by Robyn Neeley
Which meant, to get back on track, she was going to have to address what had happened, because after an hour driving, Ryan clearly wasn’t going to bring it up.
He opened the car door and handed her an iced coffee.
“Thank you,” she said, taking the drink.
“You’re welcome. Unfortunately, they didn’t have mocha.”
She took a sip. How sweet of him to remember her favorite drink. Would Logan?
Stop it.
“So…Ryan. I wasn’t sure how to bring this up, but before we get home, I think we should talk about what happened.”
“On the football field?” Ryan asked, turning on the car, shifting gears, and proceeding back onto the highway.
“Yes.” She paused for a second, collecting her thoughts. “I’m so embarrassed, and I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not a big deal. We were drinking and got carried away, that’s all.”
Her heart fell, hearing his casual explanation. She frowned. Was that how he saw it? They’d only had one glass of champagne each—nowhere near enough to play the alcohol card. Still, maybe to preserve their friendship it was better to agree and try to lighten the mood. “I did promise to give the town of Westbrook something to talk about…”
“And you certainly delivered.” His sexy chuckle did a number on her insides. “I’m sure you were just living out your Dillon, Montana farm-girl dreams of making out with a legendary high school football hero.”
“Oh, so now you’re legendary.” She returned his laugh with one of her own, relieved that they’d found their way back to their usual banter.
They spent the rest of the drive listening to music and chatting about what they both had on tap for the upcoming week. While she needed to prepare for two final budget meetings that Logan had with his senior team on Thursday, Ryan shared that he’d be meeting with the first tenant to lease office space at Vert Tower when it opened in the spring.
“You’re pretty excited about this new building,” she said as he turned onto her street.
“That’s an understatement.”
She touched his arm, and the same tingles she’d felt last night were back. She smiled inwardly at that small souvenir from their time together, even if it would never happen again. “I really did mean what I said to Melanie. Logan hired the right man for the job.”
“Thank you.”
“Unless you blow it,” she added.
“I’ll do my best not to.” Ryan grinned, pulling his car up in front of her apartment building. Before she could respond, he jumped out to retrieve her suitcase.
Sarah slipped out of the passenger side and met him on the curb, taking her bag from him. “I’ll see you in the office.”
“See you tomorrow.” He stood inches away, not making a move to leave.
She gulped, raising her chin. For a split second as their eyes locked, she swore he was about to kiss her again. Not sure she’d be able to resist, which would be bad, she took a step back. “Lunch at noon?”
“I’ll be there.” Ryan stepped off the curb and walked back to his driver’s side, sliding in.
Sarah turned to go inside, when Ryan called out her name. She whipped around to see he’d rolled down his passenger window, and her traitorous heart skipped a beat. “Yes?”
“Remember, my dry cleaning will be ready tomorrow afternoon. I use the place across from the office with the neon-blue sign.”
She chuckled. “Pressed pants. Place with the neon-blue sign. I’m on it.”
He grinned. “Bye, Sarah.”
“Bye.”
And just like that they were back to normal. She waved as he drove away. Tomorrow they’d joke around in the cafeteria, probably splitting one of his sister’s scrumptious desserts. Their friendship wouldn’t be ruined by some silly road trip make-out session.
She picked up her suitcase and watched his car disappear around the corner.
Normal. That’s what they needed.
So why did she feel like “normal” was no longer going to be enough?
Chapter Nine
“So, did I really miss Lizzie Daniels face-plant on the dance floor?” Logan asked, bringing his hands behind his head and leaning back.
Ryan smirked at his friend, who’d stopped by his office for a recap of the gala and to pick up his award. “Well, it was more like a slip that landed her on all fours. Chip Donahue pulled her up before she showed any butt cheek.” Ryan leaned back in his office chair, enjoying the impromptu catch-up.
He’d planned on having an early lunch with Sarah in the cafeteria, but she’d sent him an email that she had to do a few errands uptown.
It was probably for the best. Not that he didn’t want to have lunch with her, but he was feeling like a total jackass for what had happened between them. He should have been a better man and not acted on his impulse and kissed her.
However, when she’d looked up at him and batted her long eyelashes while asking him if he was going to teach her how to celebrate a touchdown, he’d been a goner. He’d needed to know how soft her lips were firsthand.
Which made him a total jerk. Here, she’d done him a favor by going to the gala, and he’d returned it by kissing her out of the blue, and in doing so, probably confusing the fuck out of her. It didn’t matter that she’d kissed him back in spades. The fact was she’d enlisted his help to win over Logan.
Logan pulled his phone out of his pants pocket, tapping the screen. “So, Lizzie’s fall wasn’t the only breaking news to come out of the gala.”
“What did you hear?” Ryan asked, more than a little curious.
“That you brought a woman. Why didn’t you tell me that you and Sarah were dating?”
Ryan coughed and reached for the water bottle on his desk. “Um…because we’re not.”
“But you took her to the gala. There was a picture on Twitter with the gala hashtag.” Logan swiped his finger across his phone screen. “It’s right here. Hold on.”
Fuck. What if it was a snapshot of him and Sarah kissing on the football field? Enough people had seen them. How was he going to explain why he’d made out with Logan’s executive assistant?
He nearly groaned in relief when he got a good look at the picture. It was an innocent snapshot of their dancing. Sarah was all smiles with her hands in the air, while he’d had one palm on her waist.
“So…” Logan continued. “Care to confess?”
“We’re just friends. You know that. I didn’t want to go alone, so I asked her to come. She didn’t have any plans for the weekend. That’s all.”
That wasn’t all, far from it. Since the gala, all he’d wanted was to kiss Sarah again. When he’d said good night to her in the hotel hallway, it had taken him all the constraint he could muster to not pin her against her hotel room door and kiss the hell out of her.
But she’d admitted on the football field that their kiss was just for show. He wasn’t going to make the first move again and get rejected.
“Hmmm…” Logan looked down at his phone. “Definitely looks like you two are having a good time.” He tapped the screen and held it up to Ryan. “But an even better time in this one.”
Oh for fuck’s sake. Someone had tweeted out a photo of him and Sarah kissing on the football field. “Um…”
“I believe the word you’re looking for is ‘busted.’”
“It’s not what it looks like, man.”
Logan’s smirk revealed how much he was enjoying watching him squirm. “I don’t know. If a picture says a thousand words, the first five in this one are ‘Ryan’s about to get laid.’”
“Didn’t happen.” Ryan reached for the baseball on his desk and tossed it in the air. “Will never happen.”
“Why not?”
“Because she and I are friends. We had some drinks and things escalated. We laughed about it the next day.”
“Well, I know you and commitment are mortal enemies, but Sarah’s incredible. I could actually see you two together.” Logan slid his pho
ne back in his pocket. “Apparently all of Westbrook Academy already did.”
“Ha. Ha.” Ryan smiled wryly. “The only reason she was there to begin with was to see you get your alumni award.” He nodded to the cherrywood engraved plaque he’d given Logan when he’d showed up with lunch, now lying on the corner of his desk.
“Really?” Logan’s eyebrows furrowed. “Why would she do that?”
Ryan couldn’t take it anymore. “Because, like you say, she’s incredible—and she’s also extremely thoughtful and supportive.” And totally into you, you moron.
“You’re right. She is all those things.” His expression turned thoughtful, and he drummed his fingers on Ryan’s desk. “Maybe I should get to know her outside the office.”
Ryan cocked his head. “Are you interested in her?” There. The burning question was out in the open.
“Well, it’s not like I haven’t noticed that she’s beautiful, and you should see how she organizes my calendar, not to mention the color coding of my files. I’m sure my mom would love her, too. But what if things went south? I’m not about to lose the best executive assistant I’ve ever had if it didn’t work out.” He frowned. “Nope. I wouldn’t survive, and that would be very bad for the company’s bottom line.”
Ryan reached for his water bottle. He would have preferred if Logan had simply said Sarah wasn’t his type.
“Although…” Logan leaned back. “That was pretty sweet of her to give up her weekend to see me receive my alumni award.”
“Yeah, it was.”
“Definitely worth noting.” Logan narrowed his eyes, his face full of skepticism. “That was the only reason she went?”
“Yep.” What else could he say? He wasn’t going to just blurt out that Sarah had the hots for Logan, because—he’d admit it—after the kiss he’d shared with her, he wasn’t in any hurry for the truth to come out.
“And you’re definitely not interested in her?”
Ryan blinked before saying, “I’m obviously attracted to her. What man wouldn’t be? But we’ve become pretty good friends this year. I wouldn’t want to jeopardize that and have it be weird in the office.” He paused, adding, “One of us would have to leave the company, and since I’m not going anywhere and neither is she, Sarah and I aren’t happening.”
As he kept talking, it became less clear in his head who he was trying to convince.
As if the subject matter had conjured her up, Sarah passed by with her hands full of packages. “Hey, guys.”
“Hey, Sarah. Come back,” Logan called out, which was all that needed to happen for Sarah to immediately reappear in the doorway.
“Do you need something?”
Ryan couldn’t help but notice how her royal blue dress showed off all of her sexy features, from her perfect, round breasts to the smooth curve of her hips. The memory of those curves in his hands threatened to make the current situation pretty damn uncomfortable.
He clicked his computer mouse and focused on his calendar, trying to think of something other than Sarah’s breasts. His gaze immediately darted to the words “Gala Weekend” he’d typed in last week. So much for getting her off his mind.
“Ryan was filling me in on your trip to Westbrook. It means a lot that you’d go all the way up to my hometown just to support me.”
Ryan’s smile died when she blinked up at Logan, seemingly at a loss for words. Awestruck, likely. Shit. His friend was thoroughly impressed that she’d ridden up to Connecticut to see him get his dumb award, and she no doubt loved that he noticed.
When she didn’t make a move to say or, hell, do anything, Logan stood and grabbed the packages out of her hands. “Here, let me help you with those.”
“Oh, um, thank you. They’re your Secret Santa gifts.” She seemed to collect herself, and Ryan couldn’t help but smirk at the effort it appeared to take. Did Logan notice, too?
“We can take them back to your office, and I can wrap them if you’d like,” she continued. “I have some leftover Christmas paper from last year.”
Arms full, Logan nodded to Ryan. “We’ll finish this conversation later.” He turned to Sarah. “Hey, is that a new dress?”
“Actually, it is.”
Ryan smiled. Had Sarah taken him up on his suggestion that she wear more dresses?
“It’s pretty. You should wear blue more often,” Logan said, which was what Ryan had been thinking. Damn him.
Sarah looked over her shoulder at Ryan, eyes wide.
For fuck’s sake. Ryan gave her a half-hearted thumbs-up signal. This was all his fault. He should have never invited Sarah to the gala.
But if he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have experienced quite possibly the best kiss of his life. When he’d brushed his lips over hers, all he’d wanted was to keep feeling the amazing sensation of her mouth on his. And when she’d kissed him back… Yeah, there was no way he wasn’t going to reciprocate.
And now in its aftermath, all he could do was sit on the sidelines and watch Logan offer to help her carry boxes and compliment her on what she was wearing.
Get over it. Besides, Logan’s complimenting her didn’t mean they were going to hop into bed anytime soon. He picked up a nearby pencil and drawing pad, continuing to work on a sketch he’d started earlier, getting lost in his drawing.
Logan came back in a few minutes later and sat back down, grinning like a damn Cheshire cat. “Hey, man.”
Ryan moved his sketch pad off to the side. “Uh, hey. That was fast.”
Logan leaned over and shut the door. “You really aren’t interested in Sarah?”
How many different ways was he going to have to lie to his best friend’s face? He took the most blunt route and hoped for the best. “No.”
“Good, because I asked her out.”
Ryan gripped his pencil, ready to snap it in two. WTF. The dude hadn’t even been gone ten minutes. “Really? What did she say?”
“We’re on for dinner for Friday night, but don’t worry. I know you two are joined at the hip. I won’t get in the way of your friendship. In fact, why don’t you come with us?”
“You want me to be the third wheel on your first date with Sarah?” Sure, that’s exactly what he wanted to do—right up there with trying to cross the Brooklyn Bridge in rush hour in a snowstorm on an empty tank of gas.
Logan laughed. “I was thinking more along the lines of a double date.”
“I don’t know. I’m not seeing anyone at the moment.” That much was true. It’d been a few months since his last date with Kristina, a woman he’d met at his gym. They’d had some fun, but like the others, it had ended with him telling her one night after sex that although she was great, he wasn’t ready to take things to the next level. Didn’t know if he’d ever be.
She’d been fine with it, or so she’d said. The next day, she hadn’t been running on the treadmill at her usual time.
Logan pulled out his phone from his pants pocket. “I know the perfect woman to set you up with. She moved into my building last month. Her name is Corrine. Blond hair. Long legs. Likes sports… Totally your type. I’ll text her right now.”
His type.
His type at the moment was a short, beautiful redhead who’d apparently gotten her Christmas wish only moments ago.
The last thing he wanted was to be a witness to their first date, but if it was going to happen, maybe it would be better to see it with his own eyes. Then he could move on—not that there was anything between him and Sarah to move on from. “Sure. Okay. Set it up.”
“Great. Consider it done.” Logan stood, picking up his finished lunch and plaque. “Thanks again for accepting this award for me. It means a lot.”
“You’re welcome.”
He chuckled. “Maybe I’ll ask Sarah if she can help me hang it up this afternoon.”
You do that.
Ryan reached over for his sketch pad and continued to draw. Was he really going to have to sit through dinner on Friday, watching her fawn all over Logan? What if this d
ate was the beginning to a relationship between the two?
You need to make up your damn mind. Are you going to help her land Logan, or are you going to mope around, feeling jealous?
A vision of Sarah in a long, white wedding dress, dancing in Logan’s arms, popped into his head. He threw his pencil across his desk.
Yep. Jealousy it was.
Chapter Ten
Sarah punched the first-floor button and leaned back against the wall, the day’s events grounding her faster than the elevator would.
How could Logan do that to her? Asking her on a date out of nowhere.
She’d dreamed about him doing it for months, but never in her fantasy did his asking cause a tight knot to twist around her stomach.
But that’s exactly what had happened. She wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, but ever since the road trip to Westbrook, the fantasy of Logan looking her way had been easily replaced by the real sensations she’d experienced from kissing Ryan.
Her knees started to shake, and she leaned against the elevator for support. Yes, even the memory of kissing Ryan could send her body into convulsion.
And now instead of a plan, she had a problem.
When Logan had offered to help her with her packages, she’d thought he’d been merely trying to make sure she’d purchased everything he’d wanted for the Secret Santa exchange. Never in a million years had she thought he’d flat-out ask her on a date.
She blew out a long breath as the elevator stopped on the seventh floor and a man and a woman got in. The shock of Logan asking her out had been replaced with dread when he’d announced that he wanted to invite Ryan and have it be a double date. He had the perfect woman in mind who was into sports just as much as Ryan.
Her heart had split right down the middle at the thought of having to sit through a meal watching Ryan with another woman by his side.
She’d sat at her desk staring at her computer screen for most of the afternoon, dumbfounded.
Had Ryan been just as surprised at Logan’s out-of-the-blue invitation? Had he agreed to be set up on a double date? Did he want to go out with this sporty woman who Logan had said would be perfect for him?
