Page 14 of Unexpectedly Wanted
“I have to get to work,” Milo repeated sternly, as if it would shut her down quickly.
“But we—” she tried again.
“I don’t want to spend the day with you. All you’re going to do is drag me around shopping. You’re going to try to buy me all these things I wouldn’t ever wear,knowingI won’t wear them because I’m not comfortable in them.” He paused and drew in a deep breath. “I’m going to work, because that is where I feel comfortable. That’s where I’m needed.”
His words hit me like a punch to the gut.
I was glad he was standing up to her, but I could tell by the look on Lorna’s face that she was already thinking of ways to get what she wanted.
“I’ll drive,” I said as I downed my coffee and stood.
If I had it my way, Milo wouldn’t ever be left alone with her.
I breathed a silent sigh of relief when Milo stood and didn’t say anything. He followed me out of the house.
“I can drive myself,” he said once we stepped off the front porch.
“Get in the car,” I ordered, eyes pinning him in place.
“Fine.” He actually gave a little stomp of his foot as he walked to my car.
It was too cute, and I found myself smiling.
“I feel like a good boyfriend would encourage you to take a break from work and spend time with your parents,” I said once we had started the drive to work. “I’m failing at this boyfriend thing pretty hard.”
Milo snorted at me.
“We’re not boyfriends,” he said, grumpy face now firmly in place. “Besides, you’ve met my parents. Anygoodboyfriend,” he said those two words as if it left a bitter taste in his mouth, “would be helping me come up with ways to avoid them.”
“You’re right,” I said with a sigh. “I just feel like I should be doing more.”
“You shouldn’t bedoing anything,” he shot back quickly. “You shouldn’t even be in the situation.”
“Can I take you to lunch?” I asked, trying to throw him off so he’d stop steaming from the top of his head.
“No— What?!” He sounded surprised. I glanced out of the corner of my eye to see his head cocked to the side and a funny look on his face. Hey, at least he wasn’t glaring at me.
“Lunch. It’s a meal in the middle of the day. Typically, it comes right when you need to take a long break from all the work you’ve been doing. You eat, refuel, and give your mind a chance to think about something other than work.”
“I know what lunch is,” he came back with. “I just can’t think of a good reason why you and I would… eat together willingly.”
“We did last night,” I pointed out coolly.
“Yes… but… that was…” He huffed out an annoyed breath. “That doesn’t count.”
“If you say so,” I told him with a small shrug.
“It. Doesn’t.” He was getting upset, so I figured I should drop it for now.
“Anything I can help you out with today?”
“What? No!” His hands balled into fists. “No more driving to work together during this thing. I don’t care what my parents will think about it. Besides, they think we work in different departments, and I can just tell them that IT has longer hours than the Business Sales reps, so that could be our excuse.”
Yes, one of the many lies. Milo and I worked for Reed Willis’ company, but we might have fudged the details a little. Of course, Milo said I was working in the sales department. I suppose I was charming enough for it to be believable. Not that I think they really cared, anyway.
“Drop me off at the front of the building, please,” he said as we drew near the Willis Security Tech building where we worked on the top floor for a secret project that Reed Willis himself ran.
Project Shadow Guardian was a team made up of former military, computer nerds, and anyone in need of some fixing. Yep. We were all broken in some way, I suppose. Or at one point had been someone that Reed thought needed some kind of path.
