Page 95 of Sunkissed Colorado

“Sorry I took off like that.”

“I can’t blame you. I would’ve left with you, but I had to take care of something.”

She pulled at a thread on the thick comforter, one of those types that hotels always have. A duvet. “I was standing on the stairs. I heard what you said. Thank you.”

“Just told the truth, as I see it.”

“I can’t believe what my mother said to you. I’m really sorry about that, too.”

“I mean, she wasn’t wrong.”

Zandra sat forward. “Of course she was. Working at Hearthstone is not beneath anyone. Least of all me. It’s like she was implying?—”

I heard the rest of that sentence.That you’re beneath me too, she might as well have said.

And I’d really thought her mom liked the chocolates. Not enough to make me appropriate for her daughter, it seemed. Not like that mattered, because Z and I weren’t together or anything.

“Well, you did good getting us out of there,” I said. “Mitsy was trying to get into my pants via the bottom cuff.”

“What? Right in front of her husband?”

“She thought I looked like I was up for it.”

“Well…”

“Careful. Your mom didn’t hurt my feelings, but you might.”

Zandra smirked, and I came over to sit on the edge of the bed. She tipped her head back against the headboard.

“Was this your room? Seems a little bland for you.”

I looked around at the space that could have been lifted straight from a corporate hotel catalog. Comfortable enough, with neutral furniture and generic landscape prints. Zero personality, which was the exact opposite of the woman sitting beside me.

“I never lived in this house. My parents bought it after I graduated and their business really took off. But this is the guestroom I always stay in.”

“What was your high school bedroom like?”

She got up and walked around the room, gesturing as she went. “There would’ve been a bookcase about here. Posters on all the walls. My bed had a floral comforter my mom picked out. But she let me pick the sheets. My favorites had hands flipping middle fingers all over them.”

I barked a laugh. “I bet your momloved those.”

“Oh, she had feelings, alright.”

My grin was irrepressible. “I wish I could’ve seen these infamous sheets. We should’ve been friends.”

“Like I ever would’ve let you up to my room to see my sheets. The biggest player at Silver Ridge High? I think not.”

“I wasn’t that much of a player.”

“Yes, you were.” She bent down to peer under the bed. “There should still be a box of my old stuff somewhere. Ah, here it is. Mom threatened to throw it away a few years ago, and I stored it here.” She pulled it out and took off the lid. “This is like a time capsule.”

I got on the floor and poked through the box with her. “Math Bowl?” I asked, pulling out an old T-shirt.

She snatched the shirt away. “It was a math competition, and we won. Not that anybody cared compared to whatever the football team was doing.”

“Wait a minute. What is this?” I pulled out a glossy eight-by-ten of a bunch of young men posing and making eyes at the camera. “Is this a signed photo of aboy band?”

“Give me that! It’s not even mine. It was Jessa’s.”