Page 63 of Austen Persuaded

“Hmm, nope,” I admitted, feeling suitably chastised. “You’re right, not cool. What matters is impact, not intention, and obviously it had a pretty negative impact on you.”

He shifted uncomfortably in the chair. Of course he wouldn’t want to admit to the insecurity underlying this. He’d dated a few girls before who’d treated him like man candy, seeing only a muscular, attractive guy rather than the kind, funny, intelligent, awesome guy inside. I’d wanted to punch those old girlfriends in the throat, actually, but he’d reminded me it wasn’t worth it. “It’s … you know, it’s fine. I don’t want to talk about it. She’s your colleague now, so I’ll play it cool.” The look on his face left me in doubt though.

I leaned forward to turn the volume down on the annoying pop song that Rainn had been blasting in the car. “Thanks for driving me to the bookstore, Rainn, and agreeing to pick me up. If you could comemeet me inside, that would be even better. That way, I won’t have any awkward walks to the door with Kylan this time.” I sighed. “If he even shows up. Hopefully he won’t!”

“No problem,” Rainn said with a grin. We didn’t usually drive to the office together every day, despite working similar schedules so far, simply because I wanted to make sure I was available to stay late if the agents needed me to. It was far too soon for that kind of longer hours yet, but I wanted to be prepared and show I was committed. But today we’d carpooled.

“You know, maybe Sofia was just having a bad day when she said that about you, Rainn, because she is amazing. Seriously, I couldn’t be happier working with her.”

Rainn said nothing, but he gripped the steering wheel a bit tighter.

Continuing, I added, “She said she might even come tonight. She’s already read the book we selected, of course, since it’s basically her job to read what’s current and know what’s selling.”

“How nice for her,” he said flatly.

“Are you going to hold that one comment against her forever?” I demanded. “You know, women face far worse and far more frequent comments from menall the time, and we’re expected to justget over it. Move on. No big deal.”

“And that makes it OK?” He glanced at me briefly with a challenge in his eyes.

“No.” I sighed. “I bet if I talked to her about it, she’d apologize. I bet she’d be really embarrassed and want to make it right. She’s really sweet—”

“No. Absolutely not.”

“But, Rainn—”

“Don’t say anything to her.”

“Rainn, I—”

“No.”

I stayed silent for a moment. This had struck a bigger nerve with him than I’d realized. I said quietly, “Fine. Sorry.”

“Not your fault.”

We rode the rest of the way in silence, other than the quiet hum of the radio in the background.

When we arrived, I asked him if he wanted to stop in.

“Oh, I’m not … the book club type.”

“You don’t have to stay. I just … I could use help setting up the chairs and stuff. I don’t know if my teenage coworker will show up, and she’s so moody.”

Rainn looked at me, not yet responding.

“OK, fine … the truth is, I’m terrified of facing Kylan alone, in case he shows up early. Are you happy?” I buried my face in my palms.

“Yep,” he said, turning off the engine and getting out of the car.

“Finally, I get a smile from you,” I muttered, “but only at my own expense.”

He put a broad arm around my shoulder as we started walking toward the door, and he didn’t hide a wry smile. “We’ve both had a bit of that tonight, haven’t we?”

I needn’t have feared, as Kylan didn’t make his grand appearance until five minutes after we’d started. I was actually quite annoyed, as we’d already started discussing the book. I’d started relaxing enough to enjoy myself, thinking he’d abandoned the idea of attending altogether. But so much for that hope. Sofia showed up too, but on time, so she sat next to me. Yet again, I had to resist the urge to bring up Rainn and ask what the deal was.

At the halfway point, I announced a five-minute break and turned to Sofia. “You’ve been quiet. Are you all right?” Usually Sofia was just like me, the furthest thing from shy.

My new friend and colleague smiled. “Oh, I’m fine, girl. I’m just feeling out the room. As an agent, I’m trying to figure out what kind of role I should play in a conversation like this, you know? I talked to Jardin earlier, and they didn’t see my attending as a conflict of interest per se, but they wanted me to be thoughtful in my approach. So I’m just trying to, you know, be thoughtful.”

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