Heartbreaker - Julie Kriss Page 0,25

“You’re pushing it.”

“Yes, sir.”

Without another word he went back into his office and closed the door, arrogant-asshole style.

A few seconds later Eliza came back, breathless from hurrying. “Thanks,” she said, tucking her purse under the desk. “Did he yell at you?”

“No.”

“Did the girlfriend leave?”

“Yes.”

“So they’re done screwing in there? Good.”

“I don’t think they were—”

“It doesn’t matter.” I stood and she slid into her chair, smoothing her hair down. “I owe you one. Now go before he sees you and gets mad.”

I didn’t bother explaining to her that Mr. Morgan had already seen me. Instead I walked down the hall out of sight and paused, taking out my phone.

Something about the encounter with the CEO made me think of Holden. Not because Holden was anything like Mr. Morgan. But the text exchange Holden and I had had a few days ago was different somehow in a way that made me think of the look on Mr. Morgan’s face when he talked about his girlfriend, whoever she was.

Holden had called me sexy. You’re very sexy, he’d written. He’d never called me that in high school. We hadn’t kissed back then, or fooled around. Even when he’d asked me to go to the senior prom with him, he’d been very sweet, not seductive. Had he thought I was sexy back then, or was this a new thing? Was he even telling the truth? Why would he lie about something like that?

I pulled up the photo he’d texted me, the timed selfie of him spraying the hose on the ambulance. Holden was fully clothed in his uniform in the photo, but somehow the picture made all of my systems go haywire just the same. It was his easy stance, the lean perfection of his strong body under the navy blue, the line of his shoulders. I recognized him as the Holden I’d known, yet he was also different. He’d been a boy when I knew him before, but this photo was of a man.

A man who thought I was sexy.

I loved my romance novels, but when I read them, I assumed that what was in them couldn’t happen in real life. But what if it could? Was that even possible?

I put the phone away and went back to work, wondering when I would see him again.

Twelve

Holden

“Come out with me Saturday night,” Eric said.

Eric, Grim, and I were at headquarters, taking a brief break between calls. Our shifts had been crazy lately—there had been staffing shortages, but there had never been a shortage of emergency calls. I loved my job and I was happy to do it, even the tough parts, but I was starting to get sick of these four walls.

Saturday night was the first weekend evening I’d had off in weeks, and if I could manage it, I wanted to spend it with Mina, telling her the truth.

“Can’t,” I told Eric. “I’m making plans.”

“Cancel them,” Eric said. He was lying on the weight bench we kept at headquarters, pressing weights and grunting. “We need a guys’ night.”

“We don’t need a guys’ night,” Grim said from his place at a table where he was sorting the supplies for one of the emergency kits. “I see you guys all the time, at work and at home. What we need is an anyone-but-these-guys night.”

I snorted, then turned back to the computer I was working on, doing charts. “Grim is right. I’m practically married to you two as it is.”

“I’m not inviting Grim,” Eric said. “He’s working.”

“I’m sitting right here,” Grim said. “And I switched shifts, so I’m not working Saturday.”

“You’re still not invited,” Eric said.

“I just said I wouldn’t come, even if I was.”

This kind of bickering was our usual style, and I tuned them out when my phone rang in my pocket. I felt a pang of dread when I saw that it was my mother. I stood and went through the door to the kitchen so the guys couldn’t hear me. “What’s the matter, Mom?” I asked when I answered the call.

“Holden,” my mother said, “I think it’s time you came for a visit.”

That was it. No How are you or Am I bothering you or Are you working or Should I call some other time since you might be saving lives. She was just centered on herself, as usual.

“I told you last time, I can’t,” I said. “I’m busy working.”

“Take a vacation,” she said. “You must have some time due. I have a spare room. You could come and spend some time with