The Boss and His Cowgirl(19)
The men continued talking as the food disappeared from their plates.
Boone nudged her foot under the table. “Yo, Georgie, you’re way too quiet.”
She frowned and huffed. “Too quiet? With you three, who can get a word in edgewise?”
All three men chuckled and Hunt jostled Boone. “Ha. She’s got your number, little bro.”
“My number?” Boone pointed to his chest. “One.” He pointed at Hunt then Clay. “Two. Three. She said, and I quote, ‘With you three.’ I think she knows us all extremely well.”
Georgie glanced at her wristwatch. “Because I do, I’m going to skedaddle before this conversation deteriorates any further.”
She stared at Boone as a hint to slide out of the booth so she could exit. He didn’t move. She cleared her throat and Boone pointedly ignored her. Then his leg brushed across her shins. Clay jerked and stared at her. Her eyes wide, she turned her head to narrow them at Boone. “You will pay for that. Now move.” She shoved at his shoulder.
Hunt slid out. “I’ll take my little brother’s hint. You aren’t walking to the Metro. We’ll drive you home.”
“Good idea, bro.”
A few minutes later, the tab paid, coats claimed and the valet dispatched, the four of them waited just inside the door. When the SUV pulled up, they headed out. Feeling ornery, Georgie headed around the front of the vehicle. “Shotgun!”
She caught all three men flat-footed and was ensconced in the front seat before they reacted. Hunt laughed as he climbed in behind the wheel, flashing smug looks at the other men. Georgie felt inordinately proud of herself even as she faced the thought of a confrontation with Boone. He’d been nudging Clay and her together. A lot. He needed to stop his romantic machinations immediately because...well...because!
When Hunt pulled up in front of her apartment building, Clay was out of the backseat and at her door before she could get it open. She was about to argue but he had her arm, tugging her onto the sidewalk.
“I’ll walk you inside.”
Six
Clay cupped Georgie’s elbow with one hand while his other automatically went to the small of her back. The sidewalk was slippery. That was his excuse. She turned at the door to say good-night and he suddenly realized he didn’t want her to go.
Jumping in before she could dismiss him, he said, “I’ll walk you up to your apartment.”
“Senator—”
“Clay.”
Her lips parted slightly and he wondered if that was an invitation. Nope, he shouldn’t go there. Just...
“Really, Senator, I’m fine. This is a secure building and you really don’t want to hike up three flights.”
And she put him right back in his place. Georgie was right, of course. He was taking off in a few days to spend the holidays with Giselle. His ironclad policy was no office shenanigans. This sudden interest in the woman who’d been under his nose for years was just...an infatuation. Or something. He curled his fingers into his palms to keep from cupping her face.
“Then I’ll say good night, Georgie. See you in the office tomorrow morning.”
Some emotion he couldn’t quite define flickered across her expression, gone before he could capture it. He stepped back so he wouldn’t do something stupid. Like kiss her while standing there on the stoop with Boone and Hunt watching from the SUV.
The lock snicked and she pushed the door open. “Good night...Senator.” Georgie slipped through the opening before he could change his mind and she shut the door behind her, locking him out. He stood in the cold, his breath fogging the glass until she turned into the stairwell and disappeared from his sight. He stepped out on the sidewalk, head craned back, waiting. A few minutes later lights illuminated a set of windows on the third floor and Georgie’s shadow passed across them.
The back window of the SUV slithered down and Boone leaned out. “Yo, Clay, get in the car. It’s freezing.”
With a reluctance he didn’t quite understand, Clay settled into the front passenger seat. Silence reigned for about thirty seconds and then his cousins erupted in laughter.
“Idiots,” he muttered under his breath.
“Who, us?” Boone reached between the seats to slug his shoulder. “Clay, you need to ask that girl out.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Isn’t it obvious? She works for me, Boone.”
“No, technically she works for me.”
“And you work for me. Just...forget it. Bad idea. You’re the one who pointed this out in Arizona. Besides, she doesn’t—” He bit off the rest of the sentence.
“She doesn’t what? Like you? Jeez, Clay. You are so freaking dense sometimes. That girl has crushed on you from the moment she walked in the door. And I only asked if you knew what you were doing in Scottsdale.”