Page 16 of You Wish
“Wow,” she whispered.
“Wow is right,” Jane said.
“I would have gone forholy fuck balls, but children and all,” Roxy added.
Georgia went to check the price tag and, like a bullet, Roxy yanked the tag off.
“What are you doing? Now I have to buy it.”
“Good. Because a dress that makes you smile like that deserves to be in your closet. Price be damned.”
Georgia took the price tag back. “Easy to say for a hacking goddess whose husband is a mechanical genius.”
Knox wasn’t just a mechanical whiz; he was the mold for which all men should be made. Whenever he looked at his wife there was so much adoration in his eyes it made Georgia choke up. Made her wonder what it would feel like to be the recipient of such powerful love.
Then there was Jane and her husband, Henry, who was as genuine as he was handsome. His ability to love was inspiring. And all that love went to Jane.
Unicorns, she reminded herself. And what was the chance that she’d encounter more than two in a millennium?
Zero.
But this dress. It could make even a miser believe in Christmas miracles. Too bad her plus-one was the last man she’d trust with her heart. And she needed to remember that. No matter how many jitters quivered through her middle when he looked at her with those mesmerizing eyes. The man was the most transparent human she’d ever met. Which was why it was so confusing when he confided in someone else about what a burden Georgia was instead of being man enough to tell her directly.
Well, he missed out! And she was going to show him.
This dress rivaled Princess Diana’s revenge dress.
She looked at the salesclerk. “Ring me up.”
6
Jake drove through the windy streets of downtown Austin, trying to keep the memories of yesterday’s race at bay. He’d been driving in circles around town for over an hour wondering where the hell his mojo went. How he’d gone from the front-runner to second place in a matter of four races. If he wasn’t careful, he’d fall to third place—or worse.
That one win had been a fluke. Now the yips were back in full swing.
It wasn’t just his name on the line. Nova Racing and all its thousand employees were counting on him. They’d done their job creating a winning car, a stellar engineering team, and the Team Principal was the best in the business, making seven World Champions in its twenty years in the industry.
Jake had dreamed of being a driver for Nova since he was little. To that kid, making it in Formula 1 had felt so out of reach. Then he’d gotten his chance and every podium felt like conquering the impossible. Now it felt like an albatross he couldn’t slip off, no matter how hard he tried.
But it wasn’t racing that had his mind spinning. That honor went to Georgia, in that prim pencil skirt and blouse with adozen buttons he’d like to rip off with his teeth. The sweet reward were the mile-high pumps in fuck-me red. She was a five-foot-three pocket rocket with show-stopping curves stuffed into a prim and proper girl boss. She’d accomplished what nobody else could have—she’d taken his mind off what was important.
Winning.
He should have known it would be a problem when he’d accidentally called herdarlin’. It took him back to a time when his world wasn’t so complicated. When they’d been barely adults, not yet jaded by loss and heartbreak. Or by a world that had chewed them up and spat them out. And for a second, when he’d called herdarlin’, that feeling of innocence had returned.
It was that feeling that had landed him in trouble yesterday. There wasn’t room for innocence in racing. Or for long ago memories to resurface. But they had and it didn’t seem like there was much he could do about it.
Not good, because his sister-slash-manager, Rachel, was going to have a shit fit. Muscles were Jake’s department, but his sister’s willpower could bench-press his any day. Make no mistake, Jake might run the show everywhere else, but when it came to Rachel, she was the alpha.
Rachel wanted what was best for Jake—and his career—but she absolutely did not want him withing fifty feet of Georgia. She’d made her stance on his and Georgia’s relationship clear a decade ago, and her mindset hadn’t shifted even a millimeter. She’d perfected the art of always getting what she wanted. But this time she’d have to accept defeat because Jake wasn’t giving up the chance to find closure.
He pulled into the parking lot of a small diner—the one Rachel had specified. He got out of the car and walked in. The second he opened the door the delicious scent of honey butter and gravy created a visceral reminder of being back in his home state.
It didn’t take him long to spot Rachel. She was in a corner booth, dressed like a proper manager in a pantsuit and scarf, waving an excited hand his way. Even though he knew he was in for an ass whooping, he couldn’t help but smile. Especially when she flung herself into his arms.
“I missed you,” she said, squeezing him within an inch of his life. “It’s been too long.”
“I saw you two weeks ago.”
