Page 42 of Dreamboat

“Truthfully?” he asks.

I want to say no, but I can’t. I need to know how he truly is, so I nod.

“I fucking miss you,” he confesses, his hand raking through his dark hair. “I want to pick up where we left off.”

Before I can get a word out in response, my brother wanders back into the store. “All is good. Faith aced a test so I had to tell her how fucking proud I am of her.”

Faith is on her way to becoming a doctor. She’s going to devote her life to working in the fields of obstetrics and gynecology. I’m secretly envious of the fact that my future sister-in-law who is set to celebrate her twenty-second birthday soon knows exactly what she’s supposed to do professionally.

“I’ll text her to tell her I am, too,” I say.

“She’d love that, Delia.” Matt smiles. “Are we good to go?”

“I need to ring up the gift basket.” I start walking toward the checkout counter. “Once I do that, I can grab it from the back.”

The two men follow close behind me. As my hands tremble and my heart thunders in my chest, I shut my eyes briefly, hoping that I can keep it together until they exit the store.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Delia

Nikita pushes a strand of hair back from my forehead. “You should take off, Delia. You look tired.”

I’m not tired. I’m experiencing lingering shock from seeing Donovan and from hearing him tell me that he misses me and wants to pick up right where we left off.

That would be naked together somewhere in this city.

The mental image of that has been crowding every other thought out of my mind for hours. It’s the main reason why I rang up a candy necklace as a big bucket of caramels. The woman who wanted to buy the bracelet was quick to point out that I had made a mistake.

I apologized. She tossed me an angry look but left with a smile on her face when I added a free candy bracelet to her bag.

“I can stay,” I offer with no real meaning behind the words.

“Go,” she orders. “Mary is going to hang around for an extra hour and before you know it, I’ll be closing up shop for the day.”

“I should be the one telling you to go.” I smile as I tap her chin with my fingertip. “You need to have some fun.”

“My turn is coming,” she says what she always does when it comes to men and dating. “I meet so many men every day, Delia. One day one will walk in here and sweep me right off my feet. “

I glance down at the black boots on her feet. “You sound so sure of yourself.”

“It’s bound to happen.” She sighs. “For the record, I’m in no hurry for that to happen. I love being an auntie and I double love this place.”

“I love you,” I tell her because I always do.

“Right back at you,” she responds the way she often does, before she amends it, “I love you, too.”

“I’ll go but I’m going to run to get some food for you first.” I lift a hand in the air to ward off what I know is an incoming argument. “Don’t fight me on this, Kita. You can’t eat chocolate for dinner.”

She glances down at her body. We’re mirror images of one another. We have curves and we’re both proud of them. “I was thinking one of those big chicken salads from that place around the corner. I was going to grab it on my way home.”

“I’ll go get two now,” I say. “I’ll drop off one for you before I go home.”

“You’re the best.”

“Second best,” I say because she truly is the best friend anyone could ever have.

“I have one thing to ask before you take off.” She hesitates slightly so I know what’s about to come out of her mouth.

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