“That’s not coffee,” she said. “That’s ambrosia.”
He smiled. “Welcome to New York City. A better welcome than yesterday.”
She decided she had not experienced too many things as dangerous as Jamie Gilbert-Cooper smiling at her as she drank the best coffee she had ever had. After a minute, she chose a croissant. It was so flaky, light and buttery, she thought she was going to die. Sensory overload!
“I had a quick look online this morning,” he told her. “You must have travel insurance, right?”
“Yes, I do.”
“I’m sure they’ll cover your losses. We’ll need to file the police report in order for you to make a claim, though.”
Her mouth fell open. “I hadn’t even thought of that.”
“Have some breakfast, and then give them a call.”
“Thank you, I will.” She hoped it wasn’t a weakness to feel so good about having someone to lean on, someone to take charge, to help her navigate all the messy details of putting her life back together.
And it wasn’t just the current messiness. After Devon, she had never really put her life back together. Maybe, just maybe, this was her chance. Maybe this was why she had been drawn to New York as if tugged by an invisible thread.
“Which do you want to do first?” Jamie asked. “Canadian consular services, or shopping?”
“What’s more convenient for your sister? What’s her name, by the way?”
“Sarah.” He looked uncomfortable. “My nephew was sick last night. I think she’s going to bow out.”
“How old is your nephew? Is he okay?”
“Jared is two, apparently suffering from a birthday cake overdose, the little oinker.”
She heard the affection in his voice, and again, could imagine him throwing a laughing child in the air.
As sorry as she was for the missed opportunity to ferret out the family perspective on Jamie, and as sorry as she was that his nephew was sick, she felt the tiniest little tickle of pure anticipation.
“Let’s go shopping first,” she decided, aching to get rid of the clothes she was wearing the way she assumed a snake must ache to get rid of its old skin.
“Shopping it is,” he said with so little enthusiasm she burst out laughing.
And then he was laughing, too.
And it felt, oddly and beautifully, like one of the most glorious moments of her entire life.
Which, she told herself sternly, just meant everyone was right. She had been far too sheltered. She had lived way too small. She had used a dreadful event to cling to safety, as if the whole world was a life raft that could capsize at any time.
Jamie was a charming man, used to these kinds of intimate little interchanges with the opposite sex.
She needed to be very wary of being enchanted by him.
But the new her insisted on poo-poohing her wariness. It wasn’t as if they had posted banns for marriage. They were going shopping. She needed to loosen up and learn to have fun.
A sensation of freedom overcame her. Not a single person here knew her. There was a lovely anonymity to being here.
Not like Timber Falls, which was akin to living in the proverbial goldfish bowl.
Suffocating, a small inner voice offered helpfully.
For the second time.
She shrugged it off, finished her coffee and her croissant, and felt ready, not for a shopping trip, but for the adventure of her life. Her eyes met Jamie’s.
Nothing is impossible, Daisy’s voice sang inside her head.
Together on his computer, his shoulder nearly touching hers, they filled out the police report, and then she borrowed his phone and called her insurance company.
When she hung up, she was beaming. “They’ll cover everything, even the costs involved in getting my passport replaced. They are being extraordinarily generous.” She couldn’t resist telling him how much they had offered her. “Shopping just became a lot more fun!”
But her confidence flagged a touch as their driver dropped them off on Fifth Avenue, arguably the most exclusive—and expensive—shopping area in the world. As they joined the throngs of people enjoying the early-summer warmth and strolling the famous street, familiar names vied for her attention: Tiffany, Gucci, Versace, Hugo Boss, Luis Vuitton.
“Isn’t there a Woolmart?” she asked Jamie, only partly kidding. She was getting a Who do you think you are? feeling. Glancing in the windows, she doubted, even with the insurance money, if she could afford a pair of socks on this block.
Jamie looked at her and smiled. “What do they sell? Wool?”
He was teasing her. It felt nice, but he wasn’t getting the point.
“Look, I just need a few things, temporarily. This seems—”
“Fun?” he suggested.
Fun. A reminder of her goal for the day. A reminder of the new her. But new her or old her, she was going to have to be careful not to get carried away.
“There’s nothing fun about bankruptcy,” she said firmly. She stopped at the window of a jewelry store, and looked at the watches on display. She gasped. One of them was worth more than a hundred thousand dollars! And it looked quite a bit like the one on Jamie’s wrist.
This suddenly didn’t feel fun. Not at all. She felt so far out of her depth, she could soon drown.
As if sensing her sudden discomfort, Jamie swept his hand toward the rings that were displayed next to the watch.
“Which one do you like?”
They were obviously engagement rings, diamonds winking and blinking as the morning sun hit them. “That one,” she said. It was as different as the sun was to the moon to the small promise ring Devon had once given her.
And perhaps, unfolding without her awareness, she had become as different from that long-ago girl as the choice of that ring would indicate. The thought was vaguely unsettling, but she shook it off and reminded herself of her goal to just let go, have some fun and relax a bit.
Jamie bent nearer to have a closer look. “You have good taste.”
She looked at the discreet price tag displayed beside the box. “What kind of man
