Page 48 of The Santa Swap

“Nothing much. I just needed to stretch my legs.” She didn’t include that she was on a spy mission. “How is your gift giving going?”

Luke looked out the window. “It’s okay. Thinking of gifts is hard.”

“Yeah. Especially since there were only a few papers left to choose from.” Olivia didn’t mention that there had only been one paper left when Tara came into her office. “It made the odds of getting someone I knew so much smaller.”

“I got the last one, but it worked out great for me.” Luke clasped his hands together. “Anyway, I’d better get back to work.”

Olivia waited until she was back in her office. Then she pumped her fist in the air. It was impossible for two people to have drawn the last paper, which meant Tara had definitely been up to some funny business. The gift exchange had been rigged, but Olivia couldn’t understand why.

Tara was usually pretty perceptive. It was quite possible she had put together the fact that Olivia had a crush on Luke. It still didn’t make sense why Tara would want Luke giving gifts to her. He had barely broken up with Susan.

The more she thought about it, the less sense it made. Tara and Susan were best friends. She wouldn’t want to hurt Susan so there had to be a different reason. Getting work done was going to be impossible unless she got answers.

Olivia pushed away from her desk. She needed to talk to Tara before she went crazy. When she walked into the foyer, it was too late. Tara and Gary were climbing onto the elevator. She wasn’t sure where they were going or when they would be back.

It was time to talk to Luke.

CHAPTER21

The text message on Luke’s phone was making it difficult to concentrate on anything other than the fact that Olivia said they needed to talk. It was always difficult to read emotion in a text, but this one felt ominous. Almost every single one of Olivia’s text messages included an emoji of some sort, whether it was a thumbs-up or a smiling face. The text burning a hole in his hands had no emoji.

Years spent under the scrutiny of the public eye made Luke pretty brave when he was faced with uncomfortable situations, yet the five-foot, five-inch woman coming to his office had his palms sweating. Had he offended her somehow? He had been working hard to remind her that they had fun together.

Luke’s leg hadn’t stopped bouncing since he read the text. He responded right away telling Olivia that she could come by any time. That was his mistake. He didn’t know when the beautiful woman was going to come into his office or what she was going to say. All he knew was that good news or bad, he couldn’t wait to see her.

Olivia came into Luke’s office an hour later. She stood in the doorway, shifting back and forth.

“Come in,” Luke said. His stomach was knotting itself. “What’s up?”

Olivia walked to the desk and sat on the edge of the chair. “I’m going to ask you something and I’m hoping you’ll be honest with me.”

That didn’t sound good. “Go for it.”

Olivia’s brown eyes were staring him down as the tension in the room ratcheted up a few notches. “Are you my secret Santa?”

Luke’s mind was spinning. He wasn’t sure what to expect, but that wasn’t it. “Aren’t they supposed to be secret?” he asked. “I don’t think anyone is supposed to say anything.”

Olivia folded her arms in front of her and raised her eyebrows. “So, that’s a yes.”

“Hey, I didn’t say that.”

“But you didn’t deny it either.”

She was making a good point. Luke needed to steer the direction of the conversation another way. “Why do you want to know?”

Olivia’s foot was beginning to bounce. “I’m not sure. I guess it feels like you are trying to remind me of our first date. I want to know why.”

Luke wanted to say it was because Olivia was enchanting and he really wanted to date her. Somehow, that felt like dangerous territory. She had already shot him down.

“I feel like our friendship has been a little strained lately. When I got your name, I figured fate was smiling down on me for once. I had the chance to show you how much I cared.”

Olivia rolled her eyes.

“What?”

“Didn’t you wonder how you got my name?” Olivia asked.

Luke shrugged. “I didn’t think too much about it. I just figured I was really lucky.”

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