Any other night, I’d have invited myself inside.
Any other woman, and I’d have put my hand on her leg on the drive home.
I’d have told her how we were going to spend the next several hours.
But Laila was not any other woman, and therefore it was not any other night, so I did none of the things that usually helped me seal the deal for a hookup. Instead, I backed away from the door with a curt nod and a smile.
“I had a good night.” An excellent night, even. Dinner and drinks at Guillermo and Arabella’s was much more preferable to my original plans, which were to sit in my father’s study getting drunk on his old liquor collection and smoking his cigars until I made myself sick. “Thank you for coming with me.”
Her eyes sparkled. “Thank you for inviting me.”
“I’ll see you soon. My board of directors has been working to organize some good PR events. One of my assistants will be in touch with you this week via email with your schedule leading up to the Valentine’s Day Cupid Fashion Show. It sounds to me like they might have some fun things in the works.” Turning, I waved over my shoulder. “Have a good rest of your night, Laila.”
“Goodnight, Storm.”
I might have been imagining it, but her voice sounded a little thin and a little breathless. Even though I ached to look over my shoulder and get one last look at her, I resisted until I got back in my car to turn back to the doors.
She was gone.
CHAPTER 12
LAILA
When I was a teenager, I used to get sick in the car on long drives, and I couldn’t so much as read a page of a book, let alone respond to emails or text messages. Now, working as a full-time model for one of the most popular companies, I’d had to learn how to deal with the nausea and get some work done while I rode shotgun.
Lexi was behind the wheel, driving me to dinner with my sister and my dad while I responded to emails from Storm’s board of directors. Like he’d said, they’d arranged for several public relations events to unify branding between Thornton Enterprises and Cupid’s Arrows in a fun, positive, on-brand way. The first event was tomorrow, kicking off with the new launch of a Valentine’s Day line at the original Cupid’s Arrows store in Times Square. The email didn’t include any details of what I’d be doing there, but I found myself hoping Storm would be there, too.
Lexi drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. “So.”
I hit send on my email, confirming I’d be at the store tomorrow. “So?”
“Are you going to tell me about the other night, or what?”
“The other night?”
“With Storm? You know, your little meet-cute at the graveyard? Seems like a weird place to pick up chicks, but hey, whatever floats his boat, right?”
“He wasn’t there picking up chicks.”
“Says the chick he picked up.”
I rolled my eyes. “He was there to visit his dead father, Lexi. It was the four-year anniversary since his passing. He had every right to be there just like I did. Maybe we found comfort in each other’s loss. It was kind of nice to see him in a more humanizing way.”
Lexi took a right turn and clicked her tongue. “I didn’t expect this.”
“Expect what?”
“For you to give a guy like him the benefit of the doubt. I thought you hated his guts.”
“I didn’t know him.”
“And now you do? After one dinner?”
“Lexi, where is this coming from? What’s your problem? I didn’t climb into bed with him and let him motorboat me for crying out loud. We had dinner at a quaint restaurant and he drove me home. That’s all.”
“Okay.”
“Okay,” I said firmly. “For the record I’m a big girl who can make her own choices. You’re my bodyguard and my friend, not my handler.”
Lexi shot me a dark look that morphed into a grin. “I’m just yanking your chain, Laila. You make it so easy sometimes.”
“You’re a bitch.”
“Duh.”
After a couple more turns, Lexi pulled into the half-empty lot of Chevy’s Diner, a well-loved burger shack with a red roof and obnoxious signs with artwork of menu food turned into smiling cartoon characters. I invited Lexi to come in and join us, but she told me she’d rather stay in the car and keep an eye on me from the parking lot. She didn’t like sitting and eating alone.
“You can sit with us, you know.” I got out of the car and slung my purse over my shoulder. “My dad loves you. Don’t let it go to your head, but he thinks you’re the funniest person he’s ever met.”
“If it was just you and your old man, I’d take you up on it, but let’s be honest, Casey won’t want me crashing your family night. Go on inside. I’m content out here.” She popped open the center console and flashed me her stash of snacks—chips, protein bars, a bag of mini carrots, and a bag of peanuts. “I downloaded a movie on my phone, too.”
Sometimes I worried about how lonely Lexi’s job was as my bodyguard. When she first started working for me, it hadn’t been weird because she wasn’t my friend. But as soon as the lines blurred between employee and friendship, I began to feel bad about leaving her outside of event venues or in her car like this. She insisted it didn’t bother her, which it probably didn’t, but it bothered me a little bit.
I promised the night wouldn’t go too late before hurrying across the lot and into the diner, where my father and sister waved at me from a booth by the window. They got to their feet and met me with hugs before we all settled onto the red leather seats and put in our drink orders.
Dad clasped his hands together. Oil and grime outlined his fingernails and he had beat-up-looking knuckles on his right hand, undoubtedly from some sort of mechanical project at work. “How are you, kiddo?”
“I’m good, Dad.” I peeled out of my coat and hung it on the hook on the side of my bench. “Just keeping busy, you know how it is. Lots of shoots and events coming up to prepare for the fashion show next month. When it’s all said and done, I’m going to need to sleep for a whole week to bounce back.”
Dad chuckled and scratched at his chin, where his beard was coming in nicely. He liked to grow it out in the winter and shave in the summer. Mom used to love when he was freshly shaven. She’d go on and on about how nice it was to see his face again while stroking his baby-smooth skin and whispering what I’m now convinced were very inappropriate things in his ear.
Casey sipped her soda. “Are you going to get a bunch of free stuff again at the fashion show?”
“They never tell us in advance.” Often, I’d leave a show with bags and bags of free stuff ranging from lingerie to skincare, to jewelry to spa packages. “I’ll try to snag something for you this time, Casey.”
She sat a little straighter in the booth. “Thanks.”
She and I hadn’t talked since she’d stormed out of my apartment. Here and now was hardly the place to hash things out. Dad never liked to see us fight or even know we weren’t getting along, and we didn’t like to burden him with it. After Mom died, Dad did everything in his power to make sure us girls were happy and had everything we wanted. He reminded us every night before tucking us in to sleep that we still had each other, and that was enough. He’d kiss our foreheads and gently flick our noses, reminding us that family is forever and sisters are irreplicable.