Page 65 of The Secret

Five was early, but seeing as Murray would be home with Bell and I wasn’t currently in the mood to spend time around him, I didn’t object.

We walked out together. “Love you. Thanks for the Band-Aid I’ll be wearing tonight.”

“Oh, it’s gonna fix you right up,” she cackled.

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”

I closed the door behind her and ran up the stairs to Bell, the heaviness lifting with each swing of the Bergdorf bag. I might not have meant Band-Aid in the traditional sense, but Payton had been right. If anything could fix my bruised ego and dented heart, it was this dress.

A night out was exactly what I needed.

12

Kit

The biggest bunch of pink roses I’d ever seen in my entire life floated into the kitchen.

No, Murray was carrying them.

But that’s how big they were because they’d completely blocked him from my view until he placed them on the island counter, smiling at me like he’d won the lottery.

“I picked these up for you on the way home.” He pulled a single stem out of the thick brown paper they were wrapped in. “Except this one. This one is for Bell.”

He looked so handsome standing there waiting for me to respond, but my mind was travelling the speed of light, and I couldn’t get a grasp on any thought I’d had between what happened this morning and why he would bring me roses so enormous I could smell the fragrance of them from where I was standing across the kitchen in stunned silence.

The only thing I could manage was to gather them up, inhaling the floral rose scent before putting them in the sink. “Thank you.”

Murray followed me into the pantry to where the vases were kept, coming up behind me to grab the biggest one from the top shelf when I couldn’t reach it. “You’re welcome. Bell looked so cute in the picture you sent me. How was your day?”

How was my day?It was fine until some psycho who may or may not be your girlfriend turned up,but his nearness was too much for me to think clearly.

“It was good, thanks. Non-eventful.” I moved past him so no part of him could touch me, because the smell of him was already overpowering that of the roses and serving no purpose except fogging my senses, reminding me of that first week I lived here when I did everything I could to avoid it.

He followed me out, as close to my heels as Barclay whenever food was involved.

“Are you okay?”

I turned the faucet on loud, filling the vase, hoping to drown out both my thoughts and his staring at me.

“Kit?”

Damn.

I looked up at him, plastering on the cheeriest smile I could muster. “Yep?”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, all good.” I unwrapped the flowers, placing them carefully in the vase. Fuck’s sake, may as well get this over with. “Oh, I forgot. Your girlfriend came by, but she said she must have got the plans wrong and she’d find you at the office because that’s where she usually meets you. Hope she did.”

Actually, I hoped she’d been swallowed by a sink hole, but as I hadn’t seen anything on the news about one appearing, I suspected she’d gone to find him at his office. I dared to glance up at him, a tsunami sized wave of relief washing over me at the expression of genuine confusion on his face.

But it changed nothing.

Anything between us was a stupid idea. All I needed was a night out with Payton, and in the morning, whatever I’d imagined between us would be a distant memory.

I hoped.

“My girlfriend? I don’t have a girlfriend.”

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