Michelle McCraw's Blog, page 7
February 6, 2022
Today I have not one but TWO book boyfriends for you
They’re finally here!
In Boss Me, Cooper finally gets his HEA, and I could not be more excited to bring it to you at last. From almost the first moment Cooper Fallon stalked onto the pages of Work with Me, I knew he’d need the softest, most resilient person to break through his emotional walls.
I bring you Ben, cinnamon roll extraordinaire. He’s soft and gooey and delicious on the inside but just crusty enough on the outside to hold his shape in the face of adversity. I think you’re gonna love him.
“I’ve been impatiently waiting for Cooper Fallon’s story and it was definitely worth the wait! This story has it all – anger, backstabbing, frustration, heartbreak, jealousy, love and happily ever after.”
ARC reader Judy“What a great story! I loved Ben right from the beginning. So kind and ready for a loving relationship with his heart on his sleeve.”
ARC reader RhondaI’m blushing as I paste their comments into this post. I hope you’ll love Ben and Cooper as much as I do.
Finally, the best bit of news: For the month of February, I’ve dropped the ebook price to $3.99 across all retailers. Pick up your copy now!
Amazon | Apple | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Google | All other retailers
Boss Me: A Boss-Assistant on Vacation Romantic Comedy He’s finally found The One. Too bad it’s his boss.
Ben has spent his life with his heart on his sleeve, only to have it trampled. After one bad breakup too many, he’s done. No more romance for him. He’s focused on his career, his delayed college degree, and saving enough to finally move off his sister’s couch. The only problem? His frosty boss haunts his fantasies.
Cooper has always kept his heart under lock and key. He’s too toxic to love. And as an executive at the company he founded, he can’t afford to give in to temptation, especially when that temptation is his indispensable assistant.
After a crisis at work forces Cooper to take a long-needed break, Ben – ever the caretaker – follows him to his Caribbean getaway. When they’re no longer boss and assistant, they finally give in to the passion that’s been burning between them. Can their relationship survive their return to the office? Should it?
Boss Me is a romantic comedy featuring an off-limits boss-assistant fling, umbrella drinks, wardrobe malfunctions, and a scene-stealing stray dog. It can be read as a standalone and is the fourth book in the Synergy series.
If you read and review, let me know! I’m @mmowriter on both Twitter and Instagram, or you can hit reply to shoot me a quick email.
And DON’T FORGET to download the smutty-but-sweet bonus epilogue for an extra hit of Cooper and Ben, plus a hint about Mimi and Mateo, the stars of the next book in the series. Hit up my reader extras page to get it!
January 9, 2022
Gratitude…and deals!
Happy New Year!
As we shove 2021 through the trapdoor into the dungeon where its evil twin, 2020, belongs, we can still find things to celebrate. For example, my newsletter is one year old this week. I truly thank everyone who’s come with me on this journey.
In this blog, I’ll be upcycling my newsletter content. If you’d like to see the content as soon as it comes out, be sure to subscribe.
Now, on to the book recs!
First book recs of 2022, and they’re all bargains… The Summer of Sebastian by Giulia Skye
Did you read Her Outback Driver when I recommended it last year? I LOVED it, and now Giulia has written a follow-up book that’s absolutely endearing. The Summer of Sebastian is a contemporary romance between two people who’ve screwed up their lives and need each other—and a fake relationship, natch—to get back on track. And if you’ve read Her Outback Driver, you’ll love the cameos from Michael and Evie. 5 stars from me, and as of today, it’s only 99¢!
Get The Summer of Sebastian
Do you love a s-l-o-w burn as much as I do? Love that tension when you just want to smush the characters’ faces together to make them kiss? Then this promo is for you with sales on 29 slow-burn romances (look for Work with Me here)!
Puppy pic!Maybe y’all are tired of my dogs? Well, here are my sister’s dogs. They’re a pair of rescued Shih Tzu siblings, and they’re totes adorbs! Look at them on Christmas morning!
October 25, 2021
It's a sale!
To celebrate the November 8 release of Trip Me Up, all the Synergy books are on sale! Work with Me is free, Friend Me is $1.99, and Trip Me Up is $3.99.
Also, Work with Me and Friend Me are leaving Kindle Unlimited this weekend, so if you want to read them in KU, save them in your library NOW to read later.
The sale is for a limited time only, so don't wait!
Also, Work with Me and Friend Me are leaving Kindle Unlimited this weekend, so if you want to read them in KU, save them in your library NOW to read later.
The sale is for a limited time only, so don't wait!
August 20, 2021
What's next?
Friend Me has been out for a couple of weeks now. If you've read it, I'd LOVE for you to leave a review here, on BookBub, or on your favorite retailer's site. And don't forget to enter the giveaway for a signed paperback copy!
What's next? I'm wrapping up revisions on the next book in the series, Trip Me Up. It's an opposites-attract, road-trip romance featuring a techie and a writer. You met Jackson's sister Sam in both Work with Me and Friend Me, and this is her story. It releases in early November.
What's next? I'm wrapping up revisions on the next book in the series, Trip Me Up. It's an opposites-attract, road-trip romance featuring a techie and a writer. You met Jackson's sister Sam in both Work with Me and Friend Me, and this is her story. It releases in early November.
August 1, 2021
Friend Me release!
Monday, August 2, the second book in the Synergy series, Friend Me, will be out in the world. I know I keep saying this, but this one has been a journey, y'all. I started writing it in 2017, and four years later, it's out in the world at last. Marlee has been a fun--and challenging--heroine to write. I hope y'all enjoy it.
Don't forget I'm doing a Goodreads giveaway of 3 signed copies. You can enter here.
Don't forget I'm doing a Goodreads giveaway of 3 signed copies. You can enter here.
July 9, 2021
Friend Me sneak peek
Hey, y'all!
If you get my newsletters (and if you're not, WHY NOT? Fix that here), you've already seen this. But for everyone else, here it is, an exclusive excerpt from Friend Me, releasing August 2!
Chapter 1
I’d watched a lot of women come and go from Cooper Fallon’s office, but this one was the worst. And she wasn’t going quietly.
When her shriek—something that ended with “asshole”—escaped his closed office door to echo all the way down the hall to my desk, I pressed my lips together to hide my grin and pulled up the staffing agency’s contact information.
Since his long-time assistant retired five months ago, the Chief Operating Officer of Synergy Analytics had gone through eighteen temporary assistants. Some stormed out, like this one was about to do, some slunk out, and some just didn’t bother showing up the next day.
I swear, it was all his own doing. At first. After temp number five keyed the cherry surface of his desk on her way out, he asked me to select the next one. As a favor. And I just took advantage of his own high standards—and raging temper—to ensure that none stuck. I became the Statue of Liberty of San Francisco temps: Give me your amateurs, your idlers, your novelists and poets yearning to slack off…
So I might not have been the most impartial person to hire Cooper’s assistant.
Because I had a plan. One that relied on, well, unreliable help.
As I composed the email to the agency—I had to be vague enough about why we were firing this one so they’d send us another just as terrible—a voice behind me asked, “Are they okay in there?”
I spun in my chair toward the familiar voice, banging my bare knee against the leg of my desk. I squinted at my work-buddy, Tyler Young, haloed in brightness from the hazy light coming through the converted mill’s top-floor skylight.
I rubbed my knee. With Cooper bellowing from the corner office, I hadn’t heard the soft approach of Tyler’s sneakers. “I was just about to bust out the popcorn.”
Flashing his adorable dimples, he came around to the front of my desk, as he always did so I didn’t have to stare into the skylight. When Cooper’s low growl cut across the temp’s higher voice, Tyler shoved up his black-framed glasses and asked, “Are you sure? Do we need to—?”
I tilted my head to listen. The temp was giving as good as—or better than—she got. All the swearing was on her end. “No, they’re pretty evenly matched. At least she’s not a crier.” I’d raided my desk drawer for chocolate and tissues to console the one he’d fired last week.
When the temp’s shouting escalated into a high-pitched screech, Synergy’s other founder, Jackson Jones, emerged from his office and ambled to my desk. “Hey, Marlee. Who picked”—he checked his Omega—“four o’clock?” My boss leaned his big hand on my desk and plucked a piece of candy from the ceramic bowl.
I snorted. “Someone down in payroll. I’m guessing she’ll win it.”
“Poor Cooper.” He wadded up his candy wrapper and handed it to me to throw in the trash. “Not everyone can have San Francisco’s best assistant. He’s jealous I found you first.”
My cheeks warming, I smoothed my rosebud-pink skirt.
Cooper, the COO of one of the world’s hottest tech companies, demanded a lot of his employees. He was an alpha billionaire, just like in my favorite novels.
Total romance-hero material. I just wished he were mine.
That first day I’d met him, when I was still a part-timer figuring out what exactly analytics software did and how the building full of scruffy young programmers had made it onto the Fortune 1000, my jaw had dropped and my knees had gone weak. He was more than handsome; he looked like the model on the cover of the romance novel I’d been reading. Blond hair, blue eyes, the perfect amount of stubble, impeccable clothes—though lacking a broadsword—and tall as a redwood. I’d spent my first three days at Synergy staring at him. By the end of the second week, it was a full-blown crush.
Not only was he one of Northern California’s most eligible bachelors, but he was a considerate, caring, honest man. He knew the names of all of his employees, from the executive floor down to the mailroom. He’d started a foundation to help kids from lower-income families go to coding camps. And most important—
“You going to get that?” Jackson asked, leaning a hip against the soapstone lab table I used as a desk.
Cooper’s line was lit up on my desk phone, ringing, but since both people who should’ve answered it were screaming at each other, it was up to me.
“Cooper Fallon’s office. Marlee Rice speaking.”
“Hi,” said a husky female voice. “This is Jamila Jallow. Is Cooper available? He’s expecting my call.”
He was? My heart thudded. Why was top-of-their-Stanford-class, could’ve-been-a-model, on-all-the-forty-under-forty-lists Jamila Jallow, Cooper’s BFF, calling him today?
“No, I’m sorry. He’s tied up at the moment. Can I help you?”
“Sure. Could you let him know my plans changed and I can go with him to Jackson’s wedding?”
Holy Stephen Hawking.
“You can?” Although Jamila and Cooper had attended more than one industry function together, he never brought a date to Synergy events. And while my boss’s wedding next weekend wasn’t an official company function, I’d been sure he’d go stag.
“I can. But, you know, I’ll just text him. Thanks, Marlee.”
My ears buzzed. I’d figured Jamila would go to Jackson’s wedding. They’d been friends since college. What did it mean that she’d go with Cooper? Was it a friends-date or a date-date?
It’d be just my luck if she snapped up Cooper right as I’d finally found the courage to do something about my three-year-old crush.
“Um, Marlee?” Tyler asked, straightening his glasses. “Are you okay?”
I blinked to focus. “Fine.” I turned to Jackson. “That was Jamila Jallow. She says she’s coming with Cooper. To your wedding.”
His eyebrows shot up. “He never brings anyone to my parties.”
“I know, right? What’s going on?”
Cooper’s door swung open, thumping into the wall, and the temp stormed out, her face as red as her silk blouse. I’d been a little afraid when the gorgeous woman had walked in on Monday with her designer clothes and shoes that cost more than my weekly salary, but she’d been too preoccupied with fluttering her fake eyelashes at Cooper to answer his calls. She snatched her buttery leather handbag off the desk outside and flounced past us toward the elevators.
“Bye, Lynley,” I said.
“Fuck off.” She veered right, yanked open the door, and disappeared into the stairwell.
I exchanged a glance with Jackson.
“Yeah,” he said, “Cooper has that effect on me, sometimes.”
Tyler said nothing. He hadn’t spent enough time up here on the sixth floor to know that Cooper’s moods were a summer thunderstorm: loud but quickly spent.
The man himself stepped out of his glass-walled office, his nostrils flaring, his jaw like marble. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his tailored black slacks and, gaze on the reclaimed-wood floor, approached us. I ran a hand over my pendant and sat up straighter in my chair.
Rubbing the back of his neck, he turned his crystal-blue eyes on me.
“Marlee?” He shifted on his feet. “It seems Lindsey—”
“Lynley,” I corrected him.
He grimaced, showing straight white teeth. “She and I have agreed she’s not a good fit for Synergy.”
“That’s one way of putting it,” Jackson said.
Cooper’s stare stabbed his friend. “If you’d just reconsider sharing Marlee with me…”
“I’d be happy to—” I began.
“Not happening,” Jackson interrupted me. He stared at me, hard. “Marlee has plenty of work already. And you might as well ask to borrow my right arm. Find your own Marlee.” He shrugged. “Or keep one of the temps she finds for you.”
Before he spoke, Cooper took a beat to relax his hands, which had balled into fists. Then he looked at me. “Do you think you could—”
“Done.” I clicked to send my email to the staffing agency.
“Thanks. You know I adore you, Marlee.” And there it was, the heart-stopping smile that turned me to goo on the floor every time. I wanted to dance my fingertips over his strong, stubbly jaw and into his short, sandy hair. Run my hands over his gray striped dress shirt to touch the toned shoulders underneath. Drag my nails down his back and squeeze his—
“Anyway, Jay—” He turned to Jackson, and that was when I realized I’d been eye-fucking Cooper again. “Can we start our ride early? I have a foundation event tonight.”
“I’ll go change.” Jackson shot me a look—he hadn’t missed my wandering eyes—and then gripped Tyler’s shoulder. “Let’s talk tomorrow about your ideas for the fuel burn module.” Because I was watching Cooper, I saw his gaze follow his friend’s hand and then narrow at Tyler. Cooper tended to be the jealous partner in his bromance with Jackson.
“Sure thing.” Tyler grinned at our boss, looking exactly like a Labrador Retriever who’d been told he was a good boy.
Jackson had created the company’s flagship product—an automotive analytics package that made cars perform better and more safely—ten years ago in the dorm room he shared with Cooper at Stanford. A programming legend, he inspired admiration among the developers, and Tyler was president of the fan club. Though Tyler was a legit programmer himself. Jackson didn’t have the patience to mentor many programmers, but he made time for Tyler.
When the two executives returned to their respective offices, I beckoned Tyler closer and checked that no one else was nearby. “I heard Sanjay’s leaving.”
“Yeah?” His lower lip pushed out into an almost-pout. “He’s a good boss. I’ll miss him.”
“Sure, but…” I paused for effect. “That opens up a manager position. And I know a talented programmer who’s ready for a promotion.”
“Who, Grant?”
I snorted. “No, you dork. You.”
He rocked back on his heels. “I’m not ready. I’ve been here less than a year.”
“It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been here. What matters is how much you know about programming and how good you are with people.” And Tyler was good with people. Unlike most of his colleagues, he didn’t look down his nose at me because I was an admin.
His eyes narrowed, uncertain.
“Think about it. HR will post the job next week.”
He gave a noncommittal grunt. Plucking a peppermint from my candy dish, he twisted the ends tighter. He opened his mouth, took a breath, and then let it out slowly.
“Oh, right. The fuel-burn module. Want me to schedule a meeting with him tomorrow?” I clicked to Jackson’s calendar and searched for a free slot. “How’s two-thirty?”
A soft drumming was my only answer. His long fingers tapped out a rhythm against the side of his jeans.
“Tyler?” I prompted him again.
“Right. Sure.” He dragged his gaze off my desk and met mine. “A few of us are—I thought you’d like, maybe, to, uh—”
“Yes?” I typed up the meeting invitation and sent it while he hesitated. I glanced at the clock in the corner of my screen. If Jackson was leaving now, I could just make the early train. Definitely a good idea, considering the problems we’d had lately. A few weeks ago, Dad had tried to help out by making dinner but had ended up burning through a pot on the stove and setting off the smoke alarm.
“It’s three-dollar pint night, and…”
We both startled when Jackson slammed his office door and shouted down the hall, “Coop, get your ass in gear!”
Cooper emerged from his office, duffel bag thrown over his shoulder. Like Jackson, he wore a T-shirt that skimmed over his chest and ended just below the hip of a pair of tight-fitting bike shorts. My eyes trailed up his toned leg to the hint of a bulge just under the hem of that shirt. I swallowed.
“See you tomorrow.” Jackson waved lazily in our direction before he jogged to the stairs and held the door for Cooper. “After the ride, let’s—” The door shut behind them, cutting off Jackson’s words.
I blinked hard and then turned back to Tyler. “Sorry, what did you say?”
He took off his glasses and rubbed them on his T-shirt. Without his glasses, his eyes were dappled with specks of brown, blue, green, and gold, like Earth seen from space.
“I was thinking about going to the pub on the next block after work. Want to come with?”
“I’m sorry, I can’t tonight. Who’re you going with?” When we hung out together at the quarterly Synergy parties, the other programmers orbited Tyler like satellites. Most of them were okay, but a few wouldn’t even speak to someone without “developer” in her title. They scanned past me like I was some sort of exotic pink insect, completely beneath their notice.
“Oh, um. I hadn’t invited anyone else yet.”
I paused my packing. It was just like Tyler to build the gathering around me and my preferences. Such a sweet guy. If I were anyone else, I’d have jumped at the opportunity to spend time with him after work.
But I had responsibilities. And plans. “Maybe some other night?”
As soon as he nodded, I strode to the elevator and jabbed the button.
The doors slid open right away, and when I turned to press the button, I glimpsed Tyler’s downturned mouth as he watched me go. I gave him an apologetic smile and finger-waggle.
He’d be fine. He’d go out tonight with his other friends. He was like most people our age who worked at Synergy—dedicated and hardworking with few responsibilities outside the office, and with plenty of cash to party when the work was done.
Even though we’d been friends for the better part of a year and best buddies for more than six months, Tyler didn’t know I wasn’t like him. I hoped he didn’t think I was making up a fake excuse, like all my friends from college had. They’d slowly dropped out of my life after too many refused invitations, too many last-minute cancellations.
But from the moment he’d rescued me from that evil beer tap, Tyler had been different. He’d kept asking me places even though most times, I refused. He was a good friend. One worth keeping.
I’d take him to lunch the next day. But right then, I needed to woman up for my second job.
Friend Me
If you get my newsletters (and if you're not, WHY NOT? Fix that here), you've already seen this. But for everyone else, here it is, an exclusive excerpt from Friend Me, releasing August 2!
Chapter 1
I’d watched a lot of women come and go from Cooper Fallon’s office, but this one was the worst. And she wasn’t going quietly.
When her shriek—something that ended with “asshole”—escaped his closed office door to echo all the way down the hall to my desk, I pressed my lips together to hide my grin and pulled up the staffing agency’s contact information.
Since his long-time assistant retired five months ago, the Chief Operating Officer of Synergy Analytics had gone through eighteen temporary assistants. Some stormed out, like this one was about to do, some slunk out, and some just didn’t bother showing up the next day.
I swear, it was all his own doing. At first. After temp number five keyed the cherry surface of his desk on her way out, he asked me to select the next one. As a favor. And I just took advantage of his own high standards—and raging temper—to ensure that none stuck. I became the Statue of Liberty of San Francisco temps: Give me your amateurs, your idlers, your novelists and poets yearning to slack off…
So I might not have been the most impartial person to hire Cooper’s assistant.
Because I had a plan. One that relied on, well, unreliable help.
As I composed the email to the agency—I had to be vague enough about why we were firing this one so they’d send us another just as terrible—a voice behind me asked, “Are they okay in there?”
I spun in my chair toward the familiar voice, banging my bare knee against the leg of my desk. I squinted at my work-buddy, Tyler Young, haloed in brightness from the hazy light coming through the converted mill’s top-floor skylight.
I rubbed my knee. With Cooper bellowing from the corner office, I hadn’t heard the soft approach of Tyler’s sneakers. “I was just about to bust out the popcorn.”
Flashing his adorable dimples, he came around to the front of my desk, as he always did so I didn’t have to stare into the skylight. When Cooper’s low growl cut across the temp’s higher voice, Tyler shoved up his black-framed glasses and asked, “Are you sure? Do we need to—?”
I tilted my head to listen. The temp was giving as good as—or better than—she got. All the swearing was on her end. “No, they’re pretty evenly matched. At least she’s not a crier.” I’d raided my desk drawer for chocolate and tissues to console the one he’d fired last week.
When the temp’s shouting escalated into a high-pitched screech, Synergy’s other founder, Jackson Jones, emerged from his office and ambled to my desk. “Hey, Marlee. Who picked”—he checked his Omega—“four o’clock?” My boss leaned his big hand on my desk and plucked a piece of candy from the ceramic bowl.
I snorted. “Someone down in payroll. I’m guessing she’ll win it.”
“Poor Cooper.” He wadded up his candy wrapper and handed it to me to throw in the trash. “Not everyone can have San Francisco’s best assistant. He’s jealous I found you first.”
My cheeks warming, I smoothed my rosebud-pink skirt.
Cooper, the COO of one of the world’s hottest tech companies, demanded a lot of his employees. He was an alpha billionaire, just like in my favorite novels.
Total romance-hero material. I just wished he were mine.
That first day I’d met him, when I was still a part-timer figuring out what exactly analytics software did and how the building full of scruffy young programmers had made it onto the Fortune 1000, my jaw had dropped and my knees had gone weak. He was more than handsome; he looked like the model on the cover of the romance novel I’d been reading. Blond hair, blue eyes, the perfect amount of stubble, impeccable clothes—though lacking a broadsword—and tall as a redwood. I’d spent my first three days at Synergy staring at him. By the end of the second week, it was a full-blown crush.
Not only was he one of Northern California’s most eligible bachelors, but he was a considerate, caring, honest man. He knew the names of all of his employees, from the executive floor down to the mailroom. He’d started a foundation to help kids from lower-income families go to coding camps. And most important—
“You going to get that?” Jackson asked, leaning a hip against the soapstone lab table I used as a desk.
Cooper’s line was lit up on my desk phone, ringing, but since both people who should’ve answered it were screaming at each other, it was up to me.
“Cooper Fallon’s office. Marlee Rice speaking.”
“Hi,” said a husky female voice. “This is Jamila Jallow. Is Cooper available? He’s expecting my call.”
He was? My heart thudded. Why was top-of-their-Stanford-class, could’ve-been-a-model, on-all-the-forty-under-forty-lists Jamila Jallow, Cooper’s BFF, calling him today?
“No, I’m sorry. He’s tied up at the moment. Can I help you?”
“Sure. Could you let him know my plans changed and I can go with him to Jackson’s wedding?”
Holy Stephen Hawking.
“You can?” Although Jamila and Cooper had attended more than one industry function together, he never brought a date to Synergy events. And while my boss’s wedding next weekend wasn’t an official company function, I’d been sure he’d go stag.
“I can. But, you know, I’ll just text him. Thanks, Marlee.”
My ears buzzed. I’d figured Jamila would go to Jackson’s wedding. They’d been friends since college. What did it mean that she’d go with Cooper? Was it a friends-date or a date-date?
It’d be just my luck if she snapped up Cooper right as I’d finally found the courage to do something about my three-year-old crush.
“Um, Marlee?” Tyler asked, straightening his glasses. “Are you okay?”
I blinked to focus. “Fine.” I turned to Jackson. “That was Jamila Jallow. She says she’s coming with Cooper. To your wedding.”
His eyebrows shot up. “He never brings anyone to my parties.”
“I know, right? What’s going on?”
Cooper’s door swung open, thumping into the wall, and the temp stormed out, her face as red as her silk blouse. I’d been a little afraid when the gorgeous woman had walked in on Monday with her designer clothes and shoes that cost more than my weekly salary, but she’d been too preoccupied with fluttering her fake eyelashes at Cooper to answer his calls. She snatched her buttery leather handbag off the desk outside and flounced past us toward the elevators.
“Bye, Lynley,” I said.
“Fuck off.” She veered right, yanked open the door, and disappeared into the stairwell.
I exchanged a glance with Jackson.
“Yeah,” he said, “Cooper has that effect on me, sometimes.”
Tyler said nothing. He hadn’t spent enough time up here on the sixth floor to know that Cooper’s moods were a summer thunderstorm: loud but quickly spent.
The man himself stepped out of his glass-walled office, his nostrils flaring, his jaw like marble. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his tailored black slacks and, gaze on the reclaimed-wood floor, approached us. I ran a hand over my pendant and sat up straighter in my chair.
Rubbing the back of his neck, he turned his crystal-blue eyes on me.
“Marlee?” He shifted on his feet. “It seems Lindsey—”
“Lynley,” I corrected him.
He grimaced, showing straight white teeth. “She and I have agreed she’s not a good fit for Synergy.”
“That’s one way of putting it,” Jackson said.
Cooper’s stare stabbed his friend. “If you’d just reconsider sharing Marlee with me…”
“I’d be happy to—” I began.
“Not happening,” Jackson interrupted me. He stared at me, hard. “Marlee has plenty of work already. And you might as well ask to borrow my right arm. Find your own Marlee.” He shrugged. “Or keep one of the temps she finds for you.”
Before he spoke, Cooper took a beat to relax his hands, which had balled into fists. Then he looked at me. “Do you think you could—”
“Done.” I clicked to send my email to the staffing agency.
“Thanks. You know I adore you, Marlee.” And there it was, the heart-stopping smile that turned me to goo on the floor every time. I wanted to dance my fingertips over his strong, stubbly jaw and into his short, sandy hair. Run my hands over his gray striped dress shirt to touch the toned shoulders underneath. Drag my nails down his back and squeeze his—
“Anyway, Jay—” He turned to Jackson, and that was when I realized I’d been eye-fucking Cooper again. “Can we start our ride early? I have a foundation event tonight.”
“I’ll go change.” Jackson shot me a look—he hadn’t missed my wandering eyes—and then gripped Tyler’s shoulder. “Let’s talk tomorrow about your ideas for the fuel burn module.” Because I was watching Cooper, I saw his gaze follow his friend’s hand and then narrow at Tyler. Cooper tended to be the jealous partner in his bromance with Jackson.
“Sure thing.” Tyler grinned at our boss, looking exactly like a Labrador Retriever who’d been told he was a good boy.
Jackson had created the company’s flagship product—an automotive analytics package that made cars perform better and more safely—ten years ago in the dorm room he shared with Cooper at Stanford. A programming legend, he inspired admiration among the developers, and Tyler was president of the fan club. Though Tyler was a legit programmer himself. Jackson didn’t have the patience to mentor many programmers, but he made time for Tyler.
When the two executives returned to their respective offices, I beckoned Tyler closer and checked that no one else was nearby. “I heard Sanjay’s leaving.”
“Yeah?” His lower lip pushed out into an almost-pout. “He’s a good boss. I’ll miss him.”
“Sure, but…” I paused for effect. “That opens up a manager position. And I know a talented programmer who’s ready for a promotion.”
“Who, Grant?”
I snorted. “No, you dork. You.”
He rocked back on his heels. “I’m not ready. I’ve been here less than a year.”
“It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been here. What matters is how much you know about programming and how good you are with people.” And Tyler was good with people. Unlike most of his colleagues, he didn’t look down his nose at me because I was an admin.
His eyes narrowed, uncertain.
“Think about it. HR will post the job next week.”
He gave a noncommittal grunt. Plucking a peppermint from my candy dish, he twisted the ends tighter. He opened his mouth, took a breath, and then let it out slowly.
“Oh, right. The fuel-burn module. Want me to schedule a meeting with him tomorrow?” I clicked to Jackson’s calendar and searched for a free slot. “How’s two-thirty?”
A soft drumming was my only answer. His long fingers tapped out a rhythm against the side of his jeans.
“Tyler?” I prompted him again.
“Right. Sure.” He dragged his gaze off my desk and met mine. “A few of us are—I thought you’d like, maybe, to, uh—”
“Yes?” I typed up the meeting invitation and sent it while he hesitated. I glanced at the clock in the corner of my screen. If Jackson was leaving now, I could just make the early train. Definitely a good idea, considering the problems we’d had lately. A few weeks ago, Dad had tried to help out by making dinner but had ended up burning through a pot on the stove and setting off the smoke alarm.
“It’s three-dollar pint night, and…”
We both startled when Jackson slammed his office door and shouted down the hall, “Coop, get your ass in gear!”
Cooper emerged from his office, duffel bag thrown over his shoulder. Like Jackson, he wore a T-shirt that skimmed over his chest and ended just below the hip of a pair of tight-fitting bike shorts. My eyes trailed up his toned leg to the hint of a bulge just under the hem of that shirt. I swallowed.
“See you tomorrow.” Jackson waved lazily in our direction before he jogged to the stairs and held the door for Cooper. “After the ride, let’s—” The door shut behind them, cutting off Jackson’s words.
I blinked hard and then turned back to Tyler. “Sorry, what did you say?”
He took off his glasses and rubbed them on his T-shirt. Without his glasses, his eyes were dappled with specks of brown, blue, green, and gold, like Earth seen from space.
“I was thinking about going to the pub on the next block after work. Want to come with?”
“I’m sorry, I can’t tonight. Who’re you going with?” When we hung out together at the quarterly Synergy parties, the other programmers orbited Tyler like satellites. Most of them were okay, but a few wouldn’t even speak to someone without “developer” in her title. They scanned past me like I was some sort of exotic pink insect, completely beneath their notice.
“Oh, um. I hadn’t invited anyone else yet.”
I paused my packing. It was just like Tyler to build the gathering around me and my preferences. Such a sweet guy. If I were anyone else, I’d have jumped at the opportunity to spend time with him after work.
But I had responsibilities. And plans. “Maybe some other night?”
As soon as he nodded, I strode to the elevator and jabbed the button.
The doors slid open right away, and when I turned to press the button, I glimpsed Tyler’s downturned mouth as he watched me go. I gave him an apologetic smile and finger-waggle.
He’d be fine. He’d go out tonight with his other friends. He was like most people our age who worked at Synergy—dedicated and hardworking with few responsibilities outside the office, and with plenty of cash to party when the work was done.
Even though we’d been friends for the better part of a year and best buddies for more than six months, Tyler didn’t know I wasn’t like him. I hoped he didn’t think I was making up a fake excuse, like all my friends from college had. They’d slowly dropped out of my life after too many refused invitations, too many last-minute cancellations.
But from the moment he’d rescued me from that evil beer tap, Tyler had been different. He’d kept asking me places even though most times, I refused. He was a good friend. One worth keeping.
I’d take him to lunch the next day. But right then, I needed to woman up for my second job.
Friend Me
June 26, 2021
Friend Me update
As soon as one of the wonderful GR librarians updates it, you'll see the gorgeous cover of Friend Me here. (If you can't wait, check it out on Amazon.
Isn't she pretty? Many thanks to my awesome cover designer, Avery Kingston.
But what about the WORDS, you ask? They're coming along, too. I just sent the book to the proofreader yesterday, so very, very soon, I'll have ARC copies ready to request. Want a FREE ARC copy? Just ask using the info on this page.
BTW, both Friend Me AND Work with Me are currently on sale for just $2.99 in eBook on Amazon and also available in Kindle Unlimited.
I can't wait for you to read Friend Me!
Michelle
Isn't she pretty? Many thanks to my awesome cover designer, Avery Kingston.
But what about the WORDS, you ask? They're coming along, too. I just sent the book to the proofreader yesterday, so very, very soon, I'll have ARC copies ready to request. Want a FREE ARC copy? Just ask using the info on this page.
BTW, both Friend Me AND Work with Me are currently on sale for just $2.99 in eBook on Amazon and also available in Kindle Unlimited.
I can't wait for you to read Friend Me!
Michelle
June 4, 2021
Synergy update
Hey, everyone! I'm working hard to get the next couple of books out to you by the end of the year. Friend Me (Book 2) is Marlee's story, and I'm making my final content edits before it goes off to the proofreader next month. Watch this blog in the next couple of weeks for a COVER REVEAL!
Book 3 just came back from its developmental edit, and I'm going to tackle that next. I'm not ready to spill any secrets yet, but you'll get a sneak peek in your copy of Friend Me.
And if you haven't picked up Work with Me yet, check out this fun Facebook page that featured an excerpt this week. I had such a blast participating and telling my silly puppy story. https://www.facebook.com/banginhotrom...
Book 3 just came back from its developmental edit, and I'm going to tackle that next. I'm not ready to spill any secrets yet, but you'll get a sneak peek in your copy of Friend Me.
And if you haven't picked up Work with Me yet, check out this fun Facebook page that featured an excerpt this week. I had such a blast participating and telling my silly puppy story. https://www.facebook.com/banginhotrom...
