“Where is he? I’m surprised you aren’t with him.”
“He’s saying goodbye to his fighter friends at the gym. We’ve been so busy this week at the station, we haven’t had time to see everyone. But I had to make sure I saw you before I left.”
Her eyes misted over and she smiled. “I appreciate that. Veronica wanted me to give you this,” she said, pulling out a long, black box from her purse. “It’s her way of saying thank you.”
I opened it up and gasped. Inside sat a beautiful diamond and sapphire bracelet. “Wow. I can’t even imagine how much this cost.”
She waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about that. She can afford it now that her girls and boys are back to work. She even told me to tell you that if you ever needed any of the gentlemen services, you have a membership for life.”
Snickering, I pulled the bracelet out and clasped it around my wrist. “That’s an amazing offer. I wonder what Jason would say if I told him?”
“I’m sure he’d get pretty angry, but it might also light a fire under his ass. I’d give it a try,” she mentioned, smiling slyly.
I winked. “I think I will.”
“Before you go, we need to walk down to my shop. I have some things I want to give you.”
“Diane, you’ve already given me too much. I can’t possibly accept anymore.”
Gaze firm, she pursed her lips. “Do you remember what I told you the last time you were attempting to be difficult?”
I burst out in laughter. “Okay, fine, I’ll stop being a pain.”
When we got to her shop, she strolled right over to two large boxes sitting on the counter. “I had these flown in from New York.” She pulled out some clothes from inside and held them up. “I thought you could use them in Maine. These are from my winter line.” There were jackets, pants, long-sleeve blouses, and even a pair of winter boots with wool inside.
“I don’t know what to say,” I cried.
She packed the clothes back into the boxes and sealed them up. “You can say thank you and that you’ll call me every week. That should suffice as payment.”
Opening my arms, I wrapped them around her and squeezed. “Thank you for everything. I’m really going to miss you. But I promise to call every week.”
“Good. And then maybe sometime soon, when you’re not working, we can have a girls’ weekend somewhere.”
I pulled back and smiled. “I’d like that.”
Grabbing a pen and notepad from the desk, she handed it to me. “Write down your address so I can ship these boxes to you. I don’t want you having to worry about getting it all home.”
I wrote the address to the B&B and gave the notepad back to her. “Thanks. That’ll help out a lot.”
Knowing my time was drawing near, she hugged me again. “I’m going to miss you, Aylee.”
“I’ll miss you too. Okay . . . now I need to finish packing and spend what little time I have left with Jason.”
She wiped away her tears and smiled. “I know. Good luck with everything and be safe on your way home.”
I started for the door and waved. “I will. Talk to you soon.”
“You better.”
The Vegas heat hit me as soon as I opened the door. I wasn’t going to miss that at all, but if I had to deal with the heat to be with Jason, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Now all I needed to find out was if he felt the same. Love could only get you so far.