Harlequin Holiday Collection - Four Classic Seasonal Novellas

moment was the beginning of the end. He rushed through the rest of his meal and fled as quickly as possible.
    Olivia sagged against the closed door.
    How was she ever going to reach that man?

Chapter Five
    Five days ’til Christmas
    The next day Olivia recognized the magnitude of her mistake. She should never have insisted Jacob stay for dinner. Now he wouldn’t even look at her, much less speak to her.
    Not that he spoke to her on a regular basis before, but typically he at least said good morning. Plus, the lab wasn’t that large; usually they barely missed running into each other around one piece of equipment or another. He would smile and say, “excuse me”—but not today. He kept to his station without so much as a glance in her direction.
    She’d probably screwed up any chance of getting closer to him.
    It was likely for the best. Coworkers weren’t supposed to date. Friendly get-togethers were acceptable. In fact, the whole staff operated very much like a family. A strictly platonic family.
    Her gaze wandered across the room. Jacob Webster was far from the most outgoing member of the staff. He was considerably older than Olivia. Why was he the one she longed to know more intimately?
    Just like back in college, she reminded herself. Then, too, she’d picked a guy who was way out of her league, and it had cost her. She’d gotten his attention all right. He’d gotten what he wanted and then split.
    End of story.
    Jacob evidently wanted nothing from her, either, because he avoided her very carefully. Obviously, he’d only taken her home last night because there hadn’t been anyone else.
    “Hey, Olivia.”
    She jerked her attention back to her own station. Bart Flemming had stopped next to her, a file in his hand. She produced a smile. “Hey, Flemming.” He was young—twenty-five, she thought. Light brown hair, a little long for Olivia’s taste. He liked teasing her because she was new. She got the distinct impression that he was the competitive type.
    “Webster says you had a little trouble with your computer yesterday.” He cocked his head in that I-got-you-covered way. “You want me to have a look?”
    “That would be great. I need to check on some of the tests I started yesterday, so I’ll get out of your way.”
    He grinned. “Yeah, I wouldn’t want you to learn any of my secrets.”
    Olivia’s smile was genuine this time. Bart was one heck of a smart guy. Kind of a jack-of-all-trades. Any time there was a computer glitch, he could usually figure it out. Not to mention he was an outstanding forensics tech as well.
    Olivia pulled up the analysis for her samples. Sample insufficient for testing. What in the world? She checked each one. They all said the same.
    That was impossible. She never made that kind of mistake. Her pulse lunged into hyper mode. Those test results were due this afternoon. She glanced at the clock. She could try to rerun them, but she’d be damned lucky to make it happen by her deadline.
    She stopped and pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes. What was wrong with her? Sure she’d been a little lonely lately, wasn’t sleeping well. But none of that was bad enough to interfere with her job.
    She had no time to worry about it now. As quickly as possible, she prepared new samples and prayed they would finish in time.
    When she returned to her station, Flemming shrugged. “Didn’t see a problem, Olivia.”
    Her hand shook as she swiped her hair back behind her ear. “Thanks for checking. I guess I did something wrong.”
    He held up both hands. “Now I didn’t say nothing like that.”
    She managed a smile. Her stomach was churning. As Flemming walked away, she considered him and the others working diligently at their stations. Was there something going on that she didn’t know about? A joke? On her? Someone testing her grace under fire? Flemming certainly possessed the expertise to mess with her electronic data and files.
    Maybe she was just growing paranoid because she’d screwed up? Not once, but twice?
    She opened the next case that required her attention. Maybe she was making too much out of this. Everyone had an off day. Maybe yesterday had been hers.
    It would be nice if she had someone to talk to about her feelings. Her gaze wandered across the room to Jacob.
    She was the newest member on staff. She had no friends outside work. Well, except for the one neighbor.
    Maybe she had no friends here, either.
    There it was, another of those “I’m lonely