Page 56 of Jilted

“I am. How did you know?”

“Wilder described you, right before he threatened my life aboutkeeping my eyes to myself.” He covered his face playfully and extended his other hand to the guest chairs. “Please, have a seat. I don’t want to get my ass kicked like in sixth grade when I told a girl Wilder liked that he sits down when he pees.”

I laughed. “Does he?”

“He did for a few weeks.” He took his hand from his face. “He broke his ankle playing rugby and was in a hard cast up to his knee. Fucker could still catch me when I ran away from him.”

“You two have been friends a long time then?”

“Since we were in the carriage. Our moms were best friends.” Andrew leaned back in his seat and rubbed his bottom lip with his thumb. “So you’re the one, huh?”

“The one?”

“The one who has my boy all knotted up into a pretzel. I’ve never seen him this way. Usually he doesn’t remember the name of the woman he’s talking to.”

My face fell. Andrew noticed and put his hands up. “That wasn’t supposed to come out like that. He’s not a jerk or anything. Well, he is a jerk, but not because he treats women badly and can’t remember their names. He’s a jerk because he held me down and shaved half of my moustache during myTop Gunphase.”

I smiled. “It’s fine. I get it. Wilder hasn’t tried to hide who he is.”

“That means he likes you. Most guys who like a woman try to put their best foot forward, show them their good side. But not Wilder. If he cares about you, he’s protective—even wants to protect you from him. He gave me a hundred reasons why I shouldn’t take the job before we started working together.”

A woman knocked on the open office doorway. “Mr. Emerson?”

“Andrew, please.”

“Your first appointment is here. I put him in the conference room and gave him some coffee.”

“Thank you, Laura.”

Andrew shook his head. “One thing’s for sure, life with Wilder is never boring.”

“I bet.” I smiled. “I’ll let you get to your appointment. Wilder said he had some press releases he needed a copyedit on?”

Andrew searched around the piles of papers on his desk and pulled out a pack of stapled ones. “Thank you for doing this.”

“No problem. I have two meetings this morning, but I’ll get them back to you as soon as I’m done.”

“Thanks a lot. It was really nice to meet you, Sloane.”

“You, too.”

I went back up for my meetings, and then it was almost one by the time I got back downstairs with the edits. Wilder hadn’t been kidding—his friend wasn’t great at grammar. I’d made a lot of corrections.

Andrew was on the phone when I walked in, but he smiled and held up one finger. “Sorry about that,” he said when he hung up.

“No problem. Here are your press releases. I made some changes.”

He looked down and smiled. “The mighty red pen. Thank you for this.”

“Anytime.”

“Did you eat lunch yet?”

“Not yet. I wanted to get that done first.”

He nodded toward the door. “Me neither. Can I buy you lunch to say thank you?”

“That’s not necessary.”

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