line. “I just found out. Apparently, she watches your stream.”
“Well, in that case, I’d be more than happy to give her an autograph, but if you want, I can do you one better. How about a video call?”
He shook his head. “Rosie’s very shy. She might have a heart attack if you video called her.”
I found it cute that he was protective of his sister’s shyness. “Okay, an autograph it is then.” I went to grab a pen and paper. Neil returned his attention to his laptop, but I sensed him surreptitiously watching me out the corner of his eye. I was tempted to write something cheeky to his sister, like, sorry your brother has such a big stick up his arse, but I tried to summon some maturity. After all, we were being nice and cordial with one another today. Instead, I asked him, “Does she spell her name with a ‘y’ or an ‘ie’?”
Neil cast me a quick glance. “With an ‘ie’.” There was a pause before he continued, “Don’t write anything ridiculous.”
I shot him a fake offended look. “Well, I wasn’t going to, but now that you’ve warned me—”
“Forget it. Don’t bother. I’ll tell Rosie you said no.”
“Hey, don’t be so prickly. I was only going to write, Dear Rosie, thanks for being a fan. P.S. Your brother has a lovely bottom. Yours sincerely, Afric.”
At this, Neil’s cheeks flamed bright red, and it was silly how much I enjoyed embarrassing him. In fact, he seemed a little tongue-tied, and it was absolutely adorable.
“What?” I asked. “I know you caught me looking earlier. You’ve got a nice arse, and being that I spend most of my days cooped up in this room live streaming, I noticed. No need to be all weird about it.”
“I’m not being weird.”
“Yes, you are. Your shoulders are all hunched, and your cheeks are like two big raspberries.”
“My cheeks are not like raspberries,” he objected. “I’d just appreciate it if you didn’t sexually objectify me like that.” I sensed he was trying to cover up his embarrassment. “This might not be a place of work, but I am doing you a professional sort of favour, so please, keep your ogling to a minimum.”
“Oh, so now you’re gonna play the sexual harassment card?” I teased. “Fine, I shan’t cast my covetous gaze upon your fine derriere ever again. Happy?”
He glowered at me. “Yes, now, please, could you be quiet so I could actually get some work done?”
I made a show of zipping my lips before scribbling down a very normal message for his sister, followed by my signature. I folded it in half and got up from the bed. Neil’s fingers were typing, his eyes on the screen as I slid the piece of paper into the little pocket on the breast of his shirt. I heard him inhale a sharp breath at the contact.
“There you go. Oh, crap, was that more sexual harassment? I just can’t seem to keep my crazy libido in check around your potent masculinity.”
“Funny,” Neil deadpanned, not bothering to look at me.
Well, it seemed his humour had died a gruesome death. I returned to my bed and answered a few more emails, all the while sneaking peeks at him here and there. Over an hour went by, and his cool façade never broke. Maybe I’d gone too far with my teasing. I was so bad at knowing whether or not I’d stepped over the line from entertaining to offensive.
Finally, Neil blew out a breath and sat back, powering his laptop down.
“All done for tonight?” I asked.
He nodded, finally deigning to look at me. “I’ll have to do the rest remotely if that’s okay? The new season of Running on Air starts filming in a few days, so I’ll be in New York for the next six weeks.”
Six weeks? That was … Well, it was a long time. Kind of. I guess I just felt sad that I wasn’t going to see him for so long. I’d strangely gotten used to his prickly self.
“I don’t mind you finishing the accounts up remotely, but what about our plan to make Annabelle fall in love with you?”
Neil raked a hand over his cleanly shaven jaw, a hint of self-deprecation in his voice when he replied, “Right, that. We can message back and forth, I guess, and you can give me pointers, but any in-person meeting will have to wait until I get back.”
“Okay, that’s doable,” I agreed, again feeling that weird pang that