Page 204 of Falling For The Boss

She snorted when he turned his attention back to her phone and arched his eyebrows.

“You’re gonna listen to yacht rock? While you run?”

“Who says I’m gonna run?”

She shook her head as she tapped the screen on her treadmill and selected a warm-up pace.

“You game?” He did the same.

“I didn’t think you would show up.”

“I work out every day,” he answered with a shrug. “And since we’re gonna go out, I thought we should get to know each other.”

She peeked at him quickly. She’d agreed to go out with him last night. She still couldn’t believe she’d given in, and she wasn’t sure yet how she felt about that.

“Not now.”

“Not now?” he repeated. “Like you changed your mind?”

“No, like after Tax Day.”

He picked up his pace to a light jog and considered her words for a moment before nodding. “Fair enough.”

He pulled his phone from his pocket and offered it to her.

“I think you would like Smith & Myers,” he told her. “Start with ‘New School Shiver’.”

With another sigh, she reached for his phone. “What’re you starting with?”

“Bobby Caldwell, of course.”

Sloane stuck her earbuds in and found the song Jed had suggested for her. Beside her, Jed had already tuned into Bobby Caldwell, holding her phone up so she could see the proof. He bumped his pace a bit. Sloane wanted to look, just take a peek at his legs, the well-defined muscles she hadn’t noticed when he’d been dressed for the office.

Talk about shoulders.

No, he didn’t look like a football player, but the guy had the kind of shoulders that made her swoon. Well, if she was the kind of woman who paid attention to men and swooned over the finer specimens.

The music was good, she decided as she picked up speed and started jogging. She didn’t dislike other sorts of music. She just enjoyed low-keyed tunes when she ran; something about the easy listening songs enabled her to relax and slip into the zone. Same with her office music. The soft jazz was enjoyable. If she played other music—even instrumental versions of songs she knew—she would probably end up belting out the lyrics while she worked.

And not even realize she was doing it.

While she was okay with singing out loud when she was alone in her car or at home, she liked other human beings too much to put them through the torture.

When she hit three miles, and she had a headache from the desire to turn and watch Jed and the discipline she’d exercised to not watch him, she tapped the speed buttons on the treadmill screen and started slowing down. Some days, she could and would keep going. Today, she was enjoying the music, and she was far too distracted by Jed Green to find her zone, so she would shower and head up to the office and get busy.

Jed looked her way when she came to a complete stop. He offered her a smile, but he didn’t seem ready to call it quits. Sloane stepped between the treadmills and put his phone on his console. Ready to hurry to the locker room for a shower, she made the mistake of looking at him as she slipped back by him.

With his neatly trimmed sideburns and square jaw, he looked anything but the cocky kid she’d assumed him to be before they had talked more last night. A jolt of attraction made her heartrate spike again as she hurried out of the gym. On weak legs, she made her way to the locker room and considered the good-looking man out there who had asked her out.

She had wondered last night, the second she’d walked away from him and headed to her car, if she would regret saying yes to dinner with him. Now, as she stepped under the hot shower, she realized she very well could regret saying yes, but for completely different reasons.

Chapter Nine

Jed

Sloane surprised him when she gave him her address. They’d made it through tax season, all of them working crazy, harried hours. Jed was exhausted, and he suspected all the frowning over the bookkeeping and crunching all the numbers and double-checking himself had added to his exhaustion. But he was proud of himself, too. He’d learned some new skills, not that he wanted to use them on any new job. But he’d lied for a job, lied about being able to do the books to impress Sloane—he had truly wanted to help, but if he were being honest, he would have to admit, mostly, he wanted to impress Sloane Garrison—and it had all worked out. He’d stepped up and helped Sloane through a crazy few weeks in tax season.

He'd reminded her now and then about their future dinner date, though he had been careful not to do so in front of Rena. At least not until Sloane mentioned it in front of Rena. She hadn’t once tried to wiggle out of it. But he had assumed she would insist on meeting him for dinner, so she would have her car for a quick getaway.

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