I almost made it to my desk when Julia scampered out of her office, heading toward me. She was in a sexy black wrap dress that I could never in a million years pull off. She had the most amazing curves. Like to-die-for curves.
“Hey, sexy,” I said, whistling at her as she approached.
“Don’t use those moves on me, Martin,” Julia said. “My office. Now.”
I laughed as she shooed me along. “I hope I’m not in trouble.”
“You’re in a world of trouble.”
I shook my head and then plopped down in the seat in front of her desk. She slammed the door shut, as if I were really in trouble, and then smacked me on the arm.
“What the hell happened with Nick? You don’t call. You don’t write. You can’t fill a girl in?”
“Didn’t work out.”
“What part of it didn’t work out? Trevor was the one who told me. I think Nick is really beat up about it.”
“He is?” I asked in confusion. “He seemed totally fine when I let him down gently after our date on Friday night.”
Julia dropped her head into her hands. “You dumped him on your date?”
“Well, we weren’t really dating. So, I didn’t really dump him.”
“It was date three. I thought things were going somewhere.”
“I guess they weren’t.”
“Come on. Give me details. I thought this was a good thing.”
I shrugged. I’d known before that Nick wasn’t right for me, but after Friday night, I was beyond sure that I couldn’t keep seeing him.
“I don’t think it was a good thing. I think it was a convenient thing.”
Julia sighed. “All right. Back to the drawing board. Maybe Trevor has another friend.”
“I don’t think so,” I said, holding up my hand. “Could you imagine me dating another one of his friends?”
“No,” she grumbled. “But I want you to be happy. It’s a project of love to find you a man.”
I cracked a grin. “What if I just want your body?”
Julia laughed and shook her head. “Don’t tell Emery. She’d be way jealous of our love.”
“That’s a fact,” I agreed. “She’s a jealous bitch.”
“With every right to be. You’re an awesome friend and person, which is why I want to find you a guy.”
I waved her off. “Don’t worry about it.”
Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say.
Her eyes narrowed, and she assessed me from top to bottom. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“Nothing.”
“You’ve already found someone else!” Julia said, jumping up and down. “Look at how happy you are. Man, I am so excited. Who is he? When do I get to meet him?”
“Julia,” I groaned.
“Don’t hold out on me. Give me the goods. If there’s someone new, I want to hear about it.”
“Okay,” I said, glancing back out of her door. “But it’s not a good idea.”
“Your favorite.”
I laughed softly. She had no idea. “I kind of have this thing for Landon.”
“Landon,” Julia repeated. Her face went pale, and she sat down. “Like…Landon Wright?”
“Yeah. We kind of made out at our ten-year high school reunion, and now, he’s here, and he’s into me. He happened to be at the same bar as Nick and me while we were on our date, and it was night and day. The connection is there with Landon.”
Julia’s eyes were big and round. “Heidi, he is your boss.”
“I know,” I whispered.
“He dated your best friend for two years!”
“I know, I know.”
“What part of this is a good idea? You cannot have a connection with Landon!”
“I know,” I said again.
God, I knew all of this already. I knew this a thousandfold. Having feelings for Landon was like waiting for a ticking time bomb to explode. Any moment, it was going to blow up in my face.
“I don’t think you know. This is a bad, bad idea!”
“Julia,” I groaned. “Seriously, I do know how bad of an idea this is.”
“I am head of HR! You can’t tell me these kinds of things!”
“Nothing is going on, Julia. Plus, I told you about this as a friend, not as the head of HR.”
“Fuck, Heidi,” she hissed. She looked flustered and unsure of how to proceed. “You have to stay away from him.”
I nodded. “I told him the same thing on Friday night. He’s my boss. He’s going through a divorce. We can’t do this right now.”
“Good. Good. That’s very mature of you.”
“Of course, I told him this after he hiked my leg up around his waist and started kissing up my neck.”
Julia put her hands over her ears and started saying, “La-la-la-la,” loud enough to get me to stop talking.
I was laughing at her outrageous behavior. Maybe I should have waited until later to fill her in.
“Okay, okay,” I told her, raising my hands. “I’ll stop talking about it.”
“Talking about it? You’re going to stop doing more than talking about it. You have to completely stop, or you know I’ll have to figure out a way to separate you two. And who do you think they’ll move—you or a Wright brother?”
I paused at those words. I’d thought about it, of course. It was why I had been so freaked out that he was my boss.
What if I couldn’t stay away from him?
I’d have to leave. That was what Julia was saying. Either I’d have to go to another office out of Lubbock or I’d have to take a step down, so he wasn’t my boss. They weren’t going to move Landon’s position. They had just made that spot for him. What was one less engineer?
“Tell me you understand how important this is, Heidi,” Julia said. Her face contorted with fear. “I’m really worried about you.”
“No, I get it. I do.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” I whispered.
But I was completely unsure. Despite all the consequences and everything I had told Landon, I didn’t know if I could stay away from him forever. It seemed impossible.
“Oh, fuck,” Julia sighed when she saw my face. “Just…just don’t get caught.”
Sixteen
Landon
I glanced down at my phone and swore.
Fucking Miranda.
Why did she have to come and ruin my perfectly good mood?
I’d been thinking about Heidi all weekend. I hadn’t been sure if I had made the right move. I’d thought pushing for her and fighting for her would make her see that we should give this a try. But the harder I pushed, the more she gave in, and the more she fought me. It was a paradox.
And, when I had seen how upset she was about the entire situation, I’d backed off.
Then, she had come in this morning with some fresh space between us. She’d looked happy. She’d talked to me like we were friends. Like before that kiss a month ago. I knew those feelings were still there, but the fact that she’d asked questions finally seemed to alleviate a little of my pain from walking away on Friday. I’d put the ball in her court. She’d then immediately come back to me. It seemed like a win.
And I had been riding high on it until Miranda sent me a nasty text about the divorce paperwork. I couldn’t even turn off my phone to silence her tirade. I had too much work to do, and that was the number people had access to.