Chapter 49
Mostly, though, she couldn’t mention it because she didn’t know how to define what was going on between the two of them. They’d kissed-twice -and that had meant something to her. But he may have no interest in taking that anywhere. He could make a habit of kissing women.
“Hi.” He lifted his left hand, showing off a large paper bag. “I brought dessert.”
She smiled. “Brownies?”
“Something far better than that.”
Alyssa stepped back, turning to walk back to the kitchen. Emily was moving the pot from the stove to the table, so Alyssa rushed to grab a dishtowel to set it on to protect the table.
“Remember that reporter from the other day?”
Alyssa nearly tripped over her own feet when she heard Jeremy’s question. The reporter. The one who had come looking for him at the cafe. The extremely beautiful reporter seemed to be interested in Jeremy.
All of a sudden, Alyssa’s appetite was gone. It felt like there was a giant rock in her stomach. Jeremy and Renee Forrester had gotten together. Maybe they hadn’t gone out yet, maybe they had. Whatever was going on, though, it was clear he felt comfortable discussing it in front of her, and the reason for that was clear.
He still thought of her as his little sister.
“Renee Forrester?” Emily asked, tossing a glance in Alyssa’s direction. “What about her?”
“She showed up at my office, wanting to profile me for some story she’s doing.”
Like what he was saying was no big deal, Jeremy plopped down in his seat and scooped a generous helping of chili into his bowl. That reminded Alyssa she needed to rush back to the kitchen and grab the toppings.
“What kind of story?” Alyssa heard Emily ask.
There was no getting away from this conversation, no matter what she did. She had to stay here and endure this torture, even forcing herself to eat despite her lack of appetite. But if Jeremy was about to tell them about his love life, she wanted out of there.
“I don’t think she knows. She was going to profile billionaires in general, but now she wants to do something on eligible billionaires.” “She’s doing a story on you?” Emily sounded surprised.
Alyssa, meanwhile, was still trying to decide whether she should be excited or not. This could be worse than an announcement that he was starting something up with Renee. Now Renee would be putting him out there for the entire town’s consumption. And the fact that it waswork-relatedd didn’t mean Renee didn’t have her sights set on him. Working together would just give her an excuse to spend time with him.
“Nope.”
Both Emily and Alyssa looked up at him. He took a bite of his chili, clearly not planning to say more.
“So you turned her down?” Alyssa dared to ask, mostly because she was impatient to figure out what was going on here.
“Better. I pointed her in Derek Hughes’ direction.”
Alyssa looked over at Emily. She was supposed to know his name, she assumed, but Emily seemed just as confused.
“Who?” Emily asked.
Jeremy looked from Emily to Alyssa. “You don’t know who Derek Hughes is? Seriously?”
“No idea.” Alyssa resumed eating. “I assume he’s an eligible billionaire.”
Jeremy shrugged. “He’s a billionaire. Don’t know if he’s ‘eligible’ or not, but if not, he’ll let her know when she contacts him.”
“I didn’t think you’d be interested in something like that.” Emily laughed. “Just being called a billionaire skeeves you out.”
“I’m skeeved.” Jeremy glanced over at Alyssa before returning his attention to his bowl.
In that one glance, Alyssa felt a now-familiar zing of electricity. But she also saw that Jeremy wasn’t underplaying his aversion to the whole “billionaire” thing. He really, genuinely hated being referred to that way.
“I have an idea,” Emily announced as they were finishing up their chili.Content rights belong to NôvelDrama.Org.
Alyssa waited, poised for anything. If she had to take a guess, she’d predict Emily was about to suggest watching a movie or something. That was as adventurous as they usually got.
Looking at Jeremy, Emily said, “Why don’t you give Alyssa a tour of your condo? You were saying you wanted to.”
Alyssa was so shocked, that she wanted to turn to look at Jeremy. But she was afraid to even glance at him. Things had suddenly gotten very awkward.
From the sound Jeremy made-something between a laugh and a cough -the situation was pretty awkward for him, as well. Beneath her sudden self-consciousness, though, Alyssa was elated.
He’d talked to his sister about this? He wanted to give her a tour of his condo. Did that mean he was feeling something romantic toward her…or was Emily exaggerating things to play matchmaker?
“Let’s go.” Jeremy stood and took his bowl to the kitchen.
Alyssa and Emily made eye contact. What was happening here?
“Go,” Emily mouthed, then grabbed both bowls and walked to the kitchen. She would clean this mess up. That was the message Alyssa was getting from this.
She didn’t have much time to dwell on it, though. Jeremy emerged from the kitchen and took Alyssa’s hand, leading her toward the door while calling out a goodbye to his sister.