Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 83180 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83180 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Did I want to make Hollie swoon? Yes. Should I want to? I couldn’t decide.
“Seriously, is it a big deal? I don’t want to be a dick to this girl.” I glanced at Beck because he knew my history better than Stella did. He’d met Bridget and knew how I’d felt about her. “Shall I take it back?”
“How could giving Hollie the scarf be a dick move?” Stella asked.
“He doesn’t want to give her the wrong message,” Beck explained. “Because you know . . . Bridget.”
The silence of what wasn’t being said filled the space between us. I knew Beck thought I needed to get over Bridget, but he also knew I knew that wasn’t possible. There was no point going through it again.
“But you like Hollie, or you wouldn’t have bought the scarf?” Stella asked.
“Yes of course I like her,” I replied.
Stella wriggled in her seat and threw some very unsubtle I told you so looks at Beck.
“This is not the first time I’ve liked a woman, Stella. I’m not some kind of man-whore who can only handle one-night stands. I’ve liked women before. I liked all my girlfriends.” Stella was reading too much into a very small word.
“Do something for me?” she asked.
“Stella,” Beck warned.
“It’s okay,” I said to Beck. “I can handle your fiancée. I think.”
“Have Hollie be a new book—a fresh page if you like,” she said. “It’s almost as if you have a script to follow with a girlfriend. You know how things are going to turn out before the first kiss. Don’t look ahead too far and be open to whatever happens.” She lifted her chin in Beck’s direction. “Sometimes life can surprise you. Don’t second-guess giving her the scarf. It’s thoughtful and caring and you felt the desire to buy it for her. It’s generous, and that’s part of who you are. That’s not a bad thing, Dexter.”
The way Stella put it made sense. Maybe I wouldn’t be saying anything I didn’t mean if I gave Hollie the scarf. I wouldn’t be being anyone but me. But what, if anything, did a gift like this promise?
“It doesn’t have to be a big deal,” Stella said, answering the question before I could ask it. “It is what it is. You saw it, you thought of her, you bought it. It doesn’t mean anything beyond that.”
Our food arrived and that gave me a chance for Stella’s words to settle. She was right—I was second-guessing myself when I didn’t need to. I’d had the urge to buy Hollie the scarf because it reminded me of her, simple as that.
“I’m going to give her the scarf.”
Fifteen
Hollie
Today was going to be another day jammed full of firsts. And not the kind of firsts that I experienced back in Oregon. I wouldn’t be running out of gas at the end of the week, unclogging a septic line, or having Billy from the arcade hitting on me, which was a rite of passage for all the girls in Sunshine, Oregon. I was going to see the earrings that would be submitted to the competition by Daniels & Co for the first time. I was going to help out on the photo shoot where the earrings were going to be modelled. And I was going to assist Jeremy, who was presenting to Dexter the different ways we could display the jewelry for the competition.
I would also be face-to-face with Dexter at work for the first time since we’d had sex.
I wasn’t in Kansas anymore. Or Oregon. Sometimes I wondered if it was even the same solar system.
“Everyone in the conference room, please,” Primrose said. I’d already fetched coffee for everyone and had just finished rearranging the furniture so we could fit in a podium for the earrings that would be submitted for the competition. We’d all seen the drawings, and obviously some of the team had been involved in production, but this was the first time they would be seen by everyone.
I couldn’t wait. The drawings were beautiful and I knew they would be even more so in real life. The energy in the office was buzzing, ready for the reveal of the first finished works.
People began to file in when Frank, the chief jewelry engineer, came from the other end of the corridor carrying a big white box. Everyone paused so he could go ahead and he set the cube on top of the podium.
“Okay, everyone, please take your seats. Hollie,” Primrose said, turning to me. “Can you take the stand around and show everyone while they’re seated so we don’t have a crowd around the podium?”
Holy Hercules, I couldn’t be trusted to handle something so precious. I was guaranteed to trip and send one of the earrings hurtling down a drain that would magically appear in the floor. Frank handed me a pair of white gloves and I put them on, trying to hide my trembling hands as he took the lid off the box.