Page 41 of Love You
Struggling with his buckle, she decided it would be faster to get his shirt off instead, and began rucking it up over his chest and head. He shoved up her top and continued to kiss his way down her body, his breath tickling her belly.
Oh God, he was killing her . . . taking her to heaven. He rubbed his erection against the part of her that was dying for attention, making her feel so good. At this rate, she wasn’t going to make it to nakedness, that’s for sure.
In the distance, something clattered. It was loud, reminding them they weren’t alone, and they jerked apart. Win scrubbed his hand through his hair, looking slightly bewildered. Then he rolled to the edge of the bed and sat up.
“Shit.” He pushed off the mattress and walked out.
* * *
Darcy went into the office the next morning, not knowing what to expect. She’d gone over the kiss all night, replaying every detail of it in her head. About three in the morning she finally fell asleep, deciding that it was nothing. Just the two of them blowing off steam. Win had kissed Glory Junction’s entire female population, or at least the single ladies, and none of them had meant anything to him. That’s the way he operated. Love ’em and leave ’em. But now she was even more frustrated than the night she’d crawled into bed with him.
“What are you doing here?” TJ asked as he passed her desk on his way in.
“Working.” And in five seconds, getting the doughnuts at the Morning Glory, like she always did for the Monday meeting.
“All right.” He shrugged. “But make sure to take two days off during the week.”
She planned to look at the schedule later to make sure she took different days than Win. As it was, he had a tour later and would probably be in soon to attend the meeting, which meant she couldn’t avoid him.
“I want you and Win to brief us on how everything went with FlashTag and what we can do to follow up,” TJ said, and headed to his office.
Great, she thought, her face heating from the memory of the kiss, then told herself she could remain professional.
On the way to the diner, Darcy bumped into Deb. Either Deb had driven in separately from TJ or she’d been over at Glorious Gifts, gabbing with Hannah while she opened the store. The two were best friends and soon would be sisters-in-law. Darcy would be the only one in the office who wasn’t family, which sometimes could make things awkward. Then again, she’d been married to Lewis and had still felt like an outsider at Snyder Real Estate, even though her husband owned the business. She’d basically been everyone’s secretary and Lewis’s mother. At GA, the slot of mother had already been filled by Mary Garner.
Felix was working the cash register when she came in and she made sure to give him a big hello.
He grunted something unintelligible that sounded a little like “good morning,” then “Your doughnut order will be up in a second.”
She sat at the counter on one of the red leather swivel stools and waited. Ricki waved from the back of the dining room where she took orders from a family of five. A woman Darcy didn’t recognize asked after Nana. Darcy promised to pass along her salutations.
The restaurant wasn’t as crowded as it had been Saturday but it was hopping just the same. Lewis would’ve called the diner a license to make money. Like her parents, that’s all he cared about. It wasn’t that Darcy had anything against wealth but there was more to life than buying shiny things and showing up the neighbors. Happiness, for one, something she knew her parents didn’t have much of. At least not together. She’d always felt that they had taken out their misery on her by nitpicking everything she did.
“Darcy, don’t wear horizontal stripes, dear.” “You’ll never make anything of yourself if you don’t join the right clubs. Learn to network, dear.” “Lewis loves you so much, how can you leave him?”
How could she not?
“Here you go.” Felix handed her a white pastry box and she walked back to the office. It was cooler than it had been the last two days. With June, you could never tell. By noon, the cloud layer could burn off, sending temperatures into the nineties.
As soon as she walked in the door Colt grabbed the box from her and started rummaging around for a bear claw. The Garner men were partial to them, though they’d settle for an apple fritter in a pinch.
She went to the kitchenette and started the coffee, which she should’ve done the moment she’d stepped in the door. But she was feeling a bit discombobulated. She chalked it up to working eight days straight and not to the kiss. Because the kiss had meant nothing. Nothing at all. And she felt even more confident that Win felt the same, since he handed them out like a penny slot machine.
“We ready to start?” TJ stuck his head around the corner.
“Yep, just getting the coffee started. I’ll meet you in the conference room.”
She joined everyone, set the carafe in the center of the long table, and quickly darted her eyes at the chair Win usually occupied. Empty. Her stomach dipped. She told herself it was from relief. Eventually she’d have to face him but she’d rather do it after a strong cup of coffee. Or never. That would be good, too.
No such luck. About ten minutes into the meeting, he drifted into the room with his hair wet and his face covered in stubble. He picked through the pastry box, grabbed a powdered sugar doughnut that Darcy had had her eye on, and stuffed half of it in his mouth.
“Glad you finally decided to join us,” TJ said.
“Sorry I’m late.” Win poured himself a cup of coffee and took a seat.
She tried to avoid eye contact but it was difficult given that she was sitting right across from him. A few times she caught him glancing straight at her.
“How do you guys think it went?” TJ looked from her to Win.
