Page 52 of The Devil In Denim
Yes, yes, they had. But hey, both really needed to forget about it. “I thought you said you didn’t date employees?”
“I don’t.”
“Well, then, this should be settled.”
His eyes glinted. “There’s always the exception that proves the rule. There’s good sense and then there’s cutting off your nose to spite your face. We’re both adults. We could make it work.”
“What if I tell you to take your potential and shove it?”
“Well, firstly, I don’t think you will. But if you did, I guess I’d have to try and get on with life.”
“Go potential hunting elsewhere?”
“Well, that wouldn’t be any of your business, would it? You can’t have your cake and eat it too, Saint Maggie. If you don’t want me, you have to throw me back and let someone else take their shot.”
She definitely didn’t like that idea. She rubbed her temples irritably. It wasn’t even ten A.M. and she already had a headache. Maybe she was crazy to think she could make this work, that she could ignore what was between her and Alex and just get on with things. Maybe she should walk away. But that meant giving up on the Saints.
Not to mention the potential …
“Can we shelve the subject for now?” She sighed. “After all, we have plenty of work to do.”
Chapter Ten
They were stealing her cookies. She eyed the level of her favorite chocolate chip pecan in the jar on her desk and put the lid back on. Okay, so technically they were Shonda’s cookies because she was the one who made them for Maggie, but that didn’t mean that the terrible trio could just keep raiding Maggie’s stash.
But they did. Several times a day, one of them wandered by with a task for her. Mal wanting a stadium tour or a rundown of the security staff and the history of incidents at the ballpark. Lucas wanting to talk about players and form. And Alex. Alex sticking his head around the door and derailing her train of thought every time he smiled and delivered another request in a perfectly professional and polite tone.
They smiled, they requested, they drilled her on baseball stats—this apparently being their idea of fun—and then they helped themselves to her cookies and left. There was a metaphor in there somewhere even if, deep down, she should probably be thankful that they were stopping her stress eating her body weight in fat and sugar.
She wanted one now. Wanted the rich taste of chocolate on her tongue and the crunch of nuts. Hell, she wanted more than one. It was only Thursday and the three of them were already making her feel like she was sprinting just to keep up.
They all sucked up information like computers. And she felt like she was being used as some sort of walking, talking Saints for Dummies. Only Alex, Mal, and Lucas were no dummies. They rarely had to be reminded of anything she’d told them and they were on the go from first thing in the morning until late at night.
Thorough.
Competent.
Dedicated.
The three of them were very similar in that way even if they seemed to have different temperaments.
Alex was definitely the most open and charming of the three. The front man, so to speak. But a front man was nothing without a genius band behind him and Mal and Lucas definitely had chops. The three of them were an intimidating combination and it made her push herself even harder to keep up and show them she was worth keeping around.
“How’s that report going?”
She jumped, looked up to see Alex, and ignored the little bump of awareness that tightened her stomach muscles. “It’s good. I need a few more hours.” She had spent nearly all day on the report, pulling information about the Saints’ wealthiest ticket holders and sponsors and doing a brain dump of everything she knew about them. Then adding to that by grilling Shonda, Hana, Shelly, and using all her powers of Google-fu.
Alex came over to her desk, studied the pile of file folders she’d been piling up during the week. “Okay.”
“Did you want something else?” she asked, hoping she could move him on. Her office was little more than a cubicle. Too small for two people. Especially when one of them smelled as good as he did. Too much. Too close. She picked up the cookie jar, held it out. “One of these?”
He looked amused but he took a cookie. “Thanks.” He took a bite of the cookie. “These are really good.”
“So you keep telling me.” She put the jar back and made a vague gesture at her desk. “Well, I’d better get on with this…”
“Sure. Come see me when you’re done.”
It was an innocuous statement but it made her pulse bump again. Stupid pulse. She didn’t like how much she was starting to look forward to the time she spent with him. Even though he’d stuck to his word and was keeping things purely professional, it was fascinating to talk to him, to see how his mind worked, how he dealt with the thousand and one problems laid at his feet for solving each day. All without batting an eyelid.
