In that moment, Beth realised that what Danny had just said completely mirrored her own feelings. This was it. He was The One. She and Danny Bishop belonged together.
‘Was that worthy enough of one of your romantic heroes, do you think?’ he asked.
Beth smiled. ‘Much better. And my own wish is exactly the same.’
Then Danny pulled her close, and she watched silently as he cast the padlock key into the canal. It hit the water with a tiny splash, and as the two of them observed from the bridge above, the key sunk to the murky depths where it found a home and would remain in this romantic city. Forever.
A lifetime symbol of Beth and Danny’s love for one another.
Chapter 3
The following morning, Beth climbed up the steps that brought her above ground from the subway station on 59th and Lexington, catching herself as she almost slipped on the ice.
Seeing the entrance of Carlisle’s ahead, she swerved around a couple of lost tourists busily consulting a map, and gratefully entered the heated luxury of one of Manhattan’s favourite stores. She called out hello to a couple of her co-workers and made her way upstairs towards her own department, keeping an eye out for Jodi, who was also in today.
Reaching the third floor, she saw that her friend was already at work and currently with an early-bird customer. Jodi caught Beth’s eye and threw a brief smile her way before returning her attention to the shopper.
Beth took a right into the hallway connecting the shoe department with the men’s department, and walked briskly into the common area where employees could store their personal belongings in lockers while on shift.
She undid the lock by entering a combination comprised of her and Danny’s birth dates.Six, eighteen, eleven, twenty-five,she repeated in her mind, then clicked the lock open. She placed her bag inside and quickly checked her makeup in a magnetic mirror that she kept on the inner door. Satisfied with her appearance, she closed the door and redid the lock.
Running through a mental list of what needed to be done in the department that day, Beth turned quickly back towards the sales floor, only to collide full force into something hard and upright.
She was stumbling on her heels, and feeling herself beginning to fall when suddenly a pair of steady arms encircled her waist, righting her. Then those arms were stabilising her, helping her catch her balance and stay on her feet.
‘Whoa there…’ The voice was silky, self-assured and decidedly masculine. For some reason, involuntary goose-bumps tickled Beth’s skin at the sound of it.
She looked up and came face to face with Ryan Buchanan, the new guy from the men’s department. With a strong jaw, longish sandy-blond hair cut like Bradley Cooper’s, and a laconic smile that could light up a room, there was a good reason he was turning heads at Carlisle’s.
Beth had only come across him briefly since he’d started, and never in close circumstances like this.
‘You OK?’ he asked, concerned, and she suddenly became very aware of his strong arms around her waist. They were standing so close that she could smell his cologne, something musky and masculine, and she forced herself to find her voice and pull her gaze away from his mesmerisingly green eyes.
‘Thanks, yes, I’m fine… sorry,’ she stuttered, embarrassed, moving away from his embrace. As she went to create some distance, he too must have realised their proximity and quickly dropped his arms to his side.
‘Oh, I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to… I just didn’t want you to fall,’ he explained, a faint blush deepening in his cheeks in a way that Beth found impossibly endearing.
And then there was that smile again.
She looked away, straightened her pencil skirt and examined her appearance – if only to break away from his handsome gaze. Inexplicably, she felt heat rising around her collar and knew at that moment a full-on blush was creeping up her neck. She willed herself to get it together, feeling a little like Meg Ryan or Kate Hudson in the midst of a classic ‘meet cute’ movie sequence.
‘I’m not sure we’ve met properly. I just started here – I’m Ryan. Ryan Buchanan.’ One of those strong, able hands was extended Beth’s way and she snapped to attention as she realised he was waiting for a response.
‘Yes, I know… hello.’ She reached out to shake his hand and the moment she touched his fingers, a jolt of electricity shot through her body. Beth flinched and snatched her hand away. She quickly glanced up at his face, wondering if he felt it too and, looking into those eyes again, she realised that describing them as green was an understatement. That description didn’t do them any justice. They were almost like twinkling emeralds staring back at her.
And then the eyebrows over those emeralds shot up. ‘And your name?’ he asked with a grin, once again returning Beth to reality.
‘I’m-mm Beth,’ she stuttered.
‘Well, M-Beth, it’s nice to meet you properly,’ he repeated chuckling. ‘You’re in shoes, right?’
‘Yes.’ She nodded, still a bit flushed, and completely bewildered as to what was happening to her.
‘Even if I didn’t know I could have guessed. Those are hot shoes.’ He looked down at her flower-embellished Dolce & Gabbana heels – a gorgeous piece of shoe art from last season that Beth had managed to buy through the benefit of her employee discount. ‘I love those movie displays you do over there. ThatPretty Womanone was especially great. Major kudos for making thigh-high PVC boots a must-have with the Park Avenue crowd,’ he chuckled. ‘Clearly a born saleswoman. I’ll have to pick your brains sometime.’
He flashedthatsmile again and Beth flushed afresh at the dual compliment.
‘Thanks, I hadn’t thought of it that way but…’ she began, and just then heard footsteps approach from behind. Jodi’s voice followed, and Beth realised that her ‘meet cute’ was about to be interrupted. For some reason she felt guilty, not because she had been caught unawares, but because she half-wished that ithadn’tbeen interrupted.
