Page 46 of Taken With You
“My family will be there. You and Jenny are coming, Shelley told me you’d RSVP’d.”
“Still doesn’t make it any less of a work event foryou. It ought to be fun for me, though,” he said with a grin in his voice. “I’ve reserved a luxury hotel room for me and Jenny.”
Garrick swiped at lint that wasn’t clinging to his sleeve, ignoring a pinch of envy. “So the fire’s still hot between you.”
“Smoking hot, since you ask.” Logan’s voice dropped. “I planned to tell you and Dylan when I saw you at the party…but, hell, I can’t wait. I’m shopping for a ring.”
Garrick dropped into his leather chair, the wheels whirring as it slid back. “Really?”
“I’d put it on her finger right now if I had my way. But we fell for each other so fast, and then we bought a house together… I figured it was time to slow our lives down, take my time with this. I want to make it special for her.”
“Logan…” His voice hitched. “You lucky bastard.”
“That I am.”
“Congratulations.”
“She hasn’t said ‘yes’ yet.”
“She will.” Garrick remembered Logan and Jenny’s housewarming party, how Jenny’s expression softened whenever her attention drifted to his friend. “You two seem so…mind-melded. Like you didn’t have a single doubt.”
“Whoa. Are you envious, Mr. Garrick Kane, master of the universe?” A hiss came across the line. “Something is going on, right? Dylan said you hired a smoking-hot wine expert.”
“Dylan’s got a big mouth.”
“Wow. I can’t believe I didn’t figure this out. You would never call me in the middle of a workday just to check my RSVP.”
Was he that transparent? Did Amanda see through him so easily, too?
Logan said, “Spill, Garrick. Tell me about this Amanda Karlson.”
“She’s…amazing.” The phone slipped in his grip. Why were his hands sweating? Why was this so hard to say? He squeezed his eyes shut and pushed out the words. “I’m in over my head.”
Logan’s low whistle cut through the phone. “Dylan said he heard your voice change when you said her name.”
Garrick dropped his head back to stare at the dots in the soundproof ceiling
“I told Dylan,” Logan continued, “that lightning couldn’t possibly strike three times. I figured he was too deep in love with Casey to hear you right.” The rumbling purr of motor came through the speaker as Logan accelerated. “But if I’m reading your silence right, I think I just lost a bet.”
Garrick rubbed the ridge of his brow and rued every teasing bet he’d ever made with his friends. “You haven’t lost it yet.”
“Haven’t I?” Logan shifted gears. “I believe you are calling me for relationship advice.”
“Yes…and no.”
He just couldn’t talk about Amanda, not yet. Couldn’t articulate the rush of emotions he experienced when she walked into a room. How he would stop whatever he was doing to witness her pushing a lock of hair behind the curve of her ear.
“Hey,” Logan said. “I can’t make a diagnosis unless you tell me what’s going on.”
“It’s about her…and not her,” he said, turning to his laptop, the numbers on the screen, and the papers on the desk. “It’s everything. The business, too. It’s all eating me up.”
“Finally.”
“How did I not see this?” He slapped a hand on all the damned papers that threatened to delay his return to Cedar Ridge until the morning of the launch party. “I witnessed this happening to Dominic for so many years. Why is it all so clear to me now?”
Logan made a sound deep in his throat. “Dylan will be thrilled when I tell him you’re finally coming to your senses.”
Garrick winced. Yeah, hehadbeen blocking out their advice for the past year. He’d dismissed their warnings. Neither one of his friends had two hundred employees with families dependent on the jobs Kane Enterprises provided. He couldn’t just stop working. He didn’twantto stop working. He loved his job almost as much as Amanda loved hers.
