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I lift my head. “Not for good. Just for a day or so. I need a break.”
Dakota nods, but worry pulls at her mouth.
This time I squeeze her hand. “You’ve a wedding coming up, and that means parties, and I’ve pretty much exhausted the dresses I have for evening wear.”
“There are some sweet spots in Cliffside Valley. That’s an hour or so away.” She sighs. “Take a few days, shop, get some old-fashioned therapy on. And I’m going to go with fall colors for the wedding. It’s not going to be fancy.”
“You would rock fancy.”
“It’s not me, though. Pick a dress, send me some pictures and Rose can get something in complementary colors.”
“You are a goddess.”
She comes around the desk and leads me to the living room. We sit among the wooden animal sculptures that have been a hit with guests, and I can just see this place in winter with the fire roaring. Intimate, classy, and downhome, all at the same time.
She pulls her legs up on the sofa. “I know you think he’s off doing something with Willa, but I don’t see it.”
“I saw it.” I shake my head and pick invisible lint from the thigh of my jeans. “She was in this tiny dress, and it was hiked up. She straddled him, and his hands were on her hips, and they were . . .”
Trailing off, I shut down that memory. Two people, about to get hot, dirty, wild in his office.
“You know we just had sex last night. And I should have . . . I should have not gone there, but he’s so irresistible and it was even better than four years ago. He didn’t promise anything—”
“He should fucking be begging you to date him. At the very least.”
I smile. Dakota is a fierce tiger when her people are hurting. “It’s okay, I don’t. The only thing he said was he doesn’t fuck other people while sleeping with someone else. I’m such a fool.”
“I’ll maim him for you, don’t you worry.”
I’m not sure if she believes me. Oh, she believes I saw what I saw, but it’s thewhatI saw she’s got questions about. She’ll go for him, though.
“Don’t do that. It’s okay. I’ll go out of town and when I come back in a couple of days it’s going to be Leland who.”
“If you say so.”
“I just feel like a fool.”
She breathes in and says, “Maybe you should talk to him before you go?”
“If I talk to him, it’ll be him spinning it, and I’m apparently weak when it comes to Leland.”
Because the things that man can do to me, he decimated my defenses. Going away, getting some clothes, and yes, maybe, just maybe, I’m overreacting, but how can I not? He makes me the thing I don’t ever want to be: vulnerable.
I’m not seventeen. I’m not twenty-two. I’m thirty in a few years and my shit is together.
Mostly.
Right up until Leland and his rich voice come into a room. Then . . . Then I’m fourteen with my first crush, and I don’t know if I should run and hide or attempt to flirt and eat up every careless compliment flung my way.
“I’ll be back.” Dakota gets up and when she returns she has two drinks. A small one for me and a bigger one for her. “Here.”
“Thanks.” I take a sip. It’s bourbon and soda.
The heat slides down easily. But I just have the one sip. If I’m going to drive for an hour or so then I need to be sober.
“I got you a small one because while I’d love to talk you into staying and having it out with Leland, I know you’re going to go.”
“Damn straight.”
