Total pages in book: 190
Estimated words: 181992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 181992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
“I did when I first started dating again, but I think that was partly because I felt guilty for moving on.” I hooked my hand around the back of my neck. “I’d thought that maybe things would be different with Grayden. He gave me hope that I’d have another chance at something good.” And then he’d taken it away.
“Do not allow that shithead to put you off trying again with someone else. He loved you, but not as deeply as you deserve to be loved. That doesn’t mean no one else will.”
I sighed. “I’d like to think so—”
“Then think so. You’ll find someone eventually, Addie. You’re a triple threat.”
“A what?”
“You’re smart, successful, and beautiful. A triple threat. Tamara’s a picky bitch, but even she agrees you’ve got a great ass and a real nice rack. In our fine opinion, you missed your calling as an underwear model.”
I blinked. “Uh, thank you?”
“Genuinely, I have serious boob-envy around you. And eye-envy, actually. Mine are sewage-green. Yours are like liquid-dark chocolate. To be blunt, I would in fact do you if we weren’t such close friends it would feel like incest.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “I don’t bat for your team, sweetie, but I’d make an exception for you.”
She flashed me a grin. “Who wouldn’t?”
“Now, are you done objectifying me? Because we need to go check out those venues we talked about.” Several times a week, she and I would spend our afternoons scouting or touring venues—sometimes with clients, sometimes without.
She straightened in her seat. “I’m ready to leave whenever you are.”
I’d already taken a look at the locations on the internet, but I never chose a place purely based on online research. “I just need to email the Palmers a status update, and then we can leave.” I opened my laptop and tapped the spacebar to snap it out of sleep mode. As my list of emails appeared on the screen, I froze. “Oh.”
“Oh, what?”
My stomach doing roll after roll, I clicked on the new email I’d received and then quickly skimmed over it. “We have another potential client,” I said, the words a little strained.
“And?”
“And it’s Dax Mercier.”
Sabrina’s brows winged up, her eyes sparkling with avid interest. “Really?”
“Yes. He hasn’t said what kind of event he’s looking to throw, only that he’d like me to meet him at his office tomorrow morning for a consultation.”
“Hmm.” Leaning forward again, she planted her elbows on my desk. “Some very delicious memories must be flowing around your head right now.”
They weren’t merely flowing, they were thrashing.
“I might not be into guys, but I can objectively say he’s the definition of male hotness.”
Fucking A. The man was indecently sexual. No lie, he could tempt a nun—I was certain of it.
There was something so very magnetic about Dax. He gave off charisma like pixie dust. He was just so smooth, so personable, so incomparable. He dragged people into his orbit easily—particularly women.
He was also a superhero in the bedroom.
“You know, he’s the only one of your exes I don’t dislike,” said Sabrina as she lifted my nameplate and began idly twirling it. “He was good to you. Protective.”
“I don’t know if ‘ex’ would be the right word. We weren’t actually dating.” Though our families were acquainted, he and I hadn’t officially met until a mutual friend had introduced us when I was eighteen. Dax was twenty-three back then. We’d had a casual fling during the gap year I’d taken between graduating from high school and going to college.
He hadn’t sweet-talked his way into my pants, he’d dirty-talked his way there. I hadn’t told him I was a virgin until the moment we were both naked on his bed, ready to roll. He’d been shocked, but not put-off. And when he’d thrust inside me the first time, there’d been a pinch of possessive triumph in his eyes.
Due to us having a mutual friend, Dax and I had come across each other often over the years. But we hadn’t become friends ourselves. We had too much zing between us to have a platonic relationship. But we were friendly. Polite. Civil. Also a little distant, though.
Neither of us had acted on the aforementioned zing at any point throughout that time. We’d learned during our fling that we didn’t want the same things from life—more specifically, parenthood didn’t appeal to him.
“He might not have been your boyfriend,” began Sabrina, “but he treated you with more respect than some of your actual boyfriends did.”
Sad as it might be, it was totally true.
“I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise that he’d seek to hire Sapphire Glade, given how well we’re doing. And you two are neighbors now, so—”
“I wouldn’t call us neighbors. He lives at the opposite end of Oakengrove from me.” He’d only moved into the little man-made village a month ago. A village he’d purchased in that exact same month. In addition to running several businesses, Dax owned a lot of real estate. “It’s like a twenty-minute walk away.”