“You’re a wordsmith. Of course you do.”
Our banter makes me a happy man, makes me laugh and feel a lightness in my limbs that I like having there. “So stricken,” I say, deepening my voice.
I work to keep the wistful smile from sliding its way onto my lips. My mind cannot believe this is the moment in which I’ve currently found myself. I’m in my livingroom, watching Paisley perch on the arm of my worn couch, one arm behind her propping her up. Her hair falls down her back, her silk shirt shines in the indirect lamp light, and those red pants cling to each curve and dip of her lower half.
She is stunning, and you know what happens when you’re stunned? You cannot speak.
That is precisely where I’ve found myself.
Paisley twirls a lock of that pretty blonde hair around her finger. “What happened between you two? If you don’t mind me asking. You don’t have to answer, but I’m curious.”
“Why? Are you sussing out the possibility of an untenable fatal flaw?”
Paisley wiggles her eyebrows. “Maybe.”
Unhooking my hands from the back of my head, I adjust myself so I can face her more full-on. “Megan and I dated for a little over a year. Things were going well, and then she got a job in finance. She changed after that, which I didn’t mind so much because she’s about four years younger than me and just starting out in her first job. The changes were subtle at first.” I rub my chin, parsing through my memory to find an example. “She stopped saying fi-nance and started pronouncing it fin-ance.”
Paisley crooks an eyebrow.
“I know it sounds like a non-issue, and it was. But it built on itself from there. She’d mention people she was meeting, but their names had iterations. Alexander became Alex. Robert became Rob. She started going out for regular happy hours.” I hang my palms in the airbetween us. “I know it doesn’t sound like much, because it was subtle. I started picking up on hints, like howAlexwas going skiing for the weekend and had invited a group of them along. Things like that. We began spending less time together because she was building a robust social life outside of me. She never invited me. I felt like an afterthought.”
“Geez, Klein. That’s awful.”
“I spent a good portion of our relationship feeling bad. One day I decided I’d had enough. I broke things off, and she looked relieved. She didn’t want to be the one to do it, I guess.”
Funny how hurt I was at the time, and how over it I am now.
“I can’t imagine choosingAlexandRobover you,” Paisley says their names with disdain.
I smile gratefully. “I appreciate that.”
“Sounds like she regrets it, too. What do you think changed?”
“Moot point.”
Paisley’s nose wrinkles. I laugh.
“I’m going to take off,” she announces, pushing off the couch. “I have an early meeting tomorrow morning.” She strides to her shoes, sliding her feet into the high heels with practiced ease.
Like the baseball hat she wore the day of Oliver’s soccer game, I’ve most definitely found a new move I find dangerously sexy.
I wish I could rewind time, take us back to the moment we were in my kitchen before the spell was broken, when I was only seconds away from kissing hersenseless. Holding her in my arms would be a full body exhale, something I’ve waited a very long time for. An opportunity I never believed I would be presented with again.
I get up to open the door for her. “Thank you for coming to my soccer match. Or, trying to make it there, I mean.”
“Thank you for dinner.” She pats my chest on her way out the door. It is a careful, perfunctory touch. I’d like to trade it in for something far better. “See you around.”
Instead of continuing down the hall, she turns and looks back at me. “When this is over, and we’re back from Bald Head Island, you can call her. Your ex. If you want to.” She shrugs in this adorable way, like she knows she’s talking too fast. “Find out what changed. By that point, you’ll only be my client.”
She turns and walks down the hallway before I can say a word to the contrary.
I want to tell her I don’t like that idea. I am officially rejecting her suggestion.
HARD NO.
CHAPTER 18
Paisley & Klein
