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“You can’t say that.”
“Sure, I can. How many times did you tell me that you wanted to move to New York when we were kids?”
She snapped her mouth shut.
“How many times did you tell me you hated living in a town where everyone knew you?”
This time, she bit down on her lips, thinning them. He was right—again.
“I wasn’t going to stand in your way. It’s like I said. I just want you to be happy.”
CHAPTERTWELVE
It couldn’t bethis easy.
All this time, Simon had fretted over destroying something, over losing something. In the grand scheme of things, he’d had nothing to worry about. He’d overthought until he’d made himself sick.
That was the old Simon. And the old Simon would have looked at all that time as time he’d wasted when he could have just stepped up and gotten everything he wanted.
Better late than never.
As he held Katrina, right here, right now, he vowed he wouldn’t be the one to stand in his own way. She was too important to him and none of this would have happened if Brianne hadn’t told him to go out with her tomorrow.
Simon groaned, startling Katrina enough that she pulled away from him. She stared up at him with concern, wrinkles marring her forehead. “What’s the matter?”
He shook his head. The last thing she needed was to hear that he hadn’t been brave enough to come here without Brianne’s help. Already he could imagine what she would say or what she might do. It wasn’t so far-fetched to think that Katrina might also have doubts about them.
Heck, she might even wonder if he and Brianne had planned this whole thing from the beginning.
Shoot! He should probably tell Brianne to play it cool. Better yet, he might want to tell her to pretend to be surprised. It would hurt for her to throw the same kind of fit in front of Katrina when they inevitably talked.
Katrina peered up at him, forcing him to come back to the present. He cupped her face with his palm and brushed his thumb across her cheekbone. “It’s nothing. I just realized I have to call Brianne about something.”
Her eyes rounded larger than he thought possible. A gasp tore from her throat and she darted backward, but he caught her hand in time to stop her. “Now it’s your turn. What’s going on?”
She blushed. Even without the sun shining, he could see the deep color spreading from ear to ear. “I don’t think you’re going to like it.”
“That definitely doesn’t sound good.”
Katrina returned to his side. She gnawed on her lower lip as she grabbed his hand and fidgeted with his fingers. “I don’t want you to get upset, but I told her to set me up with someone new.”
He lifted his brows, but it was only for show.
“I know.” She grimaced. “What do you think she’s going to say when I tell her that whoever she found is going to have to cancel?”
“Are you sure she found someone? It hasn’t been very long.”
Her eyes drifted toward the house and she nodded. “I’m sure. She wouldn’t have called me so late if she hadn’t found someone to take me out. I didn’t answer her call, but I’m positive that she did.”
“How?”
Katrina swung her attention back to him. “She never leaves voice messages. And one popped up right before you got here.”
Wow. He had to hand it to her; Brianne was good at what she did. If anyone could have found a replacement love interest, it would be her. He itched to just tell her, to let her know that Brianne had been one step ahead of both of them, and he was the one Brianne would push in Katrina’s direction.
Holding his tongue on this little tidbit was proving to be harder than hiding his feelings for Katrina in the first place. “You should probably call her back.”
She shot him a sharp look. “I can’t do that.”
