Those he anticipated, sometimes even predicted.

But today, it looked as though his crystal ball was a little cloudy because he hadn’t seen this coming at all.

“What do you say? You up for it?”

As he stared back at his assistant/friend, trying to process what she was telling him—though he had to give her props, she had phrased it as a question, but he knew her better than that—Gannon knew this was not going to be fun.

In fact, he’d take a server crash over what Milly was suggesting any day.

“Seriously, Gannon.” Milly’s perfectly tweezed blonde eyebrows arched downward as she narrowed her baby blues at him. “It’ll be good for us.”

Us.

It never fared well for him when Milly used that one little word in a sentence.

Casually leaning back in her chair, long legs crossed at the knee, Milly Holcomb, the woman who kept Gannon and the rest of the Austin office organized and on track, looked more like a supermodel than a tenured administrative assistant for the president and CEO of Burgess Entertainment. Him.

But Milly was a different breed, Gannon would have to give her that. Not only was she his assistant, she was also his longtime friend, the keeper of most of his secrets, the woman who forced him to spill his guts when he had no desire to do so. So, yeah, he probably made a few exceptions for her, looked the other way most of the time. It was easier that way.

She was smart, driven, quick-thinking, even professional when the situation required her to be. Hell, he could list a dozen more things about her that he admired, because Milly had a lot of appealing qualities.

But subtlety wasn’t one of them.

Perfect example … right now, her long, golden-blonde hair was haphazardly heaped on the top of her head like she’d just rolled out of bed—a style that had probably taken her an hour—held in place by some fancy clip. Her smooth, alabaster skin made her look closer to twenty-one than thirty-one. The knee-length black skirt showed off her legs, and the white, button-down blouse that was unbuttoned a little more than was probably appropriate for an office setting offered a glimpse of her generous cleavage, which was likely one of the reasons the game designers were always hovering around her.

And he knew for a fact that she enjoyed the hell out of giving the guys in the office something nice to look at. Hell, she’d told him so.

Leaning back in his chair, balancing it on two legs, Gannon placed his hands behind his head, elbows wide as he regarded her. “A boat?” he asked skeptically, still hoping he’d heard her wrong.

“Yes.” The single word rang with an emphatic exhale, as though she was frustrated because he had a problem understanding. “A couple of hours out on the lake. Sunshine, conversation. It’s just what the team needs.”

“The team?”

Milly frowned. “Stop doing that.”

“Doing what?”

She huffed. “Responding to me with two word questions. It’s really irritating.”

Smiling at how easily he could get her flustered, Gannon peered past Milly and through the wall of glass that separated his office from the rest of the floor. The place looked the same as it did on any Friday morning. A few people were wandering around, a couple of guys talking, several sitting in front of their monitors working diligently.

“They look happy to me,” he said, nodding toward one of the designers who had snuck over to the open box of donuts to steal another one, flushing to the roots of his jet-black hair when he looked over to see Gannon watching him.

Gannon offered a small wave and a smile. With a mouthful, the guy waved back, then scurried back to his desk.

“You don’t talk to them enough,” Milly said firmly.

“You want me to go out there and chat?” Gannon frowned, his glasses sliding down his nose. Pushing them back up, he cocked an eyebrow, waiting for her to explain.

“No, I don’t. I want you to get them out of the office for a little while.”

“On a boat?” he repeated.

“Gannon.”

He couldn’t help but laugh at the admonishing tone she used with him. She should’ve been used to it by now; after all, she’d worked for him for nearly a decade, and shortly after that, she’d insinuated herself smack in the middle of his life, becoming his closest friend. She knew him better than most people, but there was still a lot she didn’t know about him. And Gannon preferred it that way. The less people knew, the better off he was.

And one of the things she didn’t know about him was that he hated water. Perhaps that wasn’t a strong enough adjective. Loathed, abhorred, detested. Or … all of those to the power of infinity.

Yes, that worked.

Unless it was in a concrete bowl in someone’s backyard or in his own bathtub, Gannon steered clear of it. A shower was his idea of a water sport, and he was content with that. The notion of spending an afternoon floating on the stuff… Let’s just say he’d rather have someone pluck his toenails off with pliers, then feed them to him. The toenails. Or the pliers. Either way.

Clearly oblivious to Gannon’s internal musings, Milly continued, “I already know the perfect place. It’s about an hour away.”

“An hour? Why not one of the lakes right here in Austin?” Not that he thought it was a good idea.

“Because they’re too low right now.”

He’d have to take her word on that.

“So why this particular place?” he questioned, not willing to give in just yet.

“I don’t know,” Milly huffed. “It looks nice.”

“Looks nice?”

Milly pursed her lips. “Yes. On their website. And if you get your butt out of your chair, we can go right now. Get things set up.”

Dropping his chair back down, Gannon leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he regarded her once more. “Go now? What are you talking about? Why not just call them?”

“Because I don’t know what I’m asking for.” The tops of Milly’s ears turned the same color red as her lipstick, and he realized she was embarrassed. “I was hoping we could go check it out, make sure it’s something we want to do.”

Gannon could’ve told her that we definitely didn’t want to do any of it. Her, maybe. Him, nope.

Getting up, Gannon walked around behind his desk, getting ready to sit down at his computer so he could get some work done.

“No, don’t sit down,” she blurted, sitting up straight. “Come on. It’ll be fun. And who knows, maybe there’ll be a couple of hot guys there we can flirt with.”

Gannon gave her his best get real look. “I’m not in the market for a guy right now. Hot or otherwise.”

“Sure you are,” she countered in that tone that said she knew him better than he knew himself. “And just think, it’s easier for you to meet guys when I’m with you.”

Gannon grimaced. “How’s that?”

“Well, if they aren’t checking me out, then we know they’re gay.”

Smiling, he rolled his eyes.

That was another thing about Milly, she certainly wasn’t modest.

“Now get your shit together,” Milly ordered as she stood. “We’re wastin’ time.”

And there was the hard-headed, take-no-shit assistant he knew and loved. She was good at a lot of things, but ordering him around… That was something Milly had mastered years ago.

Shaking his head in disbelief, Gannon relented. He wasn’t going to be able to convince her this was a bad idea, no matter how much he wanted to. Truth was, Milly did have the team’s best interests in mind when she made her suggestions. If she thought they’d enjoy a day out on the boat, maybe they would.

He wouldn’t.

But even he knew it wasn’t about him.

Half an hour later, after Milly had tied up a few loose ends and allotted him fifteen minutes to check his email, Gannon was behind the wheel of his car, Milly riding shotgun.

“This is exciting,” she said, bouncing in her seat like a five-year-old on the way to the toy store.