Kissed Blind (Hot Pursuit #2)(62)

I stuffed my face and drowned my sorrows in junk food and stopped when my stomach started to hurt. In the afternoon, Patrick and Jodi arrived, stylists from Saks Fifth Avenue who’d brought a selection of clothing for me to choose from for the big event. I called Becca over and asked her to help me.

Patrick and Jodi brought a couple of cute black dresses. I tried them on, but Becca and I both agreed that a pant suit would be more appropriate. I slipped into an Oscar de la Renta black silk evening jacket with silver and blue iridescent, hand-stitched flowers. It zipped in the front and flared in a delicate, short ruffle at my waist.

“Ohmagosh,” Patrick said. He adjusted the collar and tugged on the fabric so it lay just right. “This is fabulous on you. I need to see the pants on immediately. I think this is it.” He clapped his hands at Jodi.

She handed me a pair of coordinating slacks she called smoking pants. “These should be exquisite on you. Just exquisite.”

I had no idea what smoking pants were, but they had a satin ribbon stitched onto the outer seam running from the ankle to the waist. They reminded me of a man’s tuxedo pant, but sexier, and I fell in love with them the second I zipped into them. They were slightly long on my frame, so Jodi started pinning the hem of the pants up. I’d never been fussed over quite so much in my life, and I liked it a lot more than I would have thought.

“There now.” Patrick circled me and grabbed a couple of pins from Jodi. “I think we could bring the jacket in just a tiny bit at your shoulders, and shorten the sleeves just so, and this outfit will be complete. I don’t think we need to bother trying on anything else. Wouldn’t you agree?” He stepped in front of me and held my shoulders.

“Um, yes. I think so. It’s great, right?” I smiled to Becca, and she shook her head with an enthusiastic yes.

“Hands down a winner. You’re stunning in that. Do you have shoes?”

“I have black sling backs that’ll work.” I wasn’t sure how practical they’d be for work, but I’d make the sacrifice.

Jodi finished pinning up the left leg and then pinned the right sleeve while Patrick did the left. They carefully helped me out of the outfit so I wouldn’t get stuck with any pointy edges.

“Now, normally this would take a few days for alterations, but since it’s Oliver Pierce, we’ll have this ready Monday. Would that be okay?”

I nodded. “Oh, that should be fine. I don’t need it until next weekend.”

“Perfect. We’ll get these sent over on Monday.”

Jodi zipped both pieces into a black garment bag. They gathered everything they’d brought, and I showed them out.

“My, my Diana Cain, you’re leading a charmed life,” Becca said as I shut the door.

I lay down on the couch and covered my face with a pillow. “Hardly.”

“Hardly? Are you kidding? Girl, I snuck a peek at the price tag on that jacket, and do you know how much that thing cost?”

“How much?” I muffled into the pillow.

“Just shy of four thousand dollars!”

I snatched the pillow off my face. “Oh my god, do you think that’s too much? Can you imagine how much the pants were? I should call them and cancel it. That’s too much.”

“If you even threaten to do that again, I’ll destroy your phone myself. That money is nothing to Oliver Pierce. Please. He won’t bat an eye signing that bill.”

“A four thousand dollar jacket,” I repeated.

“See, charmed life. I’m telling you. I’m totes jelly.”

“Don’t bother being jealous. Everything’s a mess right now.” I stared up at the ceiling and looked at the star pattern stamped into it.

“What’s wrong? Something with Gabe? Vance?”

I swung my legs down and hugged the pillow in my lap. “If I tell you something, you have to swear you won’t repeat what I say.”

“Of course! I swear. What happened?” She leaned in.

“Oliver Pierce kissed me.”

Becca gasped so hard she launched into a coughing fit. She had to get a glass of water before she could speak again. “Holy cow. Oh my God. I can’t believe it. You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Nope.” I frowned.

“Then explain why you’re acting like someone shot your dog?”

“Because Gabe saw it, and, um, it was bad.”

Her mouth fell open. “How the hell did he see it?”

“That’s a whole other story, but he saw it. All of it.”

She made and oohing noise.

“Yep.”

“Did he and Oliver get into a fight?”

I shook my head. “No, nothing even close to it. He yelled at me and drove off, and now won’t take my calls.” I sighed. “We were supposed to go over to Vance’s parents’ house tomorrow for lunch, and now I’m going to have to lie about why he’s not there.”

She waved her hand. “Oh, just make something up. No one will give it a second thought.”

“Yeah.” I groaned. “But there’s also this stuff with work. Vance and I kind of did something, and we could end up getting into a lot of trouble.”

“Did you kiss him too?”

I slapped my hands over my eyes and fell face first into my couch. “Nooo.” I moaned. “But what we did do is something that could end up getting us fired.”