Page 44 of It Started With a Scarf

I hoped it was.

Chapter 15

Five days later

Today was Joan's birthday. It was her 70th, and her kids had planned a luncheon party.

I had not seen Dominic these last five days, and it had been five days too long. Emotionally, I had gone from zero to a thousand with him. I missed him so much. We had that whole day together, and since then we had grown so close over the phone. We talked every day. We had gotten to know each other so much in recent days that I felt close to him now. In some ways I was closer to him… but in other ways, I felt distant. I wondered what it would be like to see him again. I ached to see him again. It had been a long morning because I knew he was in Chicago all day, and I had stayed home to celebrate Joan's birthday.

Lunch was just wrapping up and I would see Dominic any minute. He had texted me when he was on his way from his apartment, and that was fifteen minutes ago. I had to freshen up, so I excused myself from the luncheon.

"Happy Birthday, Joan!" I said.

"Are you leaving?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm going back to my room for a minute before my ride comes."

I had already told Joan that Dominic was coming to get me this afternoon. She knew that I was talking to him and that he would be picking me up. He and I had plans to go to a matinee movie that afternoon, but I hadn't told her any of that.

"She's leaving with that Decker boy. Eddie Decker's son who came in my store that time." Joan spoke proudly to her son and the other men in the room, thinking they would be impressed.

"No kidding!" Brandon said, looking at me with new interest.

"Yeah, supposedly Dominic Decker found her lost scarf and gave it back to her," Deb said chiming in from the other side of the kitchen. She said it in such a way that she sounded unamused and bored like they should all drop the subject.

"You know Dominic Decker?" A woman asked, turning to me. It was Patrick's friend. Patrick often talked about her, but this was the first time I had met her. She was a lady in her thirties named Emma. She seemed excited, smiling at me. "Patrick told me he came in the store one time. Do you know him?"

"She's been talking to him every night," Joan said.

"Supposedly. Mom's never seen him," Deb said under her breath, talking to her husband.

She said it just loud enough for me to hear, and I could feel resentment and anger welling inside me, so I decided to walk away.

"Okay, well, it was great seeing you guys," I said, fake smiling and looking around at all of them while conveniently not making eye contact with Deb or her husband. "And Happy Birthday to you!" I said to Joan again.

"Thank you for my sunglasses," she said. "I can't believe you heard me tell Patrick about those."

"Listening to everything…" Deb said sarcastically. Her remarks were just within range for me to hear them. She hated me, and I had done nothing to her. It took all of my willpower to ignore her comments and walk away.

I went into my room and did a few things to freshen up since I knew I only had a few minutes before Dominic would arrive. I headed outside to meet him as soon as he texted saying he was waiting on the street. I tried to leave out the side door without being noticed, but Joan hollered at me from the kitchen.

"Bye, Marley!"

"Bye Marley," Patrick said.

"Bye Marley," Deb said. A few others said it too, but Deb's stood out. She was being fake with me.

"Bye!" I said, with as sincere of a fake smile as I could manage. I did great. None of them seemed to realize anything was wrong when I glanced their way.

Dominic was parked on the street and his vehicle was visible once I reached the edge of Joan's front yard. I walked down the sidewalk past two houses until I reached his truck. I opened the door and peered in to see him. He was such a vision. I had a bitter taste in my mouth from Deb, and it disappeared the instant I laid eyes on him. I smiled and let out a sigh of relief as I climbed into his truck. It smelled like Dom, clean and masculine, and I closed the door, feeling like the cab of this truck was some kind of magic oasis. My smile was big and genuine as I looked at him leaning in for a kiss on the cheek. I pulled back.

"Hey," I said, loving the sight of his face.

"Hey, I didn't see you coming, or I would have opened the door." His head tilted and he stared at me. "You okay?"

"What? I am soooo happy. You have no idea. I've been so excited about seeing you!"

"No, I thought… when you first opened the door… it looked like something was the matter."

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