True North—Excerpt #2
“There’d probably be times when you might be on screen, but I’ll do whatever I can to keep them from interviewing— if we get that far. It’s a long shot and you know it.”
He set his pencil down, crossed his arms over his chest, and sat there pensively, silently.
Sierra had more than a little practice with sales techniques, as she was the primary salesperson for the company, so she knew it was time to shut up, to not jump into the heavy pause as she had the urge to do, and to let him think through things.
She sipped her coffee and flipped to the next page in her notebook to double-check the deadline schedule for all three stages, which she already knew, but she was fighting to seem nonchalant.
“You really want to be a TV star?” he asked as he leaned his elbows on the table, his biceps flexing from under the ends of his T-shirt sleeves.
“Not a star,” she said, because that wasn’t the end goal.
“But if this is the way to teach more people why old buildings are important, why we should bring them back to life instead of knock them down and throw up a brand-new cookie-cutter version, I’m all in.
” She was itching to spread the knowledge and the passion she’d gotten from her beloved grandpa.
And this, she believed, was the best way to do exactly that.
Cole met her gaze, his hard-edged caramel eyes giving no hint as to his thoughts, and she raised her brows in a silent Well?
“Yes, you’re crazy as a loon, and yes, I’ll stand behind you on this, do whatever you need, as long as it’s off camera.”
She didn’t have a chance to celebrate before her phone dinged with a reminder.
She picked it up and read the note to pick up her sister, Kennedy, for the bride’s and bridesmaids’ pedi/mani, and with that, she was plunged into the wedding to-do list that would only intensify tomorrow, which was why she was taking a rare day off.
Now she needed to call her mom and tell her she didn’t have a plus one after all—that or find one.
She’d be much better off finding one, but at this late date…
“Dammit,” she muttered to herself as she set the phone down hard on the table and started packing her things in her bag to take home with her.
“Okay,” Cole said, already standing, his legal pad and pencil back in his work bag, ready to go. “What did what’s-his-name do to you?”
“How do you know it’s what’s-his-name?” She stood and picked up her Dunn & Lowell fleece jacket from the back of her chair and put it on.
“You were fine all day, even with the wedding stress. He shows up, you slam the door, I find you swearing a blue streak after him… Are you going to tell me it’s not?”
Cole was the kind of guy who didn’t say too much but who paid attention, sometimes more than she wanted him to. “He screwed me over for a wedding date,” she said.
“He canceled on you?”
“Broke up with me. Which wouldn’t be a big deal if not for Kennedy’s wedding. We were never that serious but had agreed to at least get through the wedding.”
“What changed?”
She blew out a breath as she pulled her ponytail out from under her jacket. “He met someone he really likes. Wants to see her this weekend.”
Cole watched her, assessing, and then he said, “That blows.”
“I’d be okay with it if it didn’t leave me in the lurch for the wedding.”
“Do you really need a date?” he asked skeptically.
Such a guy.
“I really do. My mom is militant about RSVPs and head counts for the hotel caterers. If I don’t show up with a plus one, I’ll never hear the end of it.”
There was more—as the youngest Lowell sibling, Sierra always felt she had to prove herself, in every arena, justified or not, and both her siblings had found their person, were settled or settling, and she was so far from it, it wasn’t funny—but it wasn’t worth going into with Cole.
She fully acknowledged it was at least partially in her head, but it wasn’t likely she could resolve twenty-some years of mental crap in the next forty-eight hours.
“Plus there’s the bridal party dance…” She shook her head, realizing how woe-is-me she would sound to admit out loud she didn’t want to be the odd girl out.
“What kind of dance?” Cole said, lowering his bag to the chair he’d been sitting on.
“Just a slow song. Standard partner dance. Nothing special, but it’s a thing.
” She looked away, pressed her lips together as she started sorting through options, because the other single attendant—the groom’s brother—was bringing a date, and they’d already decided their dates would join them for the bridal party dance.
If Sierra didn’t find someone, she’d either look like a dumb ass out there by herself or be conspicuously absent for that song. She disliked both options.
“It’s Saturday night?” he asked, looking pensive.
“Five thirty. I have”—she picked up her phone and pushed the button to check the time—“forty-seven and a half hours to find someone. I’m not going alone.”
She unlocked her phone, opened her contacts, and was about to tap on her brother’s name, hoping he’d know someone he could set her up with, as pathetic as that was, when Cole said, “I can stand in for your date.”
With her thumb hovering over her brother’s name, she froze and met his gaze, surprised and more than a little afraid he was joking. When she saw only sincerity in his eyes, she said, “Really?”
“If you need me to,” he said.
“You’d be my fake date?”
“No fancy dance steps I have to learn?”
“No fancy dance steps.”
He broke eye contact and picked up his bag. “Text me when and where and I’ll be there.”
Sierra let out a breath of relief and resisted the urge to throw her arms around him.
Because on some level, she hadn’t lost sight of the fact that he worked for her and there were lines they couldn’t cross.
But he was offering her a solution, and she’d be stupid not to jump on it.
“Thank you, Cole. I’ll make sure you don’t regret it. ”