“They’re just the big ideas I’ve had for the shop and this event and the future. Most of them aren’t even viable. Just brainstorming, really.”
“This is good stuff.” He flipped through some of the pages. “Roses for all the ladies? I can help with that.”
If Jase put on a suit and handed out roses to the ladies she worked with at the retirement home, they’d be over the moon. He must’ve caught the way she was eyeing him.
“What?” he asked.
“I was just thinking a guy handing out roses in a tuxedo would go over so well. The ladies would go bananas.”
“Not a chance,” he said.
“Oh, come on, I haven’t even asked you.”
“Yet.” He flipped the page. “Add the ‘yet,’ because it’s coming. My money says Dean and Eli are screwed, too. Good luck getting Brek in a tux, though. He didn’t even wear one at his own wedding.”
“Maybe we should focus on the simple stuff first.” She ran her hand over the yellow legal notebook she’d been using to compile the things that had to be done.
Jase continued flipping through her brainstorming notebook. A slip of notepaper fell from the back.
Heather stilled. Her throat clogged. Damn. She’d forgotten that slip of paper was there.
She couldn’t move. Couldn’t make herself reach for it.
Finding that note ran on a replay in her mind. Most decent human beings broke up with their year-long girlfriend in person. Some jerks did it via text. Logan had done it with a note on her pillow.
That note.
It fluttered to the table, brushing softly on the polished surface. That piece of paper had hit her like a thousand-pound boulder, so it seemed to be laughing at her the way it floated through the air and landed on the tabletop so gentle. She just stared at it as a bit of splattered salsa seeped into the edge.
Still Heather couldn’t get her body to respond to her brain’s demand to grab the damn note.
Jase picked it up and read it. Of course he did. He didn’t know what it would say.
He looked at her, and his expression was as soft as the way the note had fallen through the air.
Andthathit her like another thousand-pound boulder.
He dropped the note. “I’m sorry.”
They both stared at the breakup note.
A tear slipped from the corner of her eye. The slipknot looped tighter. Her breaths stalled in her lungs.
Jase ran his hands up her bare arms. When had he gotten so close? The motion was a balm to all that had been exposed. Without so much as a thought, she leaned into the comfort of his arms. She shouldn’t do this. Heather Reese didn’t need comforting. She handled things on her own. But, damn, his embrace felt nice.
She dropped her head forward so her cheek rested against his shoulder. The faint scent of cut flowers, cinnamon, and laundry soap calmed her.
He laid a hand over her hair.
She chanced a glance up at him.
He looked her over from top to bottom. “That guy is an idiot who lost a chance with an amazing person.”
Her blood pulsed thick at his kind words.
Was it her or had he snuggled into her at that declaration? There was definite snuggling.
He stared at her with an intensity that actually made her curious about a man again.
