“That too, but I’m trying to move into textile designs, preferably in-house. Pitching and winning these smaller jobs is a grind, and I don’t know how much longer I can keep up with it. That’s why I’ve been trying to get my foot in the door somewhere with my design work. I even reached out to Waverly.” My cheeks heated with embarrassment. I’d applied for their textile scholarship and had been rejected. Same with all the other applications I’d put in for various positions.
Zara’s eyebrows shot up, and she leaned in closer. “Really? Are you going to the Apparel & Textile Expo? That’s where so many deals and decisions are made.” Her excitement was palpable.
I sank back into the couch, disappointment and sadness winding tightly in my stomach. The place where it all happened and I’d been shut out over and over. “I’ve tried a bunch of times, but I’m not a registered buyer or company, so….”
“Oh, I hadn’t realized there were requirements to get a ticket.” Her stunned look turned to one of pity.
Don’t mind me, just a loser you’re sharing a couch with. Don’t worry. It’s not contagious. At least I didn’t think it was. Let’s shift this off me.
“Are you going?”
She nodded and ran her thumb along her bottom lip. “I’ve gone for the past two years. It’s nice it’s so close this year. I was just planning on taking the train down.” Her lips pinched with preoccupation.
“I thought so too, but every application I submit is rejected. I even spent money registering an LLC, but no dice. It’s not a big deal. If I can’t go, I can’t go.” I shrugged, trying to play it off like it wasn’t the biggest deal in making the jump from product photographer to textile designer who actually got paid for her work that didn’t just live in her makeshift studio.
Zara was probably trying to come up with a gracious way to exit this conversation.
Her head shot up. “Let me see what I can do. I know we get a ton of passes for the design and buying teams. Last year I’m sure there were extras. If I got you a ticket, do you think you’d be able to make it?”
My heart stopped for a second, and I nearly jumped out of my seat. Had she just asked what I thought she’d asked? Gripping the cushions beneath me, I nodded so hard the ache in the back of my head returned.
“I’d walk on the highway if I had to. Do you think they’ll give a pass to me, even if I don’t work for Waverly?”
“It’s not a lock, but I’m pretty sure I can make it happen.”
I’d flung myself at her, nearly knocking us both off the couch, before I could contain myself. “Zara, you’re my new favorite person. Holy shit!”
She laughed and returned my hug. “It’s not a done deal yet. I’ll let you know on Monday.”
Bouncing in my seat, I gripped the cushion so I didn’t tackle her again.
Maybe coming here hadn’t been a massive mistake after all.
22
Hunter
Every surface in the kitchen was covered with baking tools and supplies. Tools that looked like torture devices were coated in red fondant, which wasn’t helping with the crime-scene look Jameson had cultivated in the overly full kitchen.
Cake flour, powdered sugar, blocks of butter, regular sugar, brown sugar, and enough eggs to make Rocky proud covered the counter. Five guys crammed into a domestic kitchen with more machinery than a small restaurant had ratcheted up the heat in here. I might’ve gone the tiniest bit overboard with the favor I’d put in for with a local restaurant, Tavola, asking for some of their portable ovens and other supplies.
We each had a station. Leo was on vanilla cakes. Everest was on chocolate cakes, which were Teresa’s favorites. August and I were handling chocolate and vanilla icing. Jameson had been stuck with the fondant and modeling chocolate. It was only fair.
“So Sabrina, huh?” Leo grinned at me while he locked the metal bowl under the stand mixer.
I added milk to the powdered sugar and butter whirring around in the mixing bowl, pointedly ignoring him.
Watching her fly through the air and slam into the floor had sent my heart rocketing into my throat. When she’d tried to push me away and got woozy, it cemented my commitment not to leave her alone.
“It’s not a big deal that she’s here.” It was a huge deal. I’d never introduced a woman to the guys before.
She’d met them during a meeting we’d had in the apartment not long after she’d moved in, but even that made her the only woman I’d ever been attached to who’d met them. Everyone else had introduced someone they were dating for various reasons. Leo had brought Zara to Teresa’s the first year after she gotten the engagement ring that belonged to neither of them stuck on her finger. I’d helped them out of that mess.
We’d all known Maddy back in college. She’d been closer to one of the guys than a girlfriend, though.
August and Carrie had been high school sweethearts, so they were a package deal from the beginning, but she was never one of us.
Jameson never had issues with bringing whoever he was dating around us, but never to the house to meet Teresa or his mom.
I’d been the lone one who never crossed the streams of my friends with who I was sleeping with at the time. Not that Sabrina fit that mold, since we weren’t doing that anymore, no matter how much I wanted to.
My inner circle was complete. Adding another person, especially someone who was already living with me, would mean getting closer to her than I had in a long time, and I preferred the arm’s-length way of handling things. It was easier and led to cleaner breaks. Less involved, there wasn’t any confusion about what we were to each other.
With her lavender scent, big brown eyes, and ball busting, Sabrina had come closest to throwing off my equilibrium when dealing with the opposite sex. She left me unsteady and unsure, which unsettled me. I wanted to draw the lines that had always been so clear to me even deeper in the sand. But the pull was still there. Undeniable, alluring—and unattainable if I wanted to keep my focus sharp and not let distractions set my arm of the company up for failure.
Everest stuck a knife into the center of a cake in the oven. “You do know the last woman brought to this cake catastrophe is now wearing a real engagement ring, not the fake one you got her last time we did this.”
“Let’s change the subject.” Now the question bombardment had begun, not that it was unexpected.
August cranked up the heat under the pot of cream on the stove. “Not everyone who introduces us to a woman intends to marry her, or even date her. Can we stop jumping to conclusions?” He grumbled and grabbed a giant bag of chocolate chips and poured them into a bowl.
Jameson pushed his glasses up with the back of his hand that was so red it looked like he’d sliced an artery. “Have you starred in any of her pictures or videos?”
“Product photography and videos. It’s not exactly scandalous.” What we’d done was much closer to what I’d imagined when I thought she was shooting porn, although she’d have needed an underwater camera for at least some of it.
I jammed my hips against the counter to hide how much the mental snapshots of our night together had affected me. Deep breaths. Slow my heart rate down. Do not think of a glistening-wet Sabrina on her knees between my legs. My dick stiffened and knocked into one of the metal hand pulls of the cabinet. Pain radiated down my shaft. I winced and clamped my jaw tight, choking back the groan.