Lost Without You

“Bring it on, Gabby,” Shane said as he followed her through the double doors. He was eager to finally see her look less like a schoolmarm and more like a woman.

* * *

The jazz lounge Shane took her to was filled with the after-work set wanting to ease the load after a hard day. Gabrielle could sure use a drink. The phone call with her mother a few days ago had released some emotions she’d thought she’d buried. She’d thought she was long past caring if her parents wanted to see her, so it had surprised her when her mother remembered her favorite meal.

Shane, meanwhile, was uneasy. He’d been feeling off-kilter all day and was happy when Gabrielle had insisted on driving separately in her rental car. It gave him some breathing room and time to figure out what it was he was doing. He’d never dated a coworker, much less a subordinate. Though cocktails after work hardly qualified as a date, he would never have thought he would willingly spend time in Gabrielle Burton’s company. Yet there was something about her that intrigued him. He wanted to know more.

They slid inside a plush velvet booth and a blonde waitress in an electric-blue bustier came over to ask for their drink order. She was buxom, just how he liked his women; he couldn’t even tell if Gabrielle had a figure under the dour clothes she wore. “We’ll have two Scorpions.”

Gabrielle huffed from his side. “Do you always order for your women? Because I’m quite capable of doing so myself.”

Shane smiled at her Miss Independent stance. “It is their signature drink. Trust me, you’ll love it. It has bite.”