Page 64 of Falling for Mr. Wright

He’d like to think he’d be mature enough to handle it, but the thought of the two cozying up in the cafeteria or waiting hand in hand for the elevator at the end of the day made his chest hurt.

Okay, maybe he’d have to resign. He’d look for a civil engineer job with another architecture firm elsewhere, because to see the two together day after day might kill him.

“Hey.” Logan sat down in the empty chair next to Ryan, cocktail in hand and looking all kinds of Christmassy in his bright-red sweater and green slacks.

“Nice outfit, Kris Kringle.”

“What?” Logan patted his sweater. “You don’t like it?”

“I’m not sure green is your color and definitely not for pants.” Ryan did know someone who looked amazing in green—Sarah in the sexy emerald dress she’d worn to the gala. He snuck a glance at the empty doorway. Where was she?

Logan leaned back in his chair, sipping his cocktail. “I never get tired of these parties.” He nodded to Paul, Nancy, and Hillary doing shots at the bar with Mary Beth. “Those three will show Mary Beth the ropes.”

“They’re going to sport quite the headaches in the morning.” Ryan chuckled and turned to his buddy. “Say, where are you keeping your assistant?”

“She’s not here?” Logan asked and looked around the room.

“Haven’t seen her.”

Logan cocked an eyebrow. “Maybe she’s been mixing guacamole with holiday drinks and tossing her chips in the bathroom. If that’s the case, you could do the noble thing and take her home again.”

Ryan stared at Logan. Years of friendship had taught him to realize when Logan was revealing he knew more to a story than he should. “You know that’s not what happened, don’t you?”

Logan’s wicked grin said it all. “Well, while I don’t want to envision my best friend getting it on with my date, whatever’s going on between you two is hard to ignore.” He shook his head. “I’m surprised I never saw it before. Why didn’t you tell me when I flat-out asked if you were interested in Sarah?”

Ryan looked away. He was tired of not addressing the big white elephant in the room wearing the giant love triangle around its neck. “Because she’s interested in you.”

“But I would have stepped out of your way, bro.”

“Yeah, but even if she and I got together, what if she pulled a Melanie and decided she was interested in you again?”

“Melanie wanted me?” Logan chuckled. “Damn,” he joked. “I shouldn’t have encouraged her to ask the smart-ass quarterback out all those years ago.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I do,” Logan said, but then waved off that statement as if it was insignificant. “She’s not interested in me…not really. Maybe she had a crush, but you should have seen her bolt out of the storage room after you yesterday. That woman was on a mission.”

Ryan studied his friend. Yeah, Logan could say that Sarah had only had a crush, but Ryan had seen what he’d seen. “What were you doing in there with the door shut?”

“Helping her with the ornaments,” Logan said innocently.

“Yeah, right. Care to explain why your face was so close to hers?

“Okay, maybe I was trying to help you two a little.”

“Bykissingher?” Ryan leaned back in his chair, mimicking Logan. This explanation ought to be good.

“It was obvious yesterday morning in my office that something had happened between you two by the way you were looking at each other, not to mention the way she hightailed it out of the building the second you mentioned you’d be back in time for lunch.”

“You’re a perceptive one. I’ll give you that,” Ryan said flatly.

“I figured you probably enjoyed…” He brought up his fingers in air quotes. “…taking care of her Friday night. Am I right?”

“Yeah.” Ryan nodded, not bothering to pretend he had no idea what his friend was talking about. “It was pretty fantastic.”

“I assumed as much, and you both didn’t know how to handle whatever went on between you two, since she was supposed to be on a date with me. I was only trying to help you both…” He paused. “…handle it.”

“Again, by kissing her?” Ryan asked, giving Logan the side-eye.

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