Closing the door, I stare at the wide, heavy plank of it for a moment. Take a deep breath to steady my nerves.
Talk.
All he wants to do is talk.
You know how to talk. Been doing it most of your life. You can do that. You can talk to him, Millie. He’s just a man.
Turning back around, I find him across the room, studying the painting hanging over the sofa in the sitting area. “It’s calledSummertime with MollyMae,” I tell him, taking a nervous sip of wine while mentally pushing myself to move. “My mother loves art—she’s fanatical about finding new artists. Cari Gilroy is her current obsession.” Finally moving my feet, I make my way toward him. “She lives in?—”
“Boston.” He gives me a quick, over the shoulder smile. My face must fall into ahow would you knowsort of expression because he chuckles a little under his breath. “I met her when I tended bar for the Gilroy-Halston-Day wedding, last year. The governor was there.” The smile goes wicked around its edges. “I even got to keep my shirt on.”
Embarrassed by my cousin’s behavior, I let the breath I’m holding out on a panicky laugh. “I’m sorry...” Shaking my head, I lower myself onto the sofa, tucking myself into its corner. “Paige can be awful.”
He gives me a shrug before turning back to the painting he’s studying. “Paige is typical.”
Because I don’t know what that means, I don’t respond. Just take another gulp from the wine in my glass and pray it makes me brave.
Talk.
All he wants to do is talk.
You know how to talk.
You can do it.
“I was there,” I blurt out. When he gives me a puzzled look, I shake my head. “At the Gilroy-Halston-Day wedding. I went to high school with Henley after she and her mother moved to New York.”I’m rambling. Jesus, help me, I’m rambling and I can’t stop. “Her step-father and my father are close. They were in Skull and Bones together at Yale. We were invited to her wedding, so I was there—”You already said that Millie. Just stop talking.Praying that I bite off my own tongue, I shake my head. “Not that you’d remember me or anything.”
The puzzled look melts away from his face while he makes a faint noise in the back of his throat. “If I met you, Princess, I’d definitely remember.”
Oh boy.
Change the subject, Millie, before you pass out altogether.
“Are you from Boston?”
“Yeah.” Hands dug into his pockets, Dean nods his head on an indifferent shrug. “Grew up in Fenway.”
When he doesn’t elaborate, I swallow hard and look away. “Uhhh… so, do you like being a bartender?”
He gives me another indifferent shrug. “I like being able to pay rent and eat.”
I let out a slow, steady breath before taking another sip of wine. This isn’t going the way I imagined. I mean, I’m not sure what I expected, but it wasn’t this. I can’t be 100% certain but I think he was flirting with me no more than five minutes ago and now he’s acting like I’m holding him hostage. Sure he’s bored and changed his mind about wanting to be here, I look at him and nearly swallow my own tongue. This would be so much easier if he wasn’t so good-looking.
“Look—”
When I say it, he turns to aim his gaze in my direction. “Dean.”
“Okay...” Fighting off a wave of embarrassment, I set my half empty glass on the coffee table in front of me before looking up at him again. “Dean?—”
“Why did you shut the door?”
His question catches me off guard. Has me shifting my gaze to look at it across the room. “I...” Shaking my head, I force myself to look back at him. “I don’t understand the question.”
“Yes, you do, Emily,” he gives me that smirk again. The one that says he knows exactly what I’m thinking. Exactly why I shut the door, even if I don’t. “I told you that you could keep the door open if you wanted to—that it wouldn’t offend me. You were clearly debating the safety of closing it with me inside but you did it anyway. Why?”
“My name isn’t Emily,” I tell him, my forehead crumpling while my neck begins to ache. “Will you sit down? Please—my neck is starting to cramp.”
His expression softens. “Sorry.” Pulling his hands out of his pants pockets, he lowers himself onto the couch next to me. “Better?”
