Page 13 of Love You
Hilde appeared pretty spry to him. She’d lived in that cottage alone since Win was a kid. “If you’re not working for Lewis anymore how come you’re helping him transfer records?” He didn’t know what that entailed but Darcy already had a full-time job.
“Because I said I would.” The question appeared to irritate her.
Win got the impression the entire conversation did. Darcy looked cute when she was irritated so he kept up his rapid-fire questioning until they were parked in front of Hilde’s house.
“You want to grab dinner at Old Glory?” he asked, not quite ready to end the evening, even if it was a school night. He looked at the clock on his console. Shit, it was past eleven.
“We just stuffed our faces—and clogged our arteries—with fake cheese and grease. You’re still hungry?”
“I just thought we could talk about the FlashTag account. We never got around to it at the rodeo.”
“Is Old Glory even still open?” She gazed out the window at Hilde’s house. There were a few lights on, besides the one on the porch. “My grandmother’s up. I better go inside.”
“All right,” he said. It was late and he had a white-water rafting tour at ten. “Thanks for going with me.”
“Thanks for taking me. It was . . . fun.”
Did it kill her to have to say that? In the past, he’d gotten very few complaints from women about his company. Right off the top of his head, he could think of quite a few women who would’ve been happy to spend the evening with him at the rodeo, or anywhere for that matter. And after meeting Lewis, Win had to think he was a better date.
“Yep,” he said, and helped her out of the passenger seat only because her Lilliputian legs might not find the ground on their own. And since he was already out of the Jeep he walked her to the door. “I’d kiss you good night, but I’d hate to get you all hot and bothered and have you break into my apartment again.”
She threw it right back at him. “As long as we’re engaged I wouldn’t want you to break your vow of chastity. It’s good that you’re saving yourself for our wedding night.”
Unassuming Darcy had become a real smartass.
“See you tomorrow.” He jogged down the cobblestone walkway and got back in his Jeep.
The neighborhood cat was on his front porch when he got home so he let it in the house and gave it a bowl of milk. The thing was probably full of fleas. He put his phone on the charger stand and noticed he had a few missed calls and checked his voice mail to see if anyone had left a message.
The first one was from Deb. She and TJ were having a family dinner at their house on Wednesday and wanted to know if Win could come. The next three were from women who all held various levels of interest in hooking up with him. He quickly erased their messages and got ready for bed.
He was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that Darcy had been married when he drifted off to sleep and forgot to set his alarm. By the time he dragged his ass into work the next day, he had less than an hour to load the gear for the rafting trip and meet his group at the river.
“You look like a sack of shit.” TJ passed him in the hallway with his standard greeting. “Darcy made a pot of coffee in the kitchenette. Madison De Wolk called to say she’s sending three of her underlings here this weekend for a tour of the town. I expect you and Darcy to cover that so don’t make any plans. Make sure they love the place before they leave. Deb will load you up with GA swag to give them to take back to FlashTag.”
“Yeah, we’ll woo ’em with baseball caps and water bottles.” He started for the kitchen, needing that coffee. “By the way, where’s Darcy? She wasn’t at the front desk when I walked in.”
“Dunno.” TJ shrugged and disappeared behind his office door.
As Win filled a mug, Delaney, Colt’s wife came in, looking like a fashion model. “Hey, good-looking.” He kissed her on the cheek. “What brings you by the office?” Her design company, Colt and Delaney, was on the outskirts of town in an old John Deere warehouse.
“I’m meeting with Deb about our fall line for the store.”
Fall? It wasn’t even July yet. But Win supposed that that’s whatfashion-forwardmeant. It had been TJ’s brilliant idea—at the time he’d proposed it no one had thought it was that brilliant—to sell adventure wear and gear from an online store on their website. Deb ran the store and Delaney, a world-famous clothing designer, did an exclusive line for GA. Business on the retail end had been slowly picking up.
“Nice.” Win poured her a cup of coffee and handed her the mug. “How’s things going over at Colt and Delaney?”
“Excellent. No complaints at all, though I have a lot of catching up to do.” She and Colt had recently gotten back from a three-week honeymoon. “How about you? I hear you and Darcy are trying to lure a big social media company to sign on with Garner Adventure for corporate team building.”
Win nodded. “FlashTag.” Where did people come up with these names?
“Exciting,” Delaney said.
“We could use the cash.”
Deb joined them and she and Delaney started talking cargo pants and ski jackets. Definitely his cue to leave. He finished his coffee, kissed the ladies good-bye, and headed to the gear room to load up.
As he bent over, gathering up what he needed for the white-water trip, someone cleared her throat behind him. He knew it was a she because of the shoes. Elfin flats attached to a short, albeit shapely, pair of legs. He straightened up to find Darcy hovering.
