Trading Christmas - Debbie Macomber [97]
He glanced up and smiled at her again, but this time Cait thought she could see a glimmer of appreciation in his eyes. “What can I do for you? I hope you’re pleased with your office.” He frowned slightly.
For a second, she forgot what she was doing in Paul’s office and stared at him blankly until his own gaze fell to the folder. The office looks great,” she said quickly. “Um, the reason I’m here…” She faltered, then gulped in a quick breath and continued, “I went through some of the business journals I have at home and found several articles I felt would interest you.” She extended the folder to him, like a ceremonial offering.
He took it from her and opened it gingerly. “Gracious,” he said, flipping through the pages and scanning her written comments, “you must’ve spent hours on this.”
“It was…nothing.” She’d willingly have done a good deal more to gain his appreciation and eventually his love.
“I won’t have a chance to look at this for a few days,” he said.
“Oh, please, there’s no rush. You happened to mention you got some useful insights from the previous article I gave you. So I thought I’d share a few others that seem relevant to what’s going on with the market now.”
“It’s very thoughtful of you.”
“I was happy to do it. More than happy,” she amended with her most brilliant smile. When he didn’t say anything more, Cait rose reluctantly to her feet. “You must be swamped after being in meetings for most of the day, so I’ll leave you now.”
She was almost at the door when he spoke. “Actually I only dropped in to the office to collect a few things before heading out again. I’ve got an important date this evening.”
Cait felt as if the floor had suddenly disappeared and she was plummeting through empty space. “Date?” she repeated before she could stop herself. It was a struggle to keep smiling.
Paul’s grin was downright boyish. “Yes, I’m meeting her for dinner.”
“In that case, have a good time.”
“Thanks, I will,” he returned confidently, his eyes alight with excitement. “Oh, and by the way,” he added, indicating the folder she’d worked so hard on, “thanks for all the effort you put into this.”
“You’re…welcome.”
By the time Cait got back to her office she felt numb. Paul had an important date. It wasn’t as though she’d expected him to live the life of a hermit, but before today, he’d never mentioned going out with anyone. She might have suspected he’d thrown out the information hoping to make her jealous if it hadn’t been for one thing. He seemed genuinely thrilled about this date. Besides, Paul wasn’t the kind of man to resort to pretense.
“Cait, my goodness,” Lindy said, strolling into her office a while later, “what’s wrong? You look dreadful.”
Cait tried to swallow the lump in her throat and managed a shaky smile. “I talked to Paul and gave him the research I’d done.”
“He didn’t appreciate it?” Lindy picked up the Christmas wreath that lay on Cait’s desk and pinned it to the door.
“I’m sure he did,” she replied. “What he doesn’t appreciate is me. I might as well be invisible to that man.” She pushed the hair away from her forehead and braced both elbows on her desk, feeling totally disheartened. Unless she acted quickly, she was going to lose Paul to some faceless, nameless woman.
“You’ve been invisible to him before. What’s different about this time?” Lindy fastened a silver bell to the window as Cait abstractedly fingered her three ceramic wise men.
“Paul’s got a date, and from the way he talked about it, this isn’t with just any woman, either. Whoever she is must be important, otherwise he wouldn’t have said anything. He looked like a little kid who’s been given the keys to a candy store.”
The information seemed to surprise Lindy as much as it had Cait. She was quiet for a few minutes before she asked, “What are you going to do about it?”
“I don’t know,” Cait cried, hiding her face in her hands. She’d once jokingly suggested to Joe that she parade around naked in an effort to gain Paul’s attention. Of course she’d been exaggerating,