Right there, no hiding, she gave it to him.
“Miss you too, but you’ll be back tomorrow, and I’m picking you up from the airport.”
The curve returned. “Yes.”
“How’s being back home?” he asked, far from unaware that the question made him tense.
“Sorry?”
“Being back home, in LA.”
“I can’t wait to really get back home.”
Judge blinked.
He then noted, “I thought you loved LA.”
“Why on earth would you think that?” she inquired.
“Because you told me you planned to move back there.”
He saw the phone jostle, such was her surprise at that memory.
And then she admitted, “I was lying.”
It took a beat.
And then Judge roared with laughter.
When he was done, she had another small smile on her face, but it was cautious when she asked, “Were you worried about that, chéri?”
“Well, yeah,” he stated the obvious.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
“Don’t be. I’m not worried about it anymore.”
“Sure?” she pressed.
“Sure, honey,” he promised.
Her face warmed.
They talked, and Judge ascertained she was telling the truth about something important. She seemed peaceful, happy, not weighed down by anything.
That was good, and he felt better when she eventually had to let him go so she could finish getting ready because they were all going out to dinner.
But before she did this, she said, “I left you a welcome-home-from-New-Mexico present in the kitchen.”
He was smiling, but surprised, when he replied, “You did?”
“Yes, mon beau, nothing big. Just a little something. It’s in the cupboard with the coffee mugs.”
Judge immediately got up to go see what it was, and when he did, Chloe hurriedly said her goodbyes, like she didn’t want to be on the call when he saw what she’d given him.
Which made him even more curious.
He noticed it right away when he opened the cupboard.
A green coffee mug with yellow lettering that said, Nothing’s perfect, baby, but we can give it the best we got.
The sight of it hit him right in the throat.
He’d seen her drink from hers at her place and he’d asked after it. She’d then told him the coffee mug story, how everyone in the family had one, given to them by Sully and Gage at Christmas.
Now he had one.
From Chloe.
Obviously, this made him feel even less twitchy.
A whole lot less.
But he didn’t feel exactly right until around the same time the next day, when he was standing in Sky Harbor Airport and he saw her walking toward him from the concourse.
And Judge wasn’t feeling perfect until she skip-ran the last fifteen feet and threw herself in his arms.
* * *
One week later…
“Hot guy delivery!” Mi shouted as she escorted Judge into Chloe’s office.
So he was laughing when he walked in.
Chloe was behind her desk, her laptop open, and she looked like she was scowling at it.
Her head came up as he stopped with Mi at his side, but Mi did a sideways bow with hands out his way, “I present thee with the finest thing in our store.”
Chloe was now smiling as she got up, skirted her desk and drawled, “Sadly for our customers, he’s not for sale.”
“Tragic,” Mi said, then winked at him, turned on her foot and said as she was leaving, “Several of them witnessed his entry. I need to hold back the hounds. Ta ta!”
And off she went as Judge called after her, “Later, Mi.”
“Later!” he heard from the hallway.
When he turned back, Chloe was right there.
He saw her looking gorgeous, dressed impeccably, but he couldn’t stop himself from taking in her office.
Because it was tight.
But also, it looked like a starter office for an up-and-coming retail magnate.
“Nice digs,” he noted when his gaze came back to her.
“Thanks.” She threw that word his way indifferently, as if her office wasn’t shit hot, then asked, “Is everything okay with my car?”
He was there, picking her up, because it was Saturday, she had to work, he did not, and he’d taken her car to be serviced that day.
“All good,” he answered.
“Excellent. So why aren’t you kissing me?”
He looked down at her. “Because I’m recovering from the one-two punch of how fuckin’ awesome your store is and how much more awesome this office is.”
He’d dropped her off that morning, but he hadn’t come in.
Now he’d seen it, and he was seriously impressed.
“My store is far more awesome than this office,” she sniffed, though the softness of her eyes told him his compliment registered.
He smiled.
Then he asked, “Why were you trying to get laser beams to shoot out of your eyes at your computer?”
She glanced back at her laptop, and when she returned to him, the scowl was back. “We open applications for Fabulous Foot Forward after we complete the round before. I try to keep up with them and prioritize them so when the time comes to make our selection, I’m not overwhelmed.”
“That’s smart.”
“And we just finished with our last candidate, and she was amazing. But the time is coming nigh for us to begin again.”