Page 27 of Grumpy Boss's Secret

As soon as it closed, the smile on my face turned to a grin. That had been sweet. Unnecessary and sweet. Hmm.

Half an hour later, there was another knock on my door. “Come in,” I said, continuing to type even though my skin was purring with anticipation over seeing Ian again.

The door opened, and Kevin walked in with my coffee. Blast.

"Hey, Kevin," I said, standing up as he held out the latte. "Thanks for this. What's the occasion?"

“Monday,” he said.

“Well, thanks,” I said, smiling.

That mixer did everyone some good. The atmosphere in the office was decidedly friendlier. After Kevin had left, I spun around in my chair a few times. Ian had done me two favors already. The coffee didn't really count since Kevin had bought it, but Ian had offered to ask me what I wanted. That was a gesture of interest, almost like a bouquet of flowers. Okay, maybe a tiny bouquet of flowers. But still.

“I want to do something for him,” I said, staring at the ceiling and shuffling myself around in a circle with my feet.

But what? I didn't know what he liked. At all. Not food, movies, colors, anything. I barely knew the man.

Okay, that wasn’t true. But I still had no idea what to buy him as a gift.

"I could buy him a seat cover for his car to make up for the puddle I made on it," I thought, laughing to an unreasonable degree at my own joke, which admittedly wasn't funny. But I was giddy and giggling.

I really, really liked this man. I caught sight of my copy of Captured by Love, which was still sitting on the edge of my desk. I stopped spinning and looked at it. Well, that was an idea. I could lend him my book. Next time he came in here. Just offer it to him. Then it wasn't a gift, just a casual, friendly offer.

I'd marked it up a great deal – underlining the sentences I loved the most in colored gel pens. I'd even added circles of hearts in a few places. It was a little embarrassing. But I liked it. It was a good way of introducing myself more, just like I'd wanted to do with Kirk. Maybe I couldn't be with Kirk himself, but if Ian liked Kirk's writing, we could relate to each other in that way. I would know more about him if he had read and enjoyed the book.

I decided my plan, and I returned to work with a vengeance. I needed to wait until Ian stopped by my office again. I didn't want to offer him a romance novel at the end of a staff meeting. That's not exactly something you want witnesses for.

He didn't come by my office for another few days. By then, I had almost forgotten the plan, preoccupied with my workload. But as soon as I heard a knock on my office door, my head jerked like a jack-in-the-box.

“Enter,” I said.

Ian opened the door. I suppressed a radiant grin at the sight of him.

“What’s up, fearless leader?” I said.

He lifted his eyebrows. Okay, Jozi. Don’t overdo it.

“Do you have the numbers for the social media posts yet?” he asked.

"I do indeed," I said, swiveling towards my computer. "Let me just pull them up."

Just like I'd hoped he would, Ian walked across the room and stood behind me. As I clicked into a spreadsheet, he leaned over my copy of Captured by Love again.

“It’s a great book,” I said, looking over my shoulder and smiling at him. “You should read it. I bet you’d like Kirk Green a lot.”

"I don't know about that," he said, laughing oddly. There was definitely an edge of condescension to it.

"Hey," I said. "Don't knock my favorite author like that."

"Kirk Green is your favorite author?" he asked. I couldn't really read his expression. He looked incredulous.

He was critical of Kirk Green for someone who'd posted one of his quotes.

“Definitely,” I said. “Don’t judge me. I know he’s no Hemmingway, but he’s got a kind of poetry to the way he writes about love that gets me in here,” I said, tapping my heart.

Ian smiled. “Hmm,” he said.

I reached across the desk and pushed the book to him. “Go on, borrow it,” I said. “This copy is a mess, I’ve underlined the heck out of it, but on the bright side, I probably won’t notice if you crumple it a little.”

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