Dating the Boss (Blue Harbor #2) - Jaclyn Osborn Page 0,49

last time I saw you this glum was when…” Regina snapped her mouth shut. “Never mind.”

“When Olivia cheated on me?”

She gave me a tight-lipped smile. “Yeah. Sorry.” She then leaned on the table, causing the long braid she wore her hair in to fall forward. She looked like she was going for a lady lumberjack look that Sunday with the plaid shirt and faded jeans. “Tell me what’s going on, Dan. Cut the bullshit.”

“You always could see right through me.”

Regina had a way of reading people. She’d even warned me against Olivia too after they’d first met.

“That girl gives me a bad vibe,” Regina said. “Like a damn snake disguised as a cute bunny. You get distracted by the fuzzy fur and cuteness and don’t even see the fangs ’til it’s too late.”

I had gotten mad at her for saying such a thing, and we’d gone weeks without talking because of it. But it turned out, she’d been right all along.

“Damn straight I do.” Regina snatched a fry from my plate and pointed it at me. “And don’t you forget it. Now.” She dipped the fry in ketchup before eating it. “Tell me what’s going on.”

A man with light brown hair caught my eye from across the room, and I did a double take. Disappointment filled my chest when seeing it wasn’t Reed.

“Is it possible to fall for someone you barely know?” I asked.

Not that I loved Reed or anything. That would be way too fast. But… I felt something for him, and it was intense.

“Could be infatuation,” Regina said, narrowing her eyes in consideration as she nibbled on another fry. “That can be mistaken for love. But I do think it’s possible to fall for someone quickly. Sometimes people go on a first date and know they’ve met the one they’re gonna marry by the end of the night. Some people think that’s stupid or cliché or whatever, but fuck ’em. The only one who truly knows how you feel is you. The heart doesn’t care about time. If you find someone who makes it beat different than before, I say go for it.”

“And if you can’t be with that person?”

“Why the hell not? Are they already married?”

“No.”

“Dead?”

I snorted. “No.”

“Then I don’t see why you can’t be with them.” She peered at her empty glass of beer before stealing mine and taking a sip. “So. Tell me. Who do you think you’re falling for?”

“No one,” I said. “It was only a question.”

“Hear that?” Regina straightened up and put a hand to her ear. “A bullshit meter is going off.”

I rolled my eyes, then glanced around the crowded restaurant. I didn’t see anyone I knew, but I didn’t feel comfortable talking about Reed in public. Especially when I didn’t even understand what I truly felt for him.

“What’s Meg up to today?” I asked, sitting back against the booth.

“I see what you did there.” Regina’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “She’s working right now. I’m gonna take her lunch when I leave here.”

Regina might’ve been annoying and pried too much into my personal life, but she got me thinking about things I had shoved to the back of my mind for the past week. After I got home from lunch with her, I changed into sweats and a hoodie and went for a jog around the block, both for exercise and an attempt to clear my head.

Flashes from last weekend entered my thoughts.

Reed sighing as I kissed his neck. How warm he was in my arms. Reed giggling when I picked him up and hauled him over my shoulder, his body so light and small but far from delicate. He was feisty and loving.

Beautiful.

I stumbled a little on some gravel before righting myself and continuing down the road. My heart was in my throat. When I returned home, my head was no clearer than when I’d left. In fact, it was even more of a mess.

“What am I going to do?” I muttered, scrubbing my hands over my face.

I wasn’t a man who based decisions on emotions. I’d heard the things people from the office said about me, like how I was a block of ice who didn’t care about people’s feelings. Assistants over the years had quit, or I’d fired them.

Then Reed had come along. And the ice around me was beginning to thaw, bit by bit.

“It’s just like that bird, you know?” Reed had said as we’d stood in the woods, staring up at the sky as snow blanketed the ground