Page 15 of If I See You Again
The frown that marred Malcom’s face made my gut twist, and not in a good way. I couldn’t tell if he was angry, frustrated, or annoyed. The last thing I’d wanted to do was make him uncomfortable.
“David…” he sighed, looking up and down the hall before motioning for me to let him in the room. I stepped aside, giving him plenty of space. “I—I get where you’re coming from, but this is my job. I’m trying my best here.”
My fingers itched to reach out and grab him, to pull him to me and make him forget all about being professional, but he had a point. “What I’m trying to say is, there’s no need to be overly formal with me. We’re past that point.”
A faint blush spread across Malcolm’s cheeks as he looked around the room. Was he thinking the same thing I had earlier? Remembering the last time we were together in a hotel?
He cleared his throat as he walked over to the desk where I’d set up my laptop. He said nothing more about justhowfamiliar we’d been as he sat down in front of the screen. I’d left part of the website up, and maybe it was worth seeing what he thought of the whole picture, not just the concept.
“Is this the website?” he asked, looking over his shoulder at me. I moved closer, resting my hand on the desk next to him and leaning in close. From this close, I could smell him. Malcolmwas sweet, with a hint of orange and bergamot. It was enough to make me want to bury my nose in his neck and inhale him.
Malcolm sucked in a sharp breath, maybe because of my proximity, but I closed the lid of the computer and turned the chair to face me.
“It is, but it’s not exactly ready yet. There are still a lot of bugs to work out.”
He nodded as we stared at one another. This shouldn’t be so awkward. We’d spent weeks texting and emailing. The idea of us being strangers, even if we hadn’t seen each other naked, was preposterous.
The longer we sat there not speaking, the more my skin crawled. This wasn’t the reunion I’d been hoping for. There had to be a way to make Malcolm comfortable around me again, to tear down his walls and piece together his small mysteries.
“Let’s go grab dinner,” I said, nodding to the door.
Malcolm swallowed. “I already ate.”
“Drinks then. Give me something. We can’t work together if you’re going to be cagey every time we meet.”
A small laugh left his throat, which was music to my ears.
“I’m not being cagey.”
“You are, and you need to loosen up. One drink, Malcolm. A drink and a talk. Nothing more. A professional meeting between colleagues.”
He looked conflicted, concern flashing behind his eyes as he quickly looked between the bed and me, his green eyes darkening for a moment as his pupils dilated, and he swallowed hard. I hadn’t even mentioned anything about things being sexual, and his brain had gone right there. Maybe there was hope for me to salvage this after all.
Chapter 11
Malcolm
“My mother had an obsession with arts and crafts. Whatever was new and popular, she had to try it.” David’s hand swung around as he talked. The bar was relatively empty for a Friday evening, so it made it easier to hear him. “She did everything from knitting to painting ceramics. Then there was the great rubber stamp craze. I’ll never forget the year she was convinced that my sister and I had to sit and help her make all the Christmas cards by hand.”
If anything, he was interesting to talk to. We’d gotten small glimpses of each other’s lives over the last couple of months, but this was something different. My chin rested on my hand as he kept telling the story of how his younger sister had gotten into the ink pads, ruining a lot of them, and how his mother had been so upset.
“Do you have any siblings?”
The question caught me off guard. I was so used to everyone knowing about Marcus that the idea of him not knowing at this point was strange. Maybe if I had told David about him months ago, things would’ve been different. David wouldn’t be trying toget to know me or insisting that I run his advertising campaign. There was a very real chance that he would have run for the hills, just like everyone else.
“Had. I had a sibling. A brother.”
Silence settled around us, and David watched me, head tilted to the side with interest. I itched under his scrutiny. He’d just been telling me funny stories about his little sister, and I suddenly dampened the mood by telling him about losing my brother.
The awkwardness was finally broken when the bartender placed a fresh round of drinks in front of us. I lifted the chilly glass of beer to my lips, savoring the hoppy flavor that rolled over my tongue, and tried my best not to focus on the fact that David was still staring.
“What do you mean, ‘had a brother?’”
A small, humorless laugh passed between my lips as the glass of the bottle clinked against the bar top when I set it down, and I turned to face him. “I mean, I had one. He’s not here anymore.” My eyes burned as I swallowed thickly. I rarely got emotional talking about Marcus these days. Something about telling David was different. I’d let him in differently than I’d let anyone else in. Maybe that was what I’d been doing wrong all along.
For the first time since the conversation started, David turned away. Losing his pale blue gaze on me made me feel bereft and empty. He lifted his beer to his full pink lips. I shouldn’t have been thinking about them when talking about my brother’s death, but I couldn’t help it. It didn’t change the fact that the man was still stupidly attractive, and I was struggling not to cross professional lines again.
“What happened to him?”
