Page 77 of Sins of a King
His brown eyes darted away from mine before returning. “Birthday present shopping. For my sister. I thought…” He gestured to the jewelry we’d been appraising.
“Right.”
“What are you doing here?”
John had been with Ash three years, and we’d gotten to know one another. Well, gotten to know each other in the sense that we understood what the other was about. We’d had Ash in common, but we weren’t friends independently of her.
“My boyfriend and I are attending a charity event later this week. I need a dress.”
“Boyfriend?” John asked. “New relationship?”
Guess he hadn’t seenThe Post.“Relatively.”
“Well, I’m happy for you.”
By mutual agreement we steered clear of the subject of Ash, but we’d run out of small talk. Awkward silence fell between us.
“Barrett,” Lacey called out, her attention on me again.
“Coming,” I called back, feeling relieved. I gave John a brief hug. “Take care.”
“You too.”
I watched John leave and then went to Lacey.
“Who was that?” Lacey asked as she guided me to the dressing room.
“Someone from my past,” I answered with a shake of my head. Poor bastard. He looked completely broken and devastated. “Okay, show me what monstrosity you want me to wear.”
Shopping with Lacey was relatively painless, unlike shopping with Ash who had no trouble trying on pair after pair of shoes, debating for hours over what to buy. Ash was a marathon shopper—Lacey was a sprint shopper. Once she saw me in the dress she deemed perfect, that was it. Next came the shoes, which weren’t too high or too painful.
“You’ll probably end up dancing,” she said, when she handed over a corporate credit card to the store attendant.
“Dancing?”
“Ballroom,” she clarified.
“I don’t ballroom dance.”
“That’s okay, neither does Flynn.”
“But—”
“You’ll be fine. Trust me.” Lacey turned to the boutique attendant. “Please have these delivered to The Rex Hotel. Mr. Campbell’s suite. Thank you.” Lacey took back her credit card and stuck it in her shoulder bag.
When we stepped out onto the sidewalk she said, “Now onto jewelry.”
“But that place had jewelry. Why didn’t we buy it there?”
Lacey shot me an amused look. “You are too adorable for words.”
“Don’t patronize me,” I said.
“Sorry. We’re headed to Tiffany’s.”
“Veto.”
“Why?”
