Beauty and the Brooding Boss / Friends to Forever: Beauty and the Brooding Boss / Friends to Forever

“No.” Some kind of conflict seemed to play across his profile, as if he were having an internal war. She figured he was debating asking a favor. Never in a million years did she expect his next question. “Do you want to go for a walk?”

“A walk?” she repeated. With him?

“It’s a hot day. The woods are cooler and you’re right about the turnovers smelling good and since it is lunchtime.”

“Wait.” She had to make sure she wasn’t hearing things. “You want me to go on a picnic with you?”

“I thought I might eat the turnovers in a cooler location and figured, since you did all the driving today, I’d ask you to join me. But,” he shrugged, “if you’ve got other things to do, or get ready for …” He reached across his body for the door handle.

“No, I’ll go,” Kelsey said, stopping him. “Give me a minute to change first though.” She flicked the edge of her peasant skirt. “This isn’t the best outfit for walking in the woods.”

As he looked her up and down, she told herself the flutter of excitement in her stomach was unnecessary. “Fine. I’ll meet you at the edge of the garden in five minutes.”

With more enthusiasm than she should have, Kelsey raced upstairs to her room. Since she preferred skirts and sundresses, she didn’t have a lot of clothes suitable for walking in the woods. She settled for a pair of royal blue track shorts and a bright pink tank top. Her hair, she fished in a ponytail through an old baseball cap she wore when running. Hardly the most stylish of outfits.

Then again, like Alex said, it was simply turnovers in a cooler location. He wouldn’t even notice. That is, if he was still waiting. She’d taken longer than five minutes. Snagging two bottles of water on her way through the kitchen, she headed toward the garden.

Alex was leaning against the garden shed when she arrived, looking like a slinged sentry. He looked so comfortable standing there she had to, yet again, quell her insides. Especially when she imagined his eyes scanning her appearance.

“Lead the way,” she said with a smile. “I’m starving.”

While she’d known there was a path leading up the mountain, she didn’t anticipate how picturesque or how well traveled the path would be. Pine tree branches formed a canopy that shielded them from the sun while brown needles formed a soft carpet beneath their feet. Occasionally light would break through a gap and a white shaft would beam down on the ferns and underbrush that littered the ground. It was an otherworld of coolness, lush and green.

Kelsey had never seen anything like it, not Central Park, not even the view from her window, though that came close. No wonder Alex disappeared into here every morning.

“Is this where you fell?” She was afraid to speak too loud lest she disturb the tranquility.

Alex pointed to a bend in the path. “Up there. I was watching a red squirrel jumping around the branches and caught the toe of my shoe.”

The idea of somber Alex Markoff distracted by a squirrel made Kelsey giggle, earning her a questioning look. “Do you think the squirrel realized he nearly derailed the year’s biggest literary comeback?”

“Is that what Stuart’s calling it?”

“Among other things. A lot of people have been waiting for a follow-up to Chase the Moon.”

“Good old Chase the Moon.” Reaching up with his good arm, he pulled back a pine branch blocking their path. “My prize-winning albatross.”

Kelsey ducked beneath the needles. “I’m sure there are a lot of writers in the world who wouldn’t mind bearing that kind of burden.”

“They can be my guest.” Alex let go of the branch. It whipped into place with a loud thwap. “Sometimes I wish I’d never written the book. Life would be a lot easier, that’s for sure.”

The last sentence wasn’t directed at her, but to the trees. Kelsey thought of the notepads that weren’t appearing on her desk and of the dark, pain-riddled pages that had. “You don’t want to write this book, do you?”