Page 40 of The Grumpy Boss Agreement

“That’s pretty cool!” Savannah cuts in. “I might go look for the parrot.”

“Yeah!” Charlie bellows. “You should pet it.”

Savannah laughs and nods. “Will do.”

She turns and vanishes behind the lighthouse. Charlie keeps babbling about the parrot, and I do my best to listen. But I can’t really give him my full attention.

There are too many things racing around in my head. The sizzle of attraction still lingers in the air. But behind it are feelings of hope and uncertainty.

Is this… a crush? Do I have a crush on Savannah? Oh god.

“See?” Charlie pulls at my hand.

“What are we looking at?” I ask.

“Daddy, you’re silly,” Charlie says. He rolls his eyes and beams up at me.

Racing ahead a few steps, he points at a lady selling balloons and makes a beeline for her.

“Oh man. You’re in so much trouble,” River whispers to me.

“What? Why?” I ask irritably.

“Because you think you’re being sly about Savannah. But you are not, my friend.”

I put a hand up. “I don’t want to talk about her. Okay? Let’s just focus on Charlie.”

“Sure thing, chief.”

But River won’t stop smirking at me out of the corner of his eye. I’m starting to realize that maybe my… let’s call it appreciation of Savannah’s charm and good looks is not exactly going unnoticed.

Not by River. And not by Savannah, either.

Even if I routinely think about how satisfying it would be to kiss her again, I still need to figure out the words to tell my insanely hot assistant that I’m not interested in her… and convince myself as well.

10

Savannah

I grin as I look around the circle of kids. Twenty kids sit cross-legged on the stage floor at the community center, taking turns introducing themselves to each other, and to me. Two teen girls sit with us, happily volunteering at the community center for high school credit. Jess and Meg don’t seem bothered by losing the early hours of the day. I am beyond thrilled that they would choose to spend their Saturday morning doing this.

A little boy says, “I’m Adam. My favorite animal is the tiger.”

The girl sitting next to him says, “I’m Amelia. My favorite animal is… wait, are birds an animal?”

“They are,” I affirm.

“Okay. Well, my favorite animal is a stork. A bunch live in a lake near my house.”

“Wow,” I say. “That’s great! Charlie, would you like to share last?”

Charlie pouts his lips out and squirms.

“I’m Charlie. I like puppies.”

“Puppies are a great animal.” I clap my hands together. “Okay. The next game is a memory game. I’ll get you started. My uncle Ted went to the store and brought back a…?” I mime thinking about it. “Banana! So, my sentence is, my Uncle Ted went to the store and brought back a banana’. Now Dex here” I gesture to Dex, who is the next in the circle, “will repeat what I said, but add an item. Go ahead, Dex.”

He clears his throat and frowns. “My Uncle Ted went to the store.”

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