Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
My phone beeps, letting me know it’s time, so he clicks the link and waits for it to load. “I didn’t even check my face,” I mumble to him as I lean onto the desk, getting suddenly nervous.
Caine’s arm touches mine as he also sits forward. “You look fine,” he assures me softly. My head nearly whips off my shoulders when I look at him, our faces really close, closer than they should be. “You look more than fine.” My heart speeds up and feels like it will rise to my throat. All I can do is stare into his eyes. “You always look good,” he whispers, and if I wasn’t sitting so close to him, I don’t think I would hear it. I’m mesmerized by his look, and I swear I feel my head move toward his, my head in a daze. I swear I think he’s also moving his head closer to mine, the both of us inching closer and closer together.
I swear we are inches away from kissing, actually inches are too big. We’re centimeters away from our lips touching, the exact moment Sofia joins the Zoom.
She clears her throat, getting us both to look at her. “Hi.” She holds up her hand. The two of us move away from each other as if nothing just happened.
Meanwhile, I feel like I’ve just walked up the stairs again, this time jogging. My chest is going up and down irregularly, and my mouth is drier than it’s ever been in my life. I almost kissed my boss. The thought fills my head at the same time my head also screams out you almost kissed a married man. Pushing down the bile threatening to come up my throat, I turn to the screen. “Hey.” I move away from Caine slowly; the smile fills my face. “Caine, this is Sofia Petrov.” I use her married name, and she still blushes about it.
“Petrov,” he repeats. “Why does that name sound familiar?”
“Her husband plays hockey for the Carolina NHL team,” I tell him, and his eyes go big.
“No way.” He’s clearly impressed by this information.
“Way,” Sofia replies. “It’s nice to meet you, Caine.”
“I’ve heard good things about you,” he says, and I just side eye him. “You used to babysit Grace, didn’t you?” I shake my head. “Not that long ago.”
I look over at him, ignoring the sound of someone joining the meeting. “You have to speak up a little, Sofia,” I urge her, ignoring Caine. “He’s of the age where his hearing is slowly going deaf.”
“And to think I would have missed all this fun.” Nash’s face fills the screen. “Hi, everybody. I’m Nash, Caine’s younger brother.”
“By like five years.” Caine scoffs from beside me, but I don’t bother looking over at him. “Four and a half, really.” He mumbles that part.
“That’s like thirty-five dog years,” Nash pokes, leaning back in his chair, and I fold my arms over my chest.
“That doesn’t count,” Caine retorts.
“I think it does,” I pipe into the feud. “Nash, this is Sofia.” I introduce them. “Sofia, thank you for squeezing us in.”
“Well, now you owe me,” she jokes with me. “So, let’s get started with some of the questions I have.” I lean back in my chair, and my arm moves to the side, touching Caine’s. “What date are we looking at?”
“Okay, how realistic is it to be able to do this in two weeks?” Nash asks, and I see Sofia’s eyes bulge. Nash holds up his hand. “We already have the venue, and the invites have been sent out.”
“In that case, it can be done,” Sofia assures him. “It’s going to be a crazy two weeks, but I think it can happen. Since I’m not on-site, I’ll need to have someone from your team to work with me.”
“Perf,” Nash says, and I side eye Caine, whose jaw just clenches.
“I guess we can spread it around to the PAs here,” Caine suggests. “I’ll leave Grace in charge of handling this.”
“Sounds good,” Sofia says. “Gracie, I’ll send you all the things I need.”
“Perf,” I say to her, “I’ll text you my work email so I can cc Caine on all decisions.” I look over at him when he’s about to protest. “Wouldn’t want to have another juicegate.” He just glares at me, and the rest of the meeting runs smoothly.
Vinny and Jaret both come in as soon as it’s done, so I excuse myself. Caine never comes back to his office. He spends the rest of the afternoon in the conference room. They even order in lunch as they prepare for the big meeting tomorrow.
Shutting down my computer, I leave without seeing him. The following morning, I arrive an hour early, and the office is deserted. I put my coffee cup on my desk and open the computer, and I’m forwarding emails when the phone on my desk rings. “Caine Griffin’s office, this is Grace. How may I help you?”