Her voice animated. “Seriously? That sounds amazing. Where are they going this year?”
“This year they’ve bought everyone a gift instead of a trip. I’m excited to see what it is.”
“You mean you don’t know?”
He popped a single eye open. She sat closer to him now, cross-legged, and stared at him. His throat closed.
“It isn’t Christmas yet,” he said.
She released a soft chuckle. The sound loosened his joints in that satisfying way of knowing he was the reason for her laughter. His shoulders relaxed.
“Before my mom died, we all got together on Christmas Eve for a big dinner with my grandparents,” she said. “My grandma still invites us over, though my dad and stepfamily don’t come. I have to work on Christmas this year, but I’ll probably do something with my grandma anyway—”
This was definitely distracting. He opened both eyes to find her fiddling with the buttons on her gray, wool coat.
“I thought we were closed through the holidays. Which department do you work for?”
She scooted back, away from him. “I—”
His phone chirped, interrupting her. Here, he’d been antsy to hear from Clary, and now he cursed the interruption. He answered it. “Hey, Clary. Any news?”
The freckled woman readjusted to kneel on her knees. She rested her hands on her legs and watched him expectantly. Whether she realized it or not, her knee brushed against his ankle. Hawk was so absorbed by her movements he nearly missed Clary’s reply.
“They should be fixing it now, sir.”
Relief stole over him. “That’s great news. Thanks, Clary.”
He covered the base of his phone to relay the update to his striking, fellow passenger when someone came through on the elevator’s intercom. “Mr. Danielson?”
He let his head fall back. There wasn’t time to wonder why this associate hadn’t answered the first time they’d paged him.
“That’s me,” Hawk said, resting a hand on the wall as he returned to his feet.
“We’re working through this now, sir,” said the male voice. “We should have you out of there in no time.”
“Thank you,” Hawk said.
He offered a hand to the woman as the lights flicked on once more. Gripping her purse, she righted herself, brushing a hand against her pants.
“You sure you don’t want to throw yourself at me again?” he said. “No better time. This ride’s almost over.”
Her eyes sparkled with amusement. “That’s an intriguing idea, isn’t it?”
The elevator jolted. His companion let out a squeak of surprise. Hawk was vaguely reminded of the one and only time his family had convinced him to ride the Tower of Terror ride at Disney World during their cruise a few years back. That had been akin to pure torture. The possibility of reliving something similar now didn’t help.
The elevator’s jarring movement jerked for several more seconds giving Hawk an unpleasant lurch in his stomach, until it steadied again and began to glide down at its usual pace.
Wiping a palm across her cheek, the woman stood. “What a relief,” she said.
“Yeah.” He stood beside her. “Looks like we’re bound to survive this after all.”
There was that smile again. Soft and sweet and somehow managing to string through his veins and imprint itself in the underside of his ribs.
“So you never did tell me which department you work for,” he said.
She stared straight ahead. “Why do you want to know?”
He shrugged. “If they’re making you work on Christmas, I’d like to have a word with them.” He offered what he hoped was a teasing smirk.
She lowered her head. “Oh no, that’s not necessary.”
The elevator dinged, opening to the familiar lobby. The oddest sense of stubbornness clenched inside of him. Though an elevator was usually his least favorite place, especially after getting stuck in this one, he didn’t want to leave. Not until he got this woman’s name and phone number.
He gestured, swooping a hand toward the open door. The woman exited first. Hawk trotted after, hoping to stall her long enough to finish their conversation, but she scurried at a quicker pace than he anticipated.
“See you later, Mr. Danielson,” she said over her shoulder.
“I—yeah. See you,” he said with defeat. She was already out of earshot.
That had been unexpected. To not only get stuck on a busted elevator but to do so with an extraordinarily kind, gorgeous woman who, amazingly enough, hadn’t given him a hard time for acting like such a nutcase in the enclosed space.
Anyone else, he was sure, would have written him off as an idiot, but she had helped him. She’d been soothing and distracting. He should have asked her name. Why hadn’t he asked her name?
“Oh well,” Hawk said, strutting toward the abstract statue in the lobby’s center. It was of a pair of steel bars twining upward to the vaulted ceiling. “I’ll have to see if I can’t find out another way.”
Her identity wasn’t the only thing hanging him up. Why on earth was her department working on Christmas? He’d have to see which one it was and set things straight, and hopefully, find out the woman’s name in the meantime.
CHAPTER THREE
Hawk approached the fountain at the statue’s base and slipped into his overcoat. He was more than eager to keep this particular coffee date. It was with a woman he’d loved for as long as he could remember. A woman who’d been a part of his life even longer than he could remember.
Faye stood beside the fountain in the center of the lobby, running her fingers through the chlorinated water as though she was considering reaching for some of the loose change floating around in the bottom level of the pool. Hawk wouldn’t put it past her, he thought with a smile. His godmother had always had a childish quirk about her. He often saw her doing things normal people either didn’t think to do or had outgrown after the age of twelve.
“Faye,” he said, causing her to stiffen and let her hand hang over the water. Small beads of water dripped from her wrinkled fingers.
Her face bloomed into a lined smile
