Free The Best Thing by Jaci Burton

about I drive through Marjorie’s for donuts, then? We can buy a bunch for the staff meeting.”
    He was acting so...normal. “Sure. That sounds great.”
    Maybe she could hop out and hide in the bed of the truck so no one noticed her.
    He pulled into Marjorie’s, her favorite coffee and donut store. They waited in line, since Monday mornings were Marjorie’s busiest time.
    It was early and the sun wasn’t out yet, but she dragged on her sunglasses.
    “Are you okay?” he asked.
    She pulled her gaze away from other cars and looked at him. “I’m fine. Why?”
    “You seem tense.” Then he grinned at her. “I thought we worked all that tension out of you this weekend.”
    She smiled back at him. “I’m not tense. I’m just trying to get back into work mode.”
    “Okay.”
    It was their turn at the window. Marjorie was the worst gossip ever. This was going to be an epic disaster.
    “Morning, Brody,” Marjorie said, her raven-and-gray hair pulled back into a bun as usual. “Hey, Tori.”
    So much for the sunglasses as a disguise.
    “Mornin’, Marjorie,” Brody said. “We’ll take a dozen mixed.” He turned to Tori. “You want a coffee?”
    She’d need it to get through this day. “Yes. An extra large, please, Marjorie.”
    She waited for the winks, knowing looks, or the questions. Instead, Marjorie said, “Coming right up.”
    Nothing. She’d gotten nothing at all. No sly looks, no questions, just the box of donuts and her coffee and then they were on their way.
    Huh.
    Which didn’t mean Marjorie wouldn’t be calling or texting everyone she knew about the fact she and Brody had been seen together in Brody’s truck at six-thirty in the morning.
    They pulled up to the office and she breathed a sigh of relief. Neither Ethan nor Wyatt had arrived yet. She nearly bolted out of the truck, her keys in one hand, coffee in the other, to open the front door.
    “I’d have come around to open your side,” Brody said as he met her at the door.
    “Sorry. I, uh, need to pee.”
    “Oh. Okay. Go right ahead.”
    She didn’t have to go, but she fled to the privacy of the ladies’ room for a few minutes to catch her breath. Okay, so far so good. She checked her face in the mirror. It was flushed.
    Calm down, Tori. You might just make it through this day.
    She booted up her laptop and set the donuts on the conference room table, then started a pot of coffee while Brody gathered up paperwork. They worked efficiently side by side as Brody asked her to pull some files and blueprints they’d talk about at the morning staff meeting.
    Everything was back to normal, which made her ache with loss. She wanted to slide her arms around him and hold him close, feel his heart beating against her as it had the past few nights. She wanted to kiss him, to feel his lips touch hers. She wanted his hands on her again.
    But that was over. He’d had his fill of her and they were done now, just as she’d suspected.
    And when Wyatt came in, followed shortly thereafter by Ethan, it was like the final nail had been driven in the coffin.
    “Morning,” she said, lifting her chin and pasting on her brightest smile. She wouldn’t give in to her emotions. She’d known what she was doing the other night, knew what it was going to cost her. If she was heartbroken, she had no one to blame but herself. She knew what kind of guy Brody was. He was a serial woman chaser, and once he caught a woman and had her, he was done and on to the next one.
    She couldn’t blame him for what he was.
    Once the guys had all had some coffee and shared some mundane chit chat, they all gathered in the conference room for the staff meeting. Tori made notes and discussed financials for an upcoming project that Brody would be heading, which was gutting and rebuilding one of the town’s major supermarkets.
    “It should be set to gear up after the holidays,” Brody said.
    “I’m damn glad we won that bid,” Ethan said. “If the Johnson brothers had taken