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“You obviously didn’t train her to do any of those things,” I argued, my chest heating with the surge of his attention.
I doubted she’d been there long enough, honestly. From what he’d told me, she’d lasted about an hour before he’d fired her. I read instead what he was really saying?—
He’d noticedmedoing all of these things. Even the lack of connection with others in their cubicles and how hard I tried to ignore the things they said about me?
“I didn’t train you, either,” he said. “You just showed up fully operational and hit the ground running.”
I expelled a breath and stared at the lineup of teddy bears on the shelf nearest to me. “Boy, when I ask for compliments, I get them. You don’t have to take that whole love languages thing so seriously.”
His scowl returned. “I’m not overdoing anything.” He flicked through several cups with the wordsEureka Springs, Arkansas,on them. “I’m being honest, like I should have been from the start.”
Before I could respond, he shuffled toward the back of the store.
My thoughts fled. I wasn’t just flattered; I was touched. Hyper-awareness stole across my entire body, stealing my breath and rendering my knees the consistency of jelly.
Here, I’d thought Duncan never paid attention to anything or appreciated anything I did. But he had. Hehad.
I’d never had a compliment take me so much by surprise. No man had ever paid so much attention to me and then voiced what he saw and liked the way Duncan just did.
It took me several moments before I recovered enough to really see what I was looking at.
I inhaled, steeling myself. Shopping. Right. We were trying to find something for Duncan’s grandma.
License plates from various states lined the back wall. Trinkets, knickknacks, and all kinds of various items were for sale, but everything was too kitschy. Though I didn’t know her well, from our brief meeting, I suspected Grandma wouldn’t be impressed with pig-shaped salt and pepper shakers or striped aprons.
Duncan seemed to sense the same thing. He meandered toward a collection of comic books filed in white buckets and then inspected a few t-shirts, holding one up for me. It was blue with a circular logo displaying the town name.
I wouldn’t mind a souvenir t-shirt from a town like this. I gave in and joined him, reaching instead for a nearby pink tee. His shoulder brushed mine, stoking the fire in my chest. New flames danced, surging inside of me with heat.
Taking another breath was harder than it should have been, especially because I remembered our moment on the trolley. I remembered how it had felt to have his hand on my stomach, how it felt to have him hold me. And I wanted him to do it again.
“I never knew you saw me like that,” I said softly, holding up a brown T-shirt speckled with mountains this time. “I never knew you saw me as anything but an errand girl.”
He lowered the shirt, making way so I could get a better look at him. My breath caught. Under the influence of his glance, I couldn’t look anywhere else.
“You’ve never been just an errand girl.”
“Then how come you never treated me differently?”
He scowled, making me suspect that internal battle warred inside of him once more.
“I tried to,” he gritted out. “You—you struck me from the start.”
He squinted over his shoulder as though worried we’d be overheard. A pair of women tottered into the shop. Duncan inched closer, driving me wild with his nearness and the smell of his cologne.
“But the cubicle giraffes noticed. I think that’s how the rumors started in the first place. And there was that boyfriend of yours, too.”
I held the shirt to my chest. Memories of those early days working in his office surfaced, as distinctly as stepping on snow with bare feet—stark, obvious, and shrill.
Duncan had been friendly. Flirty, even. He’d been kind. He’d gone out of his way to talk to me.
It was why I’d stayed.
At first.
Then the whispers had started. He must have heard them, too, because it’d been as though a switch had been flipped. Duncan had changed so instantly toward me, treating me with the same coldness everyone else received.
I’d considered leaving, but by then, my first paycheck had come, and it’d been substantially more than I’d gotten from any other job I’d had.
