I’d played early outsideonce, but he didn’t need to know that.
“Well, you and I are definitely going to meet in the comfort of CPA. What’s your number?”
I gave it to him quickly and crossed my fingers that he’dsend me a confirmation text so I’d have his number as well, but he slipped his phone back in his pocket. “Perfect.”
“I think my ride is ready to go.” I hitched my thumb over my shoulder.
“Got it,” he said with a smile. “Come find me when you get back. We’ll hang out.”
I grinned back at Kai like a dork because I couldn’t find the words to express how badly and how long I’d wanted to hear that.
My heart thumped as I walked away from him. Austin, Abby, and I werefinallyat the start of our HEA.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The headlights of Owen’s car illuminated the front of the house as we pulled down the white stone driveway. “Nice place.”
It was an obvious understatement, because the gray-shingled house with a gambrel roof had the old money aesthetic of a true Hamptons classic.
“Yeah, it’ll do,” I joked. “Come in and check it out while I change.”
He came to a stop and put the car in park, motor running. “It’s fine; I’ll wait out here.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. You’re going to be quick, right?”
I was so fizzy from the Kai moment that I hadn’t actually thought through what I needed to do to clean up. My makeup was ruined, my hair was shaggy thanks to the air-drying, and I didn’t have anything else cute enough to wear.
“I need to do something with this.” I pointed to my head. “That’ll take a few minutes.”
“Okay, I’ll wait,” he said as he turned off the car.
“And I’ll rush.”
I ran to the house and had to enter the code into the keypad three times before I got it right. It wasn’t fair of me to makehim wait in the driveway like a chauffeur, so I decided to skip the overhaul and work with what I had.
Everything inside the house was white, white, white, and I felt like I was filthy, so I kicked off my wet sneakers at the door and jogged up the perfectly spaced steps to my white-with-orange-accents room at the end of the hall. My first stop was my bathroom for a quick face wash to get off the remainder of my makeup. Not that I wore much, but the traces of it had left little smudges beneath my eyes. Noticeable in the bright light of the bathroom but probably not in the darkness at the party.
My dress had dried to just uncomfortably damp instead of full-on sopping. As I turned around to try to reach the tie in the back, I remembered that Meredith had strapped me into it, laughing about the tightness of her knot. When I tugged at it, I realized that she’d done some sort of complicated triple loop that could’ve secured a yacht to a dock, because the thing wasn’t budging.
I bent over at my waist and tried to pull the whole dress up over my head. Suddenly, it was as tight as a corset. I flipped upright and stared at myself in the mirror, the dress half snagged up in my underwear. I only had one option.
I grabbed my phone.
OMFG, I’m trapped in this dress!! Could you please untie the knot in back?
It took a few minutes before Owen responded.
Yup.
Thank you! Meet you in the foyer
I shoved my hair up in a ponytail and jogged down the stairs. Owen was standing outside, his back to the door.
“Hey!” I flung the door open so abruptly that he jumped. “Come in.”
Owen stepped inside gingerly, like he was afraid the place was booby-trapped.
