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Her phone dinged. She pulled it from her purse, noting two missed texts from Jaxson. The first one had her heart pounding with unease. The second one had her fake smile morphing into a real one. This man and his sweet words. She wished she was in bed with him, too. The world around them far, far away. Nothing could touch them. Nothing could disturb them. Nothing was real but them and the magic they could create.
“For you, anything.” Brick leaned against the bar, his eyes sparkling with merriment. “Someone’s happy. Dating a new guy?”
Mia cleared her throat, tossing her phone back inside her purse. Jaxson would have to wait until this meeting was over.
“Maybe. You know me. Anyway,” Mia said, waving her hand as if signaling they were moving on to a new conversation, which they needed to do. “I need to talk about parties with you. Can we have Dane’s birthday party here?”
He nodded. “Of course. I already said you ladies could.”
Oh, right. He did when she and Gabby had breakfast here yesterday morning. That had slipped her mind. Apparently, it had slipped Gabby’s mind as well, since she didn’t pick up on it this morning.
Whew!
That meant she didn’t lie to her. Brick had already given her the go-ahead.
So, why did it still feel like she’d lied?
“Right. I know that. I meant, can we talk dates? Like, how about next Saturday?”
Brick nodded again, but this time his eyes narrowed with concern. As if he could tell the underlying tension simmering below the surface. She hoped he didn’t try to make her confess about her problems. And he was so good at it, too. She found herself spilling secrets—nothing terrible—to him all the time, and he hardly ever had to cajole her to do so. She’d even seen him do it to other people. He simply had a way with people.
“You have free rein to do whatever. Next Saturday is fine. I’ll rope off the back room so no one invades your space. Let me know what kind of food you’d like and I’ll make sure I have two staffers in the kitchen that night. Whatever you need, I got you.”
Which was what made Brick so special. She wished he and Jezebelle would become an item. They’d be perfect together.
“Great. That’s great. I will work on a menu in the next few days and get it right over to you. I should go. Busy day at work today.”
She stood up. Brick straightened as well, the concern still prominent in his gaze.
“Everything okay?”
“Yep. Just a lot on my mind with this party.”
Wow. Another sort of lie slipping out. What was wrong with her? Because more than the party was on her mind. Way more.
“Gotta run, Brick. Have a great day.”
Then she left before he could interrogate her more and make her confess every deep dark sin.
She walked toward the nearest subway station as she pulled out her phone and fiddled with it, wondering what would be the best response to Jaxson.
Best to acknowledge the first message, which frightened her the most. See, it was already happening. She was already losing him. She could feel it in her bones that no matter how hard they might try, it wouldn’t work out. Nothing ever did in her life. It always withered away and died—like her mom.
We should talk. I’m headed to work. Now is not a good time.
Too harsh?
It sounded harsh. But it was all the truth. They did need to talk, and she was headed to work. Something she needed to do a bit faster or she’d be walking in five minutes late, which would throw her entire day off. Yeah, sure, it would only be five minutes, but it would bug her and ruin her day. Late was late.
Jaxson: Dinner…later tonight?
…
Oh, those three little blinking dots. What else could he want to say? I love you again? She had said it once because she did. But every other time he said those wonderful words to her, the words got stuck in her throat to repeat them. She didn’t know why, especially when she did love him. She had nine years—as his friend—to get to know him. To know how special and the kind of a man he was. To know that he would treat her right. To know that if he said he’d do something, he’d follow through. To know that he’d never lie and cheat on her.
Jaxson was the one, and the thought of that scared her to death.
Jaxson: Are you okay? I miss you.
