The Best is Yet to Come

Eight: Emma

"Emma, Glory wants to know if you can cover my break in ten." Out of the corner of my eye, I see Justin pop his head over the top of the bookshelf.

I finish scribbling down the titles due for reorder and look up from my cart. I nod my head, "Of course."

He gives me a grin, showing off a set of perfectly white teeth, "Thanks. It's been dead slow today so the register won't be too bad," he assures me and then he's gone, swallowed by the sea of books.

Ten minutes later, I push my cart to the front of the store. Justin is behind the counter playing with the tape dispenser. Two of his fingers are wrapped with several layers of tape and he hastily throws his hands behind his back as I approach, trying to hide them from view.

"You've got thirty minutes." I tell him and he darts to the back room, an embarrassed flush on his cheeks and a hand stuffed in his pocket.

Justin was right- it's slow this afternoon so I decided to tidy up the registers, taking the time to turn all the labels on the merchandise so that they were facing straight. I neatly stack the candles on the counter in pyramid fashion and reorganize the bookmark display by color. After that, I duck down behind the counter and begin to organize the office supplies crammed on the shelves underneath the register. Sitting cross legged on the floor, I start pulling everything off the shelf.

Five minutes into my work, I hear a throaty cough coming from behind the register and I scramble to my knees.

I have to bite back a scream when I see who it is. You have got to be kidding me.

Noah gives me a crooked smile, "Hello, Emma."

Surely my imagination distorted the sound of my name rolling smoothly off his tongue, making it more alluring than he obviously meant it.

I don't ignore his lack of surprise at finding me behind the register. It was obvious he knew I was going to be here today, so I could cross off the possibility of our meeting being an innocent accident.

"You, again," I state, trying to keep the surprise out of my voice. It wasn't working.

"That's right, " Noah says with a confident nod, like he wasn't ashamed to admit he was cornering me at work again.

"What are you doing here?" I ask, forcing the accusatory question to sound casual. I morph my features into my unshakable customer service smile. He didn't need to know that my stomach was doing flips behind the register.

Avoiding the dangerous blaze in Noah's eyes, I look away focusing on his light grey dress shirt and black slacks. The sleeves of his shirt are rolled up to his elbows, exposing an uncomfortable amount of forearm.

"I came to buy a book, of course." As he says it, Noah tosses a thick paperback on the counter in front of me. I pick it up to examine, using every ounce of self control I possess to keep my face from going red.

"100 Ways to Get the Girl?" I carefully raise a disbelieving eyebrow, "Really?"

Noah smiles at this and shrugs, "Just want to expand my knowledge." He places his hands on the counter to lean in towards me. "Do you have any advice?" he asks. His chocolate eyes are practically on fire, burning everything in their path. I swallow down the bubbles rising to my throat and pry my eyes away from his face.

In an effort to avoid his gaze, my vision darts down, resting on the exposed muscles of his forearms as they tighten under his weight. I suppress a groan and bite my lip before looking back up at his face. What the hell? Was there no safe place to look??

Judging by the smile he wore, that was a mistake. He definitely thinks he saw me check him out. You weren't checking him out. You noticed his sexy forearms... there's a difference.