Say wrinkled her nose. “Do we have to pay her?”
“Free books.”
I laughed and moved the sale books to the tall display table they were going on by the door. “There we go, then. Free books for Tori, free merchandise design for us.”
“I’d take free books,” Say acquiesced. “And I do like the idea of clothing. Can we sell that here, too?”
“I don’t see why not with a few mannequins,” Holley answered. “I bet we could get some cheap from eBay. I’ll write it down and take a look at everything tonight. The store is nearly done, but that’s my priority.” She leaned back and stretched her fingers out in front of her, popping her knuckles as she did so.
Saylor shuddered at the sound. “You’re so weird. Hey, did you see that Sebastian is coming back home?”
Holley froze.
My eyes widened. Damn it, Saylor! We weren’t supposed to tell Holley.
“Sebastian?” Holley’s eyes clouded in anger, and she fiddled with her glasses again. “Great. Maybe all his little groupies will follow him, and they can come buy a story about what a jerk he is.”
And that was why we weren’t going to tell Holley.
Saylor blinked. “That was eight years ago, Hol. Aren’t you over that yet?”
Holley glared at her.
Back away, Saylor, back away.
“I’m just gonna…” She cocked a thumb. “Go somewhere you aren’t.”
Smart.
“Did you know about this?” Holley turned to me.
There was no use lying about it. “I did,” I admitted. “Remember that guy I had dinner with in Bronco’s? Elliott?”
She nodded.
“He’s the physical therapist there. Sebastian injured his shoulder in the first game of the season and is out for the rest of it. He’s already had surgery, but since he’s with the Bears, the team were happy for him to come home and commute to do his rehab.”
“Ugh. I don’t want to see him.”
“I don’t know that you’ll have a choice. What if you run into each other?”
“Then I’ll be an adult who pretends she doesn’t know him,” she ground out through gritted teeth.
“Yeah, that’s the adult thing to do.”
The bell above the door rang, and we both looked back at it. Josh walked through with two bags of what smelled like hot soup and fresh bread, and he stilled when he saw us both eying him.
“What did I do?” he asked.
“Nothing. Probably just stopped a world war,” I muttered, motioning to Holley.
“Why? What’s wrong?” He kicked the door shut behind him. “I can’t stay long. I’m only here because when I went to get lunch, Johanna asked me if I was here to pick up your order. Apparently, you called it in this morning. She was about to remind you to come get it.”
Oh, crap.
We’d been so busy we’d forgotten lunch.
That explained the all-around grouchiness. We were hangry.
“I smell food!” Saylor came running out from wherever she’d been hiding. “Josh, if you keep showing up here with food, I’m going to murder Kinsley and date you myself.”
He blinked at her, confusion marring his forehead. “You changed your hair.”
“Good God, you people are observant today.”
“Looks good. Suits you.”
She brightened. “Thanks.”
“Are we just forgetting my issues?” Holley held out her hands. “Does nobody care about me?”
“About a stick you’ve had up your ass since you were eighteen?” Saylor raised her eyebrows and took the Styrofoam bowl of soup from Josh. “No.” She grabbed another container that held the bread and disappeared again.
“She’s sociable today,” Josh muttered, emptying out the rest of the containers. “What’s going on?”
“Sebastian’s coming back to town,” I said. “For his rehab.”
“Oh, yeah, you told me that.”
If this were a cartoon, Holley would have steam coming out of her ears by now. “Did everyone know except me?”
“Apparently Saylor didn’t,” I replied, opening my tomato soup. God, it smelled good. “And she’s right. What happened between you was eight years ago. Haven’t we all moved on?”
She grunted and opened her soup. The scent of French Onion soup filled the air. “Yes, we have, but that was also the last time I saw him. He tried to speak to me after and I refused.”
“I like Seb,” Josh said. “Been a while, but he’s a good guy.”
“Not the time,” I muttered to him.
Holley snorted. “Good guys don’t break girls’ hearts.”
“He didn’t know he was breaking your heart. It’s not like you ever told him you had feelings for him, and you literally waited until the last possible minute at prom to tell him,” I pointed out.
Rather undiplomatically.
Maybe politics was a career choice if selling books went down the creek.
“Thank you, Jerry Springer,” she snapped. “I know that, but it doesn’t mean I’m excited to see him again. It doesn’t mean I want to.”
“Isn’t his sister getting married soon?” Josh frowned. “Yeah, Kate’s getting married the weekend before Thanksgiving.”
“That’s right. You guys went to school together.” I’d forgotten Seb had a sister. “Are you going?”
He shook his head. “Nah, I haven’t spoken to her in a couple of years. I think Colt was going to, but that was only because Amber got an invite.”
“Mm, Colton,” Holley mused. “Have you spoken to him yet?”
Josh shook his head. “We’ve acknowledged each other at work, but we’re on opposite sides of the site.”
I looked down, lamely dipping a bit of my crusty bread into my soup.
“Hey.” Josh pushed my hair away from my face and tilted my chin so I looked at him. “I’m not worried. It’s only been three days. He’ll come around when he’s ready.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because he didn’t give me the finger when he saw me this morning.” He dropped his hand and grinned, and even Holley snorted at that. “That’s progress right there.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“Plus, on Monday, our boss asked me why I looked like I’d moonlighted in the UFC over the weekend, and Colt yelled, “Because he fucked my sister so I punched him!” He’s now moved to fucking, so I assume he’s slowly beginning to accept this relationship.”
Something told me that this reconciliation was going to take a while.
Holley laughed
