Page 17 of Hard to Get

“Thanks.”

“And for you,” she offers.

I hand over my sweater and move on to another table of folded sweaters. They’re different, with a funnel neck, and I really like the charcoal with flecks of lighter grey.

The girl who helped us comes back to see if we need anything else. I tell her I’m good with a smile, but LG says, “I need some pants.”

“Over here.” She leads him away.

I grin.

I pick up another sweater: a collared one in a tan colour. It looks really sharp. I like it.

I step over to some T-shirts, because you can never have too many T-shirts, and stop short. “Stella.”

She’s looking at a rack of jackets. Her head lifts and our eyes meet. “Jayden. Hi.”

I smile and move closer. “Hey. What are you doing here?”

“Shopping. Obviously.”

“Right. Me, too. I needed a few things.” I dip my chin to my armful of sweaters.

“A few.”

“Yeah. Winter is coming.”

She grins. “Is that a metaphor for upcoming hardship and battles?”

“Now that you mention it… our season opener is tomorrow…”

She laughs. “Hopefully, it’s not that bad.”

“Yeah, me too.” I grimace. “But seriously, I’m just buying warm clothes.”

“That’s why I’m looking at jackets.”

“Those are nice.” They’re quilted jackets and coats.

She lifts one off the rack. “I don’t know what colour.”

“I’d say that dark brown. It would look great with your hair.”

She slides me a look of amusement, lips puckered. “You’re the CEO of Fashion.”

“I do like nice clothes. Want me to hold your purse while you try it on?”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah.” I nod encouragingly.

Her purse strap is across her body so she lifts it over her head and hands it to me, then pushes her arms into the jacket. There’s a mirror on a wall nearby and she moves there to check out the fit.

“Perfect,” I say, admiring her.

“Hey, Woody.” LG walks up beside me and his gaze darts back and forth between me and Stella. “Fast mover,” he mutters in a low tone. “But I get it.” He makes a face of approval.

Stella walks back and smiles at LG. “Hi.”