Page 5

His response wasn’t a surprise. Whatever the stranger had said, had clearly thrown him for a loop. The guy was usually unflappable.

“Yeah, I’m not sure that’s possible. I don’t actually own a time machine.”

The corner of his mouth twitched, as if he was going to smile, but then his lips firmed, and the moment passed. “I need to get some water and take it to her.”

“Do you want me to do it?” Margot wasn’t sure why she was volunteering for the job. He was more than capable of doing the simple task. Yet he seemed like he needed a few minutes to himself. “I can tell her an emergency came up and you had to leave.”

Damon shook his head. “I doubt my aunt will believe that.”

“What? Your aunt?” From what she knew about Damon, his parents were dead, and he had no siblings or other relatives. His emergency contact on file was Tabitha, Steve’s wife.

He leaned against the counter in the staff room and crossed his ankles, as if he was settling in for a long time. “Yeah. Marian Ridgeway is my aunt, and I have a cousin who lives in Perth too.”

This was the most personal information Damon had ever given to her, and she didn’t know if it was because she’d found him at a vulnerable moment, or if he was avoiding going back into the conference room, making it was easier to talk to her.

Yet that didn’t make sense either, because what he was sharing was infinitely private. The sort of information he would share with someone he was close to. Someone important to him—a category she didn’t fit into.

“What does she want?”

“No idea.” He stepped away from the counter, and reached into the open shelves and grabbed a glass down. He filled it with economic movements. “I guess I should get back in there. I’m surprised Wilt hasn’t come looking for me.”

Margot didn’t want the moment to end, but he was right, he needed to get back. She touched his hand, and a zing of electricity buzzed up her arm. “Thanks for telling me, and I hope everything goes okay.”

He looked down at where her fingers still rested on top of his palm, his brow furrowing. Had he experienced the same buzz as she had? Or did he not want her to touch him? Either way, she yanked her hand away, and he exited the room without saying anything.

Margot took a deep breath, holding it for a second before letting it whoosh out of her.

Oh. how she wanted to be a fly on the wall in that conference room to find out what this Marian woman had to say to him, and why she’d come back into his life right at this moment. But she couldn’t, and that was a question she couldn’t ask, and would likely not find the answer to.

For a fleeting moment, Damon had lowered his guard and let her in. Somehow, she didn’t think it would happen again.

Margot tidied her desk, like she always did at the end of the day. She hated coming into the office and finding it all cluttered. It was probably a hangover of when she’d worked one summer in her dad’s office as a teenager and had watched him put everything away, so that his desk was a clear, shiny, clutter-free surface. She’d never asked him why he’d done that, but even after he’d retired and did the books for a friend, the desk in his study was always spotless.

“Night, Margot. See you tomorrow.” Andy gave her a wave as he exited the front door.

“Bye,” she managed to get out before the door shut.

No one stayed late these days. They were all eager to get home to their partners. Not that Margot could blame them, if she had someone special waiting for her, she wouldn’t hang around.

Satisfied that everything was as it should be, she switched the phone back to message and got her purse out of the drawer she locked it in every day.

“I’ll walk you to your car.”

She jolted at Damon’s statement. Her heart pounded, and she placed a hand on her chest as if that was going to slow it down. “You really need to stop creeping up on me,” she scolded.

He didn’t say anything, just studied her with aloof intensity, like he always did. It wasn’t as if she was a puzzle that needed solving. She had always been an open book. Or she had been, until she’d been kidnapped. Now she worked hard to keep her secrets hidden.

The vulnerable man she’d seen in the break room this morning was gone, and he was back to being the remote Damon she was used to. Although there had been other times when they’d joked together but they’d been fleeting.

Wilt had seen the mysterious Marian out, and Margot hadn’t had the courage to go and find Damon and ask him what the outcome of his meeting with her had been. Not that it was any of her business. He likely regretted bearing his soul to her the moment he’d done it.

“Good chat,” she muttered as she brushed past him and out the door, knowing he would lock it and set the alarm.

Did she want him to walk her to her car? Of course, but not because he deemed it his duty. She’d want him to walk her because he wanted to spend more time with her.

Margot huffed out an annoyed breath at her thoughts. She’d managed to keep her feelings for Damon under control over the last couple of years, especially when love was all around the office. All it had taken was one night, and it had all unraveled.

It would be fine if Damon had continued to only speak to her when necessary. But he’d willingly come up to her car door that morning and had initiated everything they’d shared that day.