Page 81 of Ten Rules for Faking It
Chris let out a breath. “Yeah, actually. They are, in their own ways.” He pulled out his phone and sent a reminder to himself to book a place he’d been looking at for their firstannual staff appreciation celebration. Damn, they all deserved it.
Noah pushed Chris’s shoulder. “I’m starving. Anything to eat around California that isn’t made of kale or raw fish?”
Chris grabbed his keys, wallet, and pocketed his phone. “Yeah. There’s a burger shack you’ll love.”
Noah rubbed his hands together. “Now you’re talking. You wanna show me around this place on the way out?”
The tour wouldn’t take long. Chris walked Noah down to the two meeting rooms past his office before they turned in the other direction. They stopped in the meeting room, where the whiteboard still held Everly’s dating bracket. The sight of it turned Chris’s stomach. But they were all keeping track, and the visual made it easy.
Noah jutted his chin toward the board. “Thisis where the magic happens, then?”
“You’re not at Hogwarts, dude. There’s no magic. Just hard work.”
Noah bumped his shoulder. “How many people you have here?”
Chris gave him a rundown and explained a bit about their meetings. “You want to try out broadcasting?”
Noah laughed. “I don’t think I could do it. Who’s on the air now?”
Chris led the way out of the room and down the hall. “Remote deejay. It’s pretty cool, actually. She has a four-hour Saturday-night segment. Keeps costs down because she produces for herself from home, and it gives listeners something different. She’s from Australia, so the accent really pulls people in. I’m actually thinking of upping her hours.”
“No producer? Then is that a deejay?”
Chris turned around to see his brother looking through the side window of the office they’d just passed. He hadn’t even noticed the light on. Walking over, he peered in and saw Everly.His heart did a strange jump. Like it was trying to get up the next step but couldn’t quite reach.
He frowned. “Give me a second?” Pushing his brother aside and back, he knocked as he opened the door.
Everly looked up from the binders she was poring through. Her hair was pulled back at the front, highlighting the makeup she’d put around her eyes, making them look smoky and sexy. She blinked in surprise, and he noticed her lashes were thick and long. A tremor rumbled through him. She wore a pale pink blouse, and the color was soft and striking at the same time. She tended to go for shades of black and gray, and seeing her in another color did something to the wires in his brain, making him stare a little too long.
“Hey,” he said in a sandpapery voice.
Everly rested one hand on top of the other and smiled at him. She looked tired. Beautiful. Always so freaking beautiful it stole the air from his lungs and made him feel winded. But tired.
“Hi. What are you doing here?”
He leaned on the doorjamb, nudging Noah, hoping he’d take a hint. “Same as you, from the look of things. I was finishing up some work. What do you have there? Why aren’t you on your date?”
He hoped the last question came out evenly. Nonchalantly like,Oh, what’d you have for dinner? How was it? Did you want to marry him?
Her brows furrowed, and a little line appeared on her forehead. “I made Stacey ICE me.”
Noah snorted with laughter behind him. Chris leaned back and glared.
Everly leaned forward. “Is someone with you?” She tried to peer around him.
“Just my idiot brother. Noah, this is Everly Dean. Ev, this is one of my older brothers, Noah.”
Noah leaned in and shook Everly’s hand. When he stepped back, he looked at Chris and arched his brows in a way Chris chose to ignore.
Chris focused on Everly. “What do you mean she iced you?” Jesus, if that didn’t conjure up images…
Note to self: Do not think of Everly and icing in the same sentence.His mouth watered.
“In case of emergency. I made her call and say she needed me about fifteen minutes into the date. In that fifteen minutes, he joked a total of seven times about the fact that I’d have to do something pretty nice to make up for bailing last time. The restaurant was loud, he didn’t seem to mind. He just yelled over the music and the talking. I’m pretty sure that he would have used the same decibel in a library or hospital.”
Chris cringed, hating that her evening had gone like that.
Noah leaned against the table like they were old friends shooting the breeze. “Not cool. Only two dates left, though, right?”
