Dee disappeared behind her cube wall once more. “I’ll wantdetails.”
Claire rolled her eyes. “You always wantdetails.”
Andor had accepted her invitation to Thanksgiving dinner two days earlier. Claire had set herself up not to be disappointed, fully expecting him to decline for any number of reasons—family out of town, another commitment with friends. She didn’t even want to imagine he might spend the holiday with another woman. Claire had no claim to him. She had lunch with him almost every day, and he visited her house for dinner several times a week. They’d even made it to the symphony once and a play, with Elise threatening to kill her if she called the house twenty times to check onJake.
“Don’t even think about it,” the babysitter warned. “I know my job. You know I know my job. Jake and I will have fun eating all the toppings off the pizza and watching Total Drama Island. Have a good time. Stay out late. You won’t bemissed.”
She closed the front door on Claire and Andor and turned off the porch light. Claire had glanced at Andor. “Elise is a littleblunt.”
“And obviously very capable,” he said. “I like her, especially her eyebrowpiercings.”
While Claire couldn’t imagine how Andor might be seeing someone else when he spent so much time with her, she was far too fearful of engaging her heart more than it already was by assuming they were now a couple. He hadn’t mentioned it; neither had she. Hell, they hadn’t even kissed yet, something she hoped to remedy verysoon.
When lunchtime rolled around, she left the office space she shared with Dee and sought out Andor. She found him in one of the lower-level workrooms. The screeching blast of multiple power saws cutting wood made her clap her hands to her ears. She spotted him in one corner of the room, ripping boards on a table saw. He wore a long-sleeved sweater that hugged his torso, delineating muscle and the width of his shoulders. His hair was tied back in its usual ponytail, and he’d donned safety lenses and ear muffs while heworked.
Claire waited by the door until he finished ripping a board. She didn’t want to wave and distract either him or the two other preparators working at the saws. He glanced up, saw her and shut the saw down. Claire motioned she’d wait for him in thehallway.
The hall was silent as a crypt compared to the noise in the workroom. Andor emerged, sans ear muffs and lenses. His slow smile warmed her down to her bones. “Hello,Claire.”
She liked that he didn’t address her as “babe” or “beautiful” or the numerous terms of affection so many people used. Claire didn’t have a problem with them per se. While she and Lucas were still married, she often called him “babe.” But Andor had a way of uttering her name as if he savored something sweet, letting it glide slowly off his tongue to breathe across his lips. Never had she been so glad to bear that simple, one-syllablename.
The chilly hallway had suddenly grown stifling. She plucked at her sweater and returned Andor’s smile. “Working through lunchtoday?”
He glanced at the clock on the opposite wall. “That time already?” Regret darkened his eyes to cobalt. “I’m afraid so. We’re building the display bases for the gala decorations so we can just snap them together and move them when the designer says it’stime.”
“The Ainsley Hall is gorgeous already. I can’t imagine how much more you can add for thegala.”
She’d stood in awe along with the rest of the employees and gawked at the miracle the preparator and design teams had wrought. The Carmichael always created a holiday exhibit of huge trees decorated with ornaments from cultures around the world as well as themes based on movies, history and literature. Preparators and designers worked through the day and night to complete the exhibit, unveiling it first in the early morning hours to the rest of the staff. Andor had given her a bow at her applause, the only hint of fatigue from a laborious all-nighter, the faint shadows under hiseyes.
“Are you going to the gala?” His gaze searched herface.
Claire sighed. “Not if I could help it, but it’s mandatory that staff goes. So I have a too-expensive dress that I’ll wear once hanging in my closet, along with a pair of heels guaranteed to cripple me by the end of the evening. I just hope the caterer doesn’t serve cardboard chicken and cold asparagus.” Bad food never bothered her before now. Andor was turning her into a pickygastronome.
“What about you?” she asked. “You’re on loan to us, so I’m guessing you don’t have to go if you don’t want to.” She crossed her fingers behind her back, hoping he would go. Hoping he’d go withher.
“Thatdepends.”
“Onwhat?”
His slow smile could have melted glass. “If I’minvited.”
Claire’s heartbeat jumped. She could feel her pulse thrum in her neck. “You haven’t gotten an invitation yet? A handsome guy like you?”Please say no. Please sayno.
Surely it was illegal for a smile to have that much power over someone. “Not one. At least not the one Iwant.”
“Maybe I’ll inviteyou.”
They were suddenly no more than inches apart from each other. Andor’s breath ghosted across her forehead and hairline. “I’d be very interested in that invitation,” he saidsoftly.
She touched his arm, the hard bicep flexing against her fingers. “Do youdance?”
“Invite me and findout.”
Claire was cautious; she wasn’t stupid. “Would you like to go to the benefit gala with me nextmonth?”
Andor leaned down, and Claire’s eyes closed at the sensation of body heat, the smell of sawn wood, and the cool winter scent clinging to the sexiest shirt she’d ever seen on a man. “Ah Claire, I thought you’d neverask.”
* * *
