CHAPTER TWENTY
The meeting wrapped up shortly after. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. The whole thing made me feel like I couldn’t breathe. I was the first one out of my seat, not even making eye contact with Fiona as I left. I didn’t want her whisking me away somewhere. But I wasn’t quick enough. Blake caught up with me as I hurried outside.
“Let’s go somewhere we can talk,” he said into my ear.
“I can’t.”
“Right. You have to go to work, you said?”
I nodded. “I have a busy day.”
“Look, Violet, we are going to have to work closely on prepping you for this statement. We can’t waste any time.”
I dug my heels in. “I told you I can’t. I have to get to work. And I thought you had a meeting?”
Blake’s piercing eyes stared straight into mine. “I can move my schedule around. I didn’t want you to be on the spot having to answer their questions, that’s all. So if you have to work, that’s fine. I’ll come with you. I can help. I’m good at setting up displays. Good eye.”
Before I could protest, he reached for my hand. The next thing I knew we were in my shop.
Like, in the middle of my shop floor. Luckily, there were no customers. Also no Sydney. Who was minding the store? I rounded on Blake. “What do you think you’re doing? This is my shop!”
“I know. It’s great.” He nodded admiringly, walking around slowly to take everything in. “You said you had to come and do some work, right?”
I stomped my foot. “Of course I did! But I can’t have people seeing—”
“Vi?” Sydney came out of the back room, a doughnut in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. “I didn’t hear you come in.” She glanced curiously at Blake. “Hi.”
“Yeah, uh, hi,” I stammered, feeling my face turn red. “I guess I was just quiet. Or the bell is broken or something. Sorry to startle you.”
“You didn’t. It’s been quiet so I figured I’d get some of the new boxes unpacked for you. I’m Sydney,” she said to Blake. “I’d shake your hand, but ...” She indicated her full hands.
Blake smiled at her. “Hi there. Blake Alexander. Corporate counsel for—”
“The shop,” I broke in, cutting him off. “Corporate counsel for the shop.” I wanted to wipe the amused smirk off Blake’s face, but was more concerned with getting him out of Syd’s line of interrogation. Which was definitely coming.
My deflection worked. It had certainly distracted her. She spun around to fix a hawklike gaze on me. “Corporate counsel for your shop? You need a lawyer? Why do you need a lawyer?”
“No. I don’t need a lawyer. What would I need one for? Not right now anyway. I mean, well, you never know, right? Don’t want to be caught off guard, so I figured I’d get ahead of things. Can you cover the floor? I need to go over some paperwork with Blake. I think I have an appointment soon. Just come get me.” I grabbed Blake’s arm and dragged him out back, leaving Sydney staring after us, then rounded on him. “What were you thinking?” I demanded.
He glanced at his watch. “That we need to get started because I do have meetings. And that you don’t have great communication with your coworkers.”
“No, I mean what were you thinking coming here like this!” I paced around, noticing that Xander had showed up and was lounging on my desk. My door at home was always shut and locked tight. My cat was magic.
I’d really have to process that another day.
“Coming here like this? I followed you here.” Blake pulled out my desk chair and sat, reaching over to stroke Xander.
I wanted to smack the amused smile off his face. “That’s not what I meant. I meant Syd isn’t ... like us!” I dropped my voice to a harsh whisper. “We could’ve totally freaked her out.”
“Freaked her out? How?” He didn’t look concerned, only mildly interested, which infuriated me even more.
“She doesn’t know about me!”
“What about you, darlin? Do tell.”
I glared at him, feeling stupider as this conversation went on. “That I’m a—”
“Violet!” Syd rushed in, her face flushed the way it always got when she was flustered. “Todd’s here.” She looked anxiously from Blake to me.
Crap. How was I going to explain Blake? “Tell him I’ll be right out.”
With one last glance at Blake, Syd hurried out.
Blake smiled at me. “Todd? Who’s that?”
I glared at him. “Wait here.” I hurried out front. Todd stood in front of my sphere display that I’d worked on yesterday, gazing at the different-sized stones. I didn’t think he was actually looking at them. He’d never taken much interest in my business. He thought crystals were “pretty if you went for that sort of thing, but not really useful.”
“Hey,” I said.
“Hey.” He turned around and handed me one of the two coffees he was holding. “Pete’s new latte. Matcha something.”
“That’s really nice. Thank you.” I took it awkwardly, sipped, and burned my tongue.
Syd, not one to be discreet, watched us openly until I shot her a look. She turned away and busied herself cleaning one of the cases.
“So. What’s going on? I’m actually in the middle of... some stuff,” I said, jerking my thumb behind me.
“Oh. Sorry. I just wanted to stop by on my way to the bar. I was thinking of taking off early tonight since I have a full staff. Wanted to see if you wanted to get dinner later.”
“Tonight? Um ...”
“Vi—” Todd glanced at Syd, who was clearly still listening while trying to pretend she wasn’t. “Can I talk to you outside?”
“Sure.” Reluctantly I followed him out onto the sidewalk. It was freezing out, and I wrapped my hands around my cup to try to get some warmth from it.
Once the door had closed behind me I faced Todd and waited.
He shifted from foot to foot, looking awkward. “Vi, I know you’re upset with me. That you’ve been upset with me for weeks now, because of ... well.” He cleared his throat, leaving the sentence unfinished.
Because you lied to me. Because you went behind my back and were about to strike up a deal with the devil. I focused on my coffee and said nothing, waiting.
“Well.” He cleared his throat. “I need you to forgive me. I want to get back to where we were. And I thought we should start by spending some time together.” Todd sent me a pleading look. It was so weird—he wasn’t usually like this. Unsure of himself.
“Todd. I appreciate the sentiment. Really I do. And you’re right. We need to talk. But this week is a little crazy for me. I’m not sure what time I’m going to get out of here tonight.” I hunched my shoulders against the cold.
“When are you going to make time for me then? We’ve barely seen each other since everything happened and your mother came to town.”
“My mother? What does my mother have to do with anything?” I asked.
“I know she doesn’t like me. I feel like she’s, I don’t know, poisoned you against me or something.” He held my gaze, his own gaze challenging. “Am I wrong?”
“You are wrong. I haven’t even seen that much of my mother. And she’s never said she doesn’t like you.” It was true. She’d said I could do better and he hadn’t impressed her, but she hadn’t flat out said she didn’t like him. A few more minutes with him and she would probably come to that conclusion, but I hadn’t been letting them spend any time together. “And quite frankly, if you think I’m that weak that I would take the opinion of a woman I’ve known for five minutes, then I’m not sure we should be together anyway. Todd, listen. I’m cold and I have to work. I’ll call you when I’m done, okay? If you can still get away, we’ll go.”
He stared at me long enough that it made me uncomfortable. “Yeah. Sure, Violet. Call me when you’re done,” he said finally, then turned and walked away.
I watched him go. He strode back toward the bar, pausing to chuck his coffee cup in the bin. When he disappeared out of sight around the corner I pulled the door open and hurried inside. Blake had emerged from the back room and stood near the window. I suspected he’d been watching us. “Hey, sorry about that,” I said. “Let’s get to work.”
But he didn’t look like he was in a joking mood anymore. “So who’s the guy?” he asked.
“Who, Todd?”
“If that’s who you were talking to, yes. That’s your boyfriend?”
I wasn’t sure how to even answer that anymore. I gave a half nod.
“Todd who?”
“Langston. Why?”
“He from around here?”
I nodded. “Born and raised in North Harbor.”
“Family around?”
“I know you’re a lawyer and all, but this is an odd line of questioning,” I said. “Why?”
He looked at me for a long moment. “No reason. Let’s get this done.” He turned and headed out back.
Syd intercepted me as I tried to follow. “Vi, what the heck is going on? Are you seeing this Blake guy or something? I mean, not like I would blame you or anything. He’s hot. No offense to Todd,” she added hastily.
I gritted my teeth. Syd and Zoe had apparently compared notes. “I am not seeing him. It’s strictly business.”
“Well are you still seeing Todd? Because that doesn’t look promising.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and stared her down.
She threw up her hands. “Fine. Don’t tell me.”
“Syd, there’s nothing to tell. I’m figuring the Todd thing out. Blake is a business associate. End of story. I gotta go deal with him,” I said. “Hey, why don’t you go grab us some coffee from Pete’s? I’ll be done soon.”
She looked pointedly at the coffee in my hand.
“He got me the wrong kind,” I said. It sounded lame, even to me.
“Fine.” She tossed her hair. “I’ll be back soon.”
“Thanks sweetie.” I went to give her a hug but she sidestepped me and grabbed her coat.