“Okay.” He blinked. “Only because you indicated that we could stay friends.”
What the fuck?
The claws in Gareth’s chest dug deeper. Had Hazel gone out with the guy? With a man from theHawks organization? Whom she’d probably met at one of her meetings withhim?
“Um…” Hazel said, her uneasy gaze flicking toward Gareth.
“Interesting,” Gareth mumbled dryly, rubbing his tense jaw. “You never asked me if we could stay friends.”
Not that he would have said yes, but the option would have been nice.
Wide-eyed, Simon stared at him, and Hazel nervously licked her lips. “We can go out again, Simon,” she replied warmly.
Gareth looked at her abruptly. The hell she would!
“I’ve just been busy,” Hazel continued, smiling. “I’ll get back to you, okay?”
Simon blushed, but nodded. “That would be nice.”
No, it wouldn’t.
“He works here, Hazel,” Gareth said sharply. “Should you really be having personal relationships with business associates?”
Hazel seemed to choke a little, visibly restraining herself from letting her face fall before she replied tightly, “No. Probably not. But I’ve been making a lot of unwise decisions lately.”
Oh, being called anunwise decisionwas still better than being called anasshole, so he didn’t mind. “Yes,” he said quietly.“Perhaps you should focus exclusively ononestupid decision at a time.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I can deal with as many stupid decisions as I want, Mr. Snark.”
Lucy snorted, reminding Gareth that they weren’t alone.
“Okay,” she said loudly. “I don’t know what’s going on, but that’s really not why we’re here.” Rolling her eyes, she turned to Gareth. “So what about Devreaux? Can we include him in our campaign for next season or not? It would be nice if we could finally get some information to work with.”
“Make the plan with him,” Gareth replied firmly without taking his eyes off Hazel. “We have a meeting Saturday morning to finalize his contract. Right, Hazel?”
“Yep,” she said, smiling broadly and standing. “For once, Gareth’s right. Now excuse me for a minute, I need to use the bathroom before Leon’s done beating Austin at tennis.”
“Hey,” Fox called out. “The guy’s cheating.”
“Please, your reflexes are terrible, old man,” Leon replied, unimpressed.
“Fox isn’t that much older than us,” Dax said.
“Maybe not that much older than you!”
“What’s that supposed to mean? Lucy, arrest him for saying that!”
“I’m a PR consultant, not a hockey cop!”
“Then take a seminar so you can be both.”
“Man, Dax, weareolder,” Fox muttered.
“We? I haven’t got a 3 in front yet.”
Hazel grinned. “Chill, guys. It was great to see you, Simon!” she said, squeezing the marketing guy’s shoulder and then disappearing.
Gareth gritted his teeth and stared at the spot on Simon’s arm where Hazel’s hand had just been. He tried to ignore the tingling from the hundred needles piercing his body. He felt asif it were a hot summer day and someone had pushed him into a tub of ice water, only instead of freezing, he was burning.
