Page 19 of Irresistible Love

“Um…we?” he asked, looking like a deer caught in the headlights.

“Yes, Noah. We,” she said firmly. “Come on.” Taking him by the hand, she took off toward the end of the block before pausing.

“Problem?” he asked, taking his hand from hers.

“I don’t know which way they went!” Stomping her foot, she tried to think of a plan of action.

“Lily, there are dozens of places they could have gone. We couldn’t possibly hit them all. And then what are you going to say if you find them?”

“I will remind him that it’swrongto lie, and that he is a married man! Jeez, try to keep up, Noah!”

“Keep…?” He huffed with annoyance. “You need to calm down and think about this for a minute. You can’t chase your grandfather all over the city, and I’m certainly not going to do that with you.”

Her gaze narrowed. “Oh, right. Your precious job might suffer. Gasp!” she added sarcastically. She continued to stare at him, but all that was doing was making her realize how freaking attractive he was. He’d been good looking when she met him three years ago. But now? Now he was on a whole other level. He had a bit of scruff on his jaw today that she’d never seen before, and it was stupid how sexy it made him look.

Run! Run away! Stop thinking about this and go!

“You know what? Fine,” he said wearily. “We’ll check a few places, but then wait here for him to come back. You can ambush him then.”

She didn’t hate the idea, but…

“What if he takes an extended lunch?” And yeah, just the thought of what he was possibly doing on that extended lunch made her shudder.

“Hang on.” Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he called someone. “Hey, Sara, it’s Noah,” he said, sounding extremely pleasant. “Is Mr. Montgomery in?” He paused. “Oh. Do you know when he’ll be back?” Another pause. “Uh-huh. Great. Thanks!” Hanging up, he slid his phone back into his pocket. “Okay, according to Sara, your grandfather’s at lunch, but will be back at one because he really has a conference call then.”

“Oh.”

“Maybe you just misunderstood what he told you. Maybe he meant that he had a call coming up?”

“Maybe,” she murmured. “But it still doesn’t explain the woman. And if he had time to go out with her, he had time to go out with me.”

They stood in awkward silence for several long moments before Noah spoke. “How about we grab something quick from the sandwich shop on the corner? We’ll sit at a table by the window so we can watch the front of the building and see when they come back.”

At that moment, Lily’s stomach growled and she nodded. “Fine. But when I see them, just know that I’m going to run over here and demand answers and you won’t be able to stop me.”

He held his hands up in surrender. “Consider me warned.”

With a small huff, she stepped up to the edge of the sidewalk and waited for the light to change. Noah came up and stood beside her and she felt like she needed to say something.

“I appreciate you…you know…doing this with me,” she said quietly. “After everything that happened on Monday…”

“It’s not a big deal,” he interrupted. “I was going out to grab some lunch anyway.”

“Still…after you said…”

“Lily?”

“Hmm?”

“Just drop it, okay? We’re just going to eat some lunch and then you’re going to run and tackle your grandfather while I sit back and watch. That’s all we need to talk about.”

“Oh,” she murmured. “Okay.”

The light changed and they crossed the street and walked into the sandwich shop. It was slightly crowded, but fortunately they were able to snag a table by the window just like they hoped. Lily was mildly distracted by a myriad of things—watching the people walking by the Montgomery building, the noise in the restaurant, and the man sitting across from her. It was a hell of a time for her to fixate on his looks, but that damn scruff on his face was practically like catnip to her.

“Are you okay?” he asked after a minute.

“Yeah. Why?”

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