“I’ll do my best to be there.”
“That’s all I can ask.”
After the call and my coffee was done, I put back on my coat, hat, and gloves and waved goodbye to the barista. She had a new customer at the counter. As I began to walk away, I turned back.
The two women were talking.
I couldn’t place what it was about the woman, but the customer seemed familiar.
Soon my thoughts were filled with Vicki’s promise to attend the wedding and my search for a perfect new dress.
Julia
Thursday afternoon I was in the library refreshing my memory on my research of Wade. I’d told Van I would wait until I could claim my shares, but I needed to stay busy. It seemed that our stay in Chicago had created some backlog for Van at his office. Since Monday morning he was off early and home after the sun set.
Wandering around the big house even with the new security had my nerves stretched taut. While I assumed it was the new security system, I couldn’t shake the sense that I was being watched. I’d even check the app to see myself as a heat bubble on the floor plan. Earlier in the morning, I’d gone up to the third floor. While I’d entered the large room with the paintings weeks ago, now the door was locked.
I ran my fingers over the doorframe searching for a key and found none.
The heat sensors for the space were on backorder; that was what Jonathon had said when he programmed my handprint into the outer-door sensors. I told myself that was why the room was locked, just like the other unused rooms on the second floor.
Everything about our wedding I’d delegated to Paula and Margaret. Too much spare time allowed me to think about things I wanted to forget or encouraged my overactive imagination. Submerging myself in the profit-and-loss reports from the first three quarters of last year as well as the estimated expenditures for this year was keeping my mind occupied.
Sometime after lunch, I startled when the new alarm system signaled the opening of the kitchen door from the garage. A quick look at my new app showed me that the alarms had been disabled. That meant either a member of the security or my wedding planners were coming into the house or possibly that Van was home.
Judging by the time of day, I was most certain it was either security or Margaret and Paula with questions about the wedding. I stood, pushing away from the table and screens as thoughts of decorating samples or ideas came to mind.
The maze of hallways that only weeks ago seemed complex, were all familiar passages as I made my way toward the front of the house. Just before reaching the staircase, I saw the man I didn’t expect to see. His sexy stare met mine as his smile grew.
The millisecond of hesitation went unnoticed. Yet I couldn’t stop my concern that my eyes weren’t seeing who I thought they were.
“What are you doing home?” I asked, forcing a smile and hurrying toward Van.
As soon as we touched, my apprehension disappeared.
The tingle of electricity that sparked at our connection couldn’t be feigned. Our bodies and beings knew one another, even when my mind and sight feared otherwise.
His hands warmed my cheeks. “I feel like I’ve been working too much the last few days. I’m missing out on spending time with my favorite person.”
“And who would that person be?” I lifted my arms to his shoulders as I raised myself to my tiptoes and brushed his lips with mine.
Van’s hands moved to my waist, his fingers splaying beneath the camisole under my sweater and pulling me against him. “I think we should do something.”
“What kind of something?” I asked suggestively.
“Okay, now you’re changing my mind.”
I settled down upon my stocking feet. “What were you thinking?”
“To get you out of the house.”
My body tensed before I could stop it. “I went to Ashland on Tuesday, remember.”
“I haven’t seen proof of that.”
“That’s because you can’t see the dress I found.”
“A few weeks ago, we talked about something, and we haven’t done it.”