She rolled her eyes so hard that I was genuinely impressed. “Thanks, but that’s the last thing I want to do.”
“Wow. Tell me, Jacqueline, what do you have against your own family that you’d react like that to a simple dinner invitation?”
For some reason, that made her laugh, but the sound was completely devoid of warmth. When she looked at me again, I got the feeling she thought that the question had been deeply naive. “The Westwoods arenotmy family. They never have been.”
I frowned. “What does that mean?”
“My mother simply had the misfortune of bearing their last name,” she said, her voice suddenly curt. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s where it ends.”
“Well, now you’re going to have to elaborate,” I said immediately. “I don’t know about our family on the other side of the pond, but around here, we’re actually pretty close.”
“No,” she said firmly. “I don’t have to and I won’t.”
“Come on.”
“No.”
“You can’t just drop something like that and?—”
“Watch me.”
I groaned, taking a second to try and decide if pushing further would get me anywhere, but it probably wouldn’t and I’d already had aday. If I was going to get only these few minutes to spend with her, I didn’t particularly want to spend them obviously pissing her off. But damn, did I ever want to know what made her hate our family so venomously.
Jacqueline stood up, brushing imaginary dust from her skirt before sliding a purse over her shoulder. “Well, this was unexpected, but I have to get back to work.”
“Sure,” I muttered. “I guess I’ll just see you around.”
She spun and started walking away, but stopped only a few steps later, turning to look back at me over her shoulder. For a brief moment, I thought maybe she was going to take me up on the dinner invitation, but instead, her gaze flicked down to the folded newspaper still in my hand.
“Why are you, a man in your thirties in the year 2026, still reading that?”
I shrugged, flipping it open and angling it toward her to show my face plastered across the center page. “I have a weird kink about knowing exactly what everyone thinks about me and my transgressions at all times. I’ll tell you, you date one mayor’s daughter and suddenly everyone loses their minds.”
She stared at it for a second, then brought her gaze back to mine and smiled. It wasn’t a full, open smile, to be fair, but just that small, coy curve of her mouth made me forget what I was going to say next. My brain understood that sheshouldbe off limits, but my body lit up like the Fourth of July.
“That’s interesting,” she said lightly, then spun back around and disappeared into the lunchtime pedestrian traffic.
I watched her go and appreciated the view the entire time. Sue me.
Once she was completely out of sight, I stood and crossed the short distance to the recycling bin, tossing the newspaper into it. Whatever the press thought they knew, they didn’t, and right about now, that was a damn good thing.
Forcing myself to mentally change gears as I walked back to the office, I did my best to focus on the grind rather than the gorgeous woman I had no business yearning for. I didn’t make it three steps inside the building before Zach fell into stride beside me.
“Tell me you didn’t get ambushed by Alex this morning,” he said without even pretending to care abouthelloorhow are you. “He was on a rampage when I got in.”
I glanced at him, catching the edge in his tone. “I wish I could tell you that, but I can’t. I got the full performance. He was so passionate, he might even win an award.”
Zach exhaled sharply and shoved a hand into his hair. “He’s been up my ass for weeks and now it’s like he wants me marriedyesterday.”
I snorted. “Yesterday? How generous of him.”
Zach groaned. “It’s relentless, man.”
“Well, as it happens, you’ve come to the right place,” I said. “I have a solution for you.”
“A solution?” He gave me a wary look. “I don’t know if I like that tone.”
“You don’t have to like it. I guarantee this solution works.”