Kung Fu Tea.
Again, which one? There are like a dozen of those in this city.
The one in Back Bay.
What are you doing in Back Bay?
We’re not even married yet and you’re already being overbearing. This relationship is going to be so fun.
I’m detecting sarcasm.
Very astute of you, Mr. Blake.
Danielle, for the love of everything holy, please never call me that again.
??
Only people I don’t like call me that.
I’m trying to figure out if that means you like me or if you’re just concerned about blowing our cover.
I’m on my way. Don’t go anywhere.
Please.
Only because you asked so nicely.
I frownedat the sketchbook that was open on the table in front of me.
The dress I was currently working on was my fifth try since Hayden had left my apartment on Saturday, and it still didn’t feel right.
Something was off.
It was everything I’d imagined for my wedding dress when I was young. Except back then I hadn’t imagined I’d be marrying Hayden.
I glanced at my phone where our texting conversation was still visible. I didn’t know what to make of our current relationship. It was so different from what we’d been like before, and at the same time, it felt like the past eight months apart had simply been erased.
It would be so easy to get sucked into his orbit, but I couldn’t let that happen.
I was only doing this for Miles. The only problem was that nothing about the conversation Hayden and I had had Saturday or the way he’d been texting just now felt like a job or a necessity. It felt like taking my first real breath in months.
With one last glare at my phone, I focused back on the dress. What was wrong with it? The dress itself was beautiful, exactly what I thought I wanted, but maybe what I thought I wanted wasn’t right. It belonged to the dream I’d had when I was a child, not my reality where I was fake marrying a man who could make me smile when my phone went off—even though I’d hated texting ever since the first one Beelzebub sent—a man who, when he kissed me, made me not care what my family thought.
I flipped to a blank page and started again. My pencil flew across the page as I got lost in my work, feeling the emotions pour out of me in an effortless stream.
“Am I interrupting something?” Hayden’s voice yanked me out of my trance.
I slammed the sketchbook shut and looked up at him with a smile that probably looked guilty as hell.
His dark brows rose. “Well, now I’m intrigued. What were you doing, Sunday School?”
“That’s for me to know and you to never find out,” I said sweetly.
He gave a low chuckle as he slid into the chair across from me. “Harsh, sweetheart.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“You prefer Sunday School?”
