Today.
I’d do ittoday.
But when I came in at four-fifteen p.m. I sailed right past her desk without saying anything. The words just froze in my throat.
It wasn’t that hard.
All I had to do was say, ‘Do you want to go roller skating with me?’ It wasn’t like a declaration of love. It was just a casual outing. But I couldn’t quite manage to spit the words out of my mouth.
After I clocked out, I lingered for a minute, talking to Tim while I tried to man up.
I wasn’t afraid ofanything. I’d gone up against a pack of wild coyotes without even getting too worked up over it once. But trying to ask a pretty woman to go on a date with me was turning out to be damn near impossible.
As I walked back by again, she looked up and gave me a sad little smile.
I didn’t knowwhatwas on her mind, but it looked like things weren’t going well in her world.
The words were on the tip of my tongue, but it didn’t seem right to ask her out when something was obviously troubling her.
So I just grunted and said, “Hi, ladies.”
Lenore launched into conversation, and I swear she didn’t stop talking for five minutes. She was a sweet, older lady, and by the end of the conversation, neither Violet nor I had said a word. But now I knew Lenore’s new puppy was settling in well, her cousin had just retired, her other cousin had just married her third husband, and the annual housewife auction was coming to town early this year. Usually it was a Valentine’s thing.
And did I care about any of that? Hell, no. I just wanted to talk to Violet.
“Well, I better go fill up my coffee. You two should chat and catch up,” she said as she bustled away, leaving Violet and me speechless in her wake.
“Lenore has a lot of energy,” I said.
Violet gave me a tiny smile. “She sure does. It’s nice to work with someone who’s always happy.”
“Do you…” But the words wouldn’t come out, and now Peter was looking over this way.
Everyone else was still working, and here I was harassing the office beauty queen.
I grunted out, “Do you… have any plans for Christmas?”
Violet nodded. “I’m going home to see my family.”
That figured. I knew she was really close to them. I’d heard her talking to Lenore about them, and I’d seen all the family photos on her work desk.
“What about you?” she asked.
“The same.” I tried to come up with the words to elaborate, and maybe even work my way around to asking her out, but that was as far as I could get before Lenore came bustling back.
“Well, I should probably go and let you get back to work,” I rumbled gruffly.
Violet still had a hint of sadness in her eyes even though there was a smile on her lips now. “Yeah. You’re probably right. Have a good day, Easton. It was nice chatting with you.”
Fuck. I’d fucked it all up.
I could normally talk to people just fine. I think I was clamming up because of the wholedateidea.
Spinning on my heel, I walked out, but not fast enough to avoid hearing Lenore say, “What got into him? That’s the most he’s talked in years. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he has a crush on you.”
But then Violet said, “No. He has a girlfriend. Or a wife. Orsomething. He’s not on the list.”
List.What list?
