“Now, right over here, Mr. Fortune, is where we decided to put...”
Hailey continued with what turned out to be a monologue for another good half hour, opening various doors and explaining in vivid, glowing detail what each area was for, be it a sauna, a tanning salon or the aforementioned massage tables. There were also large rooms where various classes would be conducted.
“Giving massages is my specialty,” she told the contractor. “I actually began working in the wellness field as a masseuse.”
She turned around to see how her one-man audience had received that piece of information. Looking at Dillon, she stopped talking for a moment, wondering if he had heard a single word she had said. He certainly didn’t act as if he had. He hadn’t made a single comment or said anything at all during the entire tour she had just conducted.
In fact, if she were to hazard a guess, Dillon Fortune was acting as if he would rather be anywhere else other than here.
Oh, he was being polite, she’d give him that, but the man was also being distant. Extremely distant.
And just like that, without any warning, she was five years old all over again. Five years old and desperately trying to engage her father by attempting to show him the new hairstyles she had so painstakingly fashioned for her favorite dolls. He’d been a workaholic who had never had time for her. All she wanted was just a little of his attention, but he was always too busy being successful to notice her. Eventually, she gave up trying.
Her father had had that same distant, removed look on his face that was now gracing Dillon Fortune’s ruggedly handsome face.
Well, handsome or not, it wasn’t good enough as far as she was concerned. Mentally resolved, Hailey decided to give it one last try. She was determined to engage Dillon Fortune on some level so she wouldn’t feel as if she were talking to a wall.
Or to a man who just didn’t hear her.
“You might have noticed,” Hailey started again brightly, “but everything here at the spa has this really good smell about it.”
Checking his phone for what felt like the tenth time since he’d arrived, Dillon looked up at his incredibly chipper tour guide. Had she just said something about smelling good, or was that just his imagination?
She was looking at him as if she expected some sort of a reaction from him. “Excuse me?”
“Scent,” she repeated. “There’s a really good scent here at the spa. That’s not by accident,” she assured him. “Finding just the right scent is all part of the experience here at Paz. We find that the right scent helps not just soothe our clients but it also invigorates them. We’re planning to use some of these scents as part of our aromatherapy massages.”
Hailey found herself talking fast now, trying not to lose his attention. To that end, she began showing him all the different bottles of the various scents that the spa had stocked up on.
“Care to take a whiff?” Hailey offered, uncorking one of the bottles. It was jasmine and was her personal favorite.
Dillon shook his head. “No, that’s all right.”
He was resisting, she thought and took it as a challenge. She was determined to use this latest example of therapy to get through to this man. These scents were meant to soothe a client, to help that person relax, and if there was ever an uptight person who needed to relax, it was definitely Dillon Fortune.
“C’mon,” Hailey coaxed, “you can take one whiff, can’t you?” She raised the bottle up for Dillon to get a better sense of what was in it. “Go ahead. Try it.”
Seeing that she wasn’t going to back off until he did as she urged, Dillon said, “Okay, fine, let me smell it.” If he didn’t breathe in too deeply, he’d be all right, he told himself. And then maybe she’d terminate this tour and let him leave.
Hailey held the open bottle up to his face and Dillon took a deep breath of the scent.
Perhaps a little too deep because the next thing he knew, he was sneezing.
A lot.
Waving Hailey back away from him, he accidentally hit the bottle she was holding up to him. That in turn sent the entire contents of the bottle flying out and all over his shirt.
And just like that, Dillon found himself utterly drenched in jasmine oil.
Horror stricken by the unfortunate chain of events that had brought about this present dilemma, Hailey could only stare at the drenched man, wide-eyed.
“Oh, my Lord, I am so sorry, Mr. Fortune,” she cried, embarrassed.
Dillon couldn’t comment on her apology at first. Not because he was so angry but because he just couldn’t stop sneezing.
Finally, all but wiped out thanks to his sneezing, Dillon could only hold his hand up, silently indicating that she had to stop saying she was sorry.
Damn it, Dillon thought, he smelled like a damn flower garden. Not exactly the scent he was going for, he thought.
He should have known better than to let this woman anywhere near him with that bottle. He wasn’t normally prone to allergies, but there were certain scents that could just set him off. He had never investigated the matter or found out which particular scents affected him, but he was aware that there were some that could be devastating to him. So he normally steered clear of all of them.
He realized he should have stuck to that instead of allowing himself to be overwhelmed by a rapid-fire motor mouth.
Dillon waved the petite woman away.
Stunned and embarrassed, as well as somewhat annoyed, she moved back. She was still clutching the bottle. It was obviously empty now, but who knew, maybe whatever traces of the scent that could be left coating the sides of the bottle might still be affecting him.
As if reading his mind, Hailey tossed the bottle into a trash can on the other side of
