Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
“Same.” I laugh. “I’ll be in my office if you need me.”
“Calling your boyfriend?” she asks, still grinning, and I roll my eyes as I walk away. “You can’t deny it anymore. I heard it right out of your mouth.” Her voice follows me down the hall, which means I’m smiling when I open the door to my office. I half expect to find my office empty, but it’s exactly as I left it.
Walking to my desk, I take a seat, pull out my computer, and start looking up furniture stores.
Hearing someone tap on the glass door for the spa, I look that way and smile from where I’m standing on a ladder when I see who it is standing outside, holding a drink carrier with three white cups with a distinct green emblem on the front of them.
“I got it,” Holly says, going to the door and unlocking it. As it opens, a cold gust of air sweeps into the room along with Bax, who looks as beautiful as he always does, dressed in jeans, a black hoodie with his business logo on the front, a puffy vest over it, and his work boots.
“Hey, just one second.” I turn back to the wall and finish hammering the picture hook in place before I get down off the ladder.
“I got this,” Eva says, lifting the large, framed painting we picked up today off the ground. Ignoring her, I take the other side and help her hook the metal string thing on the back over the picture hook. When it’s in place, I step back to look at it, and she does too. It’s perfect, with the black wood frame and the colorful scrapes of paint that are not exactly a design but still look floral in some abstract way.
“I love it,” I tell her.
“Me too.” She smiles, and I grin back before turning toward my guy.
“Hey.”
“Hey, baby.” He bends to press his lips to mine, and I swear I hear Holly sigh.
“You brought us coffee?” I ask, falling to my flat feet and taking the drink holder from him.
“Hot cocoa. It’s late, and I didn’t know what everyone’s order would be.”
“Thanks, I love hot chocolate,” Holly tells him with a huge smile as I pass her a cup, and I bet that even if she hated hot cocoa, she’d still drink it just because he brought it.
“Thank you for this,” Eva calls over to him as I give her one of the cups. “And thank you for letting Olivia borrow your truck today.”
“It’s no big deal.” He touches his hand to my lower back, and I lean into his warm palm.
This afternoon, after calling about a dozen stores to see if they did same-day delivery and getting nos from all of them, I called Bax and asked if I could use his truck. He was reluctant at first—not because he didn’t want me driving his vehicle, but because he didn’t like the idea of me trying to put furniture into the back without him there to help. It took me a while to convince him that I would be fine and that us girls could handle the job without him.
So I drove over to the house he was working on and left my rental car with him, then Eva, Holly, and I piled into the extended cab and went shopping. It took us four different stops, but by the time we drove back to town, we had everything we needed.
“How's it going here?” he asks as I take a sip of my cocoa. It hits the spot. We’ve been going all day, and none of us have taken the time to stop and eat more than the pastries we picked up when we got coffee this afternoon, and that was hours ago.
“We just need to put up the product shelves and move the furniture around. I’d say we have another hour or so.”
“Do you want some help?”
“You don’t have to do that. I know you just got off work,” I say, and he gives me a look that says, and? “Okay, then yes, that would be awesome, if you don’t mind.”
“Let me just grab my tool bag out of the truck.”
“We have tools. Holly brought them from her house.” I point at her pink tool bag that is open on the floor, along with all its matching accessories, including a bright-pink drill.
“I’m going to go get my tool bag,” he repeats, and I smirk at him over the rim of my cup.
“Afraid you might combust?”
“A little.” He smiles at me, patting my bottom before turning and heading out the door.
“God, Julie is such an idiot,” Eva mutters, her eyes on the door and Bax’s retreating back.
“Thank God,” I mutter back, and she laughs while I look over at Holly. “You okay?” I ask, and she looks up at me.