Page 39 of Infatuated as They Come (Sinful Trilogy #2)

Sawyer

It was obvious I had never had to buy a girl a damn Christmas present before.

Me and Holly had been back in New York for a few weeks now and I was running out of time.

I had tried to go the simpler route and get her a dress or some shoes or a purse, but that hadn’t worked out.

I had gone through her side of the closet and took a look at all the labels on her clothes, memorizing as many as I could.

Celine, Chanel, Zimmerman. Fancy ass shit, apparently, because when I actually started taking my lunch breaks and dragged Audrey along with me, we both nearly fainted when we saw the price tags on any of that stuff.

“If Holly’s ever getting rid of any of her clothes, please tell her to give them to me,” Audrey had said one day, letting out a dreamy sigh as she tugged on one of the tags.

The main thing was that it was our first Christmas together and I planned on us having many, many more. We’d be going back to Dallas for our first one and I figured we’d drive down despite how long it’d take. We’d be together. Just us in that truck. That was the most important part.

She deserved to have something good, something she’d want to keep forever, especially with everything she had been doing for me lately.

And I knew she had already bought me something.

Several somethings. I knew exactly what she was up to last week when she came back home with a bunch of shopping bags from men’s stores in her hands, saying they were for her dad.

Holly didn’t know how to lie good and that worked out in my favor.

That was how it started. So, I had asked Audrey where all the rich girls shopped in New York City and she instantly knew where to take me: Fifth Avenue.

One lunch break hadn’t been enough, though.

What started off as one little trip down to Saks turned into another trip to some other high-end store and then to another one and then to one they didn’t even let us inside of without an appointment, and then it was back to Saks and back to me wondering what the hell to get her.

I also realized that it was also a lot easier to steal shit in Dallas.

New York City stores had top notch security, but none of those fancy, expensive dresses felt right, anyway.

I pushed a hand through my hair as I made my way into Jay’s, instantly seeing Audrey there at the front desk, the sound of her clacking at the keyboard hitting my ear.

“Good morning!” she said.

I nodded at her, leaning against the desk. “Morning.”

She drew her brows in together. “Why do you look so worried?”

“I still keep thinking about what gift to get Holly,” I said. “She deserves something nice. I mean, she literally bought me a car. How do I compete with that?”

“Aw.” Audrey reached over and squeezed my hand. “Do you wanna go to Saks again today?”

“You’re probably sick of me dragging you in there.”

“Oh, I don’t mind. I had fun. And I got this pretty hair clip the other day at least.” She held a hand up to her blonde locks, to the plastic little purple flower by her ear. “It was about the only thing I could afford in that place.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“I’m sure you’ll find something. Don’t worry so much.”

“I just wanna give her something as good as all the stuff she gives me.”

“We could always go to Bloomingdale’s during lunch.”

My eyes stayed stuck on that little flower in Audrey’s hair.

It reminded me of Holly—everything fucking did—but it took me back to that day after her birthday when I got her all to myself, when it was just the two of us.

When we got to spend the day in the hot sun and my skin was burning but it was so worth it for her, to have her close, to feel her, to just look at her.

When I put that little flower in her hair and couldn’t stop staring at her like she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, and that was because she was.

“I’ll let you know.” I nodded. “Thanks again for the help.”

“It’s no problem. Good luck with your gift.” She tapped a finger to her chin. “Oh, I gotta get Jay something too. That man is too hard to shop for…”

“He told me he needs a new watch.”

Audrey’s eyes widened as she jumped on her phone. “You’re a lifesaver, hun.”

I made my way to the back, my mind still very much occupied with Holly’s gift.

I just wanted it to be perfect. Something she was proud of, just like that necklace that she never seemed to want to take off.

She liked the sentimental stuff. She liked making memories and hanging on to things—no matter how cheap or small they were.

Most of all, Holly just loved romance. I had somehow managed to fall in love with a girl who just loved love a hell of a lot.

And lucky me, she was also a girl who had been given everything she had ever wanted from the day she was born.

Her soft voice lingered in my head for a long moment.

I never get handmade gifts like that, so I’ll keep them forever.

Maybe that was why nothing I saw in those fancy stores felt right—as if I could afford any of that stuff, anyway.

But I thought about what she had said, about how she kept all those silly drawings I made.

And then I remembered how she had held that three dollar rock from our little trip so closely to her chest, like it cost more than all of the dresses in her closet put together.

Maybe what she needed was something I’d never find in a store. It’d have to come from me and me alone.

I got stuck into work after that, feeling every minute pass me by slowly until it was finally time to leave.

And leaving was usually the best part of my day, because then I got to see Holly.

That was all I wanted to do: get home, hold her in my arms all night, keep her close.

That was what I should have been doing, but instead I was heading over to the studio.

After all of those long talks and fights and stupid tension with Holly, I really didn’t want to go back to my old habit of working long hours and leaving her in the apartment all alone.

But I only had a little while until Christmas and if I planned on giving her the perfect gift, then I couldn’t half ass it and leave it to the last minute.

I texted her quickly, heart feeling guilty when I told her I’d be busy at the studio tonight for a few hours.

“Hey, you’re here late!” Damien said the second I walked into the building. He was covered in that thick apron again. “I’ve never seen you after the sun sets. Was starting to think there was something weird about you.”

I shrugged my jacket off. “I know. I usually try and get back home as soon as work is over with.”

“How was work today?”

“Long, tiring, my arms hurt real bad.”

“Very exciting. Whatcha gonna paint?”

“Uh…” I frowned. “No painting tonight. I wanted to ask you a favor, actually. I need you to show me to how to make something.”