Page 49 of Country Charm

Right.

Across.

From.

Me.

What? Am I emitting some kind of social signal I’m not aware of?

“There’s plenty of room for that here. If you push yourself, you’ll climb. Simple as that.”

“You haven’t?”

“What?” I ask.

“Pushed yourself?”

“No, I just do my job and go home. Don’t get me wrong. I do my job and I do it well.”

“I bet you do.” His tone is flirtatious, and it annoys me. He’s not an ugly man; hell, the girls would probably set me up with a guy just like him. He’s just not doing it for me at the moment. He’s all suit and tie, stuffy, ladder climbing, bullshit, city slicker. City slicker? Oh jeez, someone is rubbing off on me.

A laugh threatens to cut through my closed lips. I can’t hold it in, and a giggle comes out. Dom smiles and raises a brow at me.

Fuck, this guy thinks I’m laughing at his line.

“I’m pretty good at everything I put effort into.” I close the lid on my food and go to stand. “Actually, I think I should eat this at my desk. So I can keep doing the job I’m good at.”

“Multitasker, I like that.” I inwardly cringe that he said those words out loud.

“Thanks, have a good day, Dom.”

“I’ll see you around Cassie.”

Yuck.No. No one calls me Cassie.

Dinner with the girls is just what I needed. We’re all sitting at a small table sharing our second bottle of wine. With four girls, a bottle goes quickly. We opened the conversation with Mary’s wedding talk. She gets the floor for the month, and we totally get it. Then the conversation shifted toward how all our days went.

Georgie was ball busting, Lynn had a family come in with chicken pox, and Mary is on work leave until after her honeymoon. Mary is still running her business, but from the “backseat”, she calls it. This means she’s letting her go-to girl at the office do the heavy work and she’s micromanaging. This may sound like a good gig to anyone else, but I know deep down Mary hates it. She’s a hands-on girl and likes to be the face and backbone of her company.

I’m leading with my Dom story now.

“He called you Cassie? God, I haven’t heard someone call you that since college.” Georgie’s tone is pure disdain. “But he was cute?”

“Yeah.”

“Cute enough to let him call you Cassie while he pounds you?”

“Definitely not”

“Speaking of getting pounded,” Mary interrupts. “Are we all finally going to get details on this mystery man from the produce stand?” I roll my eyes and Lynn beams.

“What do you want to know?”

“You’re lucky Trent’s mom was in the car Sunday, or I would have given you the tenth degree.”

“I don’t think that’s how that saying goes?” I raise my brow.

“Shut up and tell us everything!” Lynn barks. Mary, Georgie, and I all share a look before we look over at Lynn. We break out in a fit of giggles at her outburst. It’s a rare occurrence. Usually, it’s made in defense of one of us or her baby girl Rose. We’ve never really had it aimed at us.

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