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“Oh my gosh,” she said. “Let’s do this.”
“You don’t actually believe in that stuff, do you?” he said.
“Not really, but it might be fun.” She grabbed his arm and dragged him inside.
“Hello,” she greeted the woman in the shop. “We’d like to get our palms read.”
“I sense negative energy,” the lady said, pursing her lips and looking at Noah.
“I’ll be outside,” Noah said, and Daisy laughed as he let himself out.
“That one has a lot of pain bottled up. He needs to deal with it.”
It didn’t take a physic to figure that out, but Daisy nodded. “I just want to know if I’m going to win an award tonight.”
“Palm reading doesn’t work like that,” the woman said. “I don’t have any appointments available anyway.”
Daisy didn’t believe her, but the whole idea was losing its enchantment now that Noah wasn’t with her. She thanked the woman, left, and found Noah standing in the shade, looking at his phone.
“That was quick,” he said. “You too tough to read?”
“Ha. Ha,” Daisy said. “She didn’t have time for me.”
They took a cab back to the hotel, thinking it would be cooler than walking, but they might as well have climbed into an oven and asked for a ride. Sticky and sweaty, they picked up Noah’s tux from the concierge’s desk.
On the way to the elevator, Noah was acting cagey and kept scanning the hotel lobby as if waiting for a second boogeyman to jump out at them. Daisy figured he was just being extra cautious and chalked it up to his natural paranoia. They played rock paper scissors to decide who got to shower first. Noah won. Before he dressed, Daisy put a clean bandage on his wound, which was healing nicely. Coping with his naked torso took some willpower, but she stayed strong.
She had to remind herself they weren’t “together,” and tonight wasn’t a date. She’d claimed sleeping with him had meant nothing to her, but that had been a big fat lie—one she wasn’t ready to come clean on yet.
The truth was, sleeping with Noah easily fell into her top three Best Moments of all Time. Right up there with meeting the Dalai Lama and seeing the view from atop Machu Picchu. Part of her was scared he didn’t feel the same, and the other part was terrified he did. It was too much to deal with now. Once she got through tonight, she’d reassess.
When it was her turn to get ready, she took her time in the shower. She’d been too busy to have her legs waxed recently, so she gutted through the arduous chore of shaving them. She washed and conditioned her hair and moisturized everything moisturizable.
By the time she finished in the bathroom, the room was empty. Noah had left a note saying he’d be back for her at six. She dried her hair, did her makeup, and slid—there was no other way to describe how the silk overtook her body—into the slinky, red, spaghetti-strap sheath dress. It fit her like a second skin. As soon as she’d put it on that afternoon, it stood out as The One! A thin gold chain holding a small round diamond—a gift from her father—hung at her neck, and a knockoff, glittery bracelet encircled her wrist. She finished securing the delicate buckles on her strappy high-heeled sandals, and just as she took a final look in the mirror, someone knocked at her door.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Daisy was unprepared for the utter and complete transformation of the man standing at the door. Noah looked fantastic in anything—jeans, cargo shorts, the pajama pants he slept in—and most men looked good in a tux, but this was other-worldly hotness. The suit was stunning, but it was the smile, the beautiful, genuine smile on his face, that melted her heart completely. If she hadn’t been in love before, she was now.
“Holy crap,” she said, biting her lip.
He chuckled. “Right back at ya,” he said, getting a serious glint in his eye. “You look freaking amazing.” He advanced on her as if coming in for a kiss, which she would have welcomed with open arms.
Instead, he shook his head and backed away at the last second. He slapped himself on the cheek. “Get it together, Walsh,” he said, and she laughed.
“Come on,” he said. “I’ve got a surprise for you.”
“Oh,” she said, grabbing her clutch. “I love surprises.”
“So, you nervous?” Noah asked once they were alone in the elevator.
She thought for a minute. “I can honestly say that if it weren’t for the business implications, I couldn’t care less about this thing. After everything that’s happened lately, my priorities have evolved, and I realize that in the grand scheme of things, this is all pretty trivial.”
“You have been through a lot this week.”
“But don’t get me wrong,” she added. “I want this damn piece of glass. It would suck if you took a bullet and had to endure a week with me for nothing.”
He smiled. “It wasn’t so bad.”
