Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
Alyssia leaned against the frame of her home office door. “It's okay, really.” It was true, two days ago, she had been irritated with Jared for insisting she upgrade her home network hardware to be more secure.
Now, that seemed like an eternity ago. A flutter raced across her skin, and her gut churned at the reminder.
“If you didn’t do so much work from home...” Jared sat at her desk, fingers flying across the keyboard, rarely pausing even as he spoke. “Nah, that’s just an excuse. You needed the upgrade.”
“Really?” She kept a teasing tone. “So you’ve already upgraded everything in your house, and needed someone else to techify?
” Even though she was trying to keep her attention on the conversation, it kept dancing with the one name she’d been doing her best not to think of since she left the Skriddie offices that afternoon.
Not that she’d succeeded. Every unoccupied thought, and even some of the occupied ones, were interrupted with Tate.
Had last night been a mistake? It had taken her this many years to get used to how he flirted without shame with pretty much every waitress, hostess, anyone.
Then today at lunch, watching him with their server had almost devoured her.
Still, the memory of what she had Tate had shared, the way they’d clicked, and the things he’d done, she wouldn’t give that up for anything.
She would stick to her promise that what happened between them was just physical.
A one-time event, and all that. Which was why, when he’d asked if she wanted him to just email the promo video to her for approval, and launch the site without her, or if she wanted to be there for all of it, she’d invited him over.
His dropping by for whatever had never been a deal in the past, and there was no reason for that to change. The faster things got back to normal between them, the better.
“Hello?” Jared’s insistent voice shattered her wandering thoughts. “Earth to Alyssia. You in there?”
She shook away the mental clutter and focused on her brother, who apparently had finished what he was doing, and was watching her. “Sorry, too much going on everywhere. What?” she asked.
“You’re all done.” He held up a blank post-it note, then stuck it to one of the frames he’d brought back for her from a business trip.
The picture frame was from Busch Gardens.
The blank note was his way of letting her know what her new network password was.
She did adore that he always remembered to bring her something, wherever he visited.
And each new trinket had a different memory attached to it, which was why he used them for her passwords.
“Thank you.” She smiled. “I really do appreciate it.”
“I know you don’t so much.” He stood and joined her, falling into step next to her as they made their way downstairs, to the living room of her townhouse.
“But I appreciate you placating me. And yes, you’re right.
Even Mikki doesn’t think we need any more new tech in the house.
But if I can show her this router works for you… ”
“I’m glad I could be your guinea pig.”
Jared strode toward the door. “Good luck with your launch tonight. I know you’ll do awesome.”
Alyssia's heart leapt, hammering in her chest, when Jared opened the door to find Tate on the other side, hand half raised to knock. Tate slid a quick smile into place, never flinching. His gaze met hers for the briefest moment, and she swore she saw heat flash in his eyes as they flicked over her.
Or that was wishful thinking on her part? Why did he have to look so good?
“You get everything squared away?” Tate turned back to Jared.
“She’s set.” Jared glanced back at Alyssia, and she resisted the urge to stick out her tongue. She wasn’t going to fall into a childish role with her brother. Not tonight. “I’m glad you’re here to take care of her, though.”
Heat flooded Alyssia’s face at the rush of images associated with Tate taking care of her. He certainly had last night. She shook the thoughts away, and nudged Jared forward. “You’re going, right? And keeping in mind how profusely grateful you are I gave you an excuse to buy something new?”
Tate clapped Jared on the shoulder before stepping around him. “I promise any trouble she gets into will be fully supervised by me.”
This time when Tate’s gaze met hers, she had no doubt mischief and desire danced behind his look. Damn it, she couldn’t go back to casual flirting with him so soon after.
“Glad to hear it.” Jared finished saying his goodbyes and seconds later, the townhouse door closed behind him.
Alyssia summoned every last ounce of calm and cool she could find, and dragged her gaze away from Tate. She couldn’t spend the whole night staring. “Should we get to work?”
He raised an eyebrow, and she hid a wince. Maybe she shouldn’t have had so much ice in her tone. “Nice to see you, too.” His voice was pleasant, and light.
She could be civil, no big deal. It was the meaningless innuendo she’d struggle with.
“Sorry. I’m just—” What? Desperate to relegate last night to a pleasant memory, rather than intense longing?
No, she’d go with a different truth. The one she’d managed to ignore in favor of more fleeting, less stressful things.
“I’m just eager to get this thing online, and put more distance between the shelter and Thompson’s bullshit. ”
Tate’s left hand clenched into a fist, and he gritted his teeth.
“Right. Let’s get that done. Lead the way.
” He gestured toward the stairs, and then paused, and wrapped a loose hand around her wrist. “What’s wrong with your arm?
” He was looking at a large piece of gauze taped to her skin, below the elbow.
“I had a patient get a little excited, and he hadn’t had his nails trimmed in a while. It’s not a bad gash, but it’s long.”
“Are you okay?”
“Sure.” She hadn’t even thought about it, but his concern filled her with a soft glow. Injuries like this were status quo for her. “I’m on antibiotics just in case, but it’ll be fine.”
“Good. As long as you’re all right.” He rested a hand at the small of her back, his light touch all but searching her skin through her T-shirt.
She did her best not to focus on the touch.
Not to associate it with memories of his hands running over her bare skin.
By the time they reached the doorway to her office, her imagination was working overtime, and her breathing shallow.
She pushed aside the vivid images and tried to be subtle about pulling away from him.
“What first?” She cringed at the too-bright chirp that tore from her mouth.
“Have a seat.” His tone was flat, any of the earlier teasing gone. “You do the setup, I watch and make sure it’s all intuitive.”
Her insides twisted in on themselves as she pulled up the admin panel for the crowd-funding site.
Apparently, without the rampant fantasies of Tate, her mind was free to linger on Thompson’s threats instead.
The lawyer she kept on retainer had sent letters to Thompson and to the news station threatening a defamation suit if Thompson didn’t retract the statements.
She hadn’t heard anything back, and didn’t know if that was a good sign or not.
But if they could get her campaign online tonight, and get promises of funding, that would help.
It had to. It would be a chance for her to remind people the shelter did good things.
That it was worth people’s time and investment to support the animals.
She shoved aside the chaos tumbling through her head, and tried to clear her mind. “What first?”
“The art department had time to implement all your requests, so give this a look and make sure you’re good with it.” Tate rested his hand on her shoulder, leaned around her, and plugged a USB drive into her laptop.
His familiar scent filled her nostrils, and she inhaled deeply.
His warmth radiated through her sleeve, and dragged her jumbled thoughts back to the surface.
This wasn’t the way to move on from last night.
That would have to become her mantra if she was going to make it through the evening with her sanity and heart intact.
She leaned toward the screen, breaking the contact between them, and clicked the auto-run icon that popped up.
After recording her voice-over that afternoon for the promo video, she’d sat with the art department, giving her feedback with each new tweak, so there would be as few surprises as possible tonight.
She played the video, pleased with the results.
Tate told her all of the pilot groups had similar access to Skriddie’s art and marketing departments, to help make the crowd-funding software launch go as well as possible.
She still felt like she’d gotten a little extra attention. Not that she minded in this case.
The application was fairly easy to navigate. With only a little prompting from Tate, she finished setting everything up.
“That’s it.” Tate rested a hand on her shoulder, but pulled away too quickly for her liking.
Nervous energy hummed through her. Everything else aside, this project was going to take her shelter to new places.
Owning the land they were on would give them new options for expansion, the opportunity to implement new projects for the animals.
Her fingers twitched in anticipation. She inhaled deeply, then pressed the ‘Go Live’ button.
All the air escaped her lungs and she sank back in her chair, as the world continued on around them. “That was anti-climactic.” She laughed at her own anxiousness. It wasn’t like the world should have turned upside down just because she clicked Go.
Tate draped his arms over her shoulders and squeezed. “Congratulations.” His breath caressed her cheek.