It didn’t exactly surprise Josh to learn Augusta was an impatient shopper. She didn’t hide the fact well, either.
The shopping centre she’d driven him to was a far cry from Dublin’s Dundrum Town Centre, but, Josh supposed, it was adequate for his immediate needs. What there was of the mall was packed with desperate, last-minute Christmas shoppers. Most of which, Josh noticed, were male.
And some things were the same world over, he supposed, with an inward grin.
A striking, tall woman like his Augusta earned herself many appreciative glances as she strode, oblivious, beside him. That, too, was the same no matter your corner of the globe. A fine woman was noticed.
A truly fine woman was too accustomed to such looks to pay it any heed. At least, so Cara tried to tell him.
His sister, mind, would never have balked at the head of the mediocre suit shop, the way his hostess did now. But, balk Auggie did.
She’d attended when he bought himself a toothbrush and deodorant at the druggist. And when he’d gathered a pair of jerseys and pants for his cart. Then, when he’d plunked in warm winter gear, she’d stayed, restless but stalwart at his side. Now, though, she remained at the edge of the entrance without touching a foot inside the shop.
“You don’t…” Her mouth puckered with indecision, and Josh turned her way with a question in his eyes. “You don’t need a suit jacket for the evening. Not unless you wanted one for another reason. A jersey would suit.”
“It’s cocktails, is it not?”
She nodded. “Yes. But...”
“A party?”
“Yes.”
“Will you not be in a dress, then, lass?”
She rolled her eyes just enough to let him know what she thought of the term. When she sighed out a breath, though, it was an uneasy sort of acknowledgment. He was truly going to attend the evening with her. Perhaps she had thought to dissuade him?
“Yes.” Auggie’s eyes swept the store restlessly, and Josh could almost see her battling the urge to tap her toe in a hurried staccato. “Look,” she said, “I’m for tea. I’ll just go find one and let you finish up.”
His grin was wide. Josh tried to picture Cara making the same choice and knew there wasn’t an army of angels on God’s green Earth which could have kept her away when at the gates of a fine clothing store.
His sister would pick the clothes he put on his very back if he allowed it. Which, he did not. A woman ill at ease in a designer shop? This was a novel concept, as far as Josh could tell.
“Will you find me, or shall I find you?”
“The coffee shop is there,” Auggie said, gesturing to the left. “I’ll be there when you’re ready. Just take your time. As long as you need.”
She bit perfect white teeth into her lower lip as she said it, and Josh could already imagine her drumming her fingers on a tabletop, checking her wristwatch every few moments.
“Right,” he said, ignoring the mental image and the way it made him feel excessively cheerful for no particular reason at all. “Won’t be long.”
She nodded at that, was gone in a flash. Titling his head, Josh watched with a smile on his lips as her long legs propelled her down the corridor. She wove through the holiday crowds like a champion, and he found that tickled him.
It wasn’t until she’d been swallowed up by the crowd that it occurred to him to consider what colour her dress for the evening might be. As Cara’s brother, he knew it would be best if his outfit and Augusta’s did not clash. Auggie might not be much of a shopper, but she was still a woman -- and well put together for all the mall appeared to aggravate her already hurried tendencies.
Since he hadn’t thought to ask, and since there was no chance of it now, Josh would simply stick to neutrals. And Christmas colours, he supposed. Black would suit him. A bloke could never own too many black suits, after all. And for highlights…
He could have gone with red or even green for a tie, but the gold called to him. The colour reminded him of the lighter shades of the malt he had travelled to Canada to advertise. Besides, there was hardly a colour Auggie might have chosen to wear which would clash with the gold pouf of silk in his breast pocket, the crisp filigree pattern in the tie.
He knew his size, knew the reputation of the designer, but he took the moment to try the clothes on for safety’s sake. Satisfied, he took them, a belt, and a pair of appropriate footwear to the teller and lay down his credit card. At the last moment, he tossed in a package of silk boxers in silly, bright Christmas patterns. And wondered if the luck of his Irish ancestors would give him the chance to model them any time soon.
He hadn’t intended to stop at the jewellers. It was the amber in a set of cuff links in the window display which caught his eye. Josh took them, and then he took the flirty amber eardrops which matched.
They’d bring out the colour of her eyes, Josh decided. If she’d wear them. Whether she preferred to or not, he knew she would take them. She wanted his business too badly to risk offending, and she couldn’t know him well enough to be certain rejecting his gift wouldn’t do precisely that.
Either way, he could imagine them dangling from her ears. Once he pictured it, he decided she simply had to have them. So, he’d offer them as a thank you gesture for the evening out. Perhaps that was a trifle manipulative on his part, but he could be ruthless when necessary. He hoped she didn’t make it necessary.
The baubles were lovely, but they’d hardly break the bank. With any luck, she’d accept them with the pleasure he hoped they would bring. But, he was prepared in case not.
He returned his wallet to his pocket, then juggled his shopping bags into a tidier group, and decided he felt quite pleased with life. Whistling away to the Christmas carols playing over the sound system, Josh smiled as he went along his way to meet up with the pretty little package which was Ms. Augusta Chamberlain.
He found her where she’d promised to be, and for a moment, Josh simply stood and watched her sipping her tea. Unlike the vision in his head, Auggie appeared calm for the first time since they’d met. It appeared to him that she was watching the last-minute shoppers with amused intrigue. A woman like her most likely had her gifts purchased months earlier. He simply couldn’t picture Auggie joining the harried swells maxing out credit on purchases not quite what they might have been.
She must have sensed his stare, for on her next sip, she turned those golden eyes directly on him. And he felt, for the life of him, as if the breath had been knocked clean from his chest.
His feet started threading a path nearer her table, and Auggie watched him come. For one moment when their eyes had first collided, she’d had the oddest, breathless feeling. There was something very potent about the man’s expression, so much so that she felt gooseflesh prickle her forearms. Then his bags bumped into the back of a teenager’s chair, earning him a dirty look from the bubble gum chewing teen, and the spell of the earlier moment was broken.
Auggie laughed. Standing, she made a hand gesture telling him to stay put.
“Hang on. I’ll come to you.”
If he was bumping and banging into everything in his path, her approach was flawlessly graceful. Standing directly in front of him, she looked him up and down once before letting dancing eyes rest on his face.
“Did you buy out the entire mall?”
He grinned good naturedly. “Feels like at the moment.”
Auggie shook her head in amusement. “Need a hand?”
“I might, at that,” he said, and let her take several of the bags from his fingers. “Right, crack on, then?”
Auggie sighed at his slang.
“Lord, help me. I’m spending Christmas with an Irishman.”
“That you are, fine thing,” Josh said cheerfully. “Lucky for you, then.”
Auggie made an inarticulate sound which may or may not have disagreed, and either way, made Josh grin.
“Let’s get home,” she said, and without further comment, took off into the crowd like a train barrelling down its track.