Page 69 of Valentine Nook
I’m blushing. Fucking blushing because a girl called me sweet.
“Not sure how many people would agree with you on that.”
“It doesn’t matter. I don’t care what other people think.”
Her magnetic eyes hold mine, and the sincerity behind them is almost frightening.
I look up at the bar to find Eddie watching us, waiting for the right moment to come over. I imagine he’s also waiting to see if I’m going to down the glass of whiskey still taunting me, but I have no need for it right now.
Nerves don’t exist tonight.
In fact, I realize, they rarely do around Holiday anymore. Spending time with her is easy. Talking to Holiday iseasy.
Because to her, I’m just Lando, her landlord. She doesn’t want my title or my money. She wants nothing more from me than my time, and for her, I have all of it and more.
“A’right, you two, the specials are on the board. ’Oliday, what are you drinking?”
She glances at me. “Wine?”
“Sounds good. Eddie has an excellent cellar. He’ll pick one out for you once you order.”
Eddie leaves us to read the board on the wall by the bar. Holiday’s mouth silently forms the words as her eyes scan down the menu, but every couple of seconds, she turns and smiles.
I simply wait for it to happen, so by the time Holiday’s decided what she wants to eat, I still have no clue and just go with the steak pie.
She grabs Eddie before he leaves. “Wait, that’s what I want instead.”
“Good choice.”
Eddie returns shortly with a bottle of red, showing it to me before he opens it.
Out of nowhere, my throat tightens.
We both know this bottle was my father’s favorite, the one he liked to drink on special occasions. I didn’t even know there were any left here.
It’s not particularly fancy, and there are much more valuable wines in the cellar, but he loved it.
I swallow away the lump in my throat. “Not seen one of those in a while.”
“There are still a few left. Thought you might like it tonight. You know, ’cause it’s raining and such.”
He’s much more subtle than my mother, I’ll give him that, and not that I need it, but I quite like that I have Eddie’s approval of this dinner with Holiday.
Datewith Holiday.
She lifts her glass once he’s poured the wine. “To a few days of successful meetings.”
“To successful meetings,” I respond, taking a sip and savoring the burst of berries on my tongue. I try not to feel guilty about drinking it without my brothers and Clementine. “When do you start work for L’Oreal?”
Her fingers run up and down the stem of her wineglass. “I haven’t got a formal date, but the first campaign will launch in January. I have to go to Paris next month for initial meetings.”
“You don’t sound that excited.”
Her shoulders jerk up. “I am. It’s new, is all.”
“But I saw you on the bus today . . . you don’t seem that much of a novice.” That fucking bus. I nearly swerved into the next lane because I was too busy looking at her.
Once or twice, it crossed my mind to buy every single bus with that advert on it, just to have it removed. I don’t want anyone seeing her like that except me.
