Page 71 of How Dare You
“Cold brew with a splash of cream,” she says. “It’s what your man drinks. Aren’t you meeting him in a few?”
The idea of Rhett being my man adds a more than just a few drops of brightness to the jumble of feelings taking up residence in my body. My lips pull into an involuntary smile.
“You’re right, I have to get going or I’ll be late,” I answer, packing up my laptop.
As I am walking toward the door Allie giggles and calls out to me, “I knew you were into him. You just needed a little push.”
Rhett meets me at my car right as I park at Peach Ridge. He has been working nonstop on the cabinets, so I have barely gotten to see him in the last couple days. He opens my door for me, but instead of helping me out, he leans in, bringing our lips together before I have a chance to get out. After long moments savoring each other’s kiss, he pulls back just enough to rest his forehead on mine. Tucking my hair behind an ear, he whispers, “I’ve missed you.”
Twisting my fingers in his shirt, I pull him closer, kissing him again. “I’ve missed you too.” He leans further forward, pushing my back against the center console in my car, one arm hooking under my leg to wrap it around his hip. He grinds against me, and the pressure finally has me remembering where we are. “Oh, shit,” I whisper, releasing my hold on his shirt. “We cannot do this here.”
“No?” he asks, nipping at my ear and rolling his hips against me again. “I bet we could pull it off.”
I push at his chest, trying to create some space between us. “We are parked outside the house of the only client I have left, McCoy.”
My words are enough to stop his movements. “I hadn’t realized you were down to—” When my face pulls low in sadness, his words cut off. He flashes me his most devilish smile and pinches me at the base of my ass cheek, before stepping back and offering me a hand. “I’ll be the picture of professionalism, promise.”
We have not talked about what it means for us to be, whatever it is we are, while we’re actually at work. It’s not something I have ever had cause to consider before, since this is the first time I have ever allowed myself to be even mildly involved with someone in my industry. As we are walking inside, I expect guilt or stress, maybe irritation to bubble up, but none of it comes.
He doesn’t flirt with me or tease me at all, which is something he always used to do when we were working together. Instead, Rhett’s steady presence is a silent comfort to me, giving me some solace in the middle of the storm my work life has become. Maybe, dating a coworker is only a bad idea if they’re not Rhett McCoy.
Chapter 29
Rhett
Made out with Devon at a jobsite
-From Rhett’s Most Important Things notebook,
September 6th
“We’ve had to golf with overly friendly tourists for almost three weeks now,” Hector complains. “You’re not allowed to take time off and ruin our foursome anymore.”
“I don’t regret a second of what happened while I was gone.” I pull my driver from its bag and walk up to the tee. “Can’t even apologize to you.”
Hector gasps. “Well, aren’t you just awful.”
Brian waits for me to take my shot then tilts his head knowingly toward Hector. “I believe he was spending time with Devon.”
“You should have said that in the first place,” Hector waves a hand before lining up his shot. “All’s forgiven.”
Bradley’s up next, so he passes Emery to me, who gifts me with a gummy smile and a giggle. She’s growing so fast. I swear she’s a little heavier than last time I held her. “Hi there, little one,” I say, giving one of her tiny hands a shake.
“How is Devon by the way,” Brian asks, coming to stand next to me and the baby. “We saw that horrible blog post the other day, and I can’t stop thinking about her. I wish we knew some way to help.”
“That Nathalie has always been trouble,” Hector says. “But I can’t believe she would try to ruin Devon’s reputation like that. What possible reason could she have?”
How much would Devon be comfortable with me sharing? If Hector and Brian could do anything, wouldn’t she want them to know? “We haven’t figured out the reason yet,” I start.
“We haven’t?” Hector asks, as we start walking down the fairway.
“Yeah, her friends are all doing everything they can to help clean up the mess,” I answer, switching Emery to my other side.
Hector gives me a glib look. “You know that’s not what I meant, but we can come back to it.”
We discuss ways they can be supportive, and I’m careful not to mention her financial position or the fact that she’s down to one client, which I’m still struggling to grasp. Her work is meticulous and beautiful. I’m honestly stunned anyone has taken the word of a blog that’s clearly written as a smear over the history of her work. But evidently a lot of them have.
“Do you think she has time to take on much new work with everything that’s going on?” Brian asks, looking up from his scorecard.