“I have an apartment in Camden Grandview,” she shared. “It’s on Morehead.”
“I know exactly where that is.” Recognition flickered across Garrett’s face. “I work two minutes from there.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I swear!” Garrett threw up a hand as if to take an oath. “The company I work for has an office on south Tyron. It’s in the TAC Center, across the street from—”
“Duke Energy.” Avery nodded. “Duke switched over to my accounting program last fall. I spent a week there, helping their IT people set it up and then training their accounting department on how to run it.” Disbelief had her shaking her head. “This is crazy, right? I mean, what are the chances?”
Garrett sat back in his chair and chuckled. “I’d say slim to none.”
Several seconds of silence passed as they both processed the interesting turn of events. They lived in the same city, had worked across the street from each other for a week. And it had taken them both flying to Florida and boarding a cruise ship to the Eastern Caribbean to meet.
Suddenly wanting to know everything about this man, Avery took a sip of water and switched the conversation back to him.
“You said you work in the TAC Center. What is it you do there?”
“Insurance.”
She nearly choked. Coughing, she managed to ask, “You sell insurance?”
His lips formed a slight smirk. “Something wrong with that?”
“Of course not.” She coughed again. “You just don’t strike me as the insurance type.”
“No?” Humor flashed behind his gorgeous eyes “And what do I strike you as?”
Hot. Sexy. An alpha male badass who makes me want to reach across this table and—
“Wait a minute.” She cut her simmering thought short. “You said you work in the TAC Center, right? And you sell insurance? You don’t by chance work for Travel Assurance, do you?”
Surprise flickered across his face. “As a matter of fact, I do.”
“They use my program, too.” Avery laughed. “I was just there last week updating all the systems. We could’ve walked right past each other.”
Granted, Travel Assurance took up multiple floors of the expensive high-rise. But still.
“One, if I’d walked past you, I would’ve remembered it.” He shot her a panty-dropping smile. “And two, I was off last week. The first of my two-week vacation.”
“Oh.” Avery nodded. “Still, I can’t believe how close we’ve been to each other this whole time.”
“Me, neither.”
The low humming she’d heard earlier grew exponentially louder and the ship gave a slight lurch forward as it prepared to leave.
Inappropriate thoughts interrupted; Avery’s head spun toward the rippling water. Drawing in a deep breath, she was still trying to keep her bludgeoning nerves at bay when a warm, strong hand covered hers.
“You’re going to be fine.” Garrett’s deep voice rolled through her like a calming wave. “I promise.”
Glancing down at their joined hands, Avery felt a sense of peace that made her want to believe him.
“Come on.” He pulled his hand away, the move leaving a much bigger void than it should have. “You’ll see that we’re perfectly safe. I’ll even buy you another drink to celebrate our departure.”
With a wink that made her lower belly tighten with lust, Garrett stood and began clearing the table.
“Fine.” Avery rose to her feet. “But only because I really liked that drink. And if I go overboard and get eaten by a shark, just know…I’m coming back to haunt you.”
Chapter 5