Judging by the way his eyes thinned, he wasn’t amused.
“You think you can bring some of this home for dinner?” She lifted the now empty box, ignoring his reaction to her bounce.
The edges of his lips twitched. There it was. He wasn’t really mad. He never really was.
“I’ll come up with something for dinner,” he said.
“Or I can try spaghetti again?” She was pretty sure she knew exactly where she’d gone wrong.
“Don’t touch the stove. I’ll bring dinner.” He opened the door.
She lifted her keys from the cup thingy on his desk.
“And maybe some of those cupcake things?” she asked.
Those looked amazing. All German chocolate goodness that made her wish she could pop on a plane and go to Europe.
“Sure.” He had a half smile going on that paired really well with the bandana.
She grabbed the bottle of water, tugged off her apron, and hung it on the hook by his desk. “Bring extra of those.”
Now, he was fully smiling. “See you at home.”
Home. One word gave her warm fuzzies all over. She decided to revel in it instead of worrying about what would happen when she got money again and had to move out.
She made her way to Jase’s flower shop, yanking off the hairnet along the way. Shoving the door open, the perfume of flowers drifted over her as she hurried into the shop.
“Lothario.” She opened her arms, dropping to her knees. “My baby.”
Lothario scampered straight for her, his paws slipping just a bit on the floor. He licked her cheek.
“Mommy missed you, too,” Marlee said.
“Your dog defiled the vase holding a dozen roses earlier,” Jase mumbled.
“Did he break it?”Gah, someone please tell her he hadn’t broken anything. She was fresh out of cash until her next paycheck.
Heck, there wasn’t even any change for Eli’s coin-operated washing machine. The fact that those even existed was a freaking travesty. Who had to put in quarters to run a load of whites?Thatshould be free.
“No, he just needed some privacy.” Jase stood back from a floral arrangement the size of the ones Marlee’s mom kept in the foyer. Marlee used to love looking at the flowers that changed every other day. Now? Now, she realized that the kind of money her parents spent each week on flowers alone would pay for a decent apartment downtown for her and Lothario.
Not that she’d spoken much to her parents since they cut her off. A few check-in texts here and there, and consistently avoiding their dinner invitations, lunch invitations, brunch invitations. Why did she need to go eat with them when she had her own personal chef?
“That’s a bad doggy,” Marlee said, but Lothario knew she didn’t mean it. He was who he was, and everyone would just have to learn to accept that about him. As long as he didn’t hurt himself or break vases in the process.
“How are you, Marlee?” Aspen, her wedding planner, stood by a rack of vases. Marlee had been so intent on Lothario that she hadn’t even seen her there.
She hadn’t seen Aspen since everything fell apart.
“Hey.” Marlee scooped the dog in her arms and stood. “I’m good.”
Aspen had been amazing in the not-getting-married madness, handling the mess. She was also Brek’s sister, and she worked in an office on the same street as Jase, Eli, and Heather. Denver was like that—everyone was connected in some way.
“Is this your newest?” Marlee peeked into the stroller at the tiny baby sleeping there.
“It is.” Aspen shifted the stroller just a little so Marlee could get a better look.
Sleeping babies were Marlee’s kryptonite. Her ovaries did a little let’s-have-one jig. Marlee immediately told them to be quiet.
