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Dillon cocked a brow. “Who’s here?”
Nellie came into the store with her arms full of gladiolus. She smiled over them at Alexa, her eyes alighting on the bakery bag she carried. “Oh, you brought donuts! Thank God. I’m starving.” Then she noticed Dillon and did a double take. “Oh, you brought more than that, I see.”
Alexa gestured at Dillon and fought her sudden bout of nerves. Introducing him to her best friend made all of this more real somehow. Too real.
“Nellie Conroy, this is Dillon James.” She flailed for an appropriate introduction. God, what should she say? “He’s, um, my apartment building’s handyman. Dillon, Nellie.”
Judging from the narrow-eyed glance he gave her, she shouldn’t have said that. Terrific. Yet another flub to add to her growing list.
As annoyed as he clearly was at Alexa, he was all smiles for Nellie. “Hi. Nice to meet you. Here, let me give you a hand with those.”
Before Nellie could say anything, he’d swept the flowers out of her arms and laid them down on the paper-covered prep table behind the checkout counter. “These smell good,” he said, his agile fingers plucking through the long-stemmed flowers with a care that made Alexa swallow hard. He didn’t look at her, and she felt the loss of his teasing glances as acutely as a slap.
Dammit, she hadn’t meant to hurt him.
“My name’s actually Noelle,” Nellie said, propping her hands on her hips. She gave Alexa the evil eye. “Though Lex and Jake can’t seem to remember that.”
“Oh, you’re such a Nellie. Get over it already.” To distract herself, Alexa set the bakery bag on the counter and tucked her purse behind it. Then she drew out her morning checklist and noted with a mixture of pride and concern that Nellie had already checked off a handful of things. Those were her tasks. She liked going around checking on everything each morning, noting which flowers looked a little worse for wear, which she would have to baby. What she was low on, what she had too much of. How the different arrangements looked in the different slants of light from morning to afternoon. Straightening until everything was just so.
“Yeah, and you’re such a type A.” Nellie eased past her and snatched the bag. “That’s Lex’s nickname,” she added before she bit into a blueberry muffin.
“Can’t say it doesn’t fit,” Dillon said, though he clenched his jaw again the instant he caught her looking at him.
Had he really expected her to announce him as her lover? Just put it right out there like that? It wasn’t as if they were dating. Not exactly.
Okay, so they kind of were. Did that mean she had to tell the world?
Apparently it did.
“So you were up early working at Alexa’s,” Nellie said into the silence. “Or up late,” she added meaningfully.
The implication of her statement wasn’t lost on Alexa, but she needed to get the day started. “Thank you for coming in early to open up,” she said to Nellie, her tone brisk. “I got a late start this morning.”
“And it didn’t cheer you up any.”
“She was plenty cheerful until she came in here.”
“It’s her game face.” Nellie licked traces of blueberry off her fingers. “Can’t smile at work. Not the big boss lady.”
“Oh, stop it. We laughed all afternoon yesterday.”
But that had been different. She hadn’t felt Dillon’s presence like ants marching up her spine. His subtle hurt over how she’d introduced him permeated her consciousness. She hated that her first inclination was to push people away. Push him away.
“Can’t argue with that,” Nellie said, propping her hands on her hips. Her ginormous engagement ring winked in the sunlight, reminding Alexa of everything her best friend had and she didn’t. A man who loved her, who thought she’d hung the sun. A family. A contented life, where she wouldn’t ever be alone to fight the demons in her head.
“I have stuff to do in the back,” Nellie said, waving what was left of her muffin. “Thanks for the eats, Dillon.”
“No problem.” Once Nellie had disappeared, he looked down at the client list she clutched in her hand. “So you do have a mailing list, of sorts.”
His voice still sounded colder than usual. She’d just have to work her way around to warming him up.
“This is a repeat customer list. I call them to try to drum up more business. They haven’t asked to sign up for anything.”
“So sign them up for
your e-mail newsletter, maybe something you send out seasonally when you update your website. You still have that kid working on it, right?”
“Yes.” She was too stunned he’d taken this tack with her again to say more. What kind of handyman had such a keen interest in business?
