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To his surprise though, the shop looked exactly like he remembered it, so either she’d already cleaned up the mess the agents left behind or they’d heeded the subtle plea he’d sent their way via text message and gone easy on the place. He knew her computers were on the warrant, so he didn’t miss the laptop that now sat in her computer’s place at the register.
“Are you here to look at the albums?” She asked, setting a small stack of books onto a shelf. “I’ll go get them.”
He gently caught her elbow as she walked past him. She froze as their gaze locked again. He wanted to say something, but what? He could apologize, but what good would that do? He couldn’t promise it wouldn’t happen again because it very well could. After what felt like too much time and not enough time, he released her arm. She was slow to break eye contact, but then practically ran into a backroom, returning moments later with four albums in hand. She placed them on the counter in front of him and he stared at them sightlessly. All he could think about was the woman standing not two feet away from him.
“It’s okay,” she whispered, her voice barely carrying over the music playing in the store. “I’m not mad at you for doing your job.”
His eyes shot up to meet hers just as she cast her glance downward like she was now avoiding him the best she could, even as they stood within touching distance.
“You don’t have to keep apologizing or looking at me like you want to,” Hallie said.
He wanted to reach over the counter and take her hand in his, but instead he just said, “it’s like you're reading my mind.”
Hallie shook her head. “I don’t have to. But that would be a cool superpower.”
Caden smiled, relieved that some of the tension between them seemed to have dissipated. “Time travel. I’ve always thought traveling through time would be the coolest super power.”
“So, you could go back and see your brother again?” She asked softly.
His breath hitched at the tenderness in her voice at the mention of his brother, but that wasn’t what he’d been thinking. “So, I could go back to Mocha Madness and relive that hour with you, knowing both our days would go to shit afterwards.”
Hallie tried to hide a smile, but failed when her eyes finally met his again. “Yeah. It was - fun.”
They stared at each other for a long moment and Caden was almost afraid to speak in fear of breaking this truce they’d somehow come to. “So, do you like any of them?” Hallie asked, breaking the silence and bringing Caden back to the present moment. He’d completely forgotten what they were doing or that he was there to look at photo albums. This woman had that kind of power over him already. Damn but he was screwed.
He turned his attention to the merchandise in front of him just as a nervous laugh escaped her lips, bringing his eyes back to her like they were magnets fighting to hold on, but pushing to stay away. It was the sweetest sound in the world and he wanted to hear more of it. But she straightened then and said, “Sorry. Sometimes I giggle when I’m nervous. And you don’t have to buy any of them if you don’t like them,” she added, pushing a loose strand of hair that had come out of the ponytail behind her ear and nibbled on her bottom lip.
Fuck, Caden was mesmerized. He needed to tear his gaze away from her before she caught on to how captivated he was by her - everything. “Don’t ever apologize for laughing,” he said, already wanting to hear it again. Then he forced himself to focus on the task at hand and finally really looked at the photo albums. All four of the designs were nice, but there was definitely one he liked best. “That one,” he pointed to the one with muted shades of beige and blue. “I think it’ll remind them of their honeymoon in the Bahamas.”
“That’s why it sells out so fast,” she mused. “I never noticed that, but you’re right. It does feel beachy.” She put the others aside and started to wrap the one he had chosen.
Feeling like he was on a roll and thinking he wouldn’t get a better opportunity, Caden decided to push his luck while she was preoccupied with ringing him up. “So, will you come with me on Sunday?” He felt like he was a teenager asking a girl out to their high school prom.
Hallie looked at him with a soft smile. “I don’t know.”
Caden didn’t want to come off pushy, but he needed more time with her. He had to find out what, if anything, she was hiding and finally put Avery’s suspicions about her to rest.
But it was more than that.
He wanted her to come to Luke and Orly’s party because he longed to spend his Sunday with her. It honestly sounded like the perfect way to spend his day off. “I already told Luke you were coming,” Caden said. “He’s excited to meet you.”
“Me?” Hallie asked, looking up at him from the register. “Why?”
Caden chuckled. “Probably because we’re all bachelors in our group and he’s relieved there will be one less person glaring at him for finding the love of his life while the rest of us assholes sit alone in our misery.”
Hallie stared at him for a moment, then broke out in a carefree laughter that Caden felt all the way down to his toes. “How can I say no to that?” She asked.
His breath was still caught somewhere between his lungs and his throat. All Caden wanted to do in that moment was kiss her until they both forgot their own names, then call Avery and tell him to find another agent to get close to Hallie because he couldn’t do the job with the kind of feelings he had for her. But he wouldn’t do that. If Hallie was going to trust anyone with her secrets, Caden wanted it to be him. “You can’t,” he shrugged with a smile.
“I do have conditions,” Hallie said.
“Tell me,” Caden replied. He was ready to agree to almost anything just to spend even five more minutes with this woman.
“I drive myself and I bring my own gift.”
“I can live with that.” He took out one of his business cards, flipped it over and used a pen she had on the counter to write down Garrett’s address. Then just under it, he put his personal cell phone number. “It’s about half an hour from here. We’re meeting at eleven.”
Hallie took the business card and examined what he’d written on the back. “Is that your friend’s number in case I’m running late?”
