Page 39 of Growing Into Love

Immediately, three dots appear.

Just finishing a root canal darling! Glad you made it safe. *winky face*

I laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Jaz asks.

“Oh just…David being David,” I say airily.

I’m glad he thinks you’ve got another man. Serves him right for not answering that text! Now tell me more about this amazing room.

I hold my phone up. “David wants a pic of the room,” I explain to Jaz.

He flushes. “Right, I’ll just…” He moves to get out of the way of the camera, walks into the dresser, and knocks over a vase with dried flowers. “Shit,” he mutters as I laugh again.

“You always have been rather clumsy,” I say.

“I’m not clumsy,” Jaz says as he tries to shove the flowers back in the vase, misses the opening, and sends them fluttering to the floor. “I’m coordinatedly-challenged.”

“Not when you were dosing Naturally Sweet with xylazine,” I remind him. “I’ve never seen hands that level and calm.”

Jaz kneels to pick up the mess. “Well,” he says, scratching the back of his neck. “I don’t know about that.”

He’s so stupidly cute when he’s embarrassed. The way his tan skin turns a shade darker, his brown eyes growing soft, the shy quirk of his lips. He gathers up the flowers, manages to get them all in the vase, and thumps it down on the dresser where it promptly falls over again.

“I give up,” he says.

Just then, the phone rings.

“Maybe they’ve got a new room for me so I can stop destroying yours,” Jaz says. For a second, I had forgotten this wasn’t our room together. I like having Jaz here.

But it’s definitely better this way. I need to stay focused.

“Hello?” he says. “Just a moment.” He hands me the receiver.

“Hello?” I say.

“Hi Cassandra, this is Bill Ogilvy, I’m the head groom over here at Windy Acres. The concierge at the Fairview told us you’d arrived. We’ve got Galadriel settled in nicely and she’s ready for a ride whenever you want to come by. We can have her tacked and ready for you in half an hour.”

“Oh, Gal!” I cry. My heart leaps and I feel a tiny pinch of shame that I’d forgotten about my sweet girl, my horse-baby. I cover the receiver with my hand.

“Is it okay if I head to the stables?” I ask.

“And leave me alone in this hellhole?” Jaz says with mock indignation.

I roll my eyes but can’t keep the smile off my face.

“I’ll be there in thirty,” I tell the groom.

TEN

JAZ

Once Cass leaves,I plop down on the edge of the bed, my head spinning.

Fucking David. Does he even know how lucky he is? Cass is so much damn fun. And clever. And kind. Not to mention gorgeous.

I’d rather like to meet him when we get back. Size him up. See what he’s all about.

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