“I’m sorry for saying that. You don’t make me nervous.”

Lies.

Rocco Quinn didn’t just make me nervous. He made me want to run my hands all over that big-ass body and moon over his almost but not quite curly hair and blue eyes, in spite of the fact that I knew he was out here gunning for my entire program. And yet, I still wanted to kiss the hell out of him while I climbed him like a sequoia.

Enough.

I cleared my throat, while he looked at me like he was trying to read my mind. Jesus, I’d probably just jumped up like ten spots on his list of people to fire. In an effort to calm myself down, I looked down at my cream and navy blue Mary Janes and resisted the urge of tapping the heels to see if I could Dorothy my way out of this mess. When I looked back up, he was still looking at me expectantly, like he was watching his favorite telenovela and could not wait to see what bananas plot twist was coming next.

I jerked a thumb over my shoulder, still flustered but powering through. “I have to go see my boss.” Nod. Smile. Eye contact. “Have a good day, Mr. Quinn.” There was no way I was calling him Rocco.

I stepped into the large conference room thinking that little interlude could not have gone more perfectly terrible, and made my way to Gail, who was sitting on her own at one end of the table.

As soon as I reached her, I knew shit was worse than I’d thought. Gail’s usual calm demeanor was gone and she looked full-on frazzled.

“Hey, sorry it took me so long to get up here,” I said as I sat down next to her, trying to figure out what were all the papers strewn around the table.

Gail usually wore some colorful tops and slacks to work, but today she was in a very solemn slate pantsuit and blue oxford shirt.

“I just met with the executive team.” She closed her eyes as she spoke and pushed her fingers into the space between her eyebrows, as if trying to fend off a tension headache. This was a woman who meditated during lunch every day.

This could not be good.

“Okay.”

She sighed, and opened her eyes. She looked exhausted and it was barely noon. “Basically all our programs are being looked at closely and some will get cut.” A hole opened in my stomach and I had to force myself to speak calmly.

“What does that mean?”

Gail ran a hand over her white hair. Her carefully styled pixie cut was a bit in disarray today.