“What’s on the itinerary to discuss tomorrow?” Her hands flew to her flushed cheeks and she huffed a nervous breath. “I just have so many ideas… I don’t know which ones to focus on for one meeting—”
“Do you want to grab some dinner?” I ignored the nerves that gripped my stomach as I asked the question. “We can go over your ideas and I can help you narrow in on which ones to focus on.”
It’s harmless, I told myself. It’s not a date I’m asking her to… it’s just a business dinner. I’ve had hundreds throughout my career. And yet none of those colleagues had me aching to lean over and kiss them…
She seemed visibly surprised by my invitation. “Tonight?”
Uh oh. My stomach bottomed out. “Yeah… I mean, if you’re not busy.”
“Oh. Um… I would, it’s just that I have plans tonight already.”
Fuck. She had plans. Of course she did. I couldn’t help it as my mind wandered to questioning who these plans were with. Did she have a date? A boyfriend? My chest tightened at the thought and I tamped the feeling down like finely ground espresso beans. I pushed off the chair to gather my things to go home. I guess I was ordering a pizza for one tonight for dinner. “Oh, yeah… no problem. I know it was last minute.” I gulped, ignoring the gaping hole in my stomach. What the hell was that about?
She stood too, following me as I jumped up. “Chris, really… I would like to grab dinner, but I just promised my friend—”
I smiled at her in the friendliest way I could manage. “Seriously, Avery, it’s okay. You don’t have to explain if you have plans.” Just the thought of her plans with some other guy left me feeling… not jealous exactly. Although that emotion was there below the surface, too. It was deeper than that. I was sad at the thought. Sad that I may have let an incredible woman like Avery slip through my fingers. That she was here in front of me not only for the last two days, but for years working with my family, and I never noticed her.
I didn’t deserve her. Because Avery deserved the spotlight. She deserved a man who would notice her vibrant spirit immediately and not let his own selfish shit cloud the way.
“Let’s find time tomorrow to chat about the board meeting? I can help you prepare then?” Shit. I was making it sound like she needed my help, and she most certainly didn’t. I squeezed my eyes shut briefly before clarifying my intention. “Not that you need my help. I know you’re fully capable of putting together your presentation. But I just want to offer a hand since I know the group—”
“Chris.” She slid her hand over my forearm. Though we had touched before over the last two days, it hadn’t been like this. There was an intimacy to the way her palm cupped my arm… the way her thumb drew small circles over the cashmere of my jacket sleeve. Even the simple way she said my name ignited a fire in my gut; a swirling lustful heat that churned through my body. I glanced up slowly, making eye contact with her and… was it just me or did her face look flushed with desire, too?
A loud noise banged against the door. We both flinched away from each other, and Avery spun around to discover Ed, still dressed as an elf, nose pressed against the glass door peeking inside.
“Hello? Anyone still in there? I’ve got your empty cookie tray! You’ll need it to refill for tomorrow!”
The absence of her touch shivered through me, and I wasn’t sure what to make of that. I’d gone nearly thirty years without Avery Pinkerton’s touch… why was it that now I couldn’t even imagine spending the night away from her?
Avery let out a sigh and gave me an exacerbated eye roll before she crossed over to unlock the door for Ed.
Dammit, Ed. That old bastard was ruining this week for me in more ways than one.
Chapter 10
Avery
“I’m freezing my tits off,” my friend, Kandi, said as the wind whipped around us.
Our group huddled closer together and I hugged my coat tighter around my body, clutching my thermos of hot chocolate. Ahead of us, Kringle bounded in the snow. I puckered my trembling lips and let out a whistle. The single sound, though not loud, had him spinning around and bounding back to us. Shivering, I reached down and grabbed his leash from where it was dragging a line through the snow.
“Whose dumbass idea was it to go caroling on the coldest night of the year?” Steve grumbled and Yvonne reached over, hooking her arm into his and snuggling against him.
If it hadn’t been so damn cold, I might have blushed as Kandi turned around to look at me with an eyebrow raised. “Who do you think?”
If I was being honest, for the last half hour, all I’d been thinking on this twenty-degree night was that I could have been at dinner with Chris. Alone with Chris. Drinking wine with Chris. Rather than out here trudging through shin-deep snow to sing carols to our neighbors.
Even though I knew in my soul it was a bad idea for Chris and me to date… I felt drawn to him. Which made no sense. He was everything I wasn’t.
And he was my boss, for crying out loud. Getting cozy with Chris Pohle was a Bad Idea—capital B, capital I.
“Aw, come on!” I said, trying desperately to keep my teeth from chattering. “There’s only one more house here on this side of the lake that we need to hit. Then we can just call it a night and go grab pie from Lyla’s mom.”
Lyla snorted behind me. “You think my mom’s just gonna give us all pie? Hell no, she’ll expect a song in exchange.”
“But at least that will be inside, where it’s warm,” Yvonne chimed in.
We approached the last house on the inlet of the lake and thank God we had parked Kandi’s and Yvonne’s cars just up the road from here. Even though the cul-de-sac was small, the houses on this strip were anything but small. The cabin had big, thick cut logs adorning the front with a massive wrap-around porch. Luckily, lights were on inside… we weren’t walking this path in vain.
“Everyone ready?” I asked as we climbed up the porch and got into position.
“Which s-song are we doing?” Kandi asked, shivering so hard, her words distorted. Her fiancé, Ford, curved his arms around her and hugged her close to him.
“How about Auld Lang Syne?” Steve asked.
“Why?” Yvonne challenged him. “Because it’s the shortest one?”
He put a finger to her nose, booping it. “You know me too well.”
“Let’s do Silver Bells,” Ford said. “It’s not too long and we haven’t sung that one yet.”
The group all nodded. “Silver Bells it is,” I said and reached out to press my finger to the doorbell. I gripped Kringle’s leash tighter in one gloved hand, while opening my song book with the other.
I didn’t bother looking up as the door swung open. It was always Kandi’s job to start us off with each song, so I kept my eyes down on my music as we began singing. We were barely through the first verse when Kringle lunged, trying to run and yanking me forward into Lyla’s back. My low oomph messed up my harmony, but I tugged Kringle back to my side and caught up with the group, continuing with the carol.