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“I love it.”
“I knew you would.Nowwe can leave. I’ll settle up on the purchases while you get dressed.”
“I want to keep waging the battle to pay, but the truth is, I can’t even afford these jeans and this—” She glanced down at the tag on the cat shirt, her eyes widening when she saw the price. “This was on the sale rack?!”
She’d purposely stopped looking at the price tags after the first shirt, but now…
“Maybe we should put some of the clothes ba—”
“Say thank you, Beaumont.”
“Gage,” she started, guilt setting in at the thought he was most likely dropping thousands on her tonight.Thousands.
He lifted one eyebrow. “Two words. Give them to me.”
“Thank you,” she said, sincerely, more grateful to him for his help than she could ever express.
He smiled and tapped a knuckle under her chin. “Good girl.”
Holy shit.Histwo words packed a punch.
“Of course, if you added Daddy to the end, I’d really feel your appreciation.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Go away.”
Gage laughed as he left the dressing room, completely oblivious to the state he’d had left her in. Hot and bothered didn’t even touch the way she felt right now.
When she came out of the dressing room, back in her normal clothes, which didn’t feel as right as they had when they’d arrived earlier, Gage was outside, loading too many bags into the trunk of his car. She understood now why he’d insisted on driving. There was no way all those things would have fit in her Smart ForTwo Electric car.
They listened to music as Gage drove her to her apartment then together, they lugged all their purchases upstairs. All four of her cats greeted them at the door. They were hungry too. She introduced Gage to all of them, surprised when he lifted Hermione—the tiniest one—and cradled her in his arms.
“Tell me why you want the makeover,” Gage pressed. It wasn’t the first time he’d asked. Hell, it wasn’t the fifth time.
She kept giving him some bullshit line about her reasons being personal, but the truth was, she’d been too embarrassed to tell him. It wasn’t easy telling her sexy-as-sin, never-sleeps-alone boss that she was lonely. But after this week, after all the time, money, and effort he’d invested in helping her, she felt like he deserved to know.
“I don’t want to be single anymore.”
He waited for her to expound on that.
“I’m lonely,” she confessed. “And I refuse to turn thirty and still be…the nerdy, geeky loser living alone with a bunch of cats.”
Gage scowled. “You’re not a loser.”
She shrugged because his simply saying so didn’t mean she didn’t feel that way.
“I notice you didn’t say anything about me not being a nerd or a geek,” she added, with a grin, hoping to dispel his sudden anger.
“You’re not those either.”
“Want to order a pizza?” she asked, trying to change the subject. “My treat. I’ve got some PBR in the fridge. We could playBeatSaberor something.”
For a second, it looked like Gage wanted to continue their argument, but then he shook his head. “No. I have a couple of errands to run before I head home.”
“Okay,” she said, gesturing to the pile of bags at their feet. “Today…this whole week…it’s been…um…”
Ugh. Here came the stammering again. She thought she’d overcome this with him, but standing here in her apartment—Gage Russo was actuallyinher apartment, voluntarily—she couldn’t help but consider the other part of the favor, wondering when they could move on from the makeover stuff and on to the good shit.
“Stage two starts tomorrow,” he announced, as if he could read her mind.
