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But, she seemed to enjoy the way I was checking her out, and she grinned.
“You like what you see?” she asked, giving me a flirty little twist of her body.
“I always like what I see when you’re in the room,” I told her. “You better be careful, or we’re going to wind up going back to your room and forgetting about the zoo entirely.”
“That’s not a threat is it?” she asked.
“That’s a promise.” I grinned at her, laughing when she blushed. It never got old, and I loved that I could get her to do that with just a comment here and there.
But, we did go out to the car, and we laughed and talked our entire way to San Diego. It was the first time I had ever been to the zoo myself, and I enjoyed the change of pace. It was nice to have something like this to do to get away from work and only focus on having fun with each other, but having fun in a way that we could do in public.
It let me see another side of her, and I appreciated that.
But, it wasn’t until we got to the penguins that I really got to see something in her that I hadn’t before.
She all but squealed when we got to the exhibit, and she pressed herself up against the glass, trying to get a better look at them.
“What are you doing?” I asked with a chuckle. “You look like you’re trying to get in there!”
“I want to,” she said. “I love penguins so much. I can’t get enough of them.”
“I had no idea,” I told her.
She smirked at me. “Guess you learn something new every day, huh?”
“I guess so,” I said.
And when it came to Laurel, I was happy to learn.
TWENTY-TWO
Laurel
I pushedall thoughts of whether Leroy was tracking my location through my phone out of my head when I suggested to Greyson that we go to the zoo that day.
I wanted to have a nice day with Greyson. A day when we didn’t have to worry about work or anything like that. Since the hotel was all but done, I felt good about taking the rest of the day off to be able to spend some time with him. After all, neither of us wanted to make the flight up to Washington that day, and there wasn’t anything else I had to do.
I didn’t think Leroy would care what I did with my time when I wasn’t actually able to get work done, and I didn’t think he would expect me to just sit around and do nothing. It wasn’t like he was able to control me when I was off the clock.
That would be just as absurd as if he tried to tell me what I could do with my time when I was home in New York City. Things were done as far as I was able to get them, and that’s where I landed. There wasn’t anything else to be done, and I was okay with that.
Not to mention the fact time I got to spend with Greyson was always great in my world. I loved every minute I got to spend with him, and it was getting harder to spend time without him now. The fact that we had to be careful over how much time we spent together to be able to get our jobs done was tough, and I found he was on my mind more and more.
With how easily he agreed to come with me, I felt that he must be having some of the same feelings toward me that I was having toward him. I hoped so, anyway, though I was somewhat confused with my own feelings toward him. I didn’t know what it felt like to truly be in love with someone, and I had a feeling this had to be it.
But, I wasn’t going to bring it up.
For as much as I was certain I was falling in love with him, there was a fear inside me as well. I didn’t want to admit out loud that I was having these feelings for fear he wasn’t feeling the same. I didn’t know how I would handle it if I told him that I was falling in love with him and heard that he didn’t feel the same way.
It would be crushing, absolutely crushing.
The fact that I only now was feeling like I was truly in love with him was something that both enthralled me as well as terrified me, and I wasn’t sure how to handle it.
I wished I had the time to call one of my friends and touch base over how things had been going with Greyson, but I hadn’t had the time for that. I was so busy either with work itself, or with spending time with Greyson that I didn’t have the time to talk about what I was doing with anyone from back home.
But, I also had the ability to push a lot of it out of my mind. Much like I had done with my boss, I could push it out and not worry about it for the moment. I wanted to enjoy the day, the time I had here today, and that was really all there was to that.
I would have the time to catch up with them later on. I just knew already that most of them – Naomi especially – would have her mind blown away when she heard the news of me and Greyson.
