Beauty and the Brooding Boss / Friends to Forever: Beauty and the Brooding Boss / Friends to Forever. Nikki Logan

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      “Well, I …”

      “Please don’t say no.” He flashed her an exaggerated pout. “My poor heart won’t take a second rejection.”

      Kelsey laughed. Somehow she doubted that was the case. “Are you trying to make me feel guilty?”

      “Whatever it takes,” he replied. “Do we have a date?”

      One dinner wouldn’t hurt, right?

      She was about to say yes when suddenly she caught sight of Alex at the other end of store. Dark and serious, he was studying a bag of coffee beans like it contained the secret to life incarnate. A small piece of her insides tumbled.

      Dragging her attention back to Tom, she gave him a polite smile. “Flattering as the guilt trip is, I’m going to have to pass.”

      “Even if it means breaking my heart?”

      “Fraid so.”

      Tom shook his head, and shook off the rejection like she expected he would. “Guess I’ll simply have to drown my sorrows alone.”

      “Somehow I don’t think that’s going to happen,” she replied with a smile.

      A shiver of awareness passed over her. Looking up, she saw that Alex was looking in their direction. “My boss looks ready to go,” she said. “I better catch up.”

      Tom glanced over his shoulder. “Alex Markoff? That’s your boss?”

      “Yes.” His instant recognition took her aback.

      “You said you worked for a writer, but I had no idea….” Tom drifted off in thought for a second, before adding, “I thought he was holed up somewhere like a hermit.”

      “Never underestimate the lure of coffee and turnovers.”

      “He doesn’t look happy that we’re talking. In fact,” Tom said, pursing his lips, “if I didn’t know better, I’d say he looked jealous.”

      As if. More likely it was his suspicious nature coming home to roost. “Impatient,” Kelsey answered. “I told you, he’s ready to go.”

      “Is he the reason you can’t have dinner?”

      Although asked with a smile, the question had a pointedness to it that she didn’t like. “I have to go,” she said. “Enjoy your concert.”

      Alex was lost in thought on the drive back to Nuttingwood. So lost, Kelsey wanted to squirm from the uncomfortable silence. If it weren’t so Alex-like, she’d think Tom was right and he was jealous.

      The silence was deafening. A hundred and eighty degrees from the rest of their day. Do not chatter, she chided. Just go with the silence.

      “Turnovers smell good. The clerk said they were fresh out of the oven and still warm. Maybe I should have gotten more than a half-dozen.”

      So much for going with the silence.

      “That guy from the store a friend of yours?” Alex asked.

      “Acquaintance.” She could hear the suspicion in his voice.

      “Your rain check from the other night.”

      “Yes. He wanted to know if I would attend the concert at the Music Center with him.”

      They reached the large pine tree. Kelsey turned to the right, pleased she was finally recognizing landmarks.

      Too bad she didn’t feel as confident regarding the man beside her. “Would that be a problem?” she asked.

      “What you do on your spare time is your business,” he replied with a shrug.

      Her insides tumbled again, only this time the fall was heavy and hard. Of course he didn’t care. Why would he? Tom’s comment simply put thoughts in her head. “Thank you for respecting my privacy.”

      “No problem.”

      They drove the rest of the way home in silence.

      Kelsey assumed Alex would disappear as soon as she put the car into Park. To her surprise, he didn’t. He stayed in the passenger seat, his long fingers tracing the hem on his hiking shorts. “You going straight to work?” he asked suddenly.

      What work? She still hadn’t gotten any new notebooks. “Why? You need me to do something?”

      “No.” Some kind of conflict seemed to play across his profile, as if he were having an internal war. She figured he was debating asking a favor. Never in a million years did she expect his next question. “Do you want to go for a walk?”

      “A walk?” she repeated. With him?

      “It’s a hot day. The woods are cooler and you’re right about the turnovers smelling good and since it is lunchtime.”

      “Wait.” She had to make sure she wasn’t hearing things. “You want me to go on a picnic with you?”

      “I thought I might eat the turnovers in a cooler location and figured, since you did all the driving today, I’d ask you to join me. But,” he shrugged, “if you’ve got other things to do, or get ready for …” He reached across his body for the door handle.

      “No, I’ll go,” Kelsey said, stopping him. “Give me a minute to change first though.” She flicked the edge of her peasant skirt. “This isn’t the best outfit for walking in the woods.”

      As he looked her up and down, she told herself the flutter of excitement in her stomach was unnecessary. “Fine. I’ll meet you at the edge of the garden in five minutes.”

      With more enthusiasm than she should have, Kelsey raced upstairs to her room. Since she preferred skirts and sundresses, she didn’t have a lot of clothes suitable for walking in the woods. She settled for a pair of royal blue track shorts and a bright pink tank top. Her hair, she fished in a ponytail through an old baseball cap she wore when running. Hardly the most stylish of outfits.

      Then again, like Alex said, it was simply turnovers in a cooler location. He wouldn’t even notice. That is, if he was still waiting. She’d taken longer than five minutes. Snagging two bottles of water on her way through the kitchen, she headed toward the garden.

      Alex was leaning against the garden shed when she arrived, looking like a slinged sentry. He looked so comfortable standing there she had to, yet again, quell her insides. Especially when she imagined his eyes scanning her appearance.

      “Lead the way,” she said with a smile. “I’m starving.”

      While she’d known there was a path leading up the mountain, she didn’t anticipate how picturesque or how well traveled the path would be. Pine tree branches formed a canopy that shielded them from the sun while brown needles formed a soft carpet beneath their feet. Occasionally light would break through a gap and a white shaft would beam down on the ferns and underbrush that littered the ground. It was an otherworld of coolness, lush and green.

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