Shock slapped Hew so hard he almost reeled. He could feel his pulse banging in his temples. “Is it…that obvious? That I love her?”
“Yes!” Boss exploded, tossing his hands skyward. “And also…Graham told me before he left for D.C. that he found you guys in flagrante. I think he assumed things would naturally progress from there. But here you are doing jack shit to move anything along.”
Hew was excellent at camouflage. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the face grease or the gilly suit required to blend into the sofa. So all he could do was close his eyes and will himself to disappear.
“Who else knows?” he asked through gritted teeth.
“Everyone,” Boss said without a hint of mercy.
Sometimes, Hew wished Boss wasn’t such a straight shooter. Just once, it might be nice if the man sugarcoated things.
He opened his eyes and shook his head. “Never would’ve pegged Graham for a gossip.”
“No.” Boss jerked his chin to the side, making the gray in his buzz cut catch the light. “Graham told me. I was the one who told everyone else.”
Hew’s eyebrows shot up. “Now, why the hell would ya go and do a thing like that?”
“I was hoping one of your damned teammates would take it upon himself to talk some sense into you. But, like always, I’m left holding the bag.”
Hew dropped his head into his hands, searching for a way to stop this conversation in its tracks.
Feign a seizure?
Jump out the window?
Pretend to be possessed and start gnawin’ on the coffee table?
“What the hell are you two doing?” Boss demanded. The guy was as relentless as a howitzer.
Hew lifted his head. He knew his expression was bleak. “What do ya mean?”
“You’re walking on eggshells around each other and making the rest of us feel like we have to walk on eggshells, too.”
Damnit! Hew hadn’t even considered that his misery was leaking out of him and onto everyone else. He’d been so wrapped up in his self-pity that he hadn’t noticed how conversations dimmed when he and Sabrina walked into a room. Or how the guys looked at him like they were bracing for an explosion that never came. Looking back, though, he could see it.
Hindsight bein’ twenty-twenty and whatnot. Fuck!
Embarrassment slid under his skin like grit, raw and uncomfortable.
“You care about each other. You get each other. You’re obviously attracted to each other,” Boss went on. “So I don’t understand why you’re not doing it on every horizontal surface in this place.” He spread his big hands wide.
“Because she doesn’t want to do it with me on every horizontal surface!” Hew snapped, his temper briefly pushing aside his self-pity.
To no one’s surprise, Boss didn’t flinch. He simply cocked an eyebrow. “How do you know? Have you asked her?”
Hew laughed, but the sound was so dry and sharp that it scraped his throat on the way out of his mouth. “Ya make it sound so easy.”
“Because it is.” Boss slapped the arm of the love seat like a judge banging a gavel. “You just walk up to her and say, “‘Sabrina Greenlee, I’m crazy about you. I think you’re crazy about me, too. Let’s give this thing a go; you want to?’”
The lump in Hew’s throat swelled until talking felt like breathing around a boulder. “That’s the thing. I don’t think she’s crazy about me. She’s never said as much. And if I tell her how I feel and she doesn’t feel the same, where does that leave us? Even more uncomfortable and awkward around each other?”
Boss’s sigh was slow and heavy. When he dragged a finger under his chin, his stubble rasped against his nail.
Finally, he said, “Here’s the thing, son. There are no guarantees in life or in love. But there’s one thing I know for sure. If you love someone, you have to be brave enough to tell them. Otherwise, you have to be brave enough to watch them be loved by someone else.” Sympathy slid into his tone. “I know which kind of brave I’d rather be. Do you?”
“I’m trying to be the latter,” Hew insisted with an exasperated toss of his hands.
The move made Peanut stop his whisker-bath and blink annoyed yellow eyes at Hew.
