genuinely interested and asked questions, chuckling at some of my responses. Each time he did, I had to shift a little to ease the tension building in the base of my spine.
How long was this going to take? Would he be upset if I excused myself and went back to hiding in my office? I wasn’t sure I would be able to stick this out.
I went to get the coffee and brought back his mug. When I handed it to him, there was a mysterious glint in his eye as he stared at me. It both excited and scared me, and I stepped away and went to stand on the opposite side of the work station so that it was between us.
“So, I believe your sister said you were in the military.”
He nodded and set his mug down. “Yeah, I did twenty, hurt my shoulder right at the end, and retired.”
“And now what do you do at the security company? I mean besides install hidden cameras.”
He smirked. “Actually, this is not what we normally do.”
“What?”
He grinned toward me. “Yeah, the security work that I do is overseas. The company that I work for trains civilians to go into dangerous areas for humanitarian work. Mostly medical situations like clinics and hospitals. Sometimes we train and escort engineers or other people, but mostly medical staff.”
“You train them? Like how?”
He went back to work on the cameras. “Mostly educating them on customs, expectations of Americans in the regions they are going, but we also give them some self-defense, weapons, and basic medical training if they need that.”
I grinned at him. “You teach people to shoot?” He nodded. “That’s kind of cool. I always wanted to learn how to shoot. Alice and Maggie said they would take me some time.”
He stared at me. “Alice doesn’t know how to shoot.”
I laughed. “Yes, she does! She’s a competitive shooter.”
He stared at me like I had three heads. “Where did you hear that?”
“She told me.” I set my mug down and started to walk toward my office. “I’ll show you.”
I went into my office and collected my cellphone, finding a text from Holly that said, you’re welcome, with a smiley face. I frowned at the message and then turned around and yelped.
Harvey was standing right behind me, and I’d crashed right into him. “Holy crap! I didn’t even hear you come up behind me. Jesus, don’t do that; you nearly gave me a heart attack.”
“Sorry,” he said softly, but the look in his eye didn’t seem to go along with that apology. He looked anything but sorry as he stared at me. How easy it would be to lean forward, take one step, and I could be up against his chest again. We continued to stare at one another, and then he finally spoke softly. “You were going to show me something.”
I startled out of la-la land and took a step back, returning my attention to my phone. “Yeah, sorry.” I tried to bring up the video that Maggie had sent me, but my hands were shaking. Finally, I was able to get my hands to work, and I put the video on the screen and turned it to face him.
He reached for the phone and stared at the video. “Holy shit! Damn, she’s good!”
“I haven’t seen her in action, but Maggie said she has a ton of trophies. She’s been shooting since she was a little girl.”
He laughed. “I wonder if Jake knows this. I can’t believe that Alice never said anything.” He continued watching the video, and I watched him. Holy cow, how had I not noticed just how handsome he really was?
He stepped away and chuckled as he set the phone down on my desk. “That’s pretty cool. I’m glad you showed me that. Now I have a way of getting back at Alice.” He turned and left the room.
“Getting back at Alice? What do you mean?”
He glanced over his shoulder. “I mean, this whole setup.”
I frowned. “What setup?”
He turned so suddenly that I almost crashed into him. His nose flared slightly right before he spoke. “We need to stop doing that.”
“Doing what?” I said breathlessly.
His eyes slipped over my face. “Crashing into each other.”
“We do seem to have a history of doing that.”
“Yes, we do.”
I shuffled back half a step. “The first time I saw you, you looked upset. Almost hurt, or maybe it was worried. What was wrong?”
He cocked his head and then rubbed the stubble over his jaw. “I was in