Page 71 of Anything for You
Cookie raised his brows, and Kenny leaned against the hood, face expectant.
“What’s going on?” I asked, well aware they could read me enough to know I was irritable.
Beast blinked back, clearly unimpressed with my feint of confusion. Cookie waited silently.
Barbie broke out into a wild grin. “You’re dating Dove Jensen!?”
My heart kicked at the sound of her name, and every anxiety-riddled thought grinding me down in the wake of the day and the close-out meeting evaporated as an image of her face came blazing into my mind.
Beast and Cookie chuckled.
“I love that you didn’t say a word but now you’re blushing. Your whole angsty energy just changed,” Barbie declared.
“Angsty?” Why I asked, I’d never know.
Barbie sauntered toward me and winked. “We’ll come back around to the blushing, but yeah. Angsty. Because you feel guilty for not working more, and knowing you, you feel guilty for not having some major Saint expansion project you want to do now that we have our very own resident moneybags,” he said, winking at Cookie.
“I’m that easy to read?” I asked, a touch embarrassed I was so transparent.
“Yes,” they all said in unison.
More than a little horror struck me. “Do you think Bruce and Wilder know?”
“Yes.” Perfectly in sync yet again.
I turned to face the truck, and my head fell against the cool metal of the door frame. How could I explain howterrible that realization felt, or the tiniest flutter of relief that came, too?
“We do need to talk about that, but we’ve touched on it. I assume you’re discussing it with the doc?” He meant my therapist.
“Yes.”
I had a little. And after today, I would more. I’d convinced myself it wasn’t a pervasive issue, this sense of guilt and obligation, and way down at the heart of it, fear, but clearly, I’d lied to myself.
“Great. Then tell us every little thing about you and Dove,” Barbie said, clapping his hands together in front of him.
Beast instantly spoke up. “No. Not every little thing.” He sent Barbie a glare.
“Maybe tell us what you want to tell us,” Cookie suggested in his reasonable way.
However edgy I felt after the day, these three pestering me about Dove and having every faith I’d handle those challenging feelings about Saint buoyed my mood. It reminded me yet again that I wasn’t alone and I didn’t need to sink into the disappointment with myself over not having been honest about all of this.
“I’ll tell you I’m…” A slow smile spread across my face as I thought about her, the way she’d urged me to share what I’d experienced but didn’t push. She hadn’t asked for every gory detail, and of course, my tenderhearted love, she’d cried. “I’m really happy.”
Barbie burst out laughing, so instantly elated on my behalf, it only made me love him more. Cookie and Beast were grinning like fools, too.
“Now I literally couldn’t be happier. I love this for you and her and all of us. Is she coming to the festival at all?”
The Silver Ridge film fest started tomorrow. It’d be a busy time, and I’d agreed to work several days, mostly in the CP. There’d be a flood of tourists, celebrities, and press.
“We haven’t talked about it.”
Barbie gave me a perturbed look. “Time to get on that. And, if I may very gently suggest, perhaps some tidying up?” He stroked along his clean-shaven face.
Beast chuckled.
“You could use a trim, too, fella,” he snapped back. “Everyone with a beard needs to take notes from Cookie because he always looks like a snack.”
I chuckled despite myself, and Beast grumbled while Cookie just shook his head.
