“I’ll put on the coffee,” Harper said when they were inside.
“Awesome, thanks,” Caitlyn said as she moved toward her desk in the back, rested the crutches against the wall, and sank down into her chair. She had a desk with seats in front of it to consult with clients, as well as a small lobby area with a sofa. There was a large coffee table in case she needed to spread things out for planning purposes, and she could easily rearrange furniture depending on the number of people she was meeting with. It was a small office space but suited her perfectly, and she was thrilled her business had grown enough to allow her to rent it in the busy area.
“I’ll be so relieved when I get this cast off,” she said.
“How many more days?” Harper asked.
“Five. Next Monday, and we can say goodbye to Barney.”
“Barney?” Harper asked with a chuckle as she scooped some dark-roast coffee into the coffee maker. Caitlyn also had one of those single-cup brewers for her clients, but considering the amount of caffeine she consumed, she kept a full pot in her office as well.
“My cast is purple,” Caitlyn explained. “You remember Barney, the big purple dinosaur, right? This thing is clunky and bright.”
“I remember. I just didn’t know you’d named your cast after an imaginary character.”
“Ha ha,” Caitlyn said, turning on her laptop. “Geez, I hope that bride gets the papers back to me. She still hasn’t signed the ones I sent over for the beach wedding. That was a few days ago, and she promised she’d sign them right away.”
“Maybe she’s too busy having hot sex with her fiancé,” Harper joked.
Caitlyn rolled her eyes. “I never even met him—just the bride and her sisters.” She set her cell phone on her desk while the coffee brewed, her eyes going to the phone every once in a while.
“What?” Harper asked. “You’re looking at your phone like it’s going to bite you or something.”
She snorted. After getting Troy’s phone number on Sunday night, Caitlyn had flip-flopped every day about calling him. She was oddly nervous about it—not that drinks or dinner with a guy meant anything. They could have fun, share a few laughs, and that would be it. She was probably just getting herself worked up over nothing. And now that three days had passed, he probably thought she was blowing him off. He’d told her to call him and she simply hadn’t. Even if she did call him now, he probably already had plans for the weekend. Or he’d be busy with work stuff. He’d been headed to his military base the other night, hadn’t he?
“I still never called that guy I met on the beach,” she admitted.
“What?” Harper shrieked. “You were supposed to text him the other day.” The coffee finished brewing, but she held up a hand. “Don’t get up. You can wait on me hand and foot when you get your cast off, but I’ll bring you a mug now.”
“How sweet,” she joked.
“Now spill. Why didn’t you call him?”
“I just didn’t want to get my hopes up I guess.”
Harper rolled her eyes as she crossed the small office space and set Caitlyn’s mug down on her desk. “Not every guy is an asshole. He must’ve been mostly nice for you to get his number. Oh crap,” she said, rushing over to grab her cell phone from her purse. “I need to answer that. Text him right now.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Caitlyn muttered, taking a sip of the coffee. It was heavenly. She usually drank iced coffee from mid-morning on but loved a hot cup first thing. Her mind wandered back to the weekend. She liked Troy. It was silly given they’d barely spoken, but the instant chemistry they had was almost scary. She didn’t believe in love at first sight or anything like that, but shoot. She couldn’t deny that she was attracted to him.
Maybe she should give him a chance.
Swiping her phone to unlock it, she scrolled through her contacts, frowning. She scrolled again, half listening to Harper talking on the phone in the background as she searched for Troy’s name. She’d send him a quick text to say hi. If he wanted to ask her to dinner again, he could.
If not?
Well, then it just wasn’t meant to be.
Her eyes narrowed as she scanned through the names on her contact list again. This couldn’t be right. She knew she’d keyed in his name and number. Her stomach dropped as she realized his name wasn’t there.
“No, no, no,” Caitlyn said quietly. Harper looked over at her in confusion but continued talking on the phone to her client.
Caitlyn searched under Troy’s name, just in case her phone had done something weird to the contact list and it wasn’t showing up. Everything else was alphabetical, but maybe she’d screwed it up somehow. Or maybe she’d spelled it wrong. She had been a little flustered.
She tried pulling up all the names starting with “T.”
“No,” she said louder, cursing under her breath. It didn’t matter if she wanted to text Troy, ask him out to dinner, or marry the man. She hadn’t saved his number.
“All right, fantastic. I can’t wait to meet with you and your fiancé,” Harper said into the phone. “Confirm that the time works with him, and if so, I’ll see you both Saturday!” She hung up and looked over at Caitlyn. “What’s wrong?”
“I didn’t save his number,” she muttered. “All that worrying about texting him, and I don’t even have the man’s number!”
“What? Did you write it down or save it on your phone?”
“I saved it on my phone—or thought I did anyway.” She blew out a sigh.
“Well that sucks. We’ll find him though. Maybe we should go hang out around the Navy base,”
