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Chapter 26
“Good Lord, hon. I can hear your heels tapping on the floor from all the way back in the kitchen. Are you nervous about something?”
Grace’s voice snapped Gen out of the daydream she’d been lost in. Actually, calling it a daydream was giving it too much credit for concreteness. The truth was, she’d just been zoned out, consumed in a haze of jumpiness and anticipation.
Her gaze moved to her legs and saw that, sure enough, they’d been twitching like crazy, causing her high heels to clack against the wood floors. She hadn’t even heard the noise.
“Oh, so sorry, Grace. I didn’t even realize.” She had to put her palm flat over her knees to still the tapping.
Well, this was a new low. Her preoccupation with Gavin had become so pronounced that she literally couldn’t control her own bodily response to the idea that he was about to walk through the door at any second.
Great.
Grace set her order down in front of her, a large coffee with cream and sugar. “Not sure you really need this, hon, but here you go. I’ll be back to take Gavin’s order when he gets here.”
Gen’s brow wrinkled. “How did you know I was meeting Gavin?”
Grace gave her heels a significant look and then went to take another table’s order.
Well, damn. Forget what she’d thought before. This was the actual new low.
Her gaze drifted over to the door again just as Gavin opened it and walked through. His eyes scanned the tables and, when they landed on her, his whole face lit up like a switch had been flipped.
He was a subtle guy, of course, so the display was not overt. But Gen knew him well enough to spot the telltale signs. It made her feel good on two counts. There was, of course, his joy at seeing her. That was obvious. But, on a deeper level, there was the fact that very few people would’ve been able to pick up his signals well enough to recognize the profound emotion in him. That made her feel special, elite, part of an exclusive circle in Gavin’s life.
It was like they were sharing an elaborate inside joke, and he’d barely even walked through the door.
As Gavin crossed to the table, Gen’s focus was diverted by Grace, who was following a few paces behind him and giving Gen a subtle-for-Grace double thumbs up.
Oh, lord. Gen could do nothing but chuckle and shake her head. It wasn’t even worth wondering who else had seen the gesture. At this point, she was pretty sure everyone in town at least suspected there was something going on.
When Gavin sat down across from her, she straightened her spine and thrust her shoulders back, intertwined her fingers on the tabletop.
His eyes raked over her new posture. “Hmmm…” he murmured, his voice low and raspy, “Someone’s all business.”
“I am all business,” she agreed, her voice brisk and firm. “Thank you for noticing.”
He winked. “We could use this. Hell, yeah. All you need is a bun on your head and some horn-rimmed glasses.”
“What are you talking about?”
He shrugged. “I’m not choosy. Teacher, librarian. You can take your pick.”
Her cheeks colored. Not with embarrassment. What he was suggesting was relatively tame in terms of the things they’d tried over the years. And, in fact, there was a small part of her brain, waaaay in the back, that was thinking it was a good idea even now. But she had to keep that part on lockdown, because they were here to work, not play.
She took a deep breath. “Gavin, this is exactly the kind of thing I asked you to come here today to talk about.”
He used his foot to caress her calf, the rough edge of his boot slowly caressing her denim-covered leg. “Good,” he said, his voice so thick with lust and playfulness that it was barely more than a rasping whisper. “This ‘kind of thing’ is pretty much my favorite topic.”
To say that it was Niagara Falls between her legs would be to downgrade the strength of that powerful waterfall.
She closed her eyes. The state of her lady parts didn’t matter. She needed to focus and get through this meeting, say what she needed to say to Gavin and make damn sure he heard her.
When she opened her eyes, they were full of clear-eyed focus. “Gavin, we have a job to do—no, stop, no jokes.”
She cut him off after his mouth was already open but he hadn’t had a chance to say anything yet. He snapped it shut and then gave her a small, sheepish grin. “Fine. You’re right. What’s on the agenda, Boss?”
She narrowed her eyes, searching his tone for anything resembling sarcasm or innuendo, but she found none.
