Page 43 of Unless It's You
“Thanks, Stella, I’m so happy.” Luckily, she lets it go. For now.
Joyous tears spring to my eyes. Then something occurs to me.
I push back from the glass of the coffee shop. Bucket list item number four.Help Reese.Doing something for the wedding would be perfect.
“Hey, why don’t I plan the bachelorette party? I can put together a fun night in London or Edinburgh a few days before the wedding. We have time to figure out the details.”
She gasps. “Yes! That would be wonderful. Edinburgh would be best. Then Oliver’s son’s mother could easily come as well.”
After we hang up, the sides of my mouth are still lifted. Being Reese’s maid of honor and planning her bachelorette party checks off number four. It’s not some lame contribution to her side hustle that she won’t even need after Evelyn’s estate gets sorted.
I re-enter the coffee shop and immediately meet Ethan’s eyes. His eyebrows are raised, and he stares at me intensely as I slide back into the chair across from him. Dark-brown eyes are locked on mine, so damn deep and gorgeous.
“Everything okay?”
“Yes, she’s engaged. Jesus. I was so freaked out.” I flash back to a heartbeat ago when I was wrapped in Ethan’s arms, my face against his chest. My cheeks grow warm. He did not hesitate to comfort me. To pull me into his strong, capable arms.
“I’m so glad for you.”
“And this checks off another bucket list item. To help Reese with something. I’m one of her maids of honor, plus I’m planning her bachelorette party.”
“Hen do.”
I laugh. “Right. Seven years living in London, and I still think that sounds weird. But anyway, that’ll be a betterHelp Reeseitem than I’d planned.”
“Nice work, Hart.” Ethan leans back and assesses me. A sip of his coffee leaves a blob of whipped cream in his beard, just like I had a few minutes ago.
“Um...” I gesture to his face, and he blinks at me.
“What?”
“Hold on...” I reach over to wipe the blob of whipped cream from just below his lip. It’s a tiny amount, but it stands out against his dark facial hair. My hand swipes under his lip slowly, and I swear he leans into my touch.
“Whipped cream,” I say. What am I thinking? Doing? But I know, and it involves crawling on Ethan’s lap and wrapping my arms around his neck. I can picture precisely what would come after that as well. A wave of unexpected desire pulls me in, threatening to swallow me whole.
Whipped cream is doing this to me?Pull it together,I order myself.
“Thanks.” His voice is husky.
I slowly lower my hand. The tension between us crackles and sparks like a live electric wire. Too many emotions have coursed through my veins in the past ten minutes. Too many confusing thoughts in my head. The way he’s looking at me... It’s overwhelming.
A crashing sound from behind the register shocks us out of whatever spell we’re under. I startle and rack my brain for sometopic of conversation that won’t involve me thinking about sitting on Ethan Fraser’s lap.
Instead, I tilt my head toward the door. “Want to go to the office? We’ve got a storyboard meeting in thirty minutes.”
He stands and grabs my empty coffee cup, dumping it with his in the trash on the way to the door. Maybe I’ll have time to douse my whole head in cold water before sitting next to him in the conference room.
I might’ve liked it better when we hated each other.
“Tell me about your mentee?” He reaches to push the door open ahead of me and we join the rush of people outside. “What’s the competition she’s in?”
“Izzy.” I turn to Ethan and smile. “I got her to enter this scholarship competition. She’s got to come up with a launch plan for an organic makeup line. But the document she shared with me on Friday was exclusively based around organic social media.”
“Might need a bit of beefing up.”
I nod and hold eye contact, ignoring the people streaming around us on the narrow sidewalk.
“Hey.” Ethan pulls me toward his chest with an arm around my shoulders, saving me from a giant dude looking at his phone and barreling forward. We don’t miss a step.
