Page 6 of Infatuated as They Come
“Is he still obsessed with painting you?”
“Yes. Unfortunately.”
“You don’t like being his muse?”
“It’s not that,” I said, taking a sip of my iced coffee, the taste of creamy caramel hitting my tongue. “It’s just that he should be painting stuff he can sell.”
“You have a very sellable face.”
“He never sells his paintings of me,” I said. There was what felt like an endless amount of canvases that featured me in his bedroom, all stacked against the walls. Some small, some big, and all that made my heart flutter wildly.
“Ooh, he’s making a Holly Sutton shrine.”
“Probably.” I laughed. “But seriously, he’s going to be living in New York City. That should be the dream for any artist, and instead of focusing on his art, he’s going to be busy working all the time just so he can pay rent and look after me.”
“Yup. Definitely a gentleman. He hid that pretty well.”
We kept sipping on our drinks and talked all about Annie’s plans for California. She showed me more photos of the place she was about to moveinto: a beautiful apartment with a definite Spanish influence that was only about a ten-minute drive from campus. I liked hearing the excitement in her voice as she talked about all the things she planned on doing when she got there and all the plays she wanted to audition for. When we were all finished with our nails, I pulled out my card, paying for the both of us.
“And you are a gentlewoman.” Annie leaned forward, kissing me on the cheek. “You didn’t have to pay. Thank you.”
I hooked my arm with hers, giving the woman at the counter a wave goodbye. “I don’t mind paying.”
“I’d probably only be able to afford one hand. You had to pick the most expensive nail salon in Dallas, didn’t you?”
“They’re really good here. So pretty.” I held my hand up as we moved outside, the early afternoon sun hitting my freshly painted nails. “Come on, we’re gonna be late for our hair and makeup appointment.”
“Oh, you spoil me.”
Chapter 2
Sawyer
Even though I knew I wasn’t proposing to Holly, it sure as hell felt like it.
My fingers tightened around the velvet box in my pants pocket. I was itching to give it to her. God, I had been itching to give it to her since I bought it but had been not so patiently waiting for her birthday.
I tugged at the collar of my button-down shirt, hoping that would help me breathe a little easier, but that didn’t stop the nerves. There was a time in my life when I didn’t want to impress Holly Sutton. When I didn’t wake up wanting to be the man that she had always dreamed of being with. That felt so far, far away.
My back up against the Sutton’s dining room wall, I took a long look at Holly. She was in a deep conversation with her mom and best friend, looking all pretty in her long, white dress. Big crowds weren’t my thing and it seemed like just about every one of Holly’s family members were in her house to celebrate her nineteenth birthday. I just wanted to get her on my own.
“Hey, have you had any of the food?” my cousin asked as he sidled up next to me against the wall, his hand rubbing at his stomach. “Rich people eat weird food, man.”
I frowned at Brodie. “What’d you eat?”
“I don’t know, but I hated it.”
“Didn’t you eat the cake?”
“Are we allowed to eat it? I thought we were banned from the cake.”
“We aren’t banned from the cake,” I said with a laugh.
“Are you sure we can eat it?”
“It’s cake and we’re at a birthday party.”
Brodie shook his head. “I don’t know, man. You saw it, right? I’m shocked they even cut that thing in the first place. It probably cost a thousand bucks.”
