Page 10 of Betrayal & New Beginnings

I walked around and held out my hand to help her up.Shegrabbed onto it, andIfelt a warm current move through my hand and arm.Itfelt nice, andIdidn’t want to let her hand go, butIneeded to or this would become awkward.

“I didn’t know you were in here orIwould have knocked.”Shetook the hand thatIhad just touched and put it to her chest.

She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths like she was attempting to calm herself down.

Feeling guilty for scaring her, even though it wasn’t my fault she didn’t knock.Isoftened my voice a bit to ask her why she was here.

“Did you need something?”Iasked and noticed her hands were shaking slightly.

“Sorry,Iwas just going to leave a small note on your desk,” she said and held up a small piece of paper. “ThoughImight as well just tell you in person now.”

She handed me the paper and spoke again. “Mybrother called this morning and told me to tell you thanks for helping me get moved and settled in here.Iknow he feels guilty he’s overseas and couldn’t help, so he wanted me to tell you how much it means to him that you helped me.Hecherishes your friendship.”

“Did he really say cherished?”Iasked, becauseIdoubted her brother would have used that sappy word.

“Well,I’mparaphrasing,” she said and shook her hands in front of her face as though that explained everything.

She seemed oddly nervous and tucked that loose piece of hair behind her ear again.Myfingers twitched to do it for her.Itwould be easy to do sinceIwas only a foot in front of her.Ihadn’t moved back after helping her up off the floor.Beingthis close,Icould smell whatever her perfume was and she smelled like a cupcake.Ormaybe that was just her natural scent.Vanillaand lemons.Ineeded to back up and get back to paperwork, thoughIdidn’t want to do either.WhatIreally wanted to do was touch that loose piece of hair that had popped out again, then slide my hand to the back of her neck and kiss that glossy stuff off her lips.

Shut that thought down.

“How was your hike withRuthieyesterday?”Iasked, hoping to change the topic and clear my brain of inappropriate thoughts of her.

She looked at me, and a smile took over her face once my question registered to her.

“It was great,” she noted. “Thattrail by the river is beautiful.Somany trees and plants, and the walkways were nice and wide, so you didn’t get run over by people on bikes.Therewere also dozens of people on kayaks and floats on the river.”

“Yeah,I’vedone that a few times.It’sfun,” thinking back to summers in high school.

My friends andIwould go down to the river with our small floats and innertubes, get some beer we stole from one of our parents’ stashes, and just meander downstream for a few hours.

“It looked like it,” she said wistfully. “Youshould come next time.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, she pinched her lips closed and suddenly looked nervous?—

like she hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

“I mean,RuthiesaidArchercomes sometimes, so um…maybe you could come too,” she stuttered. “Like, um, since you’re friends, you could maybe hang out there.Withus.Fora hike or whatever.”

She sighed, tilting her head down. “Sorry,Iblabber whenI’mnervous.”

“Why are you nervous?”Iasked, thinking to myself how cute she was all flustered like this.

Her head popped up, and she looked at me, but didn’t say anything.Thatcurl popped out from behind her ear again, andIcouldn’t resist.Ileaned forward and tucked it behind her ear for her.Iheard her take a deep breath, and her eyes darkened a little.Hereyes dropped to my mouth andIcould practically hear her brain thinking.Hereyes moved back to mine and she licked her lips.

God, this woman was going to be the death of me.Myoffice here at the pub was already tiny to begin with, but withElliein here, it felt even smaller.Thewindowless walls felt like they were shrinking around us, forcing her into my space.Feelingher pull,Itook a half step forward into her space.

“Wade,” she whispered.Iwasn’t sure if it was a warning, or an invitation, the way she said it.

She licked her lips again, andIknewIhad to kiss her.Ileaned in asIreached back out to slide a hand behind her neck.

“Boss man, you got a delivery!”Tammy’svoice yelled from outside my office.

Ellie gasped and stepped back.

“Umm…I’mgoing to go back out and umm, helpTammy, for our uh shift.Yeah.”Elliestammered and grabbed her bag off the floor before leaving my office.

When she opened the door,Tammywas standing there with a big grin on her face.Shejust stood there staring at me for a few moments.

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