Ready or Not (28 page)

“Bagels are here!” a voice called from the living room. And that’s when a stocky dog with short little legs pushed open the door to the bedroom and regarded her with adorable brown eyes.

Whoa
. An interesting development, indeed.

“Hello, strange dog,” Hope said quietly. The new arrival licked her hand and took a seat as if he knew the place well.

Curious, Hope slipped into her jeans and pulled on a T-shirt of Mallory’s. “Mal,” she whispered. “Hey, sleepyhead, I think you have a guest. Make that two.” The dog wagged his tail.

Mallory’s only response was to curl onto her side and pull the sheet tighter around her waist. Adorable. Well, okay. Looked like she was on her own. After running her fingers through her hair to tame it, she peeked around the corner, relaxing at the sight of Hunter rummaging through Mallory’s fridge.

“Mallory’s asleep,” she said by way of greeting.

Hunter straightened and turned. She paused a moment before breaking into a lazy smile. “Well, look who’s here.”

Hope shrugged one shoulder and slid onto a bar stool at the island. “It was a long walk back to my place.”

“Oh, of course it was,” Hunter said, overly sympathetic. “You had no other option than to see if Mal would take you in.”

“Actually, she invited me over herself.”

Hunter studied her. “So are you guys turning into a real thing and not just a fun thing?”

To Hope, it wasn’t even a question. “While I’m having a great time, I’m not in this for fun.”

“Okay.” Hunter looked as if she was gathering her thoughts. “I like you guys together. I do.”

And here it came. “But?”

“Tell me what you like about her.”

“Seriously?” Hope asked with a smile. “Are you planning to write down my answers?” But Hunter wasn’t smiling, and Hope knew it was important for Hunter to know that her feelings were honorable. Thereby, she sobered quite a bit and spoke from her heart. “She’s quirky without realizing she’s quirky. That whole organize-the-world thing is not only admirable but enjoyable because she can’t not do it.”

“That’s true. She can’t stop herself,” Hunter said. “Good call. What else?”

“Well, beyond the fact that I’m ridiculously attracted to her, I love how spoiled she is while at the same time generous beyond all measure. Then the myriad of smiles. She has her ‘on’ smile, which she reserves for business or polite conversation, and then there’s her dreamy smile when she’s in her own head and thinks no one’s watching her.”

Hunter smiled. “That’s a good one. I like that smile.”

“But my favorite is the one she reserves for genuine happiness. It’s my goal to see that smile as much as possible. Should I go on? Because I can. I like her relationship with you guys, her accomplishments, her drive, her humor.”

Hunter held up a hand. “I think I got it.”

“Good, because those things are important to me,” Hope said.

Hunter inclined her head to the side. “I believe you. But I need to say this anyway. You can’t hurt her. Do you understand? Because she may seem tough and together and like she can handle anything, but underneath all of that is a girl who’s a lot more vulnerable than she seems.”

Hope nodded. Mallory was one of Hunter’s best friends, and she was looking out for her. “Do you honestly think I’d be reckless when it comes to Mallory?”

“No, I don’t. But I need you to understand that I will hunt you down if you are.”

Hope smiled. “Got it. You have my word.” She peered around Hunter. “Should I make up something to threaten you about, or did I hear you say bagels earlier?”

Hunter grinned at Hope and reached for the white bag on the counter just as the door to the loft slid open.

“Doughnuts are here,” Sam called. “Fantastic doughnuts have at long last arrived for humans to consume! Oh, hello, there,” Samantha said, freezing and regarding Hope. She then exchanged a knowing smile with Hunter.

“Hi,” Hope said back. “You guys deliver bagels
and
doughnuts? That’s kind of great service.”

Sam nodded. “Hunter’s barbaric and prefers bagels. I’m sensible and thereby understand that doughnuts make the world go round.”

Hunter held up a finger. “I love doughnuts too. Always have.”

“But you think bagels are better, which is insane.”

“I do champion the bagel in a full-on baked-goods war.”

Sam held a hand out in the air in punctuation. “Do you see?” she asked Hope.

“I do.”

“Outrageous.”

Hope enjoyed the playful banter that highlighted the differences between Samantha and Hunter. While Hunter was very go-with-the-flow, Samantha seemed to be a lot more structured in her approach to life. Hope could tell that much simply from the way they ordered their drinks. It intrigued her, the way people paired up. What drew one human to another—which naturally had her thinking about herself and Mallory, who would surely be waking up any minute, right? Was it odd that she already missed her? Should she alert her that her friends had arrived?

“Sorry about busting in on you,” Hunter said. “We didn’t know Mal had company.”

“Is this a regular Saturday-morning occurrence?” she asked in amusement.

Sam tilted her head from side to side in consideration. “Pretty much. Sometimes Mal busts in on us. But I’d say we generally do more of the busting.”

“Wedding plans are exhausting,” a voice said from the doorway. Hope looked up to find Brooklyn entering with a bottle of champagne. “Mal has orange juice, yeah?”

“In the fridge,” Hunter supplied. “She has pulp and no-pulp.”

“Mal likes to cover the bases,” Brooklyn said, then paused mid-step, her girlfriend nearly colliding into her. “Hope! What an amazing surprise to find you here! In the
morning
, no less.”

Hope didn’t know where to go with that, so she smiled sheepishly instead. “Good to see you, Brooklyn.”

“Mimosas all around?” Jessica asked. She scanned the room. “Where’s Mallory?”

“Late to the party, apparently,” Mallory said, taking in the room from the bedroom door with the dog at her feet. She wore a white T-shirt and gray sweatpants. Hope couldn’t help admire how they clung low to her waist. “You sleep a few extra minutes and the cavalry rides in.”

“Hiya, Mal,” Sam said, presenting a newly assembled plate of doughnuts. “Hungry?”

“We also have bagels,” Hunter said, winking.

“Not the bagels-versus-doughnuts showdown,” Mallory said and stole a glazed doughnut with chocolate frosting. Sam shot up a hand in victory, and in adorable response, Hunter stole a kiss.

“Fine,” Hunter said, holding Sam’s face in one hand. “Doughnuts one, bagels zero.”

As the group chattered animatedly, Mallory made her way to Hope and handed her a tear-off of the doughnut. “Good morning,” she said quietly.

“Good morning back,” Hope said, her volume just as low. Their eyes met and held in one of those private exchanges where a lot passed between them without a single word spoken. She loved having that kind of connection, the kind you didn’t even have to work hard for. It was just there. Mallory then tucked a strand of hair behind Hope’s ear. “You okay with all of this? The Saturday-morning barrage? I probably should have warned you this could happen.”

“Shocking at first, but now I think it’s fun,” she told Mallory. “No one shows up unannounced at my place with dogs and breakfast, and I keep waiting for them to.”

Mallory laughed. “Thank you for seeing the silver lining. Also, I love you in my shirt, so I might need to make out with you later.”

Hope looked skyward. “I mean, I
might
be free for that. Busy schedule, ya know.”

Mallory gasped and passed her a smile, the very smile Hope had just told Hunter about, the one that melted her heart from the inside out. As Mallory’s friends prepared plates and drinks, Jessica and Brooklyn regaled the group with war stories from the wedding-planning trenches. They heard about photographer interviews, wedding-cake tastings, videographer meetings, and colors for flowers. If you pushed aside how exhausting the whole thing seemed, underneath it all was a thick layer of romance that had Hope smiling.

She’d been to exactly two weddings in her life but found the whole concept kind of awesome. Two people swearing in front of the world that they want only each other forever? That took some kind of confidence. Looking at Brooklyn and Jessica now, it was clear that they knew what they had and didn’t intend to let it go. She wondered if she’d ever make such a public commitment. She glanced at Mallory, and her heart squeezed in that warm, wonderful way. There had to be something to that squeeze, right? It wasn’t a squeeze for nothing. Maybe one day…

“I just don’t know what I’m going to do if it rains,” Brooklyn said. “I have all of these images in my head of a drowned-rat version of myself pouting in all of the photos, and no one likes a pouty bride. I don’t.”

Jessica took her hand and kissed the back of it. “If it rains,” she said calmly, “you and I will have the best possible time in that rain. It will be the most fun any two people have ever had at a rainy wedding, and we will tell the story of that rainy, romantic wedding to our kids one day and they will love it.”

Samantha pointed at Jessica. “Now that was a good answer.”

Brooklyn seemed to think so too, as she was staring at Jessica with a dreamy, faraway look in her eye. “I’m suddenly not so worried about rain anymore,” Brooklyn said. “How do you do that? And I also have a ton of work to do, so we better head home. Now.”

Samantha leaned in to Hope. “That’s code for sex.”

“Got it,” Hope said, laughing and taking mental notes. They were a fast-paced group with their own shorthand, but a lot of fun at the same time.

“We should get going too,” Hunter said. “Get out of these guys’ hair.”

And with a swift cleanup of the kitchen, the four friends were gone just as quickly as they’d arrived. Hope turned back to Mallory, who was nestled on the sofa. “Wow.”

She shook her head and smiled. “They’re a handful, but they’re my family.”

“Well, you should consider yourself very, very lucky.”

“I do. And I’m not lying about how good you look in my shirt. I kinda think you’d look good out of it too. It’s hard to say which is better.”

Hope didn’t need any more prompting. She slowly pulled the T-shirt up and off and inclined her head to the side. “I figured you needed all the information.”

Mallory was up and moving toward her before she even finished the sentence. It turned out she really, really loved Saturday mornings at Mallory’s.

“Sam, how are we coming with the vendor negotiation on that new hosting company?” Mallory asked.

“We’re close, but not close enough. Why?”

“Because Foster is having site problems again, and I swear we need a new provider.”

Sam swiveled back to her computer. “Let me see if I can speed things up a bit. Work my mojo.”

“I’m counting on it,” Mallory told her. “Hunter, any movement on the Serenity ad for July?”

Hunter slid off the kitchen counter. “I emailed the final product to you an hour ago.”

“My bad. I haven’t had a second to even check.”

She turned to Brooklyn, who was staring at the wall, meaning she was in creative mode. “Brooks, I don’t want to interrupt, but where are we with Foster’s cereal line?”

“I’m staring at the wall, Mal. I’m working on it.”

Mallory knew when to be patient. “That’s exactly what I was hoping for, but is it at all possible to stare at the wall just a tad bit faster?” That earned her a glare from Brooklyn. “Or not. You know, take your time.”

It was late Friday morning, and Mallory felt like she’d been going sixty miles an hour for the past three days. She’d yet to watch a television show, go running, eat a meal uninterrupted, and what was worse, lay eyes on Hope, for three days. Sometimes when it rained at Savvy, it poured. Unfortunately, it usually fell to Mallory to pick up the slack. True, she could ask for more help from her friends, but they were working hard as it was. Sometimes though, it felt a little like they went home to their own lives at the end of the day and she stayed back to live and breathe Savvy twenty-four / seven. She didn’t begrudge them the work. In fact, she loved it. But at times she wondered what it would be like to leave work at work too.

Her cell phone, which she’d turned facedown on her desk to avoid distraction, buzzed against the hard surface. She flipped it over in case it was a pressing client concern, surprised and a little happy to see the incoming call was from Hope. She should let the call roll over and focus on her afternoon.

She
should.

Good business owners did that.

Mallory, however, was apparently onboard with going to corporate hell and thereby slid her thumb across the screen and accepted the call that already had her stomach tightening.

“What are you doing?” Hope asked immediately.

Mallory smiled against the phone, as the sound of Hope’s voice had a way of transporting her to someplace lighter. Just hearing the question had the world slowing down for her. “I’m about to spend an hour returning email. What are you doing?”

“Waiting for you.”

Mallory paused. “Waiting for me for what?”

“To play hooky and spend the afternoon with me somewhere fun.”

“While that sounds amazing, I can’t just skip out on work.”

“Yes, you can.”

Mallory stared at the ridiculous to-do list open on her desk. “That’s impossible. We’re already running behind on several deadlines.”

“You need a break,” Hope said with authority. “Whatever you’re late on will still be late tomorrow morning, right?”

“It will be
later
.”

“And the world will still turn. Come out and play, Park Avenue. It’ll be a time.”

Mallory took a deep breath and stared at the ceiling, now tempted in a way she never thought possible. She’d never played hooky from work. Hell, she came in when she was sick. Was she actually capable of this kind of corporate debauchery? Would she still be allowed in restaurants? Would people judge her on the streets? With her heart thudding away, she made an important decision.

“Where and when?”

Thirty minutes and a quick change later, Mallory spotted Hope right where she said she would be, in front of the Central Park Zoo. Hope stood as she approached and beamed at her, pulling her into her arms in an embrace that Mallory relished. She loved the way Hope smelled. She didn’t know if it was her cotton laundry detergent or the faint scent of citrus from her shampoo, or everything wrapped into one, but it reminded her of a breezy summer day, much like this one.