Page 67 of Shape Of My Heart
“Thankyou.”
“I can continue my wildfantasiesnow.”
“Wild fantasies?” She found that hard tobelieve.
“Oh yes, but we’ll talk about that another time. If I tell you now and I get lucky with you from my glorious bravery last night, I’ll have to wait till later to find out about you. Also, Hilda wants to come in and see you, and if I get my hands on you it won’t be a quick thing.” He shook his head. “We’ll be at it for hours. Let’s just say the whole day and night. I’d have to sendherhome.”
All Amy could do was stare at him with narrowed eyes and her mouth open. It never ceased to amaze her how his mind worked. Also, she knew he wasn’t joking and that’s what fascinated her more. She’d never met anyone who’d speak their mind sofreely.
“So, anyway, tell me, Amy Rose, what made you leave your job in New York to work for the biggest asshole you’ve ever met in your life, with just a sewing machine, a mannequin, and a beautiful red dress that used to haverhinestones?”
She looked at him and thought about how to answer the question. The simple, short answer wasmoney.
It twisted her stomach to think of her situation and how he’d feel when he learned herstory.
Amy looked away again and focused her gaze on the sturdy features on the window. He had blinds up in this room as opposed to curtains, and the decoration was quite plain. In the corner was a small wardrobe, a matching chest of drawers, and a desk. Her stuff was next to a box full of weights. All her belongings were in one pile on thefloor.
She looked back to him when he reached out to take a lock ofherhair.
“Tellme,Amy.”
She shook her head. The more she thought about it, the more awfulshefelt.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want you to think that it wasn’t real, that I wasn’t real.” A tear ran down hercheek.
“I have a habit of being able to tell what’s real from not. You’re the real deal, Amy. Let me make it easier for you. I know this job pays really well. I know everything about your job. I guess you needed money for something, but anything you did for me stopped being about money after the ESPN show. It stopped when you followed me inside after dropping me off and asked me if I was going todrink.”
His eyes were full of understanding and deep appreciation. He ran his finger along to the side of her cheek and smiled. “Am Iright?”
“Yes.”
“So now that’s cleared up, you can tell me what’s going onwithyou.”
She bit the inside of her lips to prevent herself from crying as she thought about all that was going on with her. “My mom is really sick and needs specialist surgery. She has severe heart disease. I took this job so I could pay for the surgeryforher.”
His eyes filled with sadness as he searched hers. “Why didn’t youtellme?”
“Josh, you had a lotgoingon.”
“But so did you. Do you need more money? Letmehelp.”
“No. It’s all okay now.” In few a months she’d receive that fifty thousand and everything would all be okay. It did, however, warm her heart to hear him offer to help. “Thank you, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. But I have everything undercontrolnow.”
“Okay, but let me know if youneedme.”
“I will,” shepromised.
“Until then you’ll stay here. I can’t believe you’d live in that awful place like that. Amy I have a room I keep my shoes in that’s bigger than that dump. You could have justcomehere.”
“I can’t stay here, Josh. I couldn’t then and I can’t now. That’s such an imposition.” It was, and she was still trying to deal with her feelingsforhim.
“It’s not.” He shookhishead.
“It will be when you want to invite Allegra and bed friends.” She had to be realistic. The man just told her women crawled all over him and it wasn’t his fault if they did the wild dance. “You get all cranky with me when you haven’t had sex in days. God forbid if I was the cause of you not being able to have your little flingparties.”
She thought he’d make some sort of wise crack about that but he didn’t. He gave her this cautious look and she wasn’t certain what he wasthinking.
