Page 2 of Santa Baby Maybe
“Can I get you drink?” Wes pointed to the large bar over his shoulder.
“No!” I screeched, then realize how ridiculous I sounded. “I mean, no. I really just wanted to come and say thank you for the opportunity. I know you took a risk on my idea.”
“A risk that paid off,” Wes said. “I’m the one who owes you my thanks.”
I smiled and tucked my hair behind my ear. I’d always had a problem with compliments like that. “Anyway, Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays and I’ll see you in the New Year.”
Maybe. Or maybe not, depending on what happened when I got home.
“Wait. You’re not staying to enjoy the party? I’ve got the best caterer in Denver. Your whole team is here. And besides, you missed the big announcement. I’m officially married!”
“What?” I said, my jaw dropping in true shock. I’d known he was engaged. Everyone knew about the engagement, even if they hadn’t really known who Penny Gold was. Still, the marriage came as surprise.
“Yep. We just decided to make it official. Today.”
“That’s great. I’m happy for you. Congratulations. I mean that. You deserve to be happy, Wes.”
“Thank you. And please stay. Enjoy the celebration,” Wes encouraged me.
I nodded and smiled, and that seemed to assure Wes. He turned away then and started chatting with other employees. Making them feel like they too were saviors of the company. Because, really, it had been a group effort.
I glanced around the crowded room hoping I could find Cheryl quickly. Maybe I was overthinking this. After all, I had barely seen W.B. in the last month. Did I even know for sure if he would come to an event like this? W.B. was so rigid about everything else in his life. A party seemed out of character. I imagined if he had come, he’d get a drink—just one, he would never do anything as crass as get drunk at the company holiday party—and stand against a wall, brooding, while he watched everyone else relax and have fun.
That was, unless he’d brought a date. Oh my God, what if he was here with a date?
As I turned around, searching the room for Cheryl, my eyes locked on a person who was holding a single drink, standing in a corner of the room, and watching me.
Broodingly. Broodingly watching me.
Shit!
I hated that I’d been right. Hated that now that I’d seen him, made eye contact with him, I was probably obliged to say something to him. At the very least, say Happy Holidays.
Because that’s what we’d agreed to. Or he’d agreed to. He was the CFO and I was the head ornament designer, and that’s all we were to each other now. And had been since Thanksgiving. Which meant, as colleagues, it was entirely appropriate to say hello and wish him a good New Year.
Except I didn’t think I could do it. I didn’t think I could say anything to him without blurting out the very real possibility that I was…
No. Don’t think it. If you don’t think it, it can’t be true.
I realized there was a level of delusional denial in that statement, but it was the only thing holding me together.
Then I realized he was still watching me, his blue eyes drilling into my head like he could find all the answers there. Know all my secrets.
I couldn’t let him. My secrets were too life changing.
It was cowardice, but it didn’t matter. I had to get out of there. I would send Cheryl an email. I would send my whole team an email apologizing for my absence. Letting them know I was under the weather.
That’s if I made the decision to come back to Kane Co., which right now was in doubt, because just knowing W.B. was here and watching me didn’t make me feel professional or mature.
Instead he made me feel flustered and entirely unprofessional.
Shit.
Now he was walking toward me, a determined expression on his face that might signal he had something important to say to me, or it was just his normal expression. Because W.B. always looked like he was on the verge of saying something important.
I called it his Resting Serious Face. Because his expressions didn’t often stray from that.
Except that one time.
