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Shea turned and saw them. She abandoned the clothes and met them, bending down first to greet Harley with a gentle cheek pinch, coaxing a smile from him before acknowledging mama. She pulled Farren in for a warm, engulfing hug.
“Shea, it’s so good to see you,” Farren said over Shea’s shoulder.
They started toward the food court to grab lunch at White Oak Kitchen.
“How is Devin?” Farren asked, getting the best-friend-catch-up conversation started.
Shea rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Don’t ask. I’m totally pissed at him right now for forgetting our two-year anniversary.”
“Two years? I didn’t know you two have been together that long!” Farren said in surprise as the line moved forward for them to place their order at the bar.
“We haven’t,” Shea admitted, “but we met two years ago last Saturday. You’d think he would remember the day he met the best thing that’s ever happened to him.”
Shea’s face was deadpan for a few seconds as Farren stood watching her with a ‘you’re kidding me, right?’ face. Then, Shea’s serious expression melted into a devious grin. “I know. I’m being ridiculous.”
It was their turn in line, so they ordered their food and went to grab a table just outside the doors of the crowded restaurant. Farren parked Harley’s stroller next to the table and checked that all was well with him before settling in her chair across from Shea, and a waitress came out with salads and bowls of soup to set in front of them both.
“So what’s the real story?” Farren asked. “What’s really got you upset?”
Shea finished chewing a bite of salad before responding with a sigh. “I don’t know. We’ve been together for a year and a half now, and I guess I’m just wondering what the next step is, or when.”
Farren nodded with full understanding. “What do you want the next step to be?”
“I don’t know. I want the jerk to propose. But I don’t want to tell him I want him to propose because then I’ll never know if he did it because he wanted to or because I wanted him to.”
“Geez, Shea, why don’t you do what any normal girl would do and leave a bunch of bridal magazines lying around or something?”
Shea shook her head like the idea was absurd.
“Enough about me, what about you? How are things with Mr. Dark and Dirty?” Shea teased, waggling her eyebrows.
“Dark and Dirty?” Farren asked with a laugh.
“Uh, yeah! Dark as in, the man is kind of scary-intense sometimes, in a totally hot, Alpha dog kind of way,” Shea explained.
Farren couldn’t disagree there. “And Dirty?”
“Get your mind in the gutter, Fair Child. That man has kinky bastard written all over him,” Shea said, then took a drink of her soda through the straw without breaking eye contact.
A smile broke through on Farren’s face, and a faint blush tinted her cheeks.
“Yeah, well, aside from a couple times in the last week, things have been a little… slow… in the bedroom department,” Farren admitted, looking down at her soup.
“You just had a baby, though. That’s pretty normal, right? Sounds like things are warming up to me.”
Farren had no reply.
Shea leaned forward in her seat, moving in closer to Farren. “What are you not telling me?”
Farren sat her salad fork down on the table, having lost her appetite.
“There’s a woman at work, Edith. I’ve suspected for a while now that she has a thing for him, but I overheard her the other day confirming it to another employee.”
The worried look on Farren’s face did nothing to portray the full extent of anxiety she felt in her gut over the issue.
“The bitch! Who is she?”
“She’s the new marketing manager. She’s smart, confident, and gorgeous, of course. Aggressive. Pretty much exactly his type.”
