She licks at her lips, her eyes dropping to my chest as she says, “I’ll go shopping with you, Shep.”
Eight
Denver
I should have insistedon taking my own car.
As it turns out, when it comes to Shepard Clark, I’m still the biggest idiot around.
“What are we doing here? I can’t afford this store.” He pulls his steel gray truck into the parking lot of a high-end store about an hour south of where we live. “And on top of that, you never said we were going so far away. I have a job to do, you know. I didn’t even tell anyone I’d be gone so long.”
“You really think your boss will be mad if you’re out shopping with me?”
“You say that like you’re someone special.”
He side-eyes me with a shit-eating grin. “You know I am.”
“They make medicine for that, you know.”
“For what?”
“Your constipation. Being so fucking full of shit all the time has to start hurting after a while.”
His boisterous laugh echoes as he pulls into a parking space. He slides his baseball cap off and tosses it onto the dash, running a hand through his messy hair. “Get your ass inside, Andrews.”
We climb out of the truck and trudge into the store I cannot even remotelyafford to shop in.
“Welcome to Landry’s,” says the saleswoman who opens the door for us. “What brings you in today?”
Shep hitches his thumb back toward me. “Miracles. We need to make miracles happen.”
I sigh. “Are you going to annoy me forever?”
He spins around, smirking. “Quit pretending like you hate it—and me.”
* * *
“No.”
“You didn’t even look!”
“Because I don’t have to. It’s not the right color.”
I stand before him in a pale yellow dress that I think looks stunning.
He doesn’t. Again.
Why is he always so judgy about dresses?
I groan. “You have shot down literally every single dress I’ve tried on, which has been like fifteen. How much longer are we going to have to do this?”
He sits there with one leg resting on the other, a bored expression plastered on his face as he scrolls aimlessly through his phone.
His eyes, though—they’re giving away his pleasure.
He’s enjoying every single second of this torment.
Bastard.