Page 7

“The waiter,” I say, nodding to the kitchen door where he disappeared.

“Oh. I thought he was nice.”

“Yeah, to you because you’re gorgeous.”

Her head pops up mid-text and she rolls her eyes. “You’re insane. If I’m gorgeous, then so are you. We could pass for twins and you know it.”

“Except you know it doesn’t work that way.”

“Well, yeah, because you usually give off this ‘don’t fuck with me’ vibe,” she says, waving her hand through the air as she focuses on her phone. “And I’m nice to people.”

As I take a sip of my sweet tea, I glance out at the sidewalk, watching the crowd thin out as everyone heads back to work from their lunch break and sigh. There’s a damn good reason I like to keep most people at a distance and the last thing I need today is to dredge up those memories.

“So, how’s the new job going?” Ivy asks after setting her phone down and I grin. This is something I can talk about all day. Only a few weeks ago, I was worried about my future and working a job I was growing to resent more and more every day. But when Ali was fired and offered a new job at an up-and-coming blog, she brought me along with her and I couldn’t be happier about it.

“Great, actually.”

“Yeah? Working on anything cool?”

“I’m still kind of getting the feel for it and looking for something I can make my own. Mercedes is giving me free rein for now.”

She cocks her head to the side, staring at me. “Mercedes?”

“My boss,” I prompt. “Mercedes Richmond.”

“Oh, right. Sorry, my brain is fried lately.” Her phone dings with an incoming text and she almost knocks it off the table in her haste to answer it. I watch in fascination as a smile stretches across her face. After she types out a reply, she sets the phone back down and looks up at me.

“Sorry. What were we talking about?”

I cross my arms over my chest and put on my best “big sister” face as I stare her down, determined to get this information out of her. “You were just about to tell me who’s been keeping you so distracted lately.”

“What… are you talking about?” she asks, her cheeks burning bright as she avoids my gaze.

“Oh, give me a break, Vi. It’s been obvious since the moment you walked into the door. You’ve got that new relationship glow oozing out of your pores. I think it infected me.”

She opens her mouth to deny my words, but she’s got nothing and she looks away.

“Come on, just tell me who it is. I can’t wait to hear about the man who is making my baby sister so happy.”

“Stop calling me your baby sister. I’m only thirteen months younger than you.”

“So?” I ask, arching a brow. “You’re still the baby of the family. Now quit stalling and tell me his name.”

She takes a deep breath and meets my eyes, looking nervous as hell. Okay, that’s got my attention. I straighten in my seat and wait for her to spill her guts.

“Before I tell you who he is, I have to preface this by saying I was not expecting this at all. When I met him, I had every intention of running the other way but there was just something about him and I couldn’t fight it.”

“God, I’m on the edge of my seat. Just tell me already.”

She takes another deep breath and looks down at the table as she whispers, “Julian Henshaw.”

The name immediately sounds familiar, but I can’t quite place it. I stare at her with a blank expression, trying to figure out where I recognize him from and when it finally clicks, I gasp. “The mayor’s son?”

She nods, refusing to look at me. “You’re freaking out, aren’t you?”

“No… I’m a little surprised. Tell me about him.”

She blushes. “He’s so sweet, charming, and determined.”