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“I can’t even describe it,” Marigold continued. “He was such a gentleman, from the first moment he arrived.”
Crossing my arms, I rolled my eyes.
“He did all the things I love. Opened doors, offered me his arm. He was well dressed and smelled so good I wanted to rub myself all over him just to keep his scent on me.”
I didn’t even know who the guy was, but that image made me gag a little.
Annika sighed. “I love it when they smell good. Sometimes when Levi gets off duty and I haven’t seen him for a while, I have to just hold him and smell his neck. It’s like a drug.”
“I love that,” Marigold said.
“Anyway, go on.”
“It wasn’t just his manners or the helicopter or the private car in Seattle. Or the fancy restaurant, even though the food was delicious. He really seemed to want to get to know me. He asked questions and kept the conversation going so easily. I felt like he was genuinely interested in hearing what I had to say.”
“That kind of attention is hard to beat,” Annika said.
“It really is. And I don’t remember a man ever being that way with me before. Usually they just ask a few questions and then either start talking about themselves or their favorite sports team or something. But Preston listened. He looked me in the eyes and listened to everything I had to say, as if I were the most interesting person in the world.”
Preston? Who the fuck was Preston? I searched my memory but I didn’t know anyone with that name. Where had she met this guy? I inched closer so I could see into the kitchen where she sat at the table with my mom and sister.
“I can’t believe he just walked into your salon,” Annika said.
That answered the where she’d met him question. Thank you, sis.
“I know. I keep wondering if he’s real and if it all actually happened. But the flowers he sent to the salon this morning were real.”
“Aw, he sent flowers?”
“Right after I opened. Here, I took a picture.”
I scoffed. Flowers? Who cares?
“Whoa,” Annika said. “That’s not a bouquet of flowers, that’s a masterpiece.”
“Those are incredible,” Mom agreed.
“Aren’t they amazing? Stacey couldn’t stop gushing about them all day.”
Okay, maybe flowers were worth caring about. But still. I could send her flowers at work. That didn’t make this Preston guy special.
“There’s just something about him,” Marigold said. “He has this quality I can’t quite put my finger on. He’s confident without being arrogant and funny without being obnoxious. And the way he looked at me. It felt so good to have a man look at me like that.”
The soft wistfulness in her voice felt like a knife to the chest. She sounded so dreamy. And it wasn’t me who’d made her feel that way.
“I’m so excited for you,” Annika said. “He sounds like he’s perfect.”
“He’s either the perfect man for me or he’s too good to be true. There can’t be any in between.”
Perfect for her? No way. That was me.
The sound of a throat-clear behind me almost made me jump. I slowly turned to look over my shoulder.
“Hi, Dad.”
His brow was furrowed, his thick eyebrows knitting together. “You okay?”
“Yeah, fine.”
