The Boss's Marriage Plan (Proposals & Promises 2)

“Crazy day, huh?”

“Very.” She filled him in on the new hire.

Scott nodded. For the past couple of years he’d given her free rein for hiring and supervising the office staff. She often joked that her official title should have several “slashes” in it—office manager/human resources director/customer service representative/personal assistant to the boss. While she enjoyed the variety of her duties, the challenge was doing them all well, a feat she thought she managed most days.

“I’m sure you made the right choice,” he said. “Oh, and we got the Kilgo job today.”

&nbs

p; “Congratulations. I know you and Andy put a lot of hours into that bid.” Andy Staples was one of the project managers, an architect who’d been with the firm from the beginning. If Tess thought of herself as Scott’s right-hand woman within the home office, Andy was definitely Scott’s second in command everywhere else.

“Yeah. We’re both excited about the project. So you were about to leave for the day?”

Because she was wearing her coat and holding her purse and empty lunch dish, the answer seemed obvious, but she nodded. “Yes. Do you need anything before I go?”

“Want to have an early dinner somewhere? Talk awhile?”

His smile and the gleam in his navy eyes took her aback. That quickly, he’d transformed from work associate to would-be suitor. Was he really able to separate the professional from the personal that easily, or was he just that much better at masking his thoughts and feelings when he was in work mode?

“I, um—” It took her a bit longer to make the switch. “I have to stop by a baby-supplies store. We’re having Heather’s shower tomorrow afternoon and I haven’t had a chance to get anything for her. So maybe we should—”

“Stop by there together,” he finished for her. “I haven’t gotten anything for her, either.”

She blinked. “You want to go baby shower shopping together?”

“Well, there are things I’d rather do,” he replied candidly. “But you need a gift and so do I, so it makes sense for us to go together, right?”

She bit her lip. She wasn’t sure she knew what made sense anymore.

The phone in her hand beeped and she glanced down at the screen. Her sister had sent a text unnecessarily alerting her that cousin Dana’s party invitations had gone out. Nina had also felt the need to remind her that Awkward Orthodontist was still available as a potential escort—though not in those exact words, of course.

Tess sighed, then glanced up at the doorway where her good-looking employer stood smiling at her. “Okay, fine. Let’s go buy something cute and fuzzy,” she said more gruffly than she’d intended.

His eyebrows rose and his smile turned a bit quizzical, but he merely nodded and moved out of the doorway, motioning for her to precede him.

Chapter Four

Had they done this even a week earlier, Tess thought it wouldn’t have felt at all odd to walk into the baby store with Scott to find gifts for their coworker. Well, not very odd anyway. But now the comfortably established camaraderie that had previous existed between them had changed. Permanently? That remained to be seen.

She and Scott paused in the baby furniture aisle, their heads close together as she scrolled through the baby registry on her smartphone, showing him the check marks that indicated items already purchased by others.

“There’s not a lot left,” she said with a self-censuring frown. “I should have taken care of this sooner.”

Scott glanced up from the phone screen to study her face. “That’s not like you. You’re usually ahead of schedule on stuff like this.”

She gave a little shrug. “I guess it was Freudian,” she said lightly. “As happy as I am for Heather, I hate the thought of her leaving us. I’ll miss her.”

She didn’t want to think there’d been an even deeper emotional reason she had been reluctant to peruse catalogs of baby supplies.

Before Scott could respond, a young man in a store uniform paused near them. “Can I help you find anything?” he asked cheerily. “Do you need help setting up a registry?”

“Oh, no, we’re not—” Tess stopped her automatic and completely unnecessarily explanation with a slight grimace. “I mean, we don’t need help right now. Thank you.”

The young man moved on and Tess focused more intently on the list, avoiding Scott’s eyes. “There are still a few nice things left. I’m sure we can each find something.”

“Maybe we could go in together on a gift?”

Picturing someone reading aloud a card that said, “From Tess and Scott,” she cleared her throat. “Maybe we’ll just each buy our own.”