5. Noah
Noah
Iwas fucked.
Whatever clarity I’d had last night had detoured straight to my dick, and now I was paying for it. The consequences stood in front of me, encased in a stunning blue sundress, with legs I’d kill to run my hands down.
Focus, Noah.
This was Bailey. Bailey was your new event planner. Imagining her naked would definitely be an HR violation, if we even had one. I should’ve glanced at the applicants’ names before entrusting Eli to handle hiring—rookie mistake.
Somehow, Bailey looked ten times cuter in the daylight, even though the daggers in her eyes were sharp enough to cut steel. She stumbled into my office, her scent, warm peaches and vanilla, filling the small space faster than I could process.
“Was last night a joke to you?” she snapped. “Did you enjoy making your new employee look so silly, thinking she just happened to stumble upon the most eligible bachelor in town?”
Her voice was sharp, but there was a tremor underneath it.
Insecurity flashed in her eyes as she crossed her arms tightly against her chest, and this felt like a make-or-break moment.
Screw this up, and I’d lose the only woman who had ever made me break my rules and the event planner I actually fucking needed.
I closed the office door, leaned back against it, and leveled Bailey with my most sincere gaze. My palms itched to reach for her, but I forced my hands to my sides.
“Last night meant a lot to me,” I murmured. “I remember thinking how lucky I was to stumble across the most beautiful woman in town. I didn’t know who you were. I’d been so buried prepping for the busy season, so I let Eli handle every detail of hiring.”
She rolled her bottom lip between her teeth, clearly trying to decipher what was and wasn’t true.
“I hadn’t texted you yet because I didn’t want to come off too eager…but I’m still me, pretty girl,” I added quietly. “Except now I’m your boss, and I have to figure out how to work beside you every day without losing my shit.”
She studied my face, searching for cracks in my words.
“So you had no idea who I was?” she asked. “Not even a suspicion that I could be your new hire?”
“I swear on the inn,” I said, my voice tight. “I had no clue.”
“Then why use Allen?” Her words came fast and sharp. “Why not just tell me your name was Noah? Who even uses fake names in real life?”
Fair question and one I didn’t have a perfect answer for. I pushed off the door, not understanding why I felt the urge to be close to her.
“Shaking off the responsibility of this place is hard for me,” I admitted. “I don’t compartmentalize well. Boss Noah wasn’t who I wanted to be yesterday. Not the version of me I wanted you to meet.”
Her hands twisted together, the anger slowly bleeding out of her.
“I would’ve liked you regardless of your name,” she said softly, her eyes flicking to my mouth before she looked away. “I did like you—”
Past tense. My jaw tightened.
“But now we don’t have that chance,” she continued. “I need this job, I need to do well, and I need to know whatever happened between us isn’t going to ruin our working relationship. We’ll need to keep it strictly professional.”
Right, professional. We couldn’t form any kind of relationship, but a selfish part of me wished she’d even considered it.
She stepped back, physically and emotionally, and my chest tightened. I wanted to pull her close and fix everything, but I couldn’t. Not now. Bailey braced herself against my desk, and my thoughts took an unfortunate detour as I imagined her bent over it for entirely different reasons.
Fuck, I shouldn’t have been thinking that. I raked a hand through my hair, tugging in frustration. The connection from the bar still rippled between us, charged and impossible to ignore. Bailey smoothed her dress and motioned toward the door.
“Can I have a minute before we start?”
“Of course, take all the time you need.”
She stepped out, and I wondered if I’d just let the best thing to walk into this town slip through my fingers.