Zach raked his gaze over her, lingering on her chest, before dragging his attention back to her face, and leaving goosebumps everywhere his eyes traveled. “You look good.”
Even though Scott said the same thing on Friday, this sank deep inside, warming her in a way she didn’t expect. “Thanks.” Wow, this is awkward. Or she was projecting. A mental deep breath fortified her. She was a professional with a solid career who bailed Fortune 500 companies out of bankruptcy. There was no reason to treat this as anything more than a casual conversation. Reassurances locked in place, she relaxed. “So do you. You wear CEO well.”
He chuckled. “Let’s hope Digital Media’s royalty agrees with you when they’re in the office this week.”
This was okay. Nice, polite. What had she been stressed about? “I’m sure if they’re reasonable, they’ll see exactly what I see.” Well, maybe not exactly. She forced her attention to stay on his face. To not study how well his shirt hugged his torso. The gleam in his eyes when he actually smiled, instead of faking it, was just as distracting.
“If they’re reasonable being the key modifier.” Scott’s laugh filled the patio. “I’m glad you still have a sense of humor.”
She hadn’t meant it as a joke, but when she thought about it, it was funny in a twisted kind of way.
Their waitress returned, set an iced tea in front of Zach, and coffee for Rae and Scott. She also set a bowl of pink sweetener packets next to Rae. “He said you’d want a lot of this, and to keep the coffee coming.”
Rae thanked her, then looked at Scott. He shrugged. “Was I wrong?”
“No.” She shouldn’t be surprised he still knew how she took her coffee. Scott had an eye for detail. If he didn’t fall into the technical conversations so easily, he’d be at least the salesman Zach was.
“Are you ready to order?” The waitress asked.
“Give us a minute,” Scott said.
“Actually,” Zach reached out enough to brush her wrist, without taking hold. “You can get me something.”
“Sure.” The girl smiled and pulled out her notepad. “What’s that?”
“Your number.”
If Rae had been drinking, she would have spit out her coffee. Her surprised cranked another notch when the waitress scribbled something, tore out a sheet of paper out, and handed it to Zach.
Right. They weren’t just an unbeatable business team, they were two of the hottest bachelors out there. The reminder soured her mood more than she expected. She focused on mixing cream and sweetener into her coffee.
“Hey.” Scott nudged her shoe with his. “Tell him about the job you did with the cable company back east.”
She shook her head. “No one wants to hear about my fangirl moments.”
“I saw what you did for them.” Zach gave her his full attention, eyes on her face as he leaned in. “Amazing work. They weren’t even close to financially solvent before you got there.”
He followed her work? “They weren’t as bad as some companies I’ve worked with.” Was she bragging or shrugging off the praise? She wasn’t sure.
“Still. We were looking at them for streaming distribution at the time, and they were floundering.”
Of course. His knowledge had nothing to do with her, it was about the business. She didn’t have any right to be wounded. She followed Cord because of Chloe and Scott, not because it had anything to do with Zach. A twitch in the back of her mind said that wasn’t completely true, and she ignored it.
“Yeah, awesome. But we know she’s amazing at her job.” Scott tugged her fingers. “And you know that’s not what I meant.”
“I do.”
Zach cocked his head to the side, studying her. “Now I’m extra curious.”
“It really wasn’t anything.” She waved her hand to brush off the attention. “I was auditing them, and they got me tickets and backstage access to one of their late night shows.”
“You’re leaving out the good parts,” Scott said.
“Besides, I like you fangirling.” Zach never looked away. “There’s a passion in that.”
She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling, unable to ignore the glow spreading through her. “Fine.” There was no irritation in her voice. “One of their executives was showing me around, and Mister-I’m-important-because-I’m-on-TV was complaining to one of the directors. Bitching about the fact some cunt was on set looking for an excuse to cut his budget, since advertising was down. One of his guests that day was the guy from that vampire show. The blond one. Vampire guy refused to go on until the host apologized to me.”
Zach’s eyes grew wide. “No kidding. Nice.”
“And…?” Scott prompted.
“And he took a few pictures with me, and was the kindest person imaginable the rest of the time I was in studio. About a week later, he sent signed photos of the entire cast to my office. Said no one deserved to be treated like that, especially for doing their job.”
“Wow.” Zach looked genuinely impressed. “Do you have a lot of stories like that?”
“Not really. There aren’t a lot of people clamoring to meet the accountant.”