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“I guess that makes you more of a Charlotte?” It was his attempt at a bridge-building joke. It did not land well as her steely gaze bored into him. Wow, he was terrible at this. And she was still sore about last night. Noted.
They sat a few moments in silence as she continued to type notes into her laptop.
Finally, she broke the silence. “Do you really watchSex and the City?”
“Cate watched it few times. It’s a small house. I don’t really pay attention.”
“Really? What do you think of Mr. Big?” She lifted an eyebrow.
“Ugh. He’s the worst. She should’ve stuck with Aidan.”
Holding a hand to her mouth to hide a grin, she said, “You know it’s okay to admit to watching shows like that. It doesn’t make you less of a manly man.”
“Hey now.” He crossed his arms. “I really don’t care about being a manly man. I just don’t like having to defend my tastes.”
Suddenly curious in a way he couldn’t explain, he asked, “So did you cheer for Aidan or Mr. Big?”
She waved a hand. “Oh, I have no idea. I’ve only watched like one episode.Gilmore Girlsis way better.”
“Touché.” He smirked, leaning forward on the table. “You and Cate would get along then. She wants to marry Luke Danes.”
Kylie nudged Derek’s arm, and the touch shocked him into momentary silence. It took him a second to realize he was leaning on the file she needed. She picked up the file and began flipping through it.
“Well Cate has good taste, then. Luke over Christopher, hands down.”
Now Derek was thinking about how Kylie preferred Luke to Christopher and also how he really needed to stop comparing himself to fictional men. But for the record, he was much more of a Luke.
Derek coughed. “I think you’ve thought of just about everything. What’s left for me to do?”
“You, sir, need to write a speech.”
“A speech?”
“Yes, a speech,” she said. “This entire gathering is about bringing people to you for you to tell them about the water treatment plant issue, remember?”
“Well then, I best get to work on that before you end up writing one for me as well.”
“I was the one on the debate team in high school.” A quick smirk graced her lips.
It was so easy for him to see the old Kylie in that moment, like sitting with her to study for finals or going over lines for the school play.
His chest tightened. “Why are you helping me?”
“Last time I checked, I was actually a pretty helpful person.” She cocked an eyebrow at him.
To stop any impending fights, he put up his hands. “No, I know. But you said yourself you’re only in town for a while. So why all this effort to help the town?”
“Maybe I should be offended and say something about this being my hometown too, but the truth is I need this.” She shrugged. “Brad has an opening at his company in Toronto, but he won’t give it to me until I can prove I…can handle big jobs like this.”
There was something she wasn’t telling him, but he really needed to let it go and thank his lucky stars she was taking this on.
“Is there anything else you need from me right now?” he asked.
“Nope.” She drummed her fingers on the table. “Just a little faith that I can pull this off.”
“You’re off to a great start. I still don’t know how you plan to pay for this though.”
“Faith, please.”
Finding no reason to stay and continue interrupting her work, Derek nodded and left the café. Once outside, he took a deep breath of the clean spring air.
As he passed by the windows of the bookstore he peered in and saw Kylie typing furiously again on her laptop, a tendril of dark hair falling over her gorgeous, bright eyes. Watching her work so hard for this project, he was sick to his stomach over being such a jerk the night before. Hopefully, he could repair whatever damage he’d caused.
