Girl Crush(64)

With more confidence than I actually had, I strolled to the front door, stepped inside to the hostess stand, and gave her the name on the reservation. She grinned and ducked down. When she reappeared, she handed me a gift bag no bigger than a cell phone. I eyed her with suspicion, but if she knew anything, she didn’t offer up the information. She also didn’t offer to seat me or ask if I wanted to wait. I took it upon myself to sit on the bench and open the bag. I looked around to see if I was being Punked, but other than the hostess, not a soul paid any attention to me or had even noticed my arrival.

I took several deep breaths, preparing myself for Collier’s epic blow off. No one else knew I was here. And since he hadn’t shown up, I could only assume he’d chosen to part ways. As much as I didn’t want to say goodbye, this had been going on too long, and I needed an answer. There were three sheets of tissue paper popping out of the top of the bag. I pulled each one out separately, folded them neatly in a pile, and finally reached in to pull out the box. The black velvet box teased me. It was too heavy to be jewelry, but I was scared to open the lid. I bit my lip and counted to three. When I finally popped it up, I closed my eyes before I could see what lay inside.

My fingers weren’t quite as hesitant as my eyes. The tips caressed the edge and then dipped inside in search of whatever was nestled there. But it wasn’t metal I felt, it was glass. The lids of my eyes parted slowly, and I dared to peek between them to find a pale-pink bottle of OPI. My stare darted all over the restaurant in search of the gift-giver, but I came up empty-handed.

The hostess caught my eye and indicated for me to turn it over. Of course, the name. “Let Me Bayou A Drink” was stamped on the bottom and under it was a W scrawled in fine, silver Sharpie. I glanced back up to her, and she pointed toward the bar.

There he stood. All I could see was the smile on his face and the way his eyes focused on me.

He’d come.

I tucked the nail polish back into the box, and the box into the bag, and then the bag into my purse. And I made my way to Collier West. My heart swelled, and when I tried to swallow, a lump formed in my throat. A tear clung to my eye, and when I blinked, it ran down my cheek. The instant I was within reach of the man I’d spent so much time thinking about and missed so desperately over the last two weeks, he used his thumb to wipe the evidence of my emotion away.

“Babe.”

That one word from his lips brought the corners of my mouth up in a grin.

“Why are you crying?”

I shook my head, knowing words would be messy until I managed to compose myself. Until the moment I saw him, I wasn’t sure he’d even come, much less in good spirits. I knew there would be questions—this wouldn’t fix itself just because I’d sent him some nail polish and he’d met me for dinner. But God, I was glad he was here.

Craning my neck to stare into the eyes I loved so much, I wanted to lean into him. I wanted him to wrap me in his arms. I wanted to be close to him. But after the last kiss, I didn’t have the courage to take anything I wanted. Luckily for me, Collier seemed to read my mind. His arm snaked around my waist, and in one fluid motion, he brought my body to his. The world around us fell away, and the only thing that existed was the security he offered in his embrace.

He dipped his head next to my ear, and the sound of his voice washed over me like a cleansing rain. “I’ve missed you, too.” Then his lips met my temple, and he pulled back to see my face. His eyes scanned my features before he finally asked if I was ready to be seated.

Hand in hand, we followed the hostess to our table. The ease that normally surrounded us was off, and I knew we needed to address it, even though all I wanted to do was sweep it under the rug.

Just as I opened my mouth to speak, he said, “Thank you for the little presents. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to get in touch with you this week. Things haven’t been good at work, and I’ve been living in my office putting out fires.”

I waved him off. “It’s not a big deal. I figured you needed time to sort through things.”

“I did, but not a week. Unfortunately, I got sidetracked, and each time you reached out, I was in the middle of some horrific customer issue. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to come help you with the garbage disposal.”

My cheeks flamed with embarrassment, and I prayed he didn’t ask anything further. God knew I didn’t want to rehash that experience. He made eye contact with me, and the way he lifted his brow and quirked his lip teased at my humiliation with Luke Bryan’s pipe-fixing doppelganger. But instead of rousing me, he glanced down at the menu.

The waitress came and took our drink orders, but my stomach was too tied up to even consider food at the moment. He was here, but he hadn’t committed to anything beyond dinner, and I didn’t want to assume that his term of endearment or the lingering hug meant anything more than friendship.

“You know we have to talk about this, Giselle. We can’t just pretend the last few months weren’t what they were.”

My gaze cast toward the table, but his hand lifted my chin to force me to look at him.

“Giselle, please don’t shut down. I want to understand, and the only way I can is if you talk to me.”

“Okay, what would you like to know?”

“It’s not so much what I want to know but what I need to say.” He took my hand on top of the table and gently squeezed it while he held my stare. “I didn’t give you much slack when I showed up at your house, and for that, I’m sorry. I hope you understand just how blindsided I was by your kiss and then your confession.”