True Love at Silver Creek Ranch(80)
She tilted her head back. “Okay, okay, we can have kisses another time.”
“When we’re alone and hidden,” he whispered, kissing her forehead, her nose, her chin.
“But that’s how we want it.”
Why wasn’t he agreeing? She was the one who risked the most—her family’s respect, her ability to do her job. Yet she was teetering here, finding it so difficult not to touch him in public.
She stepped back, and his arms fell to his sides, and he looked almost resolute as he stared at the door to the Sugar and Spice kitchen. But he didn’t hesitate to go back inside.
Chapter Eighteen
“Lunch at Monica’s Flowers and Gifts,” Emily said with a sigh. “It’s been a while.”
They sat behind the showroom counter, crowded together shoulder to shoulder. Monica needed to be available to her customers, and Brooke and Emily were used to the interruptions.
Brooke smiled at her friend—her future sister-in-law. “Well, we’ve been in the midst of the holidays for over a month, now, and it’s almost Christmas. I’m amazed either one of you has time for me what with the tourists breaking down your doors.” She took a big bite of her chicken drumstick.
Emily exchanged a grin with Monica, and said, “It has been a good Christmas season. I’ve been open less than three months, and I already have more business than I can handle. I’ll hire some more seasonal help, but in the meantime, I’ll be looking for another full-time employee to go along with the part-time widows.”
“Good for you!” Monica cried. “I might have to hire another part-timer, too. Josh’s work is so popular, I’m getting worried he won’t be able to keep up.”
“I think he solved that,” Brooke said. “This morning he discussed hiring Adam to help him prepare the leather. There’s a lot of work, but you don’t have to be an artist to do some of it.”
The bell above the front door rang. “I’ll be back.” Monica went to deal with a customer.
“That’s nice of Adam to help Josh,” Emily said, between bites of salad, “considering you guys must be keeping him busy at the ranch. Do you enjoy working with him?”
“We get along okay,” Brooke said, opening a container of her mom’s coleslaw.
“You two seemed pretty . . . friendly last night.”
“We’re friends,” Brooke said, then filled her mouth with a forkful of coleslaw. When she still couldn’t meet Emily’s eyes, she knew her friend was watching her.
Monica came to sit back down, picked up her sandwich, then looked from Emily to Brooke with suspicion. “What did I miss?”
“She stopped looking at me after I asked about her and Adam,” Emily said slowly.
“There’s more going on, isn’t there?” Monica demanded.
Brooke swallowed. So now she was supposed to lie to her best friends? With a groan, she briefly covered her face. “I can’t talk about it.”
“You’re sleeping with him!” Monica hissed in a low voice.
Brooke winced.
Monica gasped. “You can’t even deny it!”
“Okay, okay, keep your voices down,” she whispered, glancing over her shoulder at the empty showroom. Someone walked by the front windows and paused to look at the display before moving on.
“It’s true?” Emily cried. “Nate never said anything—”
“He doesn’t know! And you can’t say a word, neither of you.”
“You’re not dating him, but you’re sleeping with him,” Monica said, sitting back in disbelief. “I don’t know what to think of this modern, twenty-first-century woman.”
“We just couldn’t keep our hands off each other—that’s all it is,” Brooke admitted at last.
Monica closed her eyes. “Oh, God, that sounds so sexy.”
“Why haven’t you said anything?” Emily asked in bewilderment. “Why the secret?”
“Because I’m his boss! Do you know how that would look to my family? The first guy we hire that’s my age, and I jump him?”
“Did you?” Monica asked with a giggle.
“No!” She hesitated, then smiled. “Not exactly.”
“But Brooke,” Emily continued, “people have office romances all the time.”
“Their offices aren’t their family business. How would sleeping with an employee look to my dad, my brothers? And besides . . . I’ve really enjoyed having this—relationship, or whatever you want to call it—all to myself, you know? It’s like my private little thrill.”
“So you like being with him?” Monica asked softly.