’ll be the first one to know as soon as he does.”

“Good! Alright, I gotta get back to cleaning. I’ll come see you later.”

“Ok, have fun.”

She starts to walk away, but then she stops when she sees the sandwich bag Brooks left for me.

“Where’d you get that?”

“Oh, uh, Brooks brought it for me.” Her eyes go wide, and I quickly add, “It doesn’t mean anything.”

“He brought you lunch!” she whisper-shouts.

“So? He knew I was gonna be hungover.”

“He likes you!”

“No, he probably feels bad for me,” I try to explain.

“Men do not bring lunch to women that they don’t like. It’s a fact. He thought of you!”

“Don’t you have rooms to clean?” I ask. I don’t want her to get any sort of skewed view of what is going on between Brooks and me. But I also don’t want to get my own hopes up. I can’t ignore the butterflies I get every time he’s near me. I’m so very obviously attracted to the man. As much as I don’t want to admit it, I like that he does little things to show me he’s thinking about me, like the coffee this morning, the lasagna dinner, and taking me on a trail ride. It does feel like… something. And I’m trying very hard to convince myself that it’s all in my head.

Jazz turns to walk away but not before singing, “Aspen and Brooks sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”

My entire face turns red, and I’m glad no one else is here to see it.

I grab my sandwich and sit down at the desk to eat it really quick.

By the time I’m almost finished, Mayor Cunningham and Brooks walk out of the hallway.

“Pleasure doing business with you, Brooks.”

“Glad it’s a pleasure for one of us,” Brooks says back. I secretly love it when he acts all feisty.

“Have a great afternoon, Aspen.” Mayor Cunningham waves to me as he leaves.

“How’s the sandwich?” Brooks asks once it’s just the two of us. “I wasn’t sure what you wanted on it, so I kept it basic.”

“It’s perfect. Thank you. How’d your meeting with Mayor Cunningham go?”

“Oh, you know. Same old, same old. Wants to talk ‘donations’ for the Halloween Festival.”

“Halloween?” I can’t even think about Halloween when it’s August and still a hundred degrees outside during the day.

“It’ll be here soon enough. And he’s gotta put down a deposit on a few things.”