Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 76232 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76232 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
“You see my note about George Overby?” he asked. “I need a lunch place for Monday.”
“Done,” she said, her fingers continuing to fly across her keyboard. “It’s on your calendar and confirmed with his assistant.”
Kennedy gave a slight shake of his head in amused irritation. He’d just sent the request not five minutes ago, but then, Kate seemed to delight in staying one step ahead of him. She was one of the few people who could.
He tried again to get under her skin. “Well, I hope it’s someplace that can accommodate—”
“It’s at Augustine. The chef knows he’s coming, and they’ve got a whole gluten-free situation worked out.”
Kennedy lightly rapped his fist against the doorjamb. Damn. She was good. Really good. “Thank you,” he said begrudgingly.
Finally, her fingers left her keyboard, and she spun in her chair toward him, her expression slightly wary. “You’re welcome.”
He nodded toward her computer. “What are you working on?”
Her eyebrows lifted. “You really want to know?” She picked up a legal pad, which he knew she used as her running to-do list. Well, that and her iPad. She had some elaborate system that involved “migration,” and color coding, and archiving, and he didn’t know what else, but he was pretty sure it was something a little supernatural. If he believed in such things. Which he did not.
“Not really,” he admitted. “But I’m sorry if Claudia’s interruption today necessitated your working late.”
“I’m not going to tell you what we talked about,” she said, starting to turn back to her computer.
Irritation rippled through him, partially at her assumption that curiosity over her conversation with Claudia was the only reason he’d asked what she was working on, partially at the fact that she was right.
“Besides, I always work late,” she said without looking back at him.
It was true. Not so long ago, they’d all worked late. He, Matt, and Ian had rarely left the office before eight, and none of them ever left before Kate. But things changed after Ian had met Lara and decided to become a one-woman man who preferred dinner—or sex—with his fiancée to late nights in the office. One down. Then Matt had married Sabrina. Two down.
Now it was just Kate and him in the office most nights, an occurrence that was comforting and yet caused some little fissure of unease through Kennedy, and for the life of him, he couldn’t say why.
“You should at least get something to eat if you’re going to be here late.”
“I had a cheeseburger and fries at three with Ian and Matt, and we talked work, so you can spare me the lecture on extended lunch breaks during work hours.”
Kennedy was torn between wanting to smile at the tart retort and banging his head against the door because they always seemed to come to this. Arguing.
“Kate.”
“What?” Tap tap tap.
She didn’t turn around, but he waited her out, refusing to finish his sentence until she turned.
Better, he thought once her irritated gaze finally came around to meet his. Much better.
By the book, he supposed Kate would be considered plain. Her hair was usually parted down the middle or pulled back in a no-nonsense headband thing. If she wore makeup, he didn’t notice it. She was small—shorter than average, with slim shoulders and zero curves.
And yet he’d always liked looking at her. She was . . . interesting. Not that he’d tell her that. He may not have the smooth-talking charm of his friends, but even he knew not to tell a woman she was interesting-looking. But Kate was. Her eyes were wide and tilted down at the corners, just as her nose tilted slightly up in an oddly compelling combination. Her mouth was full and slightly sulky, at least when she looked at him . . .
Kennedy cleared his throat and looked away. Off-limits. Not that he was attracted to Kate. She was too damn antagonistic, too forthright, too . . . much. Not his type at all. But even if she were, she wasn’t for him. Back when he, Matt, and Ian had started at Wolfe and realized they had one hell of an assistant on their hands, they’d made a pact:
Kate Henley was off-limits on the romantic front.
The last thing they needed was for one of them to seduce her and then have it end badly, leaving them without the best executive assistant on the planet.
“What?” she said again, finally turning fully to face him.
“Ah . . .” Crap. He’d forgotten what he was going to say. He scrambled and tried to recover. “Sorry if Claudia’s been bugging you lately.”
Kate shrugged. “You already said that. She’s fine.” Hardly a ringing endorsement, but then this was Kate. She wasn’t inclined to gushing.
“What’d she want with you, anyway?”
Kate’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Maybe she just wants to be my friend.”
Kennedy tensed. He couldn’t say why the idea of Kate and his girlfriend becoming friends made him nervous, but it did. Which was irrational. Kate was friends with Ian’s fiancée, as well as Matt’s wife. Hell, Kate was going to be a bridesmaid in Ian and Lara’s wedding and had been one of only twenty people present at Matt and Sabrina’s surprise Vegas wedding just a few months earlier.