Page 7 of Don't Remind Me
She scoffed. “That doesn’t matter. It’s a family event, and you should be there. Your father and I expect it. And you could bring Gabby.”
Here we go.
“Mom, Gabby and I haven’t talked since we broke up. Almost a year ago.” Which was exactly what I’d told my mom the last time she asked about Gabby.
“Oh, I know, but you two were so good together, and she got along with Stephanie so well. I just thought it would be nice.”
I was pretty sure Gabby had met my brother’s wife a grand total of two times in the two and a half years we’d dated. I’d be surprised if they’d said more than five sentences to each other.
“Plus, you never know when a second chance could come about. I bet if you asked, she’d be thrilled.”
“I’m pretty sure she moved back to Boston, so I don’t see that happening.”
There came a knock on the door. It cracked open to reveal Aubrey’s small frame, an inquisitive look on her face. My absence had officially been noticed by my sous chef.
I pointed at the phone at my ear, then held up a finger to let her know I’d be down in a minute. She nodded and closed the door behind her.
“Look, Mom, I really have to go. We’ll talk more about the baby shower later, okay?”
“But—”
“I love you, bye.”
I hung up and tossed the phone onto the nearest bench, leaning my hands on the cool wood as I let my breath drain out of me. My heart pounded as though I’d just completed a circuit at the gym, and for a second, I forgot I wasn’t still an angry eighteen-year-old refusing to go to college.
I wasn’t sure my parents ever remembered.
Jillian did, though. So did my staff downstairs, and that was where I needed to focus.
On good food. Good service. Building this place up to the potential I knew it had. Potential I was determined to reach.
I took one last cleansing breath and pocketed my phone, the version of myself I felt good about finding its way back to me as I headed down to the kitchen to do the one thing I knew best.
Chapter Three
Dani
“That’s your suggestion?Sleep with him?”
I glared at the smudge in the window’s top corner that I couldn’t quite reach with my rag and lifted higher on my toes, my balance on the windowsill growing more precarious.
“What?” Robin’s voice floated out of my phone’s speaker from where it sat on the small wooden coffee table behind me. “You said he was hot, right?”
“Of course, he’s hot. He’s Alec’s older brother. He’s like Alec one-point-oh.” A slightly taller, slightly broader, more mysterious, and no less disarming Alec. The icy blue of Jase’s eyes flashed to the front of my mind for about the hundredth time since I’d bolted from Ardena earlier that afternoon, bringing a shiver with it and a lick of heat close behind.
I wished I could say I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt this visceral attraction to someone, but I could. I remembered far too often in my dreams. The way Alec’s own blue gaze pulled me in and made it impossible to turn away. How his smile made my stomach flutter and my skin burn. How his touch?—
No.
I would not think about his touch.
“Well then, what’s the problem?” Robin asked.
“The problem,” I growled, swatting the rag against the window in a last-ditch effort to reach the smudge. It didn’t work. “Is that I’m trying toforgetAlec. It’s been almost ten years, goddammit. I should not still be thinking about him. And now I have to look at what is practically his genetic clone for the next three months?” A more attractive clone, if that was even possible.
I hopped down from the window ledge and tossed the dust rag into the bucket of cleaning supplies before rummaging around for a toothbrush. I’d already cleared off, dusted, and reorganized my bookshelf; swept and mopped the floors; and polished the windows of my studio apartment. The baseboards were next.
“I’m sorry, but how is this not your perfect solution?” Robin argued. “Your body has basically been begging for one last ride on the Alec-go-round, and now here’s a carbon copy, all rugged and brooding, for you to scratch that itch with one last time and boot it out of your subconscious. Buh-bye Dream Alec.”
