“When he came to my rescue the other day”—her cheeks heated, but she plowed on—“I offered to cut his hair.”
Amusement danced on the woman’s face. “Did you now?”
She fought to not squirm in her seat. “As a thank-you.”
“That’s fine. God knows, no one is going to fault you for that.” Miriam chuckled. “You may want to get him on the schedule sooner rather than later. Honestly, tomorrow would probably be best.” Her gaze shot to the calendar and then back to Freya. “Once we start rearranging the appointments, things are going to fill up for you. How does your Thanksgiving schedule look?”
As they discussed the schedule for the upcoming holiday, nerves fluttered in her stomach, and her mind wandered.
There’d be nothing wrong with her texting Xander, right? A thank-you haircut was no big deal. Not at all. Besides, she wasn’t in the market for a relationship. It would just be a friendly, thank-you haircut that would possibly include dinner afterward.
As friends, of course.
What did it matter if she’d never had a friend that ridiculously good-looking before? It was fine. The man couldn’t help how he looked. Well, she was pretty sure he worked out a lot. Likea lota lot. But again, that was fine.
She was a grown woman who could control her feelings. It’d been over a year since her last relationship. A relationship that she’d thought would finally be different.
The year she and her ex had been together had been bliss. At least on her end. But as it turned out, she’d been wrong. Again. That relationship hadn’t been any different from any of her previous ones. Because just like all the others before him,he’d cheated on her. And again, just like all the other times, she’d been the last one to find out.
The one difference this time was that instead of being devastated, instead of falling into a heap of tears and sadness, she’d gone numb. Over the last year, she’d received some attention from men, but aside from varying degrees of annoyance, she’d been indifferent. A hard, cold shell had surrounded her heart, protecting it from any further damage. She’d felt absolutely nothing.
Until two days ago.
Until Xander.
The moment she’d heard his voice, he’d sparked something inside her. Something she wasn’t sure she wanted. Despite her uncertainty, the man was slowly thawing that brick of ice in her chest. There was just something about him...
It scared her. Her judgement with the opposite sex was iffy at best, and her track record was abysmal. But her body hadn’t seemed to get the message, because she lit up like a barge of fireworks around the man.
Was she supposed to just go with it?
She’d always been cautious. Always planned things out. No kissing until the second date. No rounding the bases until at least seven dates. And definitely no sex until at least two months of dating. She’d stuck to those rules her entire dating life. And where had that gotten her? Cheated on by all four of her previous boyfriends.
Maybe this time around, she’d chuck all her rules out the window and just go with it. Follow Xander’s lead. If he wanted to just be friends, that would be fine. If he didn’t? Well, she’d be fine with that too. Right?
As much as she knew it would be best for all involved to keep things friendly, she wasn’t sure she wanted to.
CHAPTER EIGHT
It was nearing four when Xander emailed Rizzo, Team Three’s lead, asking for a few points of clarification on his team’s latest mission report. Glancing around their giant work area, he saw only members of the cyber team remained at their workstations, which wasn’t unusual for a Friday. Carmichael and the other two members of Team Two had taken over the security training at Pacific View Resort, and Team Three was in Seattle for the day providing extra security for a tech bigwig. Xander’s teammates, Wilson and Tash, were roaming around somewhere, probably helping out at Hudson Tactical with a search and rescue group that had arrived earlier in the day.
After quickly checking his outbox, he shut down his computer and glanced at his phone beside his keyboard.
Don’t do it.
He reached for his phone but yanked his hand back. He stared at his phone for a few seconds and then rolled his eyes.Fuck it.
He grabbed it and pulled up the text messages he’d received from Freya. Again. Did it make him a sap that he’d lost track of how many times he’d reread them since last night? Probably.
Did he care?
Maybe?
He winced. Okay, fine. Not really.
But heshouldcare, because he’d spent a whole hell of a lot of time thinking about the woman when he should’ve been focused on work.
Glancing down at the messages, he scrolled back to the beginning and grinned.
