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“That’s a word for it.” I bit my lip. “What kept you?”
“A meeting ran over. But I wanted to drop these off for you.”
“Thanks. Derek said we were going to go out tonight to celebrate. Marina, Daron, and Tye are in town. You coming?”
“Of course. I’ll see you tonight then,” he said with that same smile that always drew me in.
I tried to keep my heart in check. To remember that he didn’t see me that way. He never really had. He was just a friend who had been there for me when I moved home.
In fact, he was half the reason I’d pulled the trigger.
I’d been working for Elizabeth Cunningham for almost three years when I finally said fuck it and designed something else, something more me. Elizabeth herself stormed into my office and chewed me out for the “catastrophe” I had designed. We got into it, screaming at each other until she fired me. I’d scooped up all my designs and walked out of the office with my head held high.
Every single one of those dresses was already a best seller in my new shop, and I didn’t regret a damn thing. But after the adrenaline had run out, I’d been terrified, and I’d called Ash to see if he was serious about helping me find a store to open in Savannah. We’d worked it all out in the following months until my lease ran out and I moved home to open Ballentine.
But it had always been professional. Friends at best.
“Hey, I have something I want to talk to you about later,” he said, his smile turning soft at the edges.
“Oh?” I asked, trying to keep the hope out of my voice.
“Not now. Let’s talk about it when we go out, okay?”
“Sure. Everything okay?”
“Of course. I just … I need to talk to you.”
My heart pattered traitorously in my chest. “Okay, Ash. I’ll see you tonight.”
He beamed. “Tonight. Bye, Mia.”
Clutching the red roses, I watched him go and wondered what the hell he was going to tell me. It was stupid to hope that he’d finally realized his feelings for me. I shouldn’t even want that after what had happened in New York City. That probably wasn’t what it was about anyway.
That was just what I obsessed about all day on my first day of work.
Marina looped her arm with mine as we walked through City Market downtown. The sun was setting on the horizon. It felt like it was later and later each night. So late that for the Fourth, we’d waited until nearly ten to set off fireworks. But I loved it. I loved summer and all the possibilities it always seemed to herald.
Derek and Kasey had gone on to Lulu’s Chocolate Bar to stake a big enough table for the lot of us. Daron and Tye were trailing behind us, eating a caramel apple. They turned into children when they came back to Savannah during the summer. Ash was supposed to be meeting us at Lulu’s. Anticipation clawed up my throat.
“So, what do you think he’s going to say?” Marina asked excitedly.
I shrugged. “Could be anything.”
“Do you think he’s going to ask you out?”
“Why wouldn’t he have done that at the shop?”
Marina had ditched her baseball cap and jean shorts for one of my dresses. A bright purple number that popped against her deep tan. Her long, silky, dark hair fell like a sheet down her back. We could have been sisters instead of cousins today, and I liked it better that way.
“He wouldn’t want to ask you at your work!”
“Maybe,” I said uncertainly.
“I bet it’s that. I bet he wants to ask you out somewhere not related to work.”
“I’ll wait and see. Let’s not get my hopes up.” It was already too late. “Tell me about the guy you’re seeing.”
Marina sighed heavily. “Nolan’s a dick. Let’s not talk about him.”
I snorted. “Then, why are you seeing him if he’s a dick?”
Marina shot me a dirty look, and I burst out laughing.
She winked at me. “He’s just … a magnet.”
I sighed dreamily. I knew that feeling all too well. “Maybe it’ll work out.”
“Maybe,” Marina said, but she didn’t sound like she believed it.
We turned the corner on Congress and MLK Jr. Boulevard to find Ash Talmadge waiting in front of Lulu’s Chocolate Bar in shorts and a button-up. Marina waved at him.
“Ash!” she called.
He looked up at the sound of his name and smiled.
Marina gave him a big hug. “Good to see you.”
“You too, Marina.”
He shook hands with Daron and Tye. Daron shot me a look as if he knew exactly what I was thinking. That was the thing about Daron. He was so intuitive that nothing went over his head.
I pushed him inside. “We’ll follow you in. Derek and Kasey grabbed a table already.”
Marina grumbled, “Ugh. Do we have to hang out with her?”
