Page 39 of Holidate Fail
Kelly’s skin prickled. “Tell me what?”
“I was getting there,” Heath mumbled. “I quit my job yesterday.”
Was he looking for employment? Kelly swallowed his panic. They were strapped as it was, but maybe they could take Heath on for a couple hours a week. He would definitely be able to do the paperwork, heavy lifting and take care of equipment, freeing up Kelly and Heath for tours. It wouldn’t be much, but it might help.
Lacole just sighed and shook her head.
“I liked my job,” Heath explained. “My title was executive assistant, but I was basically assigned tasks running errands. It wasn’t too taxing. Pick up lunches, deliver papers, get an extra bonus to take women out on blind dates, that sort of thing.”
Okay, so manual labor. That worked well for – wait. “What?”
“You are really bad at this,” Lacole said.
“It seemed easy.” Heath shrugged. “All I had to do was get her to the Pange River so they could meet with her in private. And she was a babe, so, extra benefit. They even comped all my expenses and paid me overtime. It was my job,” he stressed.
The shock of Heath’s words dissipated, leaving Kelly riled and angry. “What the hell, Heath?”
“Look, it was a really great bonus.” Heath took a step back. “But then when I met her, and you guys, and we had such a great time, I felt a guilty. I was under the impression Dahlia wanted the meeting. But I had signed non-disclosure agreements and had to wait until after the hearing to do anything. Which is when I quit. Picking up dry cleaning is one thing. Manipulation like this? Bribery? That’s not cool.”
Heath had been in on it? He had been so insistent on taking an adventure at the Ramshackle Café. “Sudoku. The coordinates,” Kelly said.
Heath’s skin flushed. “Yeah.”
“He confessed that to me yesterday after the damages were awarded. Convincing me to drive that far away from the tri-county area.” Lacole flattened her lips. “There’s still a lot of groveling to be done to make up for it.”
“Babe, I’m sorry.” He turned to Kelly. “I’m sorry for all of it.”
“Oh. You’re sorry.” Kelly grit his teeth. “That makes it all better.”
“Hey, look. I didn’t mean any harm. And I’m here now, right?”
It wasn’t himself that Kelly was concerned about. “Have you told Dahlia?”
“She’s my next visit.”
Kelly took a deep breath, more details falling into place. “I never told you my ex-wife’s name.”
Heath blinked, then glanced at Lacole, who shrugged. “No, not that I remember.”
“When Dahlia and I got back into the car, you asked what Kristy wanted. I thought I had mentioned her in passing, but you knew who she was already. Why we were there.”
“So you knew we should have bought the damn lollipop.” A fourth voice entered the conversation.
Kelly froze. That soft sound with a nervous tinge wasn’t Heath. Or Vin or Lacole.
It was the voice that he’d dreamed about the past two weeks. The serious, uneasy voice that could also be as dry and humorous as its owner. The voice that he wanted to hear every morning when he woke up.
He shifted his eyes to the end of the aisle. And there she was.
Her hair had been cut barely past her shoulders. Her familiar satchel hung over her shoulder, and her hand gripped the strap. Though her eyes were bright, they flitted around the room. The sight of her nervousness made his own disappear like a turtle diving underwater.
He cleared his throat, his heart a base drum in his chest. “You changed your hair.”
Chapter 12
Should Dahlia be annoyed that Kelly’s first comment was about her looks, or flattered because he remembered her hair style? Though he’d enjoyed tugging on it as much as she’d enjoyed having it tugged.
Her hand crept up of its own volition to the shorter ends as he made his way down the aisle to stand behind the counter. “Yeah. I decided that since I wore it up all the time at work, what was the point?”
