“Of course I know that,” she said. “We’re a team, Dad.”

  “But it’s okay for you to take a break from looking after your old man if you need to,” he said. “I want you to have other people in your life. I want you to enjoy yourself.”

  “I have people,” Halle protested. “I have Dina.”

  “When was the last time you spoke with Dina?”

  Halle hesitated. The truth was that it had been a couple of weeks. She knew that when she spoke to Dina, she would have to come clean about everything that had been happening between herself and Grayson. And she knew that Dina would be full of her characteristic insights about the situation.

  The fact of the matter is, until I talk to Dina, I can pretend it’s nothing. But the moment I speak to her about it, she’s going to make me confront what I’ve known for a while now—I’ve been flirting with my boss.

  “Dina’s been busy lately,” she said, hoping to get her father off her back about it. “We check in when we can. It’s a little harder now that we don’t work together. But, Dad, you know what a great opportunity this new job is. I have to keep my focus here and take advantage of it.”

  “But are you taking advantage of it?” her father asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, you’re in Norway tonight, and you’re sitting around on a video call with me,” her father said. “Don’t you want to go out and see the city?”

  She hesitated.

  He had a point. She ought to enjoy Oslo while she was here, and she knew it. She wasn’t sure why she had decided to just spend the evening in her hotel room.

  Except…

  Except that Grayson had a late meeting tonight.

  She couldn’t deny the disappointment that had settled over her when he had told her he wouldn’t be able to spend time with her in Oslo. He had too much work to do. She’d assured him that it didn’t matter, that she was perfectly capable of exploring the city on her own. But she hadn’t done that. She was just sitting around in the hotel.

  “Halle?” her father asked. “You okay? You look a little lost in thought.”

  “I’m all right,” she said.

  “Something’s on your mind.”

  She laughed. “You know me too well.”

  “Just promise me you’re making the most of this,” he said. “It’s a unique opportunity, and I don’t want you to miss out because you feel like you need to spend time on the phone with me. We can see each other when you get home.”

  “Don’t worry, Dad,” Halle said. “I’m not just staying in the hotel so that I can call you. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I did want to talk to you. But it’s not like that’s keeping me away from something I would have been doing otherwise.”

  “You sure?”

  She laughed. “It’s almost nine o’clock at night here,” she said. “I don’t know anybody in the city. I’m not just going to go walk around alone at night. You can’t possibly be encouraging me to do that.”

  “You’re right,” her father said with a laugh. “That’s probably not the best idea. But promise me you’ll go out in the morning, when the sun is up.”

  “I promise,” Halle said. “I have to get you your lutefisk, don’t I?”

  “And don’t you forget it,” her father said. “When you get home, we can have a tasting together.”

  “I’ll look forward to it,” she said, laughing.

  “So what are you going to do for the rest of the night?” her father asked. “Is Mr. Bloom still encouraging you to order room service on his tab?”

  “Yeah,” Halle said. “I think he’s the kind of guy who likes to throw his money around.”

  “Better than keeping it to himself,” her father said wisely. “And a fine quality in a boss. You don’t want to work for someone who’s tight with his money.”

  “That’s true,” she agreed. “And Grayson’s always been very generous about shelling out for the best hotel rooms and paying for my meals when we’re on the road.”

  “You’ve mentioned that,” her father said. He hesitated, then asked, “Is this Grayson becoming a friend of yours?”

  He had apparently taken notice of Halle’s use of Grayson’s first name. That had been a slip. She’d been careful to refer to him as Mr. Bloom in front of her father up until now. Letting Dina know that things had gotten a little unprofessional between the two of them was one thing, but letting her father see that was something else. She was pretty sure he wouldn’t approve.

  And yet, here he was asking her whether she had made friends with her boss, and he didn’t sound as if he was judging her. Maybe she had worried too much. Maybe there was nothing wrong with having a little harmless human connection with Grayson.

  “I guess he is,” she said. “We get along pretty well. We have more in common than I would have expected.”

  “And you’ve been spending a lot of time together,” her father said.

  “Yeah,” she agreed.

  “It’s good that you’re able to get along,” he said. “I’m sure that job would be much less pleasant if you didn’t like him. And I know that’s something you were worried about for a while.”

  “I wasn’t wrong about him,” she said. “He’s just as obnoxious as I thought he was. He always has to have his own way, and he’s got buckets of unearned confidence. But…I don’t know. He has some redeeming qualities, too. We’ve had some good talks.”

  “Well, that makes me feel better, I have to say,” her father said. “It’s been hard to think about you flying all over the world without anybody to share it with. I’ve been starting to worry that you might turn into a complete hermit.”

  “And that’s why you were worried that I was alone in my hotel room tonight?”

  “I just don’t want to see you let this job opportunity turn you into someone who misses out on life,” her father said. “You know I worry enough about you missing out on things as it is.”

  Halle was quiet. She knew what that was about. Her father didn’t bring it up a lot, because he knew it was a sensitive subject, but it troubled him that she didn’t date more. He had mentioned once or twice that he didn’t want to see her end up alone.

  And she could understand where he was coming from. It wasn’t that he wanted to put undue pressure on her, but he had been so lonely since Halle’s mother had died. He didn’t want that to happen to her.

  I wonder what he would say if he knew I’d been flirting with my boss.

  He would probably be completely disappointed in her. After all, there was no future in something like that. She was sabotaging her romantic life and her professional life.

  I should really stop doing it.

  “All right,” her father said. “You have a good night. Get a nice big dinner. Go visit the hotel pool, maybe.”

  She laughed. “I’ll think about it,” she said. “You take care, Dad.”

  She ended the call and went back inside to check out the room service menu. After examining it, she placed a call down to the front desk and requested a few items off the menu.

  As she waited for her food to arrive, she relaxed on her luxurious king-size bed, flicking through TV channels. But nothing on the screen managed to engage her interest.

  She couldn’t stop thinking about her father. About what he would say if he knew that she had been flirting with her boss, and that now she was allowing his schedule to influence her own plans here in Oslo.

  He’d be completely disappointed. And it’s messed up that I’m living a life I can’t be honest with him about.

  Something was going to have to change. She couldn’t keep going as she had been.

  Her father was right—it was good that she and Grayson were able to have a friendly relationship. She liked having someone she could talk to during their long flights, and she liked spending time with him during layovers in foreign cities.

  But she was going to have to keep things a little more professional going forward. This wasn’t a flirtation that could ever lead to anything more, so it was going to have to stop.

  I’ll keep it under control on the way home, she resolved. I’ll be friendly, but I won’t tease him the way I have been. I’ll treat him the way I would treat Dina. Like a friend.

  She hoped she would be able to stick to that.

  She found a nature program on TV. It was seals, not penguins, but she couldn’t help thinking of Grayson.

  Lately, it felt as though everything made her think of him.

  It was probably a bad idea, but she left the seals on the screen. If she couldn’t spend time with Grayson tonight, at least she could watch this program that sort of made her feel like he was here.

  Chapter 11

  Grayson

  Three weeks had gone by since the Oslo trip, and Grayson couldn’t help feeling that things had changed between Halle and himself.

  He had first noticed it on the flight home from Oslo. Though she’d stayed in the lounge area of the plane with him, just as she had on the way out, she had seemed much more reserved than he had come to expect from her. He had tried to jump start the conversation a few times by asking her what she had done during her time in Oslo, but she had given him very short answers and immediately redirected every attempt to topics like what was on TV or whether she could get him another drink.

  They’d had a few other flights since then. The next trip after the Oslo one had been to Canada, just a day trip, and Grayson had convinced himself that Halle was being extra quiet because of the early morning start. He wasn’t at his most talkative either at three in the morning. He’d hoped she would be more herself on the way home, but she had spent most of that trip in her private cabin, emerging only to serve him his dinner and check on whether he needed anything.

  The flight to Thailand had seen her a little more relaxed. The two of them had played a game of chess—she’d held her own surprisingly well, Grayson thought; it had been some time since anyone had come close to beating him at chess. Still, when he had tried to tease her gently about her lime green nail polish, which he actually thought was extremely cute, she had completely shut down, leaving him wondering whether or not he had hurt her feelings.

  He’d felt better when, on the way home from Thailand, she’d opened up enough to tell him that it was her favorite place she’d visited with him so far. “What a beautiful country,” she’d gushed. “I could have spent a week there.”

  “Maybe we’ll do that sometime,” he said, feeling a sweeping sense of relief at having the old Halle back. If a week in Thailand would restore the woman whose company he had so come to enjoy, it was a small price to pay.

  They’d come home from Thailand over a week ago, and in that time Grayson hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Halle. The fact was, there just wasn’t anyone in his life quite like her. There wasn’t anyone who understood his sense of humor the way she did. There was no one who seemed to enjoy talking to him as much as she did.

  At least, as much as he thought she did. Lately he couldn’t be quite sure.

  It was too bad he didn’t have any trips planned in the next week or so. It would be a while before he could see her again. He had a feeling that he would feel much more relaxed once he was able to spend time with her and verify for himself that they were still on good terms.

  Honestly, it seems like she’s upset with me or something.

  He was so concerned about it that he had even thought about fabricating a trip that had nothing to do with his business needs at all. He could tell her he needed to visit his Puerto Rican property or something. They could lay down, spend a few hours together, fly back—

  But in the end, he couldn’t quite justify it. If she found out he had lied about needing to go, she would go back to mistrusting him and feeling like he didn’t respect her. He didn’t want that. They’d come a long way from their first days working together, and he didn’t want to undo the progress they had made.

  Maybe there’s another way I can see her.

  Almost without thinking, he pulled out his phone and found her number in his contacts list. It was pretty late—after seven—and he ordinarily wouldn’t have called her. But he thought she would probably answer. She was incredibly reliable.

  Sure enough, she picked up after just one ring. “Grayson?”

  “Hey, Halle,” he said. “Are you busy right now?”

  “I’m just getting ready to make dinner,” she said. “Don’t tell me we have a last-minute flight?”

  Was he imagining things, or did she sound almost hopeful?

  “No flight,” he said. “I was just thinking of going out for Thai food tonight, and I know you really loved Thailand. I thought you might like to come with me.”

  She was quiet for a minute. “You remembered that I loved Thailand?”

  “Yes,” he said. Of course he’d remembered. It was the most enthusiastic she had sounded in weeks. How could she have imagined that he wouldn’t take note of that?

  But on the other hand…it wasn’t like it had been an especially long conversation. Really, she had just made one comment about it. In her mind, it probably hadn’t been that significant.

  Maybe she thinks it’s weird that I remembered it.

  Suddenly, without warning, he felt irritated. Who was she to jerk him around like this? He had been so kind and generous with her, and she’d been downright standoffish lately.

  “It’s fine if you don’t want to come out,” he said.

  “I didn’t say that,” she said, more quickly than he would have expected. “I’ll come. I’d like to come.”

  “You would?”

  “To be honest, I was just going to heat up a TV dinner,” she said. “Going out sounds a lot nicer.”

  “All right,” he said. “I’ll pick you up in twenty minutes, okay?”

  “Okay.” She sounded a little stunned. “I’ll be ready.”

  He pulled up outside her house twenty minutes later exactly.

  Halle lived in a part of La Vega that Grayson had never visited. She usually drove herself to the airstrip on the days they had flights. Occasionally, when they had a very early or late departure, he had sent a car to collect her—that was how he knew her address. But he had never been to her neighborhood himself.

  He looked around as he waited for her to come outside. It was a nice place. The buildings were a little bit older than anything on his own side of town, but they were in good condition. The streets were clean, and they were lined with trees that looked as if they had grown there naturally. Everything on Grayson’s side of town had been planted by landscapers, and you could tell.

  The door opened and Halle appeared. She was wearing a bright red dress that ended just above the knee, and her sleek brown hair was pinned up in an elegant twist. It was a simple outfit, but he was struck by how good she looked.

  How did I never notice this?

  He’d known she was pretty, of course. It would have been hard to miss that. But in her pencil skirts and button-down shirts, she had seemed like a very friendly, approachable kind of pretty. Right now, though…well, right now she was downright sexy.

  His heart beat faster. He definitely wasn’t going to be able to resist flirting tonight—and that was a problem, because he had promised himself that he would behave. The whole point of their going out tonight was to get their working relationship back on track. It wasn’t supposed to be a date.

  There was no way he was going to be able to treat this like anything other than a date. He had already been incredibly into her, even before he’d realized how hot she was.

  She opened the car door and slid inside. “Where to?” she asked. It was obvious that she was completely unaware of how captivated he was by her.

  Good. I don’t need her to realize that. It would only cause trouble.

  “There’s a great place on the other side of town.” He named it. “Have you been there?”

  “No,” she said with a laugh. “That’s the side of town I don’t usually visit.”

  Right. He had forgotten, as he did all too often, that she didn’t have the same resources he did.

  “I think you’ll like it,” he said. “And you don’t have to worry. Tonight’s on me.”

  “One of these times, I’m going to take you out for dinner,” she said. “Assuming you’re man enough to let me pay.”

  “I mean, do you think that’s appropriate?” he asked.

  In periphery, he saw her tense up. “Why would it be inappropriate?”

  “I just meant, you know, letting my employee buy me a meal. It doesn’t seem right to take money from an employee.”

  “Oh.” She relaxed slightly. “You can call it a Boss’s Day gift.”

  “Boss’s Day is in October.”

  “You just know that off the top of your head?”

  “Well…I usually get gifts,” he said.

  “Of course you do.”

  “You don’t think I’m a good boss?”

  “Actually, I think you’re a great boss,” she admitted, and she sounded sincere. “If anything, you’re annoyingly good.”

  He laughed. “Why would that be annoying to you? You don’t want a good boss?”

  “I do. It’s just annoying how perfect you are at everything.”

  “I’m not perfect at everything!”

  “Oh, you are too. Perfect career, perfect boss, perfect looks—” She fell silent again.

  Grayson pretended he hadn’t heard that. But inside, he was thrilled. So she thinks I’m good-looking too! And not just when I’m being professionally lit for a magazine photo shoot.

  It wasn’t news, exactly. Grayson knew he was good-looking. The more interesting thing was the way she had gone awkwardly silent after letting it slip. She wasn’t just stating a fact. She’d accidentally exposed something.

  He wondered what it was.

  Is it possible that she’s attracted to me? Could that be the reason for the flirting that’s been going on between us?

  He didn’t know. But he found that the idea appealed to him. Maybe she liked him even more than she had been willing to let on.