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Seven
They arrived at the inn exactly when his car’s navigation system said they would. Addison remained stoically silent for the remainder of the trip, and Bran, who was still trying to decide what the hell to think about their conversation, had remained silent as well.
She liked him.
And she’d called him an idiot.
He swallowed another laugh. Truthfully, that’d been cracking him up on the inside since she’d said it. He’d never heard her speak to him with anything less than professionalism and respect.
Which meant something he’d said really bothered her.
It was damn interesting, if you asked him.
Here he’d been barely banking his attraction for her this entire trip only to learn that the street went two ways.
He’d made a decision not to pursue her, to go have sex with someone else and dismiss the idea of him and Addi in any relationship other than the one at the office, but now...
Hell.
Now.
Screw the justifications he’d been making. Work was important, but hadn’t he also argued that play was just as important? Plus, he and Addi weren’t at work right now, were they? He’d thought she’d been offended about Taylor’s suggestion that they should date each other—that Addi didn’t want anything to do with him. Now he knew that wasn’t true and it opened up a whole host of ideas, none of them rated PG.
The real bitch of it was that Taylor had been right. Hell, Royce had been right. He’d been the one to tell Bran that a woman who liked him was right under his nose. Bran had blown off the comment, convinced that the hearts-in-their-eyes couple had sipped from Cupid’s Kool-Aid cup.
He parked and shut off the engine, leaning forward to take in the building in front of him. The inn was swanky and posh, smaller than he’d expected and fairly secluded. Surprising, considering the tourist-rich town. On the lake below Jet Skis and boats zipped along its surface.
He retrieved his bag from the trunk and, after a back and forth of “you don’t have to” and “I got it,” also won the right to carry in Addison’s bag as well.
They were adults. They could navigate attraction. Especially away from work. Here, Royce and Taylor and Gia, or even his father Jack who popped in on occasion, weren’t lurking around every corner. Here, they were just Addi and Bran. Which was new...and exciting.
At the front desk, Addison gave her name. The woman behind the counter consulted her computer.
“Lucky you!” the woman exclaimed. “We have a king-size room available. You two won’t have to share a double.”
The laugh that’d been trapped in his chest nearly escaped. This poor lady and her horrid timing...
“No, no,” Addi told her. “We’re not sharing. He’s my boss.”
“Yowch,” he said in response. Addi ignored him.
“My apologies for the assumption.” The woman—Ava, her nametag read—tapped her computer. “In that case, I’ll put one of you in the king room and one of you in the double. They’re the last two rooms we have available for occupancy, and side by side. So you’re still lucky.”
She took this mix-up a lot better than his coworker, who appeared, at best, mortified.
Ava smiled at him. “Are you with the Joseph Hart group as well, sir?”
“Sort of.”
Ava flicked her gaze from him to Addi and back again.
“Uh, thanks for the ride.” Addi grabbed the handle of her suitcase and her key card. “I’ll settle in.”
She fled the scene and he watched her, half bemused, half confused.
“Will you be staying the entire weekend, Mr. Knox?”
He’d planned on staying the night and driving back tomorrow morning, but that was before Addi admitted she “liked him.” Not to be an eighth grader about it, but that seemed significant. Especially since she hadn’t looked him in the eye since.
