Page 79 of Falling into Place
“Also, I’m burning the hell up out here.”
That got a full laugh out of him. “See you tomorrow?”
“Yep. Thanks for the coffee.” She gave him a little wave and walked away.
He got in his car and made his way back to work, and when he came cross “Purple Rain” as he skimmed radio stations, he smacked the steering wheel.
“Princeton,” he muttered to himself, remembering tonight’s date’s last name.
Madison Princeton.
Chapter Twenty
Carly
You can have anything you want in life, if you dress for it.
—Quote by costume designer Edith Head, on a Post-it in Carly Porter’s closet
The evening was doomed from the start.
The good thing was Carly had been able to find a decent suit on sale, and in Brooks’s size. Yes, she’d still hold him to the promise to get it tailored for a more personalized fit after tonight, but what she’d come up with would do quite nicely.
She showed up at Brooks’s house at six o’clock on the dot with his suit over her arm. When he opened the door, he immediately zeroed in on her lips, and she knew right away she’d made a serious miscalculation.
She put a hand over her bright red mouth. “I thought this might make sure we were good,” she whispered. “Because I might go grab a drink after this and thought I wouldn’t want to mess up my lipstick.”
He’d fisted his hands near his sides and swallowed thickly, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. “Our brains work very differently.”
Oh.
With superhuman strength, she made it past his incredible smelling, freshly showered body without touching him. She paused to greet Oreo, careful not to drop the garment bag, aware of Brooks hovering nearby.
“How was the date?” she asked, standing.
“She wasn’t you.”
Her heart squeezed, but she tried to keep her expression neutral. He wasn’t the type of guy to say pretty things just to score points, which made the simple statement a thousand times better.
He gave her a half smile. “She was pretty cool, actually. Refreshingly honest. She admitted she’s casually dating another guy she’s really into, and she just agreed to the date because her mom doesn’t like the guy and she’d promised she’d keep her options open. I guess her mom and her friends have been following the series pretty religiously, so they flipped out when she said she was meeting me. I told her I was into someone, too, and that I was happy to stand in anytime to keep her mom off her back.”
“Dang, I’m surprised she put all that out in the open.”
“She didn’t really mean to, but we just sort of ended up there. I guess her parents are all rich and fancy, and she stands to inherit a shit ton of money. So she wants to stay in their good graces.”
“Wow.” Carly leaned one shoulder against the wall. “Would you marry someone you weren’t that into for money?”
A strange expression flashed across his features, there and gone so quick she might have imagined it.
“I’m not sure,” he said. “Would you?”
“I don’t know, either.” As unromantic as it was, guaranteed financial stability sounded pretty nice. “Anyway, let’s get moving, I don’t want you to be late for your party.”
But then she entered his bedroom and laid eyes on his bed.
His neat, perfectly made bed.
He ran into her from behind because she’d stopped so suddenly, then turned sideways to slide past her, a worried smile on his face. “Did I do it right?”
