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Jed decided he could stand in her doorway and watch her work that keyboard all day long. From where he stood, he could see the crown of her head and her fingers back to hammering the keypad as she got back in the zone. Probably best if he didn’t stay there. Instead, he pulled his drink from the tray, tossed the tray itself in the recycle bin as he walked by the tiny break room, and dropped back in his seat at his desk.
He sipped his water—seriously, who drank coffee, let alone frozen coffee—as he studied the sticky notes on his calendar. Her small, neat handwriting gave him a tiny thrill, but no matter how hard he looked at each of the notes about scheduling appointments, he didn’t see any hearts or curlicues on the papers.
Jed might have a crush going on Sloane Garrison, but he was just a body in a desk there to answer her phones.
Chapter Six
Sloane
Sloane jerked awake and looked around her office. Still bleary-eyed from sleep, she blinked and finally poked gently at her eyes when she saw Rena draped over the small settee to the right of the desk. Rena’s shoes lay on the floor where she’d obviously kicked them off, her neck and head tipped just enough to give her a massive stiff neck when she awoke.
Wondering for a moment what day it was, what planet she was on, Sloane looked back at her desk. The computer screen was dark, so she bumped her mouse and covered a yawn with her free hand. The last tax prep she’d done had been forty-two minutes ago. She’d been slumped over her desk asleep for forty-two minutes.
Had she drooled?
She rolled her head on her neck as she squinted at her desk calendar. Lots of notes scrawled in the chicken scratch her handwriting often deteriorated to when she was tired. Some scribbles and doodles. Lots of numbers. No obvious signs of drool.
How long had Rena been asleep? Sloane remembered her coming into her office earlier. It had been after hours, of course. Rena had come in, arms full of file folders. She’d been rambling, grumbling, when she sat down on the settee, but she’d dived into the file folders, forgoing any real conversation.
Sloane leaned forward again at the desk, but the new position made her realize just how badly she needed to use the restroom. First things first. As she stood, she swept her gaze over her desk, hesitating when she saw the large empty plastic cup. She lived on coffee. Not just during tax season, but always. Interesting that she’d had iced coffee but never frozen coffee.
Jed was right. It had been the perfect pick me up. She could use one now, she decided as she made her way out of her office to the ladies’ room. Rena’s office light was off, but she noticed the light was on in the reception area. Jed must have forgotten to turn it off when he left. Sloane wondered if he’d locked up when he left as she took care of her business and then washed her hands. Stomach rumbling, she kicked her heels off and carried them with her to the lobby to check the door and turn off the lights.
Movement at the desk startled her. She jumped and pulled back her hand, spiked heels cocked and ready to throw. The person at the desk turned toward her.
“What the—?” Jed ducked and held his arms up in front of his face.
“Jed?” Sloane looked across reception at the door. From where she stood, she saw the locks engaged. The open sign had been flipped to closed. She turned back to Jed when she sensed movement.
“Put the shoes down,” he ordered her. “You could kill someone with those heels.”
“Kind of the point,” she agreed, but she did lower her arm. “What’re you still doing here? What time is it?”
“Working,” he answered with a shrug. Sloane read his shrug and the nod of his head at the desk as him saying isn’t it obvious? “It’s um…” He leaned over and squinted at the computer screen. “It’s almost ten.”
“Ten?” she repeated.
Good grief, Sloane, you are the boss. Get your head together and act like it.
“Yeah. Are you guys hungry?” He dragged his fingers through his hair and scratched the back of his neck.
Hungry?
She looked over her shoulder, down the hall to her office where Rena was probably still sleeping.
“Why are you still here? Working late?”
“Um.” He frowned as he perched on the side of his desk. “I was under the impression that’s what you do when you work at an accounting office during tax season.”
“Yeah, when you’re an accountant, maybe.” She sighed. “What are you working on?”
“Bookkeeping stuff,” he told her. “Don’t worry. Planning to leave the tax prep stuff all to you and Rena.”
“This is wild,” she mumbled. Still having trouble pulling herself from the lingering brain fog of her catnap, Sloane gave herself a mental shake. “Jed—”
“I’ve caught up four more accounts.” He twisted around and grabbed a cell phone from his desk.
“Four more?”
