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Introducing our exclusive online daily soap opera for Insider members. Like current soaps on air, Best For Last features daily written episodes focused on the drama surrounding Laurie, Seth, and a host of other players.
Get immersed in stories and characters you’ve never seen before and let them become family, like the players we see every day on Days of our Lives, General Hospital, The Young and the Restless, and The Bold and the Beautiful.
Continue from Episode 33
After a day of being driven around the outskirts of Salt Lake City, surveying everything from the natural landscape to the available public utilities to the transportation possibilities, Lauren and Garrett initiated a conference call for both her grandfather and his father to fill them in on what they’d found. They called from Lauren’s hotel room, putting the phone on speaker so that all four parties could hear each other.
Lauren sat on the edge of the bed, with Garrett on a chair across from her, their knees almost touching. She opened a folder, removed the notes she’d taken during their tour, and turned them sideways so Garrett might be able to read them as well. He reached to balance the sheets of paper between them. And brushed the inside of her thigh as a result.
It wasn’t the first time that had happened. All day, even as they’d traveled from site to site, Garrett had stood a little closer to Lauren than he absolutely had to, literally breathing down her neck. He’d reached across her when he could have just as easily walked around. And when he’d helped her in and out of the car or across a particularly rocky stretch of terrain, he’d held her hand – and her elbow and her waist and her shoulder – for a touch longer that one would think necessary. Not that any of this was precisely a bad thing.
Lauren understood that, in theory, she should be deeply offended. She should tell him firmly to stop, that he was behaving unprofessionally and that Lauren was not the sort of woman afraid or unable to stand up for herself. Except that Lauren didn’t exactly want him to stop.
He was just so damn charming, performing every one of his Human Resources frowned-upon maneuvers without a taint of sleaze or aggression. Instead, he radiated an almost-but-not-quite air of sincere disbelief that he was, in fact, acting in such a manner, but, what could he do – she inspired him.
He was also, not to put too fine of a point on it, quite good at everything he was doing. And he was ridiculously good-looking.
“My mother is Chinese,” was one of the first things Garrett said to her, even though Lauren hadn’t asked or even said a word that suggested she’d been wondering. Though, of course, she had been. He explained, “People usually want to know why I don’t look like my father.”
“I’m not really a Briggs,” Lauren had blurted out, unsure of what the proper response to his confession might be and figuring a genealogical intimacy of equal or greater value was in order. “My mother married Junior Briggs.” She didn’t know how to finish. Technically, she’d never even been adopted.
Garrett shrugged, unconcerned. “You really are something, though.” Seriously, how was Lauren supposed to say no to a man like that?
Continue to Episode 35
About the Author
Alina Adams wrote the “As the World Turns” tie-ins, “Oakdale Confidential” and “The Man From Oakdale,” and co-wrote “Guiding Light’s” “Jonathan’s Story.” She was the Creative Content Producer for “Another World Today,” and worked on the 2013 relaunches of “All My Children” and “One Life To Live.” Her books include romance novels, figure skating murder mysteries, and the historical family saga, “The Nesting Dolls,” from HarperCollins. Read more at: AlinaAdams.com
