Page 9 of Her Hunky Scrooge

Her head tilted a little, but the smile remained fixed on her face. “I don’t know. Probably not. He doesn’t stop for things like lunch. I don’t think he’s human. Come on, we’ll go together.”

Laurie and I weren’t best buddies or anything, but we had lunch together every couple of weeks. She was a little older, but we worked together a lot.

“Sure,” I said.

I stood and picked up my phone, tucking it in my pants pocket. Now came the issue of getting through that door without Mr. Kincaid seeing me. Maybe the fact that there were two of us would lower my risk of being spotted.

“How’d it go last week?” Laurie asked as we approached the door.

That at least took my mind off the man across the way. His office was farther from the door than I had pictured as I was debating. Just in case he was looking, though, I dropped my gaze to the floor and hoped my hair blocked enough of my face that if he did look up, he wouldn’t see me.

I waited until we were through the door to speak. “Great,” I said, heading straight toward the elevator and pressing the down button. The quicker we could get downstairs, the lower the chances he’d come out and catch me. Maybe he’d leave for lunch and not come back, and I could take a breath between now and dinner.

“Mr. Kincaid said you did a great job,” Laurie said. “I talked to him this morning.”

My eyes widened. The bell chimed, and the door slid open, but I couldn’t seem to will myself to move.

“Mr. Kincaid said something about me?” I asked.

“Yeah. He didn’t mention you by name.” She shrugged and laughed as she stepped onto the elevator. “Basically, the praise was for the elf, like it wasn’t just a costume. Hey, maybe you could do it again next year. I promise I’ll get you a better-fitting costume.”

She pressed the button for the lobby, and the doors slid shut. The costume. I hoped the mention of it wouldn’t remind her that I hadn’t returned it. Blake said he’d see to it that I could keep it. I just wondered what he’d told Laurie.

I breathed a sigh of relief as we made our way into the break room. No sign of Mr. Kincaid, and Laurie seemed to have dropped the subject of him praising me. I’d just grab a slice or two of pizza and sit over in the corner, hoping he wouldn’t show up.

But there were only eight of us, and everyone was settling down at the table closest to the door. So much for remaining invisible.

I’d made it most of the way through my second slice and was formulating an excuse to get out of there for a little while when I saw him. Blake Kincaid was standing in the break room doorway.

“Good afternoon,” he said with a big smile, but his brow furrowed when he saw me. “Carly?”

The conversation around me stopped. One by one, my coworkers turned to look at the man standing in the doorway. Then, one by one, they shifted their gazes toward me.

“Excuse me,” I said.

I pushed away from the table and set the remainder of my pizza slice down. I then grabbed a napkin and wiped my hands as I walked across the room, tossing it in the trashcan near the door. The same trashcan where we’d tossed wrapping paper the day the kids were here.

My knees were shaking as I breezed past him through the doorway and into the hall. I had a lot of explaining to do. It only occurred to me once we were in the hallway that I’d assumed one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Pleasure Valley would come out into the hall to talk to me. My coworkers had to think that was weird.

Ishould think it was weird, but I had bigger things to worry about right now. I was in love with this guy, and I didn’t want to lose him over a lie of omission.

“What are you doing here?” he asked as he followed me down the hallway.

Yeah, that was a good question. He’d naturally assume I’d shown up here for personal reasons, not that I worked here.

I stepped into a small meeting room adjacent to the break room. Luckily, it wasn’t occupied today. He followed me inside, shutting the door behind him.

He had a big smile on his face. Obviously, he’d not yet figured out I wasn’t here today for personal reasons.

“I wasn’t hired to be an elf last week,” I said. “I work here. I’m on your accounts payable team.”

Heck, Iwashis entire accounts payable team, although we did outsource some of the bookkeeping. It was pretty crappy that he didn’t even know who his own accounts payable person was.

“I don’t understand.” His features darkened, and he crossed his arms over his chest. “You knew I was your boss when you…”

“I wasn’t thinking of you as my boss,” I said. “In fact, I’ve seen you at least a hundred times and never had the nerve to talk to you. I wouldn’t have had the courage to do any of that if you hadn’t invited me to meet you.”

I cringed as I heard those words come out of my mouth. It sounded like I was saying he was taking advantage of an employee. But that was far from the truth. I’d been more than willing—begging for it, really.

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