Page 49 of Almost Home
“What for, I wonder?” Dahlia asked.
“She was here for a short trip like a year and a half ago. I remember her talking to Aiden at the bar one night.” Quinn raised her brows.
Dahlia sighed. “Oh, now that would be beautiful.”
Calla snickered. “Okay, little romantic heart.”
Sadie nudged her with an elbow lightly. “Seriously, though. Aiden is the best. He’s gentle and he’s such a good dad.”
“I can vouch for Aiden. I work with him on Night in Bloom and he’s great. Very professional, very knowledgeable, and if I don’t sound like too much of a creep, completely attractive in that salt of the earth way.”
Quinn nodded. “He is definitely handsome.”
I thought of the man in question next to Madeline. I couldn’t see it, but I didn’t know either of them. They seemed like total opposites to me, but maybe that’s what she’d want, or he’d need. Who knew?
“I’m excited to see her around,” I said, not giving away anything I knew or the fact that she was a client at Saint Securities, even though I desperately wanted to.
“Last time she was here, I saw her at the bar that one time and not again,” Quinn said.
“She came to the shop once, but I only know that because Garrett had to compose himself for a minute before he went back out and actually delivered her to go order.” Sadie’s fond expression spoke of how she felt about her most loyal employee. Garrett had been a fixture at Rise and Shine almost as long as it’d been open, from what she had told me. He was a good kid and incredibly devoted to her.
“Maybe she’ll get out a bit more. Or maybe she’s coming here to hide away. I can’t imagine being so public like that,” Dahlia said, then her eyes shot to Calla. “I mean, I guess you can.”
Calla chuckled. “That I can. But honestly, it’s different. I’m famous in one way because of what I do, but she’s famous for both what she does and who she is, if that makes sense. Like, she’s doing a job few women do as a high-profile CEO, plus she’s doing it well, and then she’s also targeted for that. I don’t know. I am guessing some of our fame experiences overlap, but she’s kind of a paragon and I obviously had a different road.”
Calla’s “road” entailed being publicly derided and blamed for her mother’s death, on top of being criticized for basically everything about herself. It was stupid and obnoxious, but all of that brought her here to Silverton, where she hid out… and then she’d met her husband. She had said she didn’t regret any of it, and based on the way she kept glancing back at said husband, I believed her.
“Is it a thing with the Saint brothers?” Dahlia asked, tilting her head to one side to study the three men now facing the bar and away from us.
Still a fantastic view…
“Is what a thing?” Sadie asked, glancing over her shoulder to see Warrick eyeing her again.
The heat between those two had already set my cheeks aflame.Whew.Especially knowing how much they loved each other, it was basically the best.
“The wholewe give hot looks to our women from the barthing? Like, did they come here just to send sexy stares to you guys?” Dahlia scooped a chip into the remaining guacamole on the table, still picking at her plate.
Quinn chuckled but only gave Calla and Sadie a knowing look.
“Hmm. I’d say yes. I mean, it’s definitely a Wyatt thing. He’s been heating me up with those eyes since the day I met him, even before we liked each other. I wouldn’t have thought Warrick had it in him, but having witnessed him look at Sadie… yeah.Yeah.”
We all laughed at that, and Sadie flushed a deep red. She only agreed with a “Yeah.”
A new round of chuckles passed through the group before Quinn spoke with a little twinkle in her eye. “And then there’s Wilder.”
My pulse jumped at his name. Stupid that just his name spoken aloud did that considering all that’d happened today, but that was the truth of it.
“You realize he’s looking at you the same way Wyatt and Warrick are looking at them, right? Maybe with a little more desperate heat than satisfied anticipation, but it’s absolutely there.”
My cheeks flamed, but I couldn’t figure out what to say.
Calla shot me a sly smile. “I agree. And based on that blush, you don’t mind a bit.”
I shook my head, tucking my lips between my teeth as I exhaled. “Can’t say that I do.”
Sadie’s gentle question came next. “You still have feelings for him? I mean, obviously there’s attraction.”
“Ha, yeah. We can all tell that based on the tractor beam between them,” Quinn said, a snarky little brow raise accompanying the smile she sent me.
