Page 25 of Friend Me

The tips of my fingers tingled. Tyler wasgoodat this fake-date thing.

Apparently, I was not. I shook out my fingers.

When Cooper held out his hand, I took it and followed him to the middle of the floor. He raised our clasped hands and put his other hand on my back. On my bare back above my low-cut satin gown. His eyes widened as he slid his hand lower, finally finding fabric at the dip in my back, just above where Tyler’s hand had grazed my ass last night. Under the weight of his hand, the thin fabric clung to my sweat-damp skin. That probably explained why I wasn’t erupting in the same shivers I’d had last night when Tyler had touched me there.

“Wouldn’t want to make your date jealous, would we?”

I forced a laugh. Ugh. The irony.

“I suppose tonight is not the time to warn you about the challenges of dating a coworker.” His eyes were fixed on Alicia and Jackson.

I tilted up my chin. “It worked out fine for them. They’re happier than a pair of heliophysicists during a solar eclipse.”

“Right.” He looked down at me. “I’m telling you this because I care about you, Marlee.”

“You—you do?” I held my breath and waited. Could he be about to tell me he had feelings for me?

“Like an older brother.”

Shit.Well, I could work with that. “Jackson’s like my brother. You’re like my brother’s best friend.” One of my favorite romantic tropes. And if the heroine was persistent, the brother’s friend always fell in love with her at the end.

Clearly, Cooper hadn’t read any brother’s-best-friend romances. “Anyway, if something were to…to happen between you and Tyler, it would be difficult—uncomfortable—for you to see him at work every day. It would hurt to be that close to him and know you can never be with him.”

My feet stopped moving. Was he warning me about coworker relationships because that’s what was holdinghimback? Had he avoided starting something with me because he was afraid of the work fallout? Was Jamila only a distraction for him? My heart—every organ in my body—filled with promise. “I’d hold out hope. That we could work it out and be together. Someday.”

His ice-blue eyes melted a little at that. “That’s what I love about you, Marlee. You’re a ray of sunlight in dark times. Thank you.” He leaned in to kiss my cheek. I held in a squeal. He’d said “love” and kissed me, even though his lips were cold and wooden.

The song ended, and I tore myself away from him to clap for the band. My head whirled, and I couldn’t feel my feet. I floated back to Tyler at the edge of the dance floor.

“Thanks, Tyler, for indulging me. And thank you, Marlee.” Cooper nodded, almost a princely bow.

Tyler laid a possessive hand on the bare skin of my lower back—zing!—and kissed my cheek. The other one, not the one Cooper had just kissed, and closer to my mouth so my own lips buzzed with anticipation. The tenderness in that brief touch made me melt. Cooper could learn a thing or two.

“Great job on the toast, by the way. Everyone’s talking about it,” Tyler said. He pulled me into his side and looked back at Cooper, eyebrows raised, in just the right balance of friendly andhands-off-my-girl.

“Thanks,” I said. “We work well together, don’t you think, Cooper?”

Cooper’s eyes lingered on Tyler’s hand on my hip. “Hmm. I need to find Jamila. And a drink. Have fun.” He turned and stalked toward the bar.

Thathadn’t ended so well.

Tyler massaged a circle on my lower back. “You looked like you had a moment out there.” He nodded toward the dance floor.

My dance buzz faded. “I don’t know. He called me a ‘ray of sunshine.’ What do you think that means?”

Tyler eased his stiff posture. “I think it means you look fantastic in that dress. With your hair up, you look like, um…that princess—my sister had a doll who wore a big yellow dress.”

“Belle? FromBeauty and the Beast?”

“That’s the one.”

“Aw. You’re the sweetest wedding date ever.” I hugged him.

He pulled away. “Sweet?”

“Definitely.”

“No guy wants to be called sweet. Or nice.”

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