Page 30 of It's a Widow Thing

“And it turns out they want some of them to be exclusives.”

“Can we really bring that much to market in one year?”

Sabrina kneaded her forehead. “Honestly? No idea. It’s so much more than we’ve done before. But we have to be able to fill the space they’re giving us at Echo Beauty. These are all conditions of the deal, and there’s no way I’m walking away from that.” She’d signed the deal memo. She and Lucy had just received their invitations to the groundbreaking party. This was happening.

Lucy was quiet as she scanned the screen again. “We’ll just have to find a way to make it work. We can do it. I know it.”

Sabrina nodded and slumped back in her chair, feeling significantly less confident than she would’ve liked. “Right. We’ll just have to work our asses off. We’ve done it before. We’ll do it again.”

“I feel guilty leaving for the day. Do you want me to stay for a few more hours?”

“No. You should go. It’s after six. It’s dark out.” Sabrina kneaded her neck in an endeavor to ward off a headache. “Honestly, I should go, too. But I want to finish up a few more things.” What she really wanted was to go home and call Michael. Maybe get him to come over….

“Is there something else going on? Other than work?” Lucy asked.

Of course the answer was yes. Thoughts of Michael and the last few days together made her body flood with heat. They inspired a smile she couldn’t hide. Monday night had been a huge step forward, and since then, they’d been full speed ahead. On Tuesday, he prepared a romantic meal and they stayed up until the wee hours getting lost in conversation. Yesterday morning, they got up early and went for a run together, then he spent the afternoon sending her suggestive texts and making good on them last night.

“It’s Michael, isn’t it?” She leaned closer. “You’re thinking about him,” she whispered. Lucy was shy about almost nothing.

Sabrina blew out a breath. There was no point in hiding it. “Yes.”

“I should’ve known. I noticed how amazing your skin was looking this morning. You finally did it, didn’t you?”

“We did. On Monday. Then a bunch of times since then.”

Lucy fanned herself with her hand. “Oh, my.”

It was no small thing. Michael was the first guy she’d been with since Andrew. She hadn’t taken the decision to have sex with him lightly. And now that things were moving forward, and everything was so wonderful and easy, it was hard not to look at their relationship under the microscope. “He’s so great, I feel like I need to pinch myself. He’s sexy and thoughtful and funny. But more than anything, he has been so considerate of everything I’ve gone through. I keep wondering if he’s too good to be true.” She really hoped he wasn’t, even when she knew she sounded like a kid that needed to believe in Santa Claus. She couldn’t handle heartbreak of any magnitude.

“That’s fabulous. I know it was a big step. And I’m proud of you.”

“Thank you. It just had to be right.” She shrugged it off but couldn’t wipe the perma-grin off her face. “This happened to be right.”

“So are we thinking he’s boyfriend material?”

She’d thought about that very thing a few times since that first invite to dinner at his apartment. “My gut is telling me yes, but I’ve been wrong about things before.” Sabrina gnawed on her thumbnail. There’d been a bad stretch of boyfriends before she’d met Andrew. “I worry about him wanting to get serious. But then sometimes he acts so goofy that I don’t know what he wants and part of me is terrified to ask because I’m not ready to have the conversation. I can’t grill him about what he wants, when I’m not sure I can answer the question for myself.”

“Girl. Take a deep breath.”

“Sorry. I know I’m overthinking this.”

“Not necessarily. And it’s not like you need a label. I’m just wondering if he’s displaying boyfriend behavior. Like outside of the bedroom.”

“I already told you he loves to cook for me.”

“That’s great. What about texting? Does he answer your texts right away? Does he want to make plans before you say goodbye?”

Sabrina was just about to answer yes to both of those things when her phone buzzed with a text.Hey beautiful. I’m downstairs. Can someone let me in?

She smiled at her phone, not looking at Lucy. “It’s Michael. He’s downstairs. I told him I was going to be working late. I guess he decided to stop by.”

“Showing up unannounced? Total boyfriend behavior.” Lucy popped up out of her chair. “Stay right here. Let me get it. You need to fix your lipstick.” In a pink flash, she was out the door.

Sabrina dug her compact out of her purse, powdered her nose and applied a very light coat of lip-gloss.Better for kissing.She snapped it shut, whipping around in her chair when Michael and Lucy’s voices were outside her office.

“I guess I just don’t understand what contour is,” Michael said, strolling into Sabrina’s office, his cheeky grin leading the way. His eyes lit up when he saw Sabrina. “Sorry to drop in unannounced, but I thought you might want dinner.” He held up two large paper shopping bags from the gourmet grocery store down the street.

Lucy pointed at the parcels Michael was carrying and mouthed, “boyfriend” to Sabrina. Lucy was oddly distant from him, then Sabrina caught her checking out Michael’s ass. “Michael was asking me to explain contour.”