What to Read After FSOG: The Gemstone Collection (WTRAFSOG Book 7)

by Lexi Buchanan

  “I really don’t think it’s necessary for the two of you to stay late to work on it,” he said. “I’m sure you guys can get it done during regular business hours.”

  Becky could tell by the way Gavin scrunched up his nose and angled his eyes that he was not comfortable with her and Steve working together. He obviously put the teams together, she thought. What was his problem? She did enjoy seeing his aggravation a little bit.

  Becky knew she was falling for Gavin. There was no doubt about it. She had always promised herself that she would never work with a man she was interested in. The more she thought about how much she cared for Gavin, the more she thought about taking the job with Ethan. Gavin’s company was awesome and he was a great boss, but it they were going to build on their relationship, she could not work for him.

  She wasn’t sure about his feelings. They got along great, but she wasn’t sure if he was just doing more of the get together with no strings attached or if he really liked her. It would be hard to work with him every day and not be able to show her feelings, but that was what she was going to have to do. She decided to give it a week or two before she called Ethan. That way if they weren’t going to be together, she wouldn’t have to switch jobs.

  “Do you want to get together next weekend?” he asked. “We could go out somewhere nice.”

  “Sure, that sounds nice,” she replied.

  Becky was nervous about work and how it would go. She didn’t want to screw things up with Gavin. He stood up and pulled her to her feet and into his arms. She loved the secure feeling she had when she was with him. He lifted her chin with his hand and kissed her softly on the lips. She leaned in against him.

  “I don’t want to leave,” she said, with a sad tone to her voice.

  “Now that we know each other, can we at least switch phone numbers?” he asked.

  They both laughed.

  “Of course,” she replied.

  They spent a couple more hours together in bed before Gavin drove her home. She leaned in for a kiss and then took off to her apartment. Becky was so happy.

  She knew she needed to deal with her ex Sean and his out of the blue marriage proposal. Becky opened his text messages and hit reply.

  “Thanks for the flowers. I would rather you not come here to see where I live. I’m not sure I understand your proposal,” she sent.

  Within minutes her phone buzzed.

  “I miss you. I never thought you would leave. Since you have been gone, you’re all I can think about. I love you, Becky. I realize now that I want to be with you forever,” Sean replied.

  “I don’t know what to say. I wanted you to propose for so many years. I wanted to know that you really loved me and that you could see a future with me. We talked about this before I left. You didn’t want to commit to a family. You are an amazing man. You will find someone one day, that you will know for sure you want to be with. It won’t take them leaving for you to realize it. That person is not me. I have realized since I left, that we were not meant to be together,” she replied.

  “What made you change your mind? You have only been gone for six weeks. When you left, you said you loved me and wanted to marry me. Now, you don’t feel that way. I don’t understand,” he sent.

  “I can’t explain it. I just know that you aren’t the one I will be with forever. It took me being away to realize that. I will always care about you, but not in that way. Goodbye Sean,” she replied.

  A few minutes passed before her phone buzzed again. She opened the message without looking at it.

  “Have a good night. See you tomorrow,” it said.

  She smiled when she realized it was from Gavin. It sent a warm chill through her body.

  “You too,” she replied.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Gavin woke up Monday morning excited to start the day. He only dropped Becky off at home twelve hours before, but he had already missed her. He put on his suit pants and button up dress shirt and headed for a tie. The tie she bought him on the cruise stood out to him. He put it on and threw on his jacket. As he drove to work, all he could think about was Becky. They had an amazing weekend, and he was looking forward to seeing her the next weekend as well. He was so glad that they had been brought back together after the cruise. There was something about her that was so different from any woman he had ever been with. She was special and he was happy that she had agreed to spend more time with him. He knew how she felt about being with the boss and planned on making sure he kept their personal life out of the workplace. It was important to him that she was comfortable at work. He had never had a relationship with anyone from the office before, and was not fond of his employees dating each other either. The situation with Becky was different, because they had not met at work. They had been together before she started working there. He needed to make sure to keep his distance from her at work and treat as he did everyone else. There was no way he wanted to lose her again. Something about her drew him in like a magnet.

  He was feeling great and knew he wouldn’t be there for the people at his office as much that week, so he stopped and got donuts, bagels, and muffins for everyone. It was important to him that they knew how much each of them did for the company. He took everything to the kitchen and went to his office.

  He only wore suits on days he had meetings. Gavin had never noticed the women in the office flirt or look at him before, but since Becky mentioned it to him, he had begun to notice it. The days he wore a suit they were friendlier than others. He laughed when he saw them look up at him on his way by. Of course, he wanted to see if Becky looked up. He looked over at her desk and she had her head down as she stared at her monitor. Yep, there was definitely something special about her.

  Gavin sat down at his desk and sent out an email about the food he brought and thanked them for their great work. He had his blinds open and could see all of his employees. A sense of appreciation flowed through him. He appreciated that he was able to own an amazing and successful company and that the people that worked with him seemed happy. His main focus was on his business and he was proud of what he had done.

  He was checking his email when he noticed Steve stand up and tap Becky on the shoulder. She shook her head and he walked away. After a few minutes, Steve walked back with two plates and put one on her desk. She shook her head no as he went to his desk and sat down. Gavin knew Steve was interested in Becky. He had never seen Steve really take an interest in talking to anyone at work. Most of the people he put on Steve’s team struggled with their assignments. It was interesting to see Becky move through her work with no problem. She had been on Steve’s team for three weeks already and seemed to really like what she was working on.

  Gavin had several meetings throughout the day. He had felt more pressure than usual. There were some big clients he had wanted to impress coming in the next few weeks, and he was feeling a little nervous. He wanted to grow his company a lot over the next year, and the meetings he was having for several weeks were very important to that growth. He had hired several employees over the past month to prepare for the extra workload. It was important to him that everything they produced was on point. There was no room for mistakes that would make the company look bad, to even the smallest client.

  He took one of his clients out to lunch and then was bringing them around to show them the atmosphere of his company. The man he was with was around the same age as him and had a large project he needed done. He wanted the man to meet Steve and Becky, because they were working on a smaller project for him already. Gavin walked him up to their cubicles and introduced him. The client was all business with Steve as he shook his hand, but as he turned to Becky a smile spread across his face and he greeted her. His demeanor changed and he seemed to relax. He began to ask her questions and laughed at her answers. Gavin could see Steve stiffen as the client laughed and touched Becky on the arm. Gavin could even feel himself tighten as he moved in closer to Becky than he should have. Quickly Gavin ended the conversation and
took the man back to his office.

  “Is Becky the one that would be working on the new project, or would it be someone else?” the man asked.

  “It all depends on the timing and the projects we have at the moment. All of our developers are amazing and have the ability to complete your project with ease,” Gavin answered, as he tried not to sound possessive of her.

  “I need the work done quickly, so I will make a decision soon,” the man said. “I will get back to you in the next few days.”

  Gavin shook his hand and his secretary walked the client out. Gavin stood in his doorway and noticed Becky was looking up at him. She must have noticed him look in her direction, because she hurried to look back down at her screen. He thought it was cute how she worked scrunched down in her chair with her headphones on. She looked so comfortable and sexy, of course. He walked back to his desk and sat down.

  Gavin had another meeting in the afternoon. He wanted to make sure it was over so he could see Becky before she left for the day. He would be gone to next two days and wanted to be able to say goodbye before he left. The meeting was with a new client and took longer than expected. When Gavin finally came out of his office, Becky was gone.

  His flight left in one hour, so there was no way he could see her before he left. As he sat at the airport waiting to board the plane, he text her.

  “I wanted to say goodbye, but that meeting ran over. I’ll see you Thursday,” he sent.

  He patiently waited for her response, but there was none. The plane began to move onto the runway as the flight attendant announced all phones and electronics should be off. Gavin powered off his phone.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Becky went to the gym after work to let off some steam. She ran on the treadmill and thought about Gavin. It was hard to see him and not be able to hug him or say anything to him. She went all day long without talking to him at all. It was harder than she thought it would be. They had spent the entire weekend together. She had so many feelings for him. When he stood in the doorway to his office, she wanted so badly to run up and hug his sexy ass. He had a suit on, and all she could picture was pushing him into the office, closing the door, and getting him out of that suit. It was hard to see women in the office look at him. How did he not notice the way they ogled him?

  She was thinking about when Gavin brought the client for the project they were working on over to meet her and Steve. It made her laugh inside when the guy started being friendlier with her than the two of them. She noticed Gavin scoot in closer to her, almost as if he were blocking her from the guy. Gavin rushed the guy back to his office. Why would Gavin do that if he didn’t care in some way? He probably never even realized he did it, she thought.

  She sped the treadmill up to a run and turned her headphones up. Her mind kept going back to Gavin as she analyzed their entire day. Quit thinking about him, she told herself. Just because she had fallen for him, didn’t mean he felt the same way.

  When she was completely covered in sweat, she decided to shower before going home. It had been a few days since she had been to the gym, and she really enjoyed her workout. On her way home she stopped to get some food. She reached into her bag to get money out and noticed her phone blinking. She turned it on and was excited to see a text from Gavin. As she read it, she smiled. She waited for her food while she replied.

  “Okay, have fun.”

  Becky went home, ate, cleaned, and caught up on some of her shows she missed on the weekend. She was tired and decided to check her message and go to bed. There was no message from him, but she figured his plane could still be in the air. She had never asked him where the conference was. That had to suck having to fly so much, she thought. She was not a huge fan of it and could not imagine having to fly that many times a week.

  When she got to work, everyone was happy and friendly as usual. She really liked her job and the people she worked with. It was nice to be in an upbeat place instead of a serious, grumpy atmosphere. She worked with Steve for most of the day, as they discussed their plan for the rest of the project they were working on. He asked her if she wanted to stay late to work on it. She couldn’t bring up the fact that Gavin had told her they didn’t need to do that, so she told him that was up to him. That way it would be on him if Gavin wasn’t happy about it, not her.

  “Are we supposed to stay later?” she asked, not sure how they did things at the company.

  “It doesn’t matter. If we want to we can,” he replied.

  “Do we need to tell someone about it?” she asked, not sure if they should be there after hours.

  “I will email Mr. Lucas and let him know. He doesn’t mind, but he does want to know who stays after,” he answered.

  “I don’t have anywhere to go, so it’s up to you,” she said.

  “I think it’s a good idea,” he said. “We can order take out.”

  Becky hadn’t gotten a text back from Gavin. She was interested to see if he would say anything to her about staying late with Steve. He seemed to think Steve was a great worker, but got an attitude when she mentioned something Steve had said to her.

  Everyone else in their area had left for the day, while the two of them were still working.

  “What did Mr. Lucas say?” she asked Steve.

  “Oh, I totally forgot to email him,” he answered. “I’ll do it right now.”

  “Let me know what he says,” she said. “I just don’t want to get in trouble. I want to make a good impression here.”

  Steve laughed.

  “You are doing an awesome job Becky,” he said. “Most people that start here take forever to pick things up and you have been learning quickly. I’ll include you in the email so you feel better.”

  Steve sent the email to Gavin and copied Becky in on it. It said that they were working late to get their project moving. Since Becky was new, he wanted to be able to show her more about the business logic.

  Within minutes there was an email back from Gavin. He simply replied okay and asked if they needed anything from him. Becky wanted to answer with what she needed from him, but it would have been very inappropriate. Knock it off, she thought to herself. A few seconds later her phone buzzed. She hoped it was Gavin, but couldn’t check her phone just in case. She was sitting at Steve’s desk going over some stuff with him. The phone buzzed again.

  “Are you going to get that?” Steve asked.

  “I will in a little bit,” she said, as it buzzed.

  “Sounds like it might be important,” he said.

  “It’s fine,” she said.

  They sat together for another hour as he explained stuff about the business and companies they had done work for. Her stomach growled and Steve laughed.

  “Let’s order some food,” he said. “What are you in the mood for?”

  “It doesn’t matter to me,” she said.

  “What about Chinese?” he asked. “There’s a really good place around the corner.”

  He rubbed his hand across her knee as he opened his drawer and got out the menu. She jerked back out of reaction. It was an accident. He leaned in close as she looked over the menu, while he made suggestions. Steve called and ordered the food. She moved aside before he could reach for the drawer again.

  She got up and told him she had to use the restroom and took her phone with her. By the time she turned it on, there were four messages from Gavin. It made her smile. She read them from oldest to newest.

  “I thought I said there was no reason for you two to work after hours. You guys should be able to hit your deadline no problem with only working during the day.”

  “Are you going to answer me?”

  “I guess not.”

  “Fine.”

  It made her laugh. She could tell he was upset about it, but what was she supposed to tell Steve. If she said no to working late, he would have thought she was not willing to go the extra mile. She definitely couldn’t tell him that Gavin said no about working late. She hit reply on her phone.

&nbs
p; “Calm down. I couldn’t check my messages. He was sitting next to me at his desk and would have been able to see them. Did you really want me to answer that email and tell you what I needed from you? I can think of a few things. We ordered food so I have to get back to my desk.”

  There was a reply in seconds.

  “He shouldn’t be sitting close enough to read your messages. No don’t answer the email. I was just being nice. Who else is in the office? Can’t you go home and eat?”

  It made Becky feel good to see Gavin concerned about her.

  “He was showing me business stuff. Everyone else went home. He said he wanted to show me some stuff that would help us get the project done quicker. Yes, I can eat at home. We were hungry. Is there a problem Mr. Lucas?”

  “That’s bullshit. Quicker my ass. I didn’t see him wanting to stay late while I was there. He would have had to ask me in person. No problem here. Have fun,” he sent.

  “Calm down, Gavin. You should have told him no to working late. We work together. That’s it,” she replied.

  “We work together too,” he sent.

  “We don’t have to,” she replied.

  “Don’t start that shit again,” he sent.

  Immediately he sent another text.

  “You don’t understand. He doesn’t work with other people the way he works with you. He likes you. He knows I don’t want a guy in the building alone with a girl. I say that shit all the time.”

  She was getting upset. It was cute at first, but what did he think about her? Did he think she was going to just sleep with just anyone? She had feelings for Gavin. Maybe he didn’t realize it. Did he have feelings for her or was he just being a dick?

  “I’m not going to screw him on his desk or anything. Maybe you should trust me a little. I’ll talk to you later. I have to get back to doing everyone in the office.”

  She wanted to tell him maybe she would screw Steve on Gavin’s desk, but she knew that would be pushing it.

  Becky went back into the office and saw the food was on Steve’s desk. She reached in her drawer to get money out, but Steve told her not to worry about it. He wasn’t interested in her, was he? He was just being nice, she thought. She took her food and sat down at her desk.