Page 53 of Work with Me

No matter how much I wanted to take his arm, I couldn’t. Neither one of us could afford the mistake of being perceived as anything more than friendly colleagues.

“Come on.” I sidestepped him and slid open the glass door. “Let’s go join the rest of the nerds.”

21

JACKSON

I liftedmy legs onto the seat next to me at the high-top table and crossed my ankles, putting my boots practically in Cooper’s lap.

He looked at them like they were a pair of shit-encrusted work boots but then lifted his glass of expensive bourbon. “To turning around the project. I’m impressed, Jay.”

I turned my glass in a circle, watching the golden extra añejo tequila slosh against the sides. “It’s all Alicia. She’s amazing.”

He raised his thick eyebrows. “When I met with her this afternoon, she said it was all you.”

“I guess we work well together. And we’re both modest.”

He snorted. “You’ve never been the modest type. The first time you got an A on a paper in our freshman lit class, you ‘accidentally’ showed it to the whole class.” Bastard had the balls to do air quotes. I’d tripped over the untied lace of my Converse, and the paper had fallen out of my hand. I just took the opportunity to let it fall grade-up.

“That was a team effort, too. I’d never have passed that class without you. Fuck, I’d never have graduated.”

“There’s nothing wrong with needing a little help. I wish you…” He shook his head and sipped his whiskey.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “You wish I what?”

“I wish you didn’t always try to go it alone, be a cowboy.” He nodded at my boots.

I lifted my legs off the chair and hooked my boot heels around the crossbar of my stool. When I worked alone, I didn’t expose my shit to anyone else. Or take them down with me. But Alicia hadn’t laughed at me, not once. Not even when I skipped around in the code or the day last week I couldn’t seem to focus on anything and she’d caught me staring into space five separate times. She’d gently reminded me what we were working on and picked it back up. In fact, the whole team seemed to be coding faster and better. We’d done more together in the last two weeks than separately in the previous four.

There were only two other people I trusted not to mock me. One was my sister, Sam. “You and I always worked well together.”

“True.” His blue eyes burned into me, a little pink at the edges from the bourbon. “We make a great team. That’s why we called the company Synergy. Remember?”

Yeah, I remembered. Vaguely. We’d been drinking cheaper booze then, the night before we pitched the venture capitalists. A flash of memory: Cooper slurring out “Ssssynergy. Thassit.” I might’ve kissed him after that. Or maybe it was only that one time in college. We’d been younger then, and the hangovers hadn’t been as painful.

“To you and Alicia Weber,” he said. “A partnership that’s going to save the company.”

This time, I raised my glass, too, and drained it. I’d floundered for so long before Alicia joined us. No matter what she or Cooper said, she was the difference. She’d turned the project around, not me. But for once, I didn’t resent needing help. I signaled the server for another round.

“I think, after you finish this project, you ought to come back to headquarters. We’ve got a couple of initiatives that could use your expertise. Maybe you could work on both in an advisory capacity. Start acting like a vice president of development instead of a senior programmer.”

I blinked at him. “Seriously?”

“You can finish up this project remotely. You’ll be home in time for Thanksgiving dinner with your family.”

The waitress set our drinks on the table, and I drank half of mine down in one gulp. The glass still in my hand, I pointed at Cooper. “You’re coming to Thanksgiving, too.”

The tops of his cheeks turned pink. “Sure. I’d love it.”

Of course he would. My mother adored him. Unlike her own son, he was perfect.

I shoved the thought aside. I was being sprung from exile. I was going home. Back to Synergy headquarters and my office on the top floor where no one bossed me around. Okay, except for my assistant, Marlee.

But there’d be no Alicia to subtly shake her head when I pulled too many sticky notes from the backlog. To comb through my code with those sharp blue eyes. To encourage me to be my best. To believe in me.

No wonder I wasn’t excited.

* * *

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