Page 134 of Business Casual
I nod. “Yes.”
“In my apartment.”
I look around at the bare walls, the shiny countertops, the luxury finishes without a single hint of personalization. He has a postcard from Lovelight Farms taped to the front of his fridge. One of the flyers from the tattoo studio soft launch is there too. “I assume it’s yours, yes.”
“You’re here, in my apartment, in New York.”
“Yes,” I say, tighter than I mean to. I had hoped that standing in front of him would inspire me to say something beautiful and poetic, but all I feel is slightly off-balance and distracted by the sight of him.
“And you wore the dress,” he says, a grin breaking out on his face, so sudden and bright I almost tumble backward through the door and back into the hallway. I nod, mute, and watch the little crinkles by his eyes deepen.
He sighs, still smiling. “C’mere,” he breathes.
I narrow my eyes. “Why?”
A chuckle rumbles out of him. “Because I want to hug you, Nova girl, and you’re too far away.”
That’s easy enough. I close the space between us and collapse into his arms, feeling myself settle and center for the first time in weeks. I’ve been missing this—the way he holds me just shy of too tight. His nose in my hair and his thumb inching down the line of my spine.
“You were supposed to be at the gala,” I grumble into this shirt.
His palm settles at the small of my back, fingertips toying with the edge of my silver dress. “Is that why you wore this?”
I nod. “I had a plan.”
“Not a very good one, apparently.”
I pinch his chest and another rough laugh rolls out of him. He grabs my hand with his and squeezes once, our palms slipping together. He presses our tangled hands against his heart. It’s beating slightly too fast. Mine skips to match.
“Can you tell me about it?” he asks, a plea in every word.
I tuck my smile into his shoulder. I haven’t given Charlie nearly enough of what he deserves. I want to change that.
“I was going to show up at your fancy gala in my fancy dress and find you across the room. Maybe the crowd would have parted just right or maybe I would have bribed the DJ to play a slow song, I don’t know. But I would have found you. And I would have asked you to dance.”
“You probably would have bellowed my name until I folded, huh?”
I laugh and rub my nose back and forth against his neck. “Yeah, I would have.”
“That sounds like something you’d do.”
I lean back until I can see his face, greedy for the sight of him after being without him these last couple of weeks. I missed him so much, this man I was never supposed to miss at all.
“In my plan”—my voice wobbles, and Charlie’s face softens—“we were going to dance, and we were going to talk, and I was going to tell you all the things I’ve figured out since you left.”
“Like what?”
“Like you were right about the phone tree,” I tell him with a grin. “They’ve been plotting and planning. Apparently we’ve been the topic of conversation.”
“I knew it,” he says. His hand inches lower, over the curve of my ass. His smile tugs wider. “Will they add me back on?”
I nod. “You should be getting messages as we speak. We’re oldnews. They’ve moved on to the Halloween costume contest. They’re scheming to get Dane in a couples costume with Matty. The front runners are Batman and Robin or Bert and Ernie.”
“I’m sure that will go well.”
“They’re making good progress.” I wedge myself closer to him. “But that’s not the only thing I would have wanted to tell you in the middle of a library, at a gala I definitely did not sneak into.”
He huffs a laugh. “What else?”
