Page 16 of Friend Me

My eyes burned to look at Cooper to know if he was observing me—us—but I couldn’t. No sound came from his office. When hope flickered in Tyler’s hazel eyes, I hardened my stare. “As friends, right?” I couldn’t allow any more-than-friends feelings to get in the way of my Cowgirl-Up-for-Cooper Plan.

“Oh, um, yeah. Friends.”

Maybe Jackson was right, and seeing me with a date would be the push Cooper needed to start thinking about me as something other than an off-limits coworker. Would he feel jealous when I walked into the room with Tyler, laughing at something he’d said? No,Tylerwould be laughing at somethingI’dsaid. And I’d look over at Cooper, and he’d wonder what I’d said that was funny, and he’d want to hear it, and he’d ask me to dance. Cooper’s hand in mine. Magic.

“Then, yeah, okay.”

He flashed me a smile that creased his cheek in a dimple. “Great.” He exhaled a gust of air. “Can I—?” He pointed at the response card. I handed it to him. He pulled a pen out of the cup on my desk. “Steak, lobster, or vegetarian?”

“Lobster.” Alicia’s wedding to the scion of the San Francisco Joneses was no backyard barbecue.

He showed it to me. He’d checked the box and scrawled at the bottom,Seat with Tyler Young.Shoving it into his jeans pocket, he said, “I’ll give it to Alicia.”

I nodded just as Jackson emerged from his office.

“There you are, Tyler. Stop flirting with Marlee and come in here.” Still cranky from Weston, apparently. Jackson turned on his heel and went back into his office.

Red-faced, Tyler shrugged and hustled after him.

I straightened my necklace. My plan to woo Cooper wasn’t derailed after all. In fact, it was just getting started.

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