“My brother introduced me to it,” he said. As soon as it was out of his mouth, Raffi couldn’t believe he’d said it.
He never talked about Sevan. Never. And now he had twice with Ani.
Not only that, but he felt like he was dying to go on. Raffi explained, “He was completely infatuated with J.Lo and would make these outrageous statements like ‘This is J.Lo at peak beauty. Utter perfection.’ So we’d sneak around and watch it together, commenting on it like we were sportscasting, cheering when they kissed, all that. We had to make sure Dad was out of the house before we put it on. He’d hate that we were watching it. Only action movies starring men in our household. I’ve seen every single James Bond movie. Not that I don’t love those, too.”
Ani gestured around her. “And were possibly influenced by his style?”
He smirked. “Possibly.” Yeah, he couldn’t say he hadn’t wanted to be just like James Bond, the womanizing and all. But even Bond must have grown tired of that life, never attaching himself to anyone. 007 dying alone. Raffi didn’t wish for that.
“What about you? It’s your comfort movie?”
“I watched it when I was ten or so and realized that was exactly what I wanted to do. My sister and I were always marriage obsessed—” She cleared her throat. “You know, in a kid kind of way. The romance of it all. I’m not, I mean—thingshave changed there. But I was always kind of a romantic. And always pretty organized. So the idea of getting to plan other people’s weddings seemed like a dream. I wanted to be just like Mary Fiore, just as professional and calm and competent.”
Why, when she mentionedmarriage obsessed, did Raffi not freak out but instead get this gooey feeling inside? That was pretty unusual, even for an intense crush. Right? He didn’t really know; this was uncharted territory.
“Well, you sure are. Every time I’ve been calling you Miss Wedding Planner I’ve had J.Lo—Mary Fiore—in mind.”
“That’s…really sweet. Too bad I don’t also have her success.”
Raffi cocked his head to the side. She was ambitious, he liked that. “Well, maybe after this wedding you will.”
“Put us both on the map.”
And generous. He was wishing her success and she came right back and brought him into it. This woman, this woman!
They arrived at his home far too soon, and Raffi did not want their time together to end. He also was legitimately worried about all she had been through, and how her driving an hour and a half back home could be a terrible idea. But he didn’t want to seem like he was keeping her here in some kind of domineering, possessive way, especially if she didn’t want to stay.
Raffi parked and got out of the car. The shift from being soaked and stuck to the seat to standing upright in mossy fountain wetness was miserable, but he didn’t want to keep Ani waiting. He wasn’t about to duck inside, change, then tend to her while she was wrapped in this blanket, quietly dripping on the sidewalk.
“Okay, let’s check you out,” he said.
She came near him, and he became acutely aware of how shirtless he was.
“I have kind of a headache.”
“Did you hit your head when you fell?”
“No. More like a regular headache.” She pointed to a spot on her head. “Here. It’s not so bad, though.”
“Would you be okay if I felt around the area? Just in case.”
The rise and fall of her chest seemed to deepen slightly. Maybe it was his imagination. Maybe it wasn’t. “Yes, that’d be fine,” she said quietly.
Raffi weaved his fingers into her hair in the area she indicated, pulling back strands, and looked for bruising, cuts, or any other signs of impact. Her hair was so thick, it fell heavy along his fingers.
“Let me know if anything I’m doing hurts you.”
“Okay,” she breathed. “It doesn’t, so far.”
He kept lifting locks but found no signs of impact. He arrived back at the area she had pointed to.
“I’m going to press gently. It might hurt a little, but tell me what it’s like on the pain scale.”
She nodded. He pressed two fingers against her scalp. “Anything?” he asked.
“No, I don’t think so. It’s hard to tell. I guess I’m a little, uh, distracted.”
Raffi reddened and was glad her head was turned away from him. If there was any legitimate pain, she would have noticed. That was enough to stop his worries and concentrate instead on his joy.
