“Children,” Nash said, rolling his eyes. “We don’t have time for all this. Griff here is in love, and he needs our help because he’s a loser with women.”
Griff would have argued the point if he could, but it was true.
“The next date is Paint and Sip, right?” Nash asked as he played a straight ace to queen of hearts.
“You picked it,” Griff said before taking a pull of his IPA.
“So not a lot of talking, that’s to your advantage.” Dixon picked up the entire discard pile and started to lay down several sets of three of a kind, knowing full well that limited his opponents’ ability to rummy off his cards and therefore would limit their points. “You need a list of talking points so you don’t clam up.”
“Perfect start,” Nash said, scowling at the four sets of three of a kind laid out in front of Dixon. “We also need to work on presentation.”
Griff glanced down at his Lego Master T-shirt and cargo shorts. “The fuck?”
Dixon nodded in agreement. “You can’t wear that on a date.”
“It’s just clothes.” Was there a dress code to go paint pictures of sunsets and—God forbid—Live, Laugh, Love signs?
“You need a Henley,” Dixon said. “Women love Henleys.”
He plucked the nine of diamonds off the discard pile and used it to lay down a four-card run and throw his cousins off his scent, because he was about to go out on their asses on the next turn. “What is that?”
Nash shrugged. “No fucking clue.”
“And you need a haircut,” Dixon continued, ignoring them per usual.
Griff ran his hands through his longish dark hair. He liked his hair. “Hell no.”
Nash smirked. “And a shave.”
He looked at his cousins, who were both grinning at him like the clowns they were. “Assholes.”
Nash and Dixon didn’t even bother pretending they hadn’t been giving him shit.
“Seriously, though, the talking points is a solid start,” Nash said, throwing away the ace of hearts—a clear sign he was about to go out. “But if that kiss was as good as you think—”
Griff broke in. “I didn’t mention a kiss.”
“You didn’t have to.” Dixon scoffed, picking up and throwing away the same card. “We know you.”
“Pricks,” he grumbled, taking a card from the deck that would serve as his throwaway.
“Anyway,” Nash said. “What you have there is a tool in your arsenal—sex sells, and you want Kinsey to buy.”
Griff paused mid-motion as he was about to lay down the three-card straight, discard, and win the hand. “That’s regressive.”
Nash smirked. “That’s realistic. Attraction leads to more.”
“So your great suggestion is I use talking points you two are going to give me and then hypnotize her with my dick?” he asked, turning the idea around in his head.
“If you can,” Dixon said with a good-natured chuckle.
And there it was. The solution was so simple and so stupid that it just might work. Mutual attraction and desire were the basis for connections between people and chemicals. Keeping the right balance, conducting the dance with the right amount of give and take, and being in the right place at the right time all factored into a lasting bond.
When he laid down the straight and discarded his last card, winning the hand, his cousins groaned and tossed their cards on the table, but Griff barely heard them. He was already weighing the options and coming up with a plan of action to follow through on that promise he made himself—that she was going to fall as hard for him as he had for her.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Kinsey
Kinsey was dragging ass into work the next morning, wishing to God she was even close to awake when she stepped into the elevator. The doors were just starting to slide closed when Billie quick-walked in five-inch heels between them, looking chic and utterly pulled together.
“Rough night?” Billie asked, cocking her head and giving Kinsey an appraising once-over, her eyes going wide when she got to Kinsey’s ring finger. “Oh, honey. Bad news?”
“Not really.” And the less said about it, the better.
Simplicity was at the heart of her plan. No ring. Let people make their own assumptions. A lie of omission? Okay, fine, yes it was. But it was better than having to go through and figure out a straight-up lie of a story to throw folks off the scent of the original tall tale.
Billie gave her a sympathetic head shake. “So it’s like that?”
Kinsey nodded. “It is.”
“Good for you.” She leaned in close. “Word to the wise, you probably want to avoid Gavin today. He’s in full asshole mode.”
“So it’s a day that ends in Y?” In the past week, he’d been curt to everyone and had even made one person hustle out to the stairwell to have a quick cry.
Billie chuckled. “Well, that and there’s been—”
The elevator door opened, revealing Leigh and Gavin practically nose to nose and not in the sexy about-to-kiss way but in the about-to-go-down-on-a-felony-and-totally-cool-with-it way. Realizing they weren’t alone in the hall anymore, both turned to face the elevator. Leigh’s cheeks were flushed and her eyes were practically sparking. For his part, Gavin looked more than the usual level of smug self-satisfaction.
“There she is,” he said.
A frigid blast of oh-fuck went straight down Kinsey’s spine.
“Gavin,” Leigh said, her tone full of warning.
He shrugged. “If she’s done nothing wrong, then she has nothing to worry about.”
Leigh let out a huff of frustration. “You have no right—”
“No right to what?” he asked, the words ice pick sharp and just as vicious as he turned on Leigh. “Question the employees I directly supervise? Mentor new scientists into our company culture? Find out why someone declined to disclose they were in tight with Archambeau’s biggest rival?”
Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. It wasn’t like Kinsey had been hiding her situation, but she hadn’t exactly been out in the open, either.
Boy, wasn’t that starting to sound like the story of her life.
“Gavin,” Leigh said, obviously exasperated. “This isn’t the place.”
Kinsey’s palms were slick with sweat, and the everything bagel with cream cheese, lox, and capers she’d had for breakfast was definitely thinking of making a return appearance. She’d been wary on Morgan’s behalf but hadn’t even given a single thought to how her boss might view their newest research and development scientist rooming with a Beckett. Oh God, if anyone found out she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about that kiss with Griff—the head of Beckett’s R&D department—she’d be screwed. Corporate spying was a huge concern in the cosmetics industry. Everyone would assume she was a double agent.