“Yes, a kite that looks like a Monarch butterfly on steroids,” I explained.
Every woman at the table smiled in unison.
“Seriously?” Yancy asked.
I nodded. “We should take Carolena to the park sometime and we’ll fly it. She would love it.”
Yancy laughed. “Yes, she would. I can’t believe he bought you a kite that looks like a butterfly.”
“It sounds exactly like something you would have bought yourself,” Grier piped up.
“It was. That’s why it surprised me so much.”
Lucy’s chin tilted to the side as she studied me. “Why?”
“Because I didn’t think Landen paid enough attention to me to notice stuff like that.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “Oh, that’s hilarious,” she said as she continued to giggle. “You didn’t think he paid enough attention to you?” Then she continued to laugh until she snorted, which set Yancy off as well.
“Why is that so funny?” I asked, feeling a mite peeved that she was laughing at me.
She answered my question with one of her own. “Why do you think I paired him with you in the wedding party?”
I frowned at her. “I thought it was because you had to.”
Lucy shook her head. The other ladies were watching us closely, with worried expressions on their faces. Lucy and I were the extroverts of the group and we sometimes got into loud…discussions during our outings.
“No way. I saw the way he watched you when he came into the office. And the way you watched him when he wasn’t looking. And I noticed that he liked to get a rise out of you whenever he could. He wanted your attention because you had so much of his.”
I blinked at her. “And when, pray tell, would you have noticed this? You don’t even work there anymore!”
She grinned at me. “When I was training you and when I’m there to see Chris. It was obvious to both of us.”
“Both of you?” I groaned, dropping my face into my hands. Then I remembered the way Chris looked when he told me that I was playing with fire the day I’d stolen Landen’s coffee. I lifted my head and narrowed my eyes at her. “You’re not the one who noticed first,” I stated. “It was Chris, wasn’t it?”
She scowled at me. “I noticed.”
I shook my head. “No, you didn’t. Chris did and mentioned it to you, didn’t he?”
Lucy sighed. “Yes,” she grumbled. “But once he brought it up, I saw it immediately too.”
Great, my boss had been playing matchmaker. Just swell.
“He said he’d never seen Landen so interested in a woman before,” Lucy continued. “And that if anyone could handle him, it would be you.”
I blinked at her. “He did?”
She nodded. “He’s known Landen since college. He won’t say much about his past, just that…” She trailed off as though she were reconsidering her words.
“What?” I demanded.
“That Landen doesn’t have the best track record with women. Because he’s so intense that he scares them off.”
I deliberated on her words. I could see that. Landen wasn’t the easiest of men. Though he’d been relaxed and almost carefree yesterday, his fierce intellect and forthright manner could be intimidating. I’d witnessed it enough in the office, but I admired him more for it.
I preferred clarity to tact in most cases. I was blunt as well and I appreciated it when someone told me exactly what they were thinking rather than what they thought I wanted to hear.
“I could see that,” I murmured. “He’s not an easy man.”
