His gaze landed on her legs for a brief second before returning to the road. “You only read it once.”
She slid her cell out of her purse to check her text messages. “Yes. I’m aware.”
“You remember everything?” he asked.
“Yes.” She turned in her seat and raised a brow. “Is it quiz time now?”
“What do I do on Saturdays at eight a.m.?”
“By then you’d be halfway through racquetball with Zack.”
“Tuesdays at seven p.m.?” he said with a cocky smirk.
“Ahhhh, trick question. Nice try, but I’m onto you. The first and third Tuesday you’re at the YMCA volunteering, which, quite frankly, surprises me. Then the last Tuesday of the month you take out your corporate buddies, Zack and Sebastian, to celebrate the month’s acquisitions. I figure you do this because the bar isn’t crowded and your buddies aren’t going to drink away your cash on a Tuesday with the work week ahead. Despite your penthouse, car, and designer suits, you’re a cheapskate.”
Thick brows shot up. “I don’t know whether I should be terrified or turned on.”
“How adorable of you to so foolishly believe you have that kind of control over yourself. I’d put my money on you being both.”
“You’d win that bet.”
Words. They were just words, Piper. He doesn’t mean it.
“So, where are we headed?”
“My boss has a place on Canada Lake. He’s been talking all year about this huge addition he’s been working on. Five suites, three with lake views, two of them mountain views.”
“Any chance we’ll get a water view?”
“Whatever you want, you get,” he said with a wink. He pulled off the interstate and followed the signs for the huge shopping center.
“Stop winking at me,” she said.
“What do you mean?” he asked with a brief glance in her direction before returning his eyes to the road.
“You just winked at me.”
He shook his head. “No, I didn’t.”
“Okay, so, are you suffering from some sort of head injury I don’t know about?”
He did a double take. “What? No.”
She laughed. His antics should have been annoying, but at this point, she was starting to think he’d just become a product of his environment. Perhaps the time had come to peel back some of those layers. She had to wonder if it was really his lack of being in a solid relationship, holding his boss back, or if his boss was just waiting for his rising star to grow up.
Maybe she could help him out in both respects. After all, they were a temporary couple, and at some point, they would need to manufacture a break up. Why not leave them all with a better man than the one she found?
They drove past a Lowes. Usually, where there was a Lowes, there was a Walmart nearby.
“If we end up in a Walmart parking lot, I’m strangling you with my purse strap.”
With a confident hand he spun the wheel and turned right at the light. “Noted, Piper. I’m hoping there’s an Old Navy. I should have stopped at the Palisades mall, but I was a bit distracted.”
She spotted the navy and white sign and shot a finger in front of him. “Right there. Oh, thank God!”
He laughed at her, but dammit, she needed comfortable, and since becoming a designer, her biggest pet peeve had been cheap fabric.
It itched.
It never fit right.
And it smelled like the acrid chemicals they marinated it in.
He pulled into a spot in the very back row.
“Seriously, Trevor, you couldn’t get any closer?”
“I’ve only had the car for three months. I’m not emotionally ready for a scratch or ding.”
She rolled her eyes and pushed open her door. “You should take some of that money you seem to be rolling in and invest in a good therapist.”
“You’re probably right, but not because of the car. First time in my life I’m taking a woman shopping. I’ve hit a new low.”
“Oh, come on, it’s going to be painless. I’m a pro at this. I’m crystal clear on what I like, and what I don’t.”
She pushed open the front door, not waiting to see if he kept pace with her. Her Spidey senses told her he might very well be walking behind her and checking out her ass.
Whatever.
She stopped and surveyed the layout.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting my bearings. Late August, upstate New York, by a lake. I need jeans, leggings, shorts, a sundress or two, t-shirts, a hoodie, a couple of tank tops—”
“A bathing suit.”
She shot him a look. “Do you ever make it through an entire sixty seconds without thinking about naked?”
He held his palms up. “Who’s thinking about naked? It’s a lake. We’ll probably swim.”
“I have a bathing suit.”
He looked her up and down and raised a brow. “What does it look like?”
She bit her bottom lip. “Okay, a bathing suit, too. Let’s do this.”
She scanned rack after rack making her way through the store in record time, surprised at their selection. She actually found things she might wear even after this trip. She especially loved the flannels that they had rolled out as part of their fall/winter lineup of clothes.
Trevor shocked her by trailing along not making a single peep, despite having heaped a good ten outfits on his outstretched arms.
“Okay, let’s hit the fitting rooms.”
“Come on, you’re a designer, you can’t just eye it?”
She sighed. “No, I can’t just eye it. I want your approval on every outfit. This is your show, Trevor. If it blows up in your face, I don’t want it to be because of me.”
He nodded. “Fair enough.”
She started to turn when he worked his hand out from under the pile. His long fingers curled around hers, a sensation she hadn’t experienced since prom night. Although familiar, the callouses that came with sports had long since disappeared, leaving smooth fingers that set her nerves singing. Such an innocent touch and it shot right through her to her toes.
“Thank you, Piper. I really mean it. You’re saving my ass here, and I don’t want you to go off thinking that I don’t appreciate it. I know you probably agreed to this because I took you to prom, but this is a whole lot more, and I know it.”
With a bit of extra pressure, she slid her hand free, not ready to feel his touch, or hear his sweet words and handle what they did to her. She needed to get on even footing. She sure as hell had no intention of showing him how the simplest of touches transported her right back to that night, to the heat and innocent longing.
“Hey, yeah, don’t mention it.” She grabbed half the stack and hung it on the first hook, then took the last of it and hung it on the second. Closing the door, she took a deep breath before shimmying out of her dress.
She tossed it on the bench and called out to him. “So, Romeo, how’d we meet?”
“You marched into Rye’s room while we were playing Monopoly and gave his hair a hard yank for leaving your paint brushes in water overnight.”
She laughed. “Yes, I remember. I meant what is the story for your boss?”
“Well, I thought we would keep it as close to the real thing as possible. You were hardcore about those brushes.”