Right Under My Nose Read online

  “So you’ve got your date tomorrow, don’t you?” Zoe raised her eyebrows at me, as though reading my mind. “How are you feeling about it?”

  “Uh, a little nervous, I guess?” I shrugged, and my voice was a little higher-pitched than normal, betraying me. Zoe giggled.

  “You’ve got nothing to be nervous about.” She smiled at me with a certainty that helped me come back down to Earth. “Really. The two of you have already proven you can spend a day together without getting sick of each other. You’re going to be fine.”

  “Thanks.” I grinned back at her. “I needed to hear that.”

  “What are the two of you up to?” she asked keenly, leaning up against the door. “Has he told you yet?”

  “No. He says he wants it to be a surprise.” I pulled a face. “I told him no more luxury vehicles, but that’s the only thing I’m sure of.”

  “You spoilsport,” she teased. “What are you going to wear? Something cute?”

  I shrugged. “Honestly, I was going to shoot for jeans and a T-shirt. I don’t know where we’re going, and it’s not like I have much I can pull out of the back of my closet anyway. He already saw my usual date-night dress the first time we went out together, and I don’t want to wear that again.”

  Zoe looked at her watch and then back up at me, a big smile spreading across her face.

  “You know, it’s late-night shopping this evening,” she said, and I furrowed my brow at her.

  “What are you getting at?”

  “I’m getting at the fact that you could go out and get something new,” she suggested excitedly. “Oh, come on. It’ll be fun!”

  “I don’t need anything,” I protested weakly, already seeing she’d firmly made up her mind. “Really.”

  “Just give me this, all right?” She grinned at me, marching over to my desk and grabbing my hand to pull me to my feet. “I could use a little vicarious living through your dating life.”

  “Are you serious?” I raised my eyebrows at her. “I mean, we only have a couple of hours.”

  “More than enough time,” she promised me. “I don’t want to send you out on your date looking anything other than the goddess you are, you get that?”

  “Well, if you insist.” I shrugged. There would be no arguing with her.

  “Excellent.” She beamed. “I’ll drive us over to the mall. This is going to be fun!”

  I packed up the last of my stuff and headed to the car with Zoe, who pulled open the door for me and playfully bowed down low like she was my lady-in-waiting.

  “You’re going to have to get used to being treated like that when you marry him,” she said as she climbed into the seat next to me. I shot her a look.

  “We’re not getting married,” I reminded her. “This is a date. That’s all.”

  “Yeah, but you really like him, don’t you?” she reminded me, shooting me a look. “I’ve seen the way you get when you talk about him. You’re into this guy, whether you want to admit it or not.”

  “I haven’t met anyone I’ve had this kind of chemistry with for a long time,” I confessed as we pulled out and away from the school.

  “See, I told you. You’re totally going to marry him,” she replied triumphantly as we turned onto the main road that led to the mall.

  “All right, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” I muttered, but the truth of the matter was that I knew things were going well between Holden and me. Really well, in fact. I was starting to wonder if this slow build had been a good thing, if our weird approach to dating would serve us in the long run. I’d gotten to know him before he’d so much as kissed me, and he was more than some overly confident entrepreneur. He was smart, funny, kind, a great father, an ambitious businessman. He was all those things I never would have learned on a simple first date but that I knew coming into our first real evening together as a couple. Which could only be a good thing.

  “Here we are.” Zoe grinned as we reached the mall. “Come on, I know just the place for us. Let’s check it out.”

  I followed Zoe out of the car and toward the mall, and I was secretly glad she was here with me. I’d always been terrible at shopping for clothes for myself. I didn’t know what looked good on me, what was painfully out of style, and what was desperately, obviously hip. I knew Zoe was right. I could hardly turn up to a date with Holden, the man who had swept me out on a private yacht when we hadn’t even been a couple, in jeans and a tee. But I had no idea what I should go for instead.

  “Oh okay, I think you have to try this one on.” Zoe pulled a pale periwinkle blue dress from the rack and held it up against me in the first store we went to. Then she thrust it into my arms—along with another dress and then another. They were all cuts and styles I never would have picked out for myself, but I supposed that was the point of having someone else here with me to make sure I didn’t fall back on what I already knew looked good on me. I was striking out into new territory here, and I would need a whole new dress to go with that.

  I tried on what felt like fifty dresses from the various stores Zoe dragged me in and out of. She followed me into the changing rooms each time and would give me a cursory once-over, shake her head, and pull me out so we could try something different. My feet were aching as I trailed around after her, but I was grateful to have her eye to guide me through this. I would have grabbed the first one that fit me and gotten out of there if I’d had the chance, but she was making sure I was going to get something gorgeous, something that would firmly fit with whatever evening Holden had planned for me. My heart fluttered as I remembered I was going out with him the following night. Would it end back at my place like it had when he’d come around to confess his feelings to me before? I couldn’t wait to get him back into bed, but I was also looking forward to finding out how he was out of the sack as well.

  We made our way around about a half dozen shops until Zoe suddenly seemed to lay eyes on something that excited her. Her face lit up as she passed one store, ducking inside and turning to the first shop assistant she could find.

  “Hey, do you have that in an eight?” she asked, pointing to one of the dresses on the mannequins in the window. I frowned at them. None of them looked my style, but I would go along with what she thought was right if that’s what it took to find something that suited me. Everything I had in my closet was a tried-and-tested cut and color on me, but this weekend was all about trying something different, something new, something I hadn’t necessarily believed I would get anything out of before. And Zoe had a better idea of what sexy was than I did, so whatever she had in mind, I trusted her.

  The assistant returned a minute later with the dress she was looking for, and she pressed it into my hands and gestured to the changing rooms.

  “This is the one,” she told me. “I can feel it. Go try it on. I want to see you in it.”

  I headed to the changing rooms, stripped down, and pulled the dress on over my head. When I turned to look at myself in the mirror, I couldn’t help smiling.

  The dress was a vintage cut with slightly ruffled sleeves that came down over my shoulders, a nipped-in waist that created a dramatic shape, and a flared skirt that hit above my knees. But the print was what made it stand out. It was a dark, inky blue, and all over it were illustrations of stars and planets and moons. It was the perfect blend of modern and retro, and I twisted back and forth in front of the mirror, checking myself out from all angles. It suited me. I ran my hand over the waist, imagining Holden touching me there instead, and I could hardly keep the smile off my face. This was perfect. Better than perfect.

  “Can I come in and take a look?” Zoe asked, and without waiting for an answer, she pulled back the curtain and snuck in. She gasped as she looked me up and down, and I did a twirl in front of her. I was only wearing a pair of sneakers with it, but even still, it looked gorgeous.

  “That dress is fucking stunning on you,” Zoe told me firmly. “You have to get it. Please tell me you’re going to get it.”

  “Ye
ah, I think I will,” I agreed. “It might be a little chilly depending on what we’re doing tomorrow night, but…”

  “But you’ll put up with it because you look amazing.” She grinned. I smiled back. She was dead right. This dress made me feel better than anything else I had in my closet, and there wasn’t a thunderstorm or a blizzard or a damn hurricane that would keep me out of it for my date the next day.

  “Hey, how about dinner?” she suggested. “On me. To celebrate your new dress and your new date.”

  “That sounds great.” I nodded. I looked down at the dress. I didn’t want to take it off, but I also couldn’t wait to slide it on again the next evening, fresh and new, for my first date with Holden.

  “Let me get checked out, and I’ll be there in a second,” I promised her, and she left me in the changing room once more. I stole one last look at myself in the dress, and I bit my lip as I looked in the mirror and wondered what Holden would think of me in it.

  30

  Holden

  “And when are you going to be back?”

  “I don’t know yet, buddy.” I glanced at Hunter in the mirror. He was eyeing me with interest, clearly keen to know how this date with Autumn was going to do. You and me both.

  “Okay.” He furrowed his brow. “Will you say hello to her? From me?”

  “I will,” I promised him. I had gone back and forth on whether to tell Hunter I was going out with Autumn that evening, but I figured it was for the best to tell him the truth—well, the edited version of it, at least. He didn’t need to know I’d been planning out every detail of this date down to the letter ever since she’d agreed to this. I wanted to prove to Autumn that I was able to give her what she wanted, in every sense of that word.

  “Oh, look. We’re here,” I remarked as I pulled into Raymond’s driveway. Hunter was looking forward to spending the night with Raymond, but I knew he would have rather come along on the date with Autumn and me. In his head, it would be nothing different from the day we’d all spent together on the yacht, chaste and friendly and involving him. Little did he know everything I had planned for her tonight.

  Hunter hopped out of the car, grabbing his backpack to his chest, and made for the door. I followed him. Olivia pulled it open before I got there and gave my son a hug.

  “Hey, Holden.” She smiled at me. “How’s it going?”

  “Pretty good.” I nodded. “You?”

  “Actually starting to feel like I got some sleep for the first time in months.” She rolled her eyes playfully. “I don’t know how you did it all by yourself.”

  “Well, I’m a superhero, obviously.” I winked at Hunter, and Olivia laughed.

  “You joke, but I think it might be true,” she remarked. “You want to stick around to see Raymond? He’s just finishing up with the baby.”

  “No, I think I’ve got to get going.” I glanced at my watch. “Don’t want to be late.”

  She nodded. “All right. Have a good time. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “See you later,” I replied. “And thanks for looking after Hunter for me.”

  “Always a pleasure.” She smiled and then pushed the door shut and left me out there all by myself. Which meant I had no other option but to climb in my car and go pick up Autumn.

  I was nervous as hell as I drove over there. I had spent all week putting this together, and I was a little fearful that she was still going to think it was too much. But I had taken in what she said to me when we’d been on that yacht. Surely, she would enjoy herself, given that she had pretty much planned this date for herself.

  I arrived outside her place and remembered the last time I’d come here—when we hooked up for the first time, when I sat there in this car for a moment wondering if I was making the biggest mistake of my life. Well, it had turned out pretty well for me in the long run. I grinned as I got out of the car and headed to the door, adjusting the collar of my shirt. I was wearing the suit she’d helped me pick out back in the days when we’d been pretending to be nothing but friends.

  I knocked on the door, and a moment later, she opened it. She was wearing a dress I hadn’t seen before, dark and sweet, curving in to draw attention to the shape of her body in a way I couldn’t tear my gaze from. I looked her up and down, unable to stop myself, and raised my eyebrows.

  “You look incredible,” I told her, and she bit her lip. For a second, I wanted nothing more than to cancel the date and go into that house to recreate what we shared that first time around, but I knew I had to get her out of the house before we did anything like that.

  “Is that the suit I picked out for you?” she asked as she stepped over the threshold, linking her arm through mine happily. I nodded.

  “Looks good on you.” She briefly leaned her head on my shoulder. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on tonight? Or do I have to guess?”

  “I promise it’s nothing to do with a yacht,” I replied. “Is that enough?”

  “I guess it’s going to have to be,” she agreed as she slipped into the car next to me, and I pulled away to head into the center of the city.

  We chatted about her week so far, and she told me those after-school clubs would be starting soon and that Hunter had been asking about them. That made me smile. He was starting to open up a little, and that was all I’d wanted from this whole endeavor in the first place. Everything else that had come with it, like her hand resting on my leg as we drove? Well, that was a sweet-ass bonus.

  Eventually, I pulled the car to a halt outside a park. I had spent hours trawling for the perfect one, and I was pretty sure I’d found it—big enough that we could get some privacy, but not so big, I was going to end up getting lost in there. Clean and pretty but not overcrowded. She looked into the park and cocked an eyebrow.

  “And what might we be doing here?” she asked, grinning. I helped her out of the car and then went to the back seat to grab the picnic basket I’d filled with food for us. She beamed when she saw me pull it out.

  “You’re taking me on a picnic?” she asked, clasping her hands together with delight. I nodded.

  “Like you said you wanted to on the yacht, remember?” I reminded her, suddenly panicked she would think I’d pulled this out of my ass. She nodded.

  “Of course, I do,” she sighed happily. “I didn’t even think you’d remember.”

  “Well, I was hardly going to forget.” I cocked my head at her. “Come on, let’s find a spot, and we can eat. I’m starving.”

  “Me too,” she agreed, and she tucked one hand into mine as I hefted the basket under one arm while we turned into the park. My head felt as though it was spinning, my feet not quite touching the ground. I was so glad she was here by my side and that she liked my date idea. I was pulling this off. I was totally pulling this off.

  We walked for a while through the park, and I had to admit, this was pretty nice. I would never have thought to come to a place like this without her, but there was something calm about it. It was hard to imagine the city was ten minutes from here when it was so peaceful out in the park. We made our way down a small lane lined with trees and a few twinkling streetlights as the sun began to set in the distance.

  “This is perfect,” Autumn sighed as we came to a small clearing slightly off the path and settled down to eat. “Thank you, Holden.”

  “Hey, thanks for giving me the idea.” I held my hands up. “Saved me the trouble of having to come up with something myself.”

  She slapped my shoulder playfully, laughing, and then helped me unpack the food and the blanket so we could eat. I wasn’t sure what she liked, so I went for a mix of anything I could find—fruit, cheese, bread, chocolate, and a couple of pastries.

  “This looks amazing,” she said when we had it all spread out in front of us. I could see her eyes shining even in the dim light from the streetlamps a few dozen feet away.

  “Good.” I smiled back at her, leaned over, and stole a brief kiss. We couldn’t go any further than that out here in public, but I
just needed to kiss her, to touch her. I was already obsessed with how damn good she felt, how sweet it was being alone with her like this. She still had her eyes closed as I pulled away, as though she was savoring the feeling of my lips on hers.

  We tucked into our food, and I found myself relaxing a little. I had been so nervous about this date, worried I was somehow going to fuck everything up and make a fool of myself in some way I hadn’t anticipated. But this was going well. Really well. We were laughing about something that had happened at her school about her best friend, Zoe, and her desire to land one of my friends. I told Autumn the chances were pretty slim, since about the only friend I had around was Raymond, and he was happily married.

  “How did you meet him?” she asked, tearing off a piece of bread and popping it into her mouth. “Oh my God, this bread is so good.”

  “We met in college.” I shrugged. “Ages ago. When I started the business, he invested and helped out a little to get things off the ground. Took his share when they started trying for a baby and now he’s set for life.”

  “Damn.” She raised her eyebrows. “Too late to go back in time and invest in you myself?”

  “A little.” I grinned.

  “I thought you ran the business by yourself,” she said. “No staff or anything.”

  “Well, since we were friends, I didn’t consider him staff,” I replied. “And it’s not like he’s coming back any time soon. Though it would help me out if he could.”

  “Why? You looking to hire someone?” She cocked an eyebrow. “And here, I thought you’d be too much of a control freak for that.”

  “Yeah, you and me both,” I admitted. “I’ve been pushing back against it for a long time, but I think I might have to hire someone soon.”

  “Oh, yeah?” She raised her eyebrows. “Why?”

  “Oh, it’s getting a little too much for me to juggle everything,” I replied, keeping it vague so she wouldn’t catch onto the fact that she was the reason things had started going downhill at work.