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“Oh, that.” She waved her hand as if the priceless dinosaur exhibit was nothing. “No, I thought you were about to ask me to do something much worse.”
“What’s that?”
“Wear those standard issue flat shoes most of the staff wear.” She wrinkled her nose and pursed her lips in a delightful pout as he clamped down the urge to kiss it away. “Have you really looked at them? They’re hideous.”
Shaking his head, he laughed. “Why do I get the feeling reinstating you is going to drive me slowly but surely crazy?”
Those entirely too kissable lips eased into a teasing smile as she leaned forward, creating a cleavage he struggled not to glance at.
“Don’t worry. Whatever you’re feeling, rest assured it works both ways.”
That’s exactly what he was afraid of.
ChapterSeven
Beth shoved the welding goggles up onto her head, shucked off her protective gloves, and wiped a grimy hand over her forehead, cursing under her breath as she stared at her latest creation in disgust.
The twisted pieces of iron resembled overcooked spaghetti rather than the spoked wheel she was aiming for, and though most of her pieces were uniquely quirky, this was taking it to extremes.
She’d never had a problem concentrating before. Then again, she’d never had a guy like Aidan Voss interested in her before, let alone be confident enough to admit it.
Guys liked to play games. They didn’t do honesty well and they sure didn’t verbalize how they were feeling, yet he’d been man enough to listen to what she had to sayandconfirm her suspicions. He fancied her. Hopefully, he fancied the pants off her.
The mere thought made her hands tremble and her insides throbbed as she pushed away from her work bench, knowing she couldn’t shape a mud pie let alone mould metal the way her hands shook.
Something had shifted between them atMoretti’s, something indefinable, and it left her wary. She could party and flirt and laugh her way through any situation, particularly when a good-looking guy was involved, but now Aidan had admitted he liked her the underlying attraction between them wasn’t so light-hearted anymore.
To compound her worry, she’d agreed to accompany him to a work function. All perfectly legitimate and above-board, except for one teensy-weensy fact: she didn’t want it to be.
She wanted to go on a date with him. She wanted to flirt and tease and encourage that gorgeous smile of his until they were so hot for each other they had no option but to explore this attraction…all the way.
No surprise why her own work was suffering, considering she couldn’t think of little else.
Groaning, she switched off the welder, placed it on the work bench and stood, clasping her hands and stretching overhead, letting her head loll forward before rolling the kinks out of it. Giving Lana an abbreviated version of events was going to be stress-inducing enough without the normal muscle tension that accompanied her beloved metal sculpting.
Casting one last look at the heap of junk she’d managed to construct in the hope of getting her mind off things—or one particularly sexy thing—she picked up her cell and tapped number one in her favorites list. Predictably, Lana answered on the second ring.
“Hi, Beth. How’s it going?”
“Good.” She deliberately turned her back on her disastrous sculpture, a reminder of exactly how things were going; a twisted, jumbled mess. “How’s the ankle?”
“Coming along, I guess, but not quickly enough for my liking. How are things at the museum?”
Beth squeezed the bridge of her nose, hoping she could pull this off. If Lana got one whiff of the trouble she’d got into, her cousin would ditch the crutches and hop all the way to Beth’s warehouse apartment to give her a swift kick in the butt with her good leg.
Instilling her usual enthusiasm into her voice, she said, “Fine. I’m still taking tours and it looks like I’ll be expanding into some new areas of the museum too.”
“Great.” The relief in Lana’s tone was audible. “I can’t believe you’re actually buckling down. I thought being a tour guide would be the last thing you’d want to do.”
“Hey, nothing to it.” If she didn’t count getting busted for punctuality, getting fired, and getting a pseudo-date with the boss. “I’m even going to some museum function this weekend so I’m really wowing them.”
“What sort of function?”
Doing her best breezy impression, Beth sat on a nearby sofa and dangled her legs over the end. “Nothing major. Just some silent auction fundraiser. Apparently it would be your job to accompany the CEO but you’re off your feet so I’m going instead.”
She omitted the part where she wished the CEO would whisk her back to his place afterward and do some very un-work-like things with her.
“Uh-oh. You’re humming, which means you’re nervous, distracted, or hyped up about something.”
