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She dragged me into the bathroom, pulling makeup palettes out of the plastic bags she’d brought with her and then went to work.

Chapter 21

Hayden

I sat in my car outside of Jamie’s place and looked at the stairs that led up to her front door. You can do this, I told myself over and over. I looked across to the driver’s seat to the bunch of flowers wrapped in cellophane, then grabbed them.

I’d rehearsed this moment so many times in my mind, so it felt like there were dozens of me walking up her stairs. A Hayden that was taking her on their first date, second, fifth. A version of me that had been up and down them more times than he could count, leaving, but always coming back to her. One where I knocked on the door and entered her home, not leaving until the next day. It felt like both an imagined history and a possible future followed me up to her door.

The cellophane crinkled as I knocked with my free hand, my focus brought to the here and now. I could hear muffled sounds behind the door, then footsteps, as my heart pounded in my chest. This was like paddling out to face a massive wave, part of you not even sure if you’d survive if you managed to catch it, but you had to try. Surfers saw a mad wave as a mountain we had to climb, and in some ways the energy pumping through my veins was the same right now.

Until she opened the door.

My heart wasn’t pounding hard, it went perfectly still as I took Jamie in. I was frozen to the spot, mouth hanging open, about to say hello when I took in the dress. Jamie was beautiful in whatever she wore, but damn… I almost let out a pathetic little whine, like some kind of dog. It took effort to close my mouth, but I forced myself to, swallowing hard and then blinking as Millie came into view.

“Struck dumb?” She nodded. “Yeah, that’s not a bad reaction.”

“Bad reaction?” Jamie spun around and hissed at Millie.

Say something, dickhead, I told myself. Say something!

“He hates it obviously. I never should?—”

“You look beautiful.” God, the words were torn from my throat. I coughed and struggled to clear it, my mouth bone dry. “So beautiful. I mean, you always do. It’s not just the dress…” Millie’s smile widened in a way that I was all too familiar with. My baby sister always snickered when I stuffed up. “But shit, Jamie… you look amazing.”

I drifted closer because I couldn’t keep away, taking in the way every one of those curves I’d tried to map with my eyes were now displayed in that dress. She looked pretty and feminine, but also like her. Her spirit would never be obscured by smoky eyeshadow and red lips.

“Anyway, these are for you.”

I thrust the flowers into her arms, cursing myself for not getting some fancier ones. I knew she liked irises, so I’d gotten a simple bouquet of them, but right now she deserved ten dozen long-stemmed roses, or exotic orchids or something.

“Irises…” She looked up at me and smiled. “You remembered.”

Yeah, I fucking did. I’d squirrelled away every bit of information I could glean from her conversations just in case this happened.

“These are bearded irises,” I said, trying to recall the details the florist had shared with me. “They’re like double the flower. They have this thing…” I gestured hopelessly to the bouquet, not remembering anything else.

“They’re beautiful.” Her eyes stared into mine, and suddenly all the tension leached from my body. If she just kept looking at me like that, everything would be OK. “Let me just put them in some water.”

When she disappeared back into her apartment, I followed along blindly.

“And where’s my thanks?” Millie asked me in a low voice.

“This was all you?” My eyes flicked from Jamie bustling around in the kitchen then back to my sister. “Remind me to set you up with a clothing allowance. Jamie looks hot in whatever she wears, but this…”

There was no mistaking her for anything other than a woman as she pulled out a vase and then filled it, removing the flowers from the cellophane and then arranging them.

“Just make sure the dress doesn’t get ripped or damaged throwing axes,” Millie said. “I promised Hunt she’d make it to their date in one piece.”

One piece? Yeah, I could promise that, but at the reminder my brother would be taking her out for dinner afterwards, I stood taller. Would Jamie want to leave, though? That was my focus for the night. Make sure she was still thinking of me when she went to that restaurant.

“Ready?” I asked, holding out an arm as Jamie returned.

“To throw sharp objects around for fun?” she asked. “Damn straight.”

“So how does this work?” Jamie asked me as I carried our axes and score card over to the bay I’d hired for the session. We walked past couples who were already tossing axes further down, and a flurry of shrieks announced that there was a hen’s night going on right down the other end.

“So there’s a target,” I nodded to the wooden circle down the end of our lane. “You get points for each throw. Closer to the bullseye gets you more points.”