“I think you’re remembering incorrectly,” he said through gritted teeth. That was another thing he used to love to do. Ifthey ever added gaslighting to the Olympics, Blane would walk away with every gold medal.
I let out a hum of mock thought. “Hmm, no. I don’t think so.”
By then, Rebecca’s shock had worn off, and she went right back into bitch-mode, a regular state of affairs for her. She kept a white-knuckle grip on Blane’s hand and pressed flush against his side. She rested her left hand on his chest, fingers splayed wide to show off her ring, like the sight of it was supposed to upset me. Truthfully, I couldn’t give a single shit.
“We were just getting a little caffeine pick-me-up,” she stated, her voice overly sweet and her smile fake. “We’re taking our engagement photos this afternoon. Isn’t that exciting?”
“So exciting.”
Her smile fell at my dry tone, a bitchy pitch coming to her lips. I knew if we stayed for one more second, she’d try to get in a hit or two, and I’d officially reached my limit on conflict for the day. Hell, maybe even the week, given how twitchy it made me. I much preferred not to rock the boat. It was why Naomi was always telling me I was too nice.
“Well, you two have fun at your photo shoot, but I need to get back to work. See you around.”
Without another word, I hooked my arm through Tanner’s and guided him down the sidewalk without a backward glance.
“So...” he started after a few seconds of silence. “That’s the ex, huh?”
I narrowed my eyes into a glare at the humor in his voice. “Don’t judge.”
He held his free hand up in surrender. “Hey, not judging. It’s just...that guy?”
I jabbed my finger in his face. “That’s judging!” He burst into laughter, making it hard for me to maintain my surly expression when all I wanted to do was laugh along with him. “Not every man can be an Adonis.”
He hugged me tighter to his side. “Aw, Sunshine. Is that your way of telling me you think I’m hot?”
I rolled my eyes dramatically. “On second thought, maybe we are moving too fast. Maybe we should slow things down.”
Tanner’s brows slowly rose higher on his forehead, but the look in his eyes told me he knew I was full of it. “How slow are we talking?”
I tapped my chin in mock thought. “I was thinking all the way back to first base.”
He mimed driving a knife into his chest. “You wound me,” he said, throwing his head back dramatically. That was all it took for me to lose hold of my giggles, and they came spilling out.
It was moments like these that made it so easy to push down the looming pain I knew was coming. Because he made me so damn happy.
I wasn’t ready to say it out loud—or even admit it to myself—but I was starting to worry that I’d already fallen too far, and there was no safeguarding my heart against what was to come.
Chapter Nineteen
Holiday
It had been a long day. Made even longer by the persistent ache behind my eyes at the top of my skull.
The pain had been there since I woke up that morning. I knew what it meant. Years of experience would do that. A migraine was coming. I’d been getting them since I was a little girl. I had a prescription for them, but I was bad about keeping it on me. Any other day, I could have run upstairs and taken it, but it was like the universe had chosen today to point and laugh before throwing one obstacle after another in my path.
The store was incredibly busy, thanks to a book signing we were hosting for a popular Virginia-based author. The line had started forming early that morning, and kept growing. On top of that, we’d had a steady stream of people coming in to browse and purchase books. There was also story hour we hosted in the children’s section every two weeks. The volunteer we had for that had come down with the flu, and with Denise handling crowd control for the signing attendees, Cara manning the register, and Bethany restocking shelves that were emptyingout faster than usual, I was the only one who could step in. It was that or deal with the mutiny that was bound to happen if the littles didn’t get their story. And, mygod, but those toddlers could be scary when they banded together for evil. But those tiny words on the pages, along with the brightly colored illustrations certainly hadn’t helped.
Now it was too late. Even though things were starting to die down and I finally had a chance to get my medication, it wouldn’t do me any good. The light sensitivity had reached the level that felt like needles were stabbing into my eyeballs. A ring of black had formed around my vision and was steadily getting thicker. Next would be the stiff neck, nausea, and my pulse banging in my temples with each pump of my heart.
A sheen of clammy sweat formed at my hairline and the base of my spine. The kind of sweat that came with a roiling stomach.
I was squinting at the register’s screen, struggling to make out the numbers and letters on the screen that seemed a million times brighter than usual, when Denise came up beside me and placed her hand on my arm.
“Holly, are you all right?”
I twisted my neck in her direction, the motion making my head swim. “What?”
Concern formed a line between her brows as they pulled together. “Are you okay? You look a little pale.”
