“Oh yeah.”
Nothing was said as heat burned between them. She wanted nothing more than to lean up as far as she could and hope he would meet her for a hot, lusty kiss. Her lips begged for his, and with the way he was looking at her mouth, she was sure Tate wanted the same thing.
When that didn’t happen, she straightened up and said, “Then I’ll see you tonight, Tate Ooooodder.”
She walked away then, reaching for the door just as he said, “We’re friends, but when I look at you, I don’t see an old hag, Audrey.”
Sparing him one last glance, Audrey saw the heat in his eyes. Seeing his want made her body catch on fire and her girlie parts wet. But then reality set in, and all her hot feelings went away. Tate may not see an old hag, but little did he know, Audrey basically was one.
Audrey’s day didn’t get better.
Worse was more like it.
The only thing keeping her from killing her employees with her stapler was knowing that later she would be in front of her TV with a beer and popcorn and hopefully some ice cream, if Tate came. She wanted to be excited about seeing Tate, too, but knowing that nothing could ever happen between them made being around him hard. She wanted him, bad. But it didn’t matter. For his sake and hers, they were better as friends. She couldn’t ruin his life by being selfish; he deserved to find a woman who could give him everything he wanted. Audrey wasn’t that person.
With consumer reports and expense spreadsheets by her side, Audrey sat clicking away on Facebook. She should have been working, but she hated this place. Hated the color of the orange that adorned the walls, hated the employees, hated everything. She hated dealing with customer complaints and business services, whining restaurant managers and incompetent store owners. She was not made for customer service. What she was made to do was beyond her, but she knew it wasn’t this freaking desk job.
Audrey leaned on her hand, looking at her friend’s statuses, when a knock came at the door, causing Audrey to look up.
“Come in,” she said, shutting the page down in case it was someone important. Like her father.
It wasn’t though.
Taking in a deep, troubled breath, Audrey looked up in the face of the last person she wanted to see right now.
Levi shut the door behind him, smiling down at her as he leaned against it. Of course, he was looking gorgeous as ever in a dark blue button-up shirt and khaki pants. His light gray tie hung loosely around his neck as his eyes stayed pinned to hers.
“Hey there, Cupcake,” he said in a low voice. “You’ve been ignoring me.”
Clearing her throat, Audrey asked, “What are you doing here?”
“I came to see you. Like I said, you’ve been ignoring me.”
“Well, there is a reason. You were quite the ass the other morning,” Audrey said, not moving as Levi rocked back on his heels, his hands in his pockets as if he was nervous. Audrey knew better, but it still tugged at her heart to see some kind of emotion from him.
“You know I’m not the best person to deal with in the morning.”
Levi then took a step forward toward her desk, and Audrey didn’t move, even though she knew she should have. She stayed behind her desk, watching as he came around the desk, pulling her chair out so that she faced him. He gave her another lazy smile before squatting down and looking up at her.
“I have nothing to say to you, Levi,” she said, so softly she wasn’t sure he heard her. Levi moved his hands up her thighs and Audrey froze.
She knew she needed to make him stop, but with the way he was looking at her, like he cared, like he might love her, had her frozen in place.
What if he did love her and all this stuff they had been dealing with was over? He wanted to come home! He wanted to be with her! Maybe she could get him to adopt!