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ONE
ella
I hadto draw the line somewhere.
Don’t get me wrong, I was happy for my newfound cousin. Ever since Gabby had contacted me several months ago, she and I had hit it off and become fast friends.
Of course, I wanted to be a bridesmaid at her wedding. I’d wear the shoes, the dress—but flying to Montana with the groom’s best friend?
A man who not only owned the building I cleaned, but who Gabby and Adrian had been trying to set me up with?
That was going too far.
“I don’t know, Gabby,” I said, sinking back on my couch and staring at the leaves rustling outside my window. Living on the second floor of this apartment complex gave me a direct view of Vermont’s flaming fall foliage.
“Is it flying you don’t like?”
“I’ve never been on a plane,” I said.
If that was the excuse I needed to get out of this, so be it.
“Then you’re going to love it, especially in something like this. It’s so fast?—”
“I’m not in a hurry. Addie and I will leave in plenty of time. I love road trips.”
“—and maybe you two will hit it off.”
There it was. I’d asked her—I didn’t know how many times—to leave it alone. To her credit, Gabby hadn’t mentioned setting me up with Hawk Danielson again since I’d met her and her fiancé in person for the first time back in June.
But I’d known she wouldn’t give up that easily.
“I clean his office,” I said, fingering the edge of the gray couch’s armrest. “I know the details and contents of his garbage can and closet more intimately than any person rightly should.”
“Ew,” Gabby said.
“My point exactly.” It wasn’t that I’d found anything questionable in either case, but still. “He’s no harmless, down-to-earth do-gooder.”
He couldn’t be. Not like I wanted to find.
I’d been in plenty of botched relationships—and not just romantic ones, either. The situation with my family right now was anyone’s nightmare.
If I ever let myself get close to a man, I had to be sure he was the kind of guy who wouldn’t tear my heart out at the first sign of drama.
“Being rich doesn’t mean he’s not a good guy,” Gabby argued. “Look at Adrian. Hawk is his best friend, and I can vouch for his taste. Why not give him a chance?”
“No,” I said.
“Come on—he’s handsome, suave, a little silly?—”
I hadn’t expected that adjective. “Silly?”
“I mean, he’s flirty.”
“Just what I’m looking for,” I said, hoping she heard my sarcasm. “Silly and flirty.”
How did he ever get to be the CEO of a successful candy company?
For some reason, Willy Wonka came to mind. I wondered if Hawk Danielson went around breaking into song and quoting random poetry no one knew, or if he had a handful of orange-skinned minions who caused disaster and berated children for their shortcomings.
