“I’m not. I just don’t think you should still have to fetch me coffee and do my fucking dry cleaning after I pounced on you the way I did.” He ran a hand over his face, sighing into his palm with a smothered, “Christ.” Finally, bringing his gaze back to mine, he said earnestly, “I’m trying to do right by you, Georgia.”

Some of the tension eased out of my shoulders. I didn’t know if he was telling the whole truth, though. I wasn’t sure if things between us would change.

Maybe last night had been too close a call. Whatever else happened, he admitted he knew my feelings for him. We’d never acknowledged that before. Maybe now that it was out there, it couldn’t be stuffed back in the bottle. Maybe he really didn’t want me to work here anymore for the good of his marriage.

I couldn’t be mad if that were the case, but I would at least like the courtesy of the truth.

“I don’t need you to do anything to make this right for me,” I told him evenly. “I’m perfectly fine. Everything between us is fine as far as I’m concerned. If you want me to leave, then say that. But don’t try to camouflage the truth with ‘I’m only trying to do what’s best for you.’ That’s cowardly and beneath you.”

He sat back in his chair, regarding me with faint surprise. After a moment, he said seriously, “I don’t want you to go anywhere, Georgia.”

The tone of his voice, the meaningfulness packed in that short sentence washed over me, mending every scrape, erasing every doubt.

It was so easy to smile after that.

“Good,” I said brightly, unable to bite back a smile with pleasure beaming out of me the way it was. “Then it’s settled. I’m not going anywhere and we never have to talk about this again.”

His mouth tugged up just a bit at the corners. He didn’t say anything, but I could tell he was happy with my answer.

I felt a million pounds lighter as I left his office and went to fetch him some coffee. When I prepared it at the counter in the employee lounge, I was so wrapped up in our last encounter, I almost didn’t hear the gossip.

Almost.

Like they always did, my ears perked up when I heard Lee’s name mentioned. I didn’t intend to join the conversation, but I absently listened to what was being said as I stirred his coffee.

Then my fingers froze along with the rest of my body. My heart seized, then exploded in a frenzied rhythm.

Stunned, I turned around. “What did you say?”