AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I guess the growling isn’t personal since he has no way of knowing it’s me. Yet.
He’s just a grumbly sort of person.
And maybe, after the stuff I’ve read about his dad, I understand it a little bit. Imagine having to run a company with Howard as your business partner. I shudder.
When I open the door, Cole doesn’t look up from his desk. He’s frowning at a stack of paper and making notes with a red pen.
I think he hasn’t noticed me until he says, “So you decided to do it.”
“Yes,” I admit.
Now he does look up. And those blue eyes steal my breath.
“Good,” Cole says. “Come back to my office tomorrow night. You’re designing a presentation I have to give. You’ll do it at your home, not your work computer. Let me know if there’s any design software you need, and I’ll reimburse you for the cost.”
I nod. “I’ll email it you when—”
“No. No email. My father and I both have access to every email sent on work computers.”
I blink, hoping that access doesn’t extend to monitoring employee use of search engines.
Cole continues. “You’ll show me your designs Thursday at lunch, at the Edwin club. 1:00 p.m. Don’t tell anyone you’re meeting me.”
“But how will I recognize you?” I tease before I can stop myself.
The corner of his mouth twitches. And then he smiles.
I thought he was hot when he was frowning. But when Cole smiles, it’s something else. He looks like lazy summer days, and midnight laughter, and the best inside joke you ever had.
He looks like he’ssupposedto smile. Somewhere down the line, someone stole that smile from him, and buried him in an office. He turned into the kind of cynical person who doesn’t even know how badly he needs to be rescued.
That’s the moment I decide I’m going to make Cole laugh. If I can’t make him apologize for cutting in front of me, or ruining my morning, or stealing my evenings for the next two months, I will at least do this. I will make him laugh.
And then, no matter how much he growls at me over the next few years I’ll have one improbable triumph to hold onto—the time I made Cole Ashford laugh.
4
COLE
The Edwin club is an old, dimly lit building near Gramercy Square. It used to be a men’s club frequented by the titans of the industrial revolution. These days it’s a quiet restaurant featuring discreet, tucked-away booths and ornate rooms that can be rented for events and meetings.
It’s got an amazing chef, but that’s not why I chose it.
No, I’m here because it’s fairly empty at this time of day. There are no social media darlings buzzing around and snapping pictures of everything they see. And since my dad’s currently feuding with the owner, there’s no danger he’ll spot me with Amelia.
That is, if Amelia ever gets here.
I check my watch and scowl. She’s running late.
I’m about to screw secrecy and call Lucinda to have her track down my erstwhile graphic designer when Amelia bursts through the restaurant’s doors, jogging past the waiter to slip into my dark leather booth.
“Sorry, sorry,” she breathes, plopping down her laptop and a stack of printouts that she passes to me. Her hair is not so much spilling as erupting from her messy bun, and she’s evidentlygiven up her short-lived attempt at neutral suits. Instead, she’s in a bulky rust-orange cardigan draped over a stretchy brown and pink dress with a floral print. It’s loose enough to swing when she moves and tight enough to be distracting, especially when one side of the cardigan slides off her shoulder.
The fate of my company is in the hands of someone who dresses like the heroine of a 90s romcom.
That would probably alarm me if she wasn’t so fun to look at.
Isn’t she cold? It’s 40 degrees outside.
