Page 62 of Second Chances
He’d probably be a better boyfriend than Darcy was.
Ok, maybe not better, but definitely easier, and with less baggage. Either way, she just didn’t have those feelings for him and even though she was sure that he would respect that, she didn’t want things to get awkward and ruin their friendship.She’d just have to tread carefully.
Opening up her response, she told him that she was honored and that traveling to Massachusetts for the race wouldn’t be a problem. Requesting a bunch of details from him on the Boston race as well as tentative details on the NYC event, she told him she’d see what she could get together on about seven weeks’ notice. She didn’t bring up what happened the other night again, because like he said, it wasn’t his business and she didn’t want to give him any false sense of hope of increasing their personal relationship. Once satisfied that she had asked for everything that she needed, triple-checking to make sure she sounded grateful and excited, but not too encouragingpersonally, she sent over her response.
With a satisfied breath, she pushed back from her desk to stand and stretch for a minute. Running through in her mind everything that she’d accomplished thus far this morning - responding to all emails, confirmed pricing with Caro for the caterer and decorator, securing them both for the event, tied up all the loose ends from the events over the weekend, and responded to Patrick; she deserved a five-minute break.
Picking up her phone, she opened up her text conversation with Darcy.
-Can you please give me a small hint of where we are going? How about telling me something that I will need to bring, like a bathing suit or a parka?
She bit her lip on a smile, enjoying the playful banter going on between them on the subject. She’d let Darcy know days ago that she had the weekend after Caro’s event open and he immediately told her to make sure to mark herself as unavailable Friday through Sunday. Since then, she’d been trying to bribe, trick, and beg the identity of their destination from him, with no success. Her heart jumped when her phone buzzed with his response.
~No. How about I’ll tell you what not to bring?
- Ok…
~ Underwear.
Beth felt her face flush and her legs instinctively tighten at the provocative thoughts that his answer incited. Her brain was flustered for a moment, debating whether or not she should actually keep this in mind while packing. Gnawing on her lower lip while deciding how to respond with something equally as enticing, she almost dropped her phone at the loud knock on her door.
“Come in!” Beth yelled, quickly locking her phone and setting it on the desk.
A young man opened the door and peeked his head in.
“I have a delivery for Miss Bennet,” he explained.
“That’s me, come in,” Beth encouraged him, her eyes still trained on her phone as she tried to think of an equally seductive and coy response to send back to Darcy.
Quickly opening the door wide, the delivery man stalked into the room, his head and gaze kept down and focused on the floor in front of him, transporting a vase of black roses to her desk.
Only when she heard the vase being set down on her desk in front of her, did Beth look up, gaping, in shock for a moment -more flowers?!Before she could tip or even thank him, the delivery man was back out her office door, shutting it firmly behind him.
He was always surprising her.
Smiling to herself, she opened back up her text to Darcy.
-Thank you for the roses.
~ I think you thanked me pretty well for them the other night, sweetheart.
- I meant the ones from today, smarty.
At first, her body warmed at the reminder of Monday night, but then her brain caught up and re-read his message again.
Why would he think I’m talking about the roses from Monday?
Unless these aren’t from him.
Shit.
Setting her phone down, she quickly began the search to find some sort of card or paper to identify the sender.
What if they are from Patrick?
No, he wouldn’t do that, would he? Finally, on the back side of the bouquet, she found a black envelope tucked amongst the petals. Hastily pulling it from its perch, Beth saw her name scrawled on the front.
The handwriting was definitely female.
