Page 104 of Say It Isn't So

Apparently she’d chosen to follow me because she sat down beside me. She really wasn’t leaving.

“Let me help you. You need a cleansing and to realign your chakras.”

Studying her closely, I looked at the orange silk top and dark blue jeans she was wearing. She looked great, like a woman who had a job to get to. “You should be at the office.”

She waved her hands in the space between us. “Nonsense. My team can handle things without me for a little while. Bibi, you’re more important. Please,” she said, and gave me her best pouty face—not that it had ever worked on me. She didn’t look sad, she just looked goofy.

I laughed and turned to face her, shaking my head. “I’m sorry, but I’m not going to strip down to my underwear so you can scrub me and put stones on me. It’s just not happening.” She’d tried to get Maria, Perla and I all to do it once before and, well, let’s just say none of us ever agreed to having it done.

She rolled her eyes at me. “It’s fine, I figured you wouldn’t go for that. So I’m going to smudge you instead.”

“Smudge?” I asked, my brows coming together as I tried to figure out what she meant.

“Yes, you know, sage burning.”

“Ugh, again? I hate the smell of that.”Wasn’t smelling that in Milan enough for my aura or chakras or whatever?

She smiled and stood up, going back to the kitchen, probably to retrieve the bundle of greens she’d placed on the counter. “Yes, it’ll help restore peace to your mind and body.”

Resolved to letting her win this one, I sat back and waited for her to tell me what to do. “Fine, but while you’re doing that, you can tell me about your new roommate, because if you think Maria would blab to you about me and she didn’t tell me about your new roommate, then you’re wrong.” Truthfully, she hadn’t said anything more than it was a man, but Allie didn’t need to know that. I just wanted the details.

Full of laughter as she opened her purse and retrieved a lighter, Allie shook her head. “Sorry, no, but only because we’ll be chanting and engaging in rhythmic breathing. But when it’s all over, then yes, I can tell you about Brady.”

Oooh! Brady. Hot guy name.“You’ve got yourself a deal.” I wasn’t so sure about the smudging, but I knew hearing about my sister and her male roommate would do me a world of good.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Knox

Usually I workedremote because of the nature of my job, but with Bianca at my place, I made the decision to go into the office. Again.

I wasn’t trying to avoid her.

I was trying to make things easier on the both of us.

I was also trying to be sure of my decision. I didn’t want to make a misstep. I didn’t like rushing into things—as they say, haste makes waste.

Okay, so maybe I was trying to avoid her. A little anyway.

But what was I supposed to say to her?Hey, things have been awkward because I’m trying this thing where I ignore our chemistry—for your own good, of course. All the while, I’m going to try my best to move on with Rina so that I stop ruining your life and you can reconcile with your father.

I should have said that because there were no two ways about it. No amount of time or hemming and hawing over my decision would change things. That was exactly what was going on. And I already knew it would be worse to prolong the inevitable.

Okay, that did it. I was going to walk into my place and as soon as I saw her, I would tell her. I would tell her about Rina staying in the city and my theory, all of it. I wouldn’t leave any piece out. Not that there were many pieces to it, thankfully—I hadn’t seen or heard from Rina since the night I’d dropped her off in her hotel room. It was like she, too, knew I needed to slow down and think.

I opened the door and walked in, immediately hit with a smell so good, so unfamiliar, I thought I’d walked into the wrong apartment. That was until Bianca popped out from around the open refrigerator, then closed it. She was wearing one of my gray sweatshirts that fell below her knees and the sleeves were rolled. Her hair was tossed in some clumsy knot on the top of her head and she looked perfect.

Caught staring like a creeper, Bianca’s eyes found mine and she smiled that smile that made me think I was the luckiest man in the world to have ever met her, let alone have her in my life.

Yeah, a lucky man who’s ruining her life for his own selfishness. You like her, so that gives you a right to implode her relationship with her father?Foot meet ass, because I was really deserving of a swift kick right about now.

“You’re home,” she announced, her smile even more radiant (if that was at all possible). “I thought I’d have dinner ready for you by the time you got in.”

I left my stuff in the fishbowl by the door and cocked a brow, striding towards her in the kitchen. “I thought you don’t cook.” I believe her exact words wereI might be the only Italian woman who can’t cook or bake.

She waved a hand in the air and chuckled. “Oh goodness, no! I didn’t cook this.” She tossed two serving spoons in the big bowl she was carrying to the table. “This is courtesy of Maria. She dropped it off after Allie left.”

“It sounds like you’ve been busy here today.” Busy was good, I was glad to hear that at least.

---