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“How you knew to send just what I needed is beyond me. I’ve been meaning to install a new one, one of those energy efficient, water saving beasts, whatever they are, for so long, and now you’ve finally given me that shove in the right direction. The dead flowers were a real special touch. I like a woman with backbone and one with wit and imagination is even better! And money!” Grandma looks around the boutique. “It’s good to know you weren’t just sleeping with my grandson to get a chunk of his fortune. A lot have, you know, but I see that you probably do know, because a lot of men probably try and dip their hands in your honey pot just to get at your money too.”
“That’s it.” I wrap my arm around Grandma’s waist and turn her and steer her straight towards a lovely display of jewelry. “Pick something out. Anything. For yourself. Or as a gift for someone else. It doesn’t matter. Just give me five minutes to speak for myself. Alone.”
Grandma looks over her shoulder. Leandra looks like she doesn’t know whether to be amused in the extreme or even more peeved. I don’t know how much more groveling I’m going to have to do now.
I leave Grandma looking over necklaces and bracelets, which really are very nice, and approach the counter cautiously again. I guess sometime between the start of my grandma’s terribly embarrassing speech and now, the other woman who was in here left. Great. Now I probably also have to apologize for driving Leandra’s customers away.
I duck my head and stop within six feet of the counter so that I don’t crowd Leandra. I can barely make myself look at her. I don’t think I’ve ever been more embarrassed. I can feel the heat stealing up my neck, settling into my limbs. I feel like ice shards have lodged in my throat, which is an extreme contradiction, but I also guess that’s what a steady dose of true shame does for a person.
“I’m sorry.” I look up, straight into those lovely sapphire eyes when I say it. I’m relieved to see that I’m not the only one who is blushing, though Leandra does it much more prettily than I’m no doubt doing it. She doesn’t look like she wants to grab the first sharp object and use it to make a pike for my head, and she no longer looks like she wishes to double me over and turn me into a human butt tasting pretzel. Also a good sign. “I’m sorry about what my grandma just said. I’m sorry about telling her about my night with you. I know it was supposed to just be a one-time thing. I do understand the basics of a one-night stand and I know we had an agreement. I found your earring and I wanted to return it. Grandma was involved in the planning of the ball and she knows almost everyone, so I asked her if she knew who it belonged to, if she had seen anyone wearing them. She knew it right away. She knows your grandmother well, it turns out.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Leandra asks dryly. Her hands flatten out on the countertop.
“I don’t know.” My brows arch up. “Why aren’t you surprised?”
“Oh, just because my granny is famous for her meddling and her attempts at matchmaking. She probably had the whole thing planned out. Darn her anyway.” She shakes her head and golden hairs escape the twisted knot to frame her gorgeous face. Her lips are painted scarlet today and I remember very much how I enjoyed kissing that same shade off of them a few weeks ago.
Fire zings through my bloodstream, my cock stands at attention, and now I’m having to rearrange myself in my pants, which is probably very obvious, or face a very obvious tent, and if that isn’t horribly mortifying, springing a boner while trying to- attempting to- apologize and already having botched nearly entirely on that, I don’t know what is.
“Oh. I- I see.”
Leandra tilts her head. “Do you?”
“Well, I- I don’t know that I do. I guess I kind of do.” A sigh slithers out of my lungs, sounding all wrong, like a mouth fart. Are mouth farts a thing? I guess that might technically be a burp, but it didn’t sound like a burp. “I was just- I sent the flowers because I thought, I guess I hoped, that maybe you had thought about me too, and from what you said, I figured you were done with men because a bunch of assholes had done you wrong, and I wanted to prove that I could be less of an asshole and maybe, just maybe, do you right.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Grandma cuts in, showing up at my elbow and making me jump an actual inch off the floor.
