Thank God.
Poppy actually smiled at me when I handed her the pizza that Daniel had picked up for her at the restaurant. It was a little scary because her teeth were quite…large. She was definitely a shifter like her brother.
I spent the rest of the afternoon poking around Daniel’s office, moving things around. I hadn’t figured out what my revenge should be yet, but I could mildly inconvenience him as much as possible until I did.
It took Daniel a couple of hours to realize what I was doing. When he did, he dug my cell phone out of a drawer and gave it back to me for ‘a limited time until he was done with work.’
Even though it made me feel a little like a toddler being distracted with a screen, I settled happily on the couch to check my texts. Of course, Sela had texted me multiple times today with memes and other snarky observations about life in general. My other friend, Madison, had texted as well. She wanted to see how I was holding up.
I texted them both back and then spent an hour and a half reading a book on my phone. I hadn’t had a lot of time to read lately, so I enjoyed catching up.
Finally, at four-thirty, Daniel shut down his computer and got to his feet.
I glanced up from my phone. “Done already?”
“Not really but you were sighing every five minutes, so I figured I could finish up at home.”
“I was not sighing every five minutes,” I argued.
His response was a dry look.
“Okay, if I was, it wasn’t on purpose.”
“It’s okay. I need to get out of this office anyway,” he said.
I gathered up my purse and phone and got to my feet as well. Before I could even get to the door, Daniel was in front of me again with his hand out.
I set my phone on his palm and squinted at him. “This is getting real old, real fast.”
“That’s grammatically incorrect.”
“I don’t care.” I squinted harder at him. “And quit smirking at me.”
“I’m not smirking,” he said.
“I’m looking at you and you’re smirking.”
He shrugged and tucked my phone in his pocket. I followed him out of his office and down the hall.
“Poppy, you can head home early if you want,” he said as he shrugged into his jacket. “I’m getting Cari out of here before she starts trying to climb the walls.”
Poppy stared at him with wide eyes. “You’re leaving early?” she asked.
“Yeah. Go ahead and do the same if you want. I won’t be in until nine or nine-thirty tomorrow, so please reschedule any meetings I have.”
Poppy’s gaze bounced back and forth between Daniel’s face and mine. “Okay. Thanks, boss.”
Daniel shoved my jacket into my hands and placed a palm in the center of my back to usher me out the door.
“Hands off,” I muttered, jabbing him in the ribs with my elbow as we exited his office.
“Then, get moving,” he mumbled back.
“I’m moving, but not all of us have legs that are four feet long, okay?”
He chuckled but the pressure on my back eased.
On the drive back to his house, he asked, “What do you want for dinner?”
