Page 154 of How to Kiss a Hawthorne Brother
Perry nods seriously. “I’m guessing Jack’s grandma doesn’t agree with your research?”
“Not even a little. But hey. It’s her money.”
Perry leans back, stretching his arm across my sofa and looking way too comfortable. “So. Should I be offended you threw my brother’s face behind your couch?”
I wince. “I really hoped you didn’t see that.”
“I mean, at least you tossed an ambulance back there to keep him company. The EMTS can dress his wounds if anything happened to his very pretty face.”
This last part almost feels like a dig. Like he’s teasing me for having pictures of his brother in my house. Which, I can’t really blame him. Except the only reason I have the magazine in the first place is because of him.
I press my lips together. “I bought that magazine because of you, you dummy.”
He lifts an eyebrow.
“I don’t generally readPeople. But I saw it right after I started working for you, when you were still responding to my messages with one- or two-word sentences. I was trying to learn a little more about you.”
“Did it work?”
“Not at all. In a four-page spread, Flint didn’t mention his family a single time.”
Perry leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees. “I’m sure it was intentional. The farm is a public place. We already have people showing up on a regular basis, just hoping to catch a glimpse of where he grew up. And that’s with him hardly talking about any of us.”
It’s funny. When I first started working for Perry, it was thrilling to think that at some point, I might have the chance to meet Flint Hawthorne in person. But that thrill has dimmed over the last few weeks. The more I get to know Perry, the more certain I’m becoming: he’s all the Hawthorne I need.
“Lucky for me, I don’t need magazine articles to get to know you now. I finally cracked your stony exterior with my sparkling wit and—”
“Ridiculous puns?” he finishes.
“I was going to say brilliant puns, but I’ll allow the substitution.”
I reach over and give his knee a quick squeeze. “What do you say? Should we get out of here? I hear there’s a happening party over in Asheville.”
He gives his head a little shake and chuckles. “I’m still not sure this is a good idea.”
“Come on. It’s going to be great.” I stand up and hold out my hand. “I poured myself into this dress, Perry. I can’t let all that effort go to waste.”
He takes my hand and lets me pull him up, but then he stops, tugging me back toward him. His hand slips around my waist, and suddenly, I’m standing against him, one hand holding his while the other is pressed against his chest.
He leans forward, his lips close to my ear. “Nothing about this dress has gone to waste,” he says slowly,deliciously.
His words send goosebumps skittering across my skin.
“Perry Hawthorne, I think you’re flirting with me.”
He lets me go and picks up my overnight bag, heading for the door. “You started it,” he calls over his shoulder.
I gasp. “How did I start it?”
He pauses and turns, the full force of his smile slamming into me like a truck. “You put on that dress.”
The Grove Park Inn is nestled into a mountainside in the heart of downtown Asheville. And it is stunning. Fireplaces big enough to stand up in. Luxurious lounge areas. Elaborate gardens and gorgeous hotel rooms and valet parking. It’s a lot. More than I’m used to.
I’m nervous when I climb out of Perry’s truck, but Perry looks cool as a cucumber. Like he’s done this a thousand times before. I even watch him slip a tip to the valet with so much smoothness that had I not been specifically watching, I would have missed it.
It suddenly occurs to me that I know very little about Perry’s lifebeforehe moved back home to Stonebrook Farm. When he was consulting, was this the kind of thing he did with Jocelyn often? Go to places where valet parking was the norm? Where they wore fancy clothes and drank fancy drinks and had important conversations with important people?
Dressed like he is now, Perry looks the part. But he also looks perfectly at home at Stonebrook wearing flannel and feedingme apples straight off the tree. I wonder if there’s a version of himself Perry prefers the most. If he misses his former life.
