"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.
So, I spent much of the day ignoring the beep, beep, beep from my phone. When it was finally time to leave, I darted out of the office as quickly as I could. I hadn't been home since five this morning, but I wasn't about to head home anytime soon either.
Instead, I went straight to Jensen's house where Emery's surprise party was being held. Heidi was organizing the event, which meant she would already be there. And I wanted to spend as much time with her as I could.
I parked Jensen's Mercedes in the garage and entered through the garage door and into the kitchen.
"Whoa," I said.
Heidi was standing on the island in the middle of the kitchen in nothing but short shorts and a tank top that was riding up her stomach.
Her eyes darted to me. "Oh, Landon! You're early."
She tried to attach a streamer to the spot on the light fixture but missed. The kitchen was already decked out in decorations, but I could see that there were bags with more decor just waiting to go up.
"Need a hand with that?" I asked.
"If you don't mind."
"I'm a bit taller than you."
"Just a bit."
I scrambled onto the island next to her and took the streamer out of her hand. Our bodies were close together, standing there in the middle of Jensen's kitchen. Her blue eyes lit up at my nearness, and then she averted her gaze and took a shaky step back.