Page 32 of Coerced

“That was Magnolia meeting Killian. He kind of rescued her when we went to one of their concerts.”

“What?”

For the next little while, as we continued to work on preparations for the day, Magnolia and Mallory regaled me with the details of attending the concert of Magnolia’s dreams. It was safe to say that even I had stars in my eyes by the end of it. The woman had married her celebrity crush.

“What about you, Aria?”

“What about me?” I asked, finally having moved on to chopping lettuce.

“Are you seeing anyone special right now?”

Immediately, visions of Paxton filled my mind. “No.”

“Nobody?”

I shook my head. “Unfortunately.”

“Well,” Mallory said, drawing out that single word. “What about Paxton? He’s single, and he is your neighbor.”

I pressed my lips together and felt the heat hit my cheeks. It seemed Sawyer wasn’t the only one who had thoughts about Paxton and me being together.

“Oh, I know that look,” Magnolia declared. “It seems somebody has a crush.”

I shook my head and focused my attention on the lettuce. What the heck was wrong with me? I could always contain my emotions. It seemed today had thrown me off balance completely, and it started with the man himself. “No. Well, I mean, it’s just that… I saw him this morning.”

“This morning? Like, you saw him as you were leaving for work, or you saw him as he got up this morning and left your house, so you both could get ready for work?”

I couldn’t get the words out fast enough. “The first one. We had both walked out of our houses at the same time, and he asked me about my first day at my jobs.”

“Uh huh. And?”

How did they know there was more?

“And since I’m new to Steel Ridge, he’s planning to show me around town tomorrow,” I confessed.

Mallory practically squealed with delight. “Oh, I’m so excited. It’s only a matter of time before another Harper Security Ops guy is down for the count.”

“It’s not like that,” I insisted. The last thing I needed was for Mallory to tell her husband about her crazy idea of Paxton and I winding up together, only for it to get back to Paxton. Talk about humiliation. “He’s just a nice guy, and he’s being friendly.”

“Of course, it’s not like that yet. You just moved in. But give it some time, and I think you’ll be changing your tune. Are you saying you don’t find him appealing?”

Could I lie to my boss?

Deciding this didn’t feel like a typical boss-employee interaction—something I didn’t think it would ever feel like while working here—I admitted, “He’s handsome.”

“Oh, Aria, I get the feeling the next couple of months are going to be a whole lot of fun for you,” Mallory said dreamily. “If you don’t know it before then, you’ll have no doubt just how serious he is for you when he says he’s taking you to The Ridge.”

“The Ridge?”

“Men don’t take women to The Ridge unless they are serious about them. Mark my words, you’ll be going there sometime very soon.”

She clearly believed she knew what was going tohappen with Paxton. And her thoughts matched the highlights of that part of my conversation with Sawyer yesterday, too.

Were they crazy, or could I not see something that they all could?

I didn’t want to get my hopes up about the prospect of winding up with something like Magnolia had with Killian, Mallory had with Nixon, or Sawyer had with Jesse, but it was tempting.

How could it not be, especially when I had a man like Paxton fueling those desires?