I CRACKED open one mascara-crusted eye. The side of the bed he would have been on was empty.
I sighed. Figured he’d have left before the sun came up.
I couldn’t complain though. Jett Stonewood was handing out orgasms like free candy. And, well, I was acting like a little kid with a sweet tooth.
Lying in bed thinking about his bedroom skills would have made for a relaxing and probably pleasurable Sunday. But I had wasted too much time thinking about him already. Jett, I decided, checked only one box for me. I needed someone to check off a lot more than that before I spent any more time on them than I already had on that man.
I jumped out of bed and called Brey. She was the one person I could count on here in Chicago.
“Hello?” she answered on the third ring with her usual polite tone. I don’t think I’d ever heard that tone change except when she answered a call from Jax.
“Hey, lover!” I would amp her up for the day along with everyone else if I had to. “What are your plans for the day?”
“Well, Jax seems to think I should stop decorating. I wanted to go shop for a vase but he says”—I heard him yelling in the background—“we don’t need any more vases.”
“You always need more vases,” I disagreed.
“Exactly. I told him he could help me look, but he’s laughing and working on his laptop right now.”
“What is with the Stonewoods and working?”
“Right?” she sighed. “Actually, I should probably be working because Jett will be on his Monday Rampage tomorrow.”
I threw on some athleisure clothing as I responded, “Girl, just call in sick. He can’t fire you. Better yet, tell him you can’t be there on Mondays. Then you can avoid it forever.”
I heard her try to suppress a laugh. “Vick, you know I can’t.”
“Um, you can. You are his sister-in-law.” A thought popped in my head. “Hey! Part of that company is technically yours now. Oh my God, girl. Get your own department out from under him.”
“He’s not so bad. He just takes work very, very seriously.”
“Too seriously.”
She stayed quiet, which I knew meant she fully agreed.
“All right. Want to go find that vase in the chaos that is Chicago?”
It took us an hour to meet at HomeGoods but when we walked in together, we sighed like we’d been deprived for years. Our eyes probably sparkled with delight as we tried to scope out all the deals at once.
“Okay,” I stepped in front of Aubrey before we started. “We have to find a vase. That is the goal.”
She nodded as her eyes bounced around the store. “Yup. Beautiful vase will be found.”
I turned to the purses, and my mouth practically salivated. “If we find a few other things, no one can blame us.”
Aubrey laughed. “Right.” It was her turn to step in front of me. She didn’t blink her big green eyes at all when she said, “And no one can blame you if you share your secret about Jett with me either.”
If I looked away, she’d know there was more to the story. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She stomped her foot. “Come on! I keep a good secret.”
“There’s no secret to keep.”
“I’m the worst liar, Vick. You aren’t much better.”
My mouth dropped. “That’s so rude!”
She looked up to the ceiling. “I know! I’m sorry.”
I was about to tell her it was all right.
“But I’m not really sorry.” She wrapped her arm around my waist and we both turned to look at a very nice purse. “We only have each other here in this big city. Katie only visits once in a while, and she’s not much good as a confidante. I’m your very best friend here. Like this beautiful purse, I’m one in a million.”
I looked down at her, narrowing my eyes a little. “I agree that you’re one in a million, Brey.”
“And you also agree that you don’t want to lose your one-in-a-million best shopping partner?”
“When did you get so ruthless?”
“When I married the love of my life and figured out I hated staying inside my little box.”
I sighed. She saw me conceding and her face lit up like a Christmas tree. “You can’t tell anyone.”
She didn’t squeal or jump for joy. Aubrey didn’t do things like that. She nodded solemnly. “I definitely won’t tell anyone,” She winced a little. “Pretty sure Jax already knows though.”
I rolled my eyes and grabbed the purse to throw in our cart. “I deserve this handbag for sharing all my crap with you today.”
We strolled around the store and put way too many things in that cart as I told her every dumb detail about my encounters with Jett.
She might have squealed once or twice.
“He’s so frickin’ good in bed, Brey. Like fireworks and explosions good. I want to fuck him all day. And yet, he’s sort of the worst human being ever.”
Her gaze wandered to the candy in the aisle as we stood in the checkout line. “Everyone has their demons. You know that.”
“Right. I make my demons angels though. I like hanging out with people who do the same.”
“Jett’s too much of a …”
“A pessimist? Or a complete jackass? Or—”
She cut me off before I could get on a roll. “He’s the oldest. He cares, just in his own controlling way.”
“I don’t need that in my life.”
She nodded and rolled her lips between her teeth.
“What do you want to say?” I sighed.
“Nothing.” She pushed the cart toward the checkout lady and started setting items down on the counter. “It’s just I don’t normally hear you talk about guys like this.”
“I talk about every guy like this,” I retorted.
“No”—she shook her head and handed her card over to the cashier—“you claim every guy is a prince and/or your knight in shining armor.”
“A lot of them could be.”
“Okay. Well, you didn’t claim that Jett was.”
Huh.
She had me there. “Well, that’s because he literally could never be that. He’s seriously a devil. Like, take Steven for instance. He would definitely wine and dine me.”
She shrugged. “Steven hasn’t wined and dined you yet.”
I looked down and slumped a little. “I know. I think he’s weirded out by the fact that he’s technically my boss. But he invited me to the meeting with Stonewood Enterprises this week. He knows he shouldn’t invite an associate lawyer to that meeting. I am a nobody in the company right now.”
Aubrey straightened. “Hey. You are such a smart lawyer. He wants your professional opinion.”
“Maybe.” I shrugged. “I’m green though. It doesn’t look good to the others who have been left out of the meeting although they’ve been there for years.”
“He knows what he’s doing.”
I winked. “And he looks good doing it.”
She shrugged. “Okay, so we’re still rooting for Steven to ask you out, and we want nothing to do with Jett?”
I nodded. “Exactly.”
I moved to grab my card so I could split the cost with her like we had in the past, but she stopped me. “Jax is paying for this one. He said you saved him from the near-death experience of shopping with me.”
“Oh my God! Why didn’t you tell me? I would have bought so much more stuff,” I whined.
Her eyes bugged out. “Vick, you don’t have to scream about it.”
I winced, knowing my excitement always made me too loud. “Sorry!”
My phone went off as we made our way out of the store. We listened to Miranda sing about her broken heart not being her momma’s.
“You have to talk to her at some point, Vick.” Aubrey eyed my purse which held my phone.
“I know but, for now, my poor mother needs to take a hint. I texted her that your wedding went well.”
We walked toward the SUV that was waiting for Aubrey. “I still can’t believe you didn’t let me invite them.”
“My parents are way too much.” And they’d reveal way too much about me.
She shrugged. “Want a ride home?”
I looked at her driver holding the door open for us. “No,” I chuckled a little. “But that’s pretty baller.”
She blushed. “It’s weird.”
We hugged, and she left me in the throng of people on the sidewalk. They weaved around me, and I stayed there just to watch them all keep passing by.
I looked up to remind myself the sky was up there above the buildings somewhere.
Every person who sped around me on the sidewalk of this fast-paced city seemed to be dealing with something so big, they couldn’t take a moment to remember how small and how fragile we all really were.
