chuckle warmed me, and I stepped back out of the way, letting her inside.
After taking her coat and folding it over the back of the couch, I took the bag from her hand and carried it to the kitchen.
“I know I’ve already said this, but the place looks a million times—”
Actually, she hadn’t said that, but apparently she thought she had. Regardless, something had caught her attention, so I shrugged off the comment.
When she stopped talking, I turned to see why and noticed her staring at the pictures I’d bought from Gavin.
She laughed. “Does he know you have all those?”
“I’d hope so. Since I bought them from him.”
“Don’t let him see that,” Presley said when she followed me into the kitchen. “His ego might actually burst.”
“Mum’s the word.” Pulling the food out, I spread it on the kitchen table, then joined Presley when she took a seat. “So, have the two of you worked out your issues?”
Gone was the light in her eyes, and I knew the answer before she had to say anything. Good thing, too, since she didn’t bother to answer.
Goddamn. I was growing tired of her shutting me out, but I didn’t know how to approach the subject without her going off the rails and running away. If I’d learned anything about this woman, it was that she was slow to trust and quick to run. Only I didn’t know why that was.
Her eyes roamed back to the living room walls. “What’re you putting there?” She pointed to the empty space above the fireplace.
“Not sure yet,” I lied. I’d already made the purchase and was just waiting to take possession from the art gallery, but I figured that was the last thing I needed to share with Presley at the moment. The fact that I’d bought the piece she’d had there probably wouldn’t go over too well with her.
“Well, I’m sure you’ll find something cool.” Her smile returned and she moved toward me, going up on tiptoe to kiss my lips.
I kissed her back, and for the first time in a week, I felt as though my world wasn’t tilting on its axis, and I knew she was the one responsible for that.
The problem was … I didn’t know how—or if—I should tell her.
Worse … I didn’t even know if I wanted to.
Chapter Sixty-Four
Presley
Despite what it looked like, I honestly hadn’t been avoiding Jake for the past week. Not completely, anyway. Things had just been hectic. When I’d stepped foot into the shop last Wednesday, after I’d spent the night at Jake’s, Charlie had instantly informed me that she needed to head back to her hometown—a tiny dot on the map called Mystery Springs—because something had come up that she needed to take care of.
With her gone, that left me to handle a lot of the shit, and since I’d taken my fair share of time off recently, I’d merely sent her on her merry way and told her not to worry about a thing. On top of that, Blaze had come down with the flu—perhaps conveniently—and that left me one tattoo artist short, so I’d been forced to fill in. It hadn’t been pretty, but I’d managed.
Luckily, Blue had been around to help, pitching in to keep things clean and stocked, as well as spending more time dealing with customers. Twice I had allowed him to ink people when they’d opted for simple flash art designs. Truth was, Blue was going to be a brilliant tattoo artist.
When Charlie had come back this morning, I’d informed her I needed the night off and hadn’t bothered to call Jake before taking a quick trip over to Kerbey Lane Café and picking up dinner. The only thing I’d been able to think about all week was him, about what was going on between us, and about where this might be going. Granted, I was still having a million doubts, although something told me to suck it up and get over it before I ended up losing Jake because of my reluctance.
Jake wasn’t Adrian. Hell, he wasn’t anything like him, but still my heart was tentative about going into this full throttle. But now that I was here, I didn’t want to think about any of that. I just wanted to spend time with Jake, and I was hoping we could get dinner out of the way and move on to the encore.
“What’re you thinking about?” Jake asked, pulling me from my thoughts.