“Gemma. Thursday?”
“Sure.”
“See you later, Ty.”
Tyler released a heavy sigh as Matthew walked out. “Sorry, Jordan. These are going to have to wait. There’s an emergency and Matt’s panicked.”
Her eyebrows creased. Matt looked and sounded completely normal to her. Then again, she hadn’t understood much of their conversation. “What exactly were you and Matt talking about?”
“There are some structural issues at the new building in Fremont. Matt’s trying to settle the angry tenants, I’m going to talk to Victor so he can get his team to fix it. He’s probably going to fight us tooth and nail. That’s why Matt suggested a lunch meeting in case Victor tries to strong-arm us for more money again. But I’m having lunch with you today and he’s having lunch with Gemma tomorrow, so we agreed on Thursday.”
“Yeah…I didn’t get any of that,” she said with a giggle. “How do you know there’s structural issues? He didn’t say anything about that.”
Tyler looked at her like the answer was obvious. “His tone, Jordan. I told you he’s panicked.”
She shook her head. This was probably one of the reasons why Tyler didn’t open up about his feelings. He’d spent the last nineteen years around someone who could read his mind and vice versa. “I’m going to leave you to sort out this crisis,” she said, blowing him a kiss. “See you at lunchtime.”
The phone rang as she headed for the door.
“Hi, Bridgette…Yes…Jordan’s here,” she heard Tyler say behind her. “Who’s looking for her?”
She turned around and his brown eyes hardened.
“Timothy Coldwell?” He kept his gaze locked on hers and forced a smile. “Tell him she’s unavailable…Thanks, Bridgette.”
“Did I detect a hint of jealousy?” she asked when he hung up the phone.
“I didn’t think it was that subtle to be called a hint. What does he want?”
He couldn’t even admit he was jealous. Fighting back a smile, she walked back to his desk. “He bought a new company and he’s called a few times to see if I’m interested in a job.”
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s not the only thing he’d like you to be interested in.” His face twitched for a second and his jaw tightened. “Shall I give him a call?”
“No. I can handle him.”
“Alright. When you speak to him, tell him to read the tabloids. You already have a millionaire boyfriend.”
“I will.” It was so stupid. A few words and she was blushing like an idiot. She hated all the mush that came along with this man. She needed to put a stop to it. “Wait! Hang on a second. You’re just…amillionaire.” And she did a great job of coating the word with repugnance.
He grinned. “Afraid so.”
“All this time I thought you were a billionaire. Sorry, Tyler. This is where it ends for us.”
“God, you’re fussy!” He kept a straight face the whole time. “Tell you what. Just slum it with me until someone richer comes along.”
It was impossible to hold her giggles in. He was getting pretty good at this joke thing and that just added more mush to her overflowing bucket of soppiness. “Okay, Mister Evans.” Placing her elbows on his desk, she lowered herself down to his eye level. “Until my billionaire sweeps me off my feet, I guess you’ll just have to do.”
“You know, you have extremely high standards…for a secretary.”
That one cracked them both up, had them laughing until their faces turned red. “Fuck off!”
“What?” he asked as he tucked a stray curl behind her ear. “Too soon?”
An opportunity to answer wasn’t given. He pressed his mouth against hers. It was brief and restrained, like all their other less than chaste kisses they’d been sharing at the office lately.
“Now stop distracting me,” he said. “I have a money-hungry contractor to deal with.”
“Okay.” She stood up and winked at him. “See you later, lover.”
