Still, simply because their relationship had imploded like an avalanche didn’t mean she should leave her texts unchecked.
He knew the night was a big deal to her, and when they broke up, he knew she’d be left with no one to escort her to her big event—the Jingle Balls Ball. Yes, she had broken up with him, but vulnerability sucked, and frankly, she wasn’t very good at it.
“You’re not texting him.” Heather shook her head firmly.
Anna bit at her lip and stopped herself from finding his name in her contact list.
“Did you do all the decorations?” Heather asked in a clear attempt to distract her. “They’re totally fabulous.”
They really were. “I did.”
Heather absently rubbed at her pregnant stomach. “You did a wonderful job.”
“It really did turn out nice.” Anna glanced up from the screen of her cell and took in her handiwork. She’d done an excellent job, if she did say so herself. In addition to the white poinsettia trees and the strings of lights, she’d created little vignettes throughout the room with comfy white sofas and enough fake white Christmas trees to create a fake white forest. A subtle blue glow had been added, as well as carefully placed bowls of all varieties of nuts, because you couldn’t have a testicular event without an abundance of nuts.
The Denver Post would probably put pictures of the soiree in their next issue.
With her attempt at distraction clearly successful, Heather grinned. “See, you are the best florist in Denver. Don’t tell my husband I said that.”
Anna’s brother Jase did give her good competition for the title of best florist in Denver. But he hadn’t volunteered for the Jingle Balls Ball committee. He had a thing about avoiding committees. But Anna? Anna liked donating her time to a good cause. The free publicity she got from these events wasn’t so bad either. So…she’d volunteered to help decorate this testicle-inspired shindig.
Attending single, however, had not been part of her plan.
Her fingers itched to text Drake and remind him why she was awesome and why he shouldn’t have said no when she’d offered to move to Miami with him. She’d resisted sending the text. She’d offered to move to Miami, but when he said no, she broke everything off. Her heart had invested in him. In them. She didn’t want to be a cupcake—a part-time, sometimes girlfriend. No, she wanted to be the whole cake.
She’d cancelled her availability to serve as his perpetual Denver fling.
They’d both made their choices. In the end, those choices guaranteed they wouldn’t be a couple. Those choices made her heart ache.
Instead of texting him, she unlocked her phone, tapped on her preferred dating app, and re-activated her profile.
Boom. Done.
The healthiest relationships a girl could find online were on the horizon.
No looking back now.
Still, it felt like she had a severe case of heartburn and her skin was too tight.
“Did you text him?” Just having returned, Sadie grabbed for Anna’s cell.
Anna held up the phone to show the app. “I’m handling this breakup like the adult you want me to be.”
“Give the phone over.” Heather made a give-it gesture with her fingers. “That way, there are no mistake-texts sent at any point tonight.”
Anna handed over her phone. Not because she didn’t trust herself but, to be honest, she didn’t really trust herself.
“There’s something you need to know.” Sadie pursed her lips in a way that made Anna confident she didn’t want to know. “Please don’t kill your brother. He means well and I kind of like him.”
Anna definitely didn’t want to know. Didn’t want to ask, but one glance at Sadie and she knew she had to find out what he’d done. Never mind that her tongue had gone dry and her mind was flipping through about a million possibilities. “What are you talking about?”
“He got you a date.” Sadie looked as unhappy about it as Anna felt.
“Are you kidding me?” Heather asked. “What is he thinking? How can she rebound with a date that Roman picked? At an event where her ex is being sold to the highest bidder. Roman takes things way too seriously. He probably picked the worst possible rebound option.”
“He talked to your grandmother, and you know how she is and how they are when they’re together.” Sadie glared toward her fiancé. “Trust me, I made it totally clear that he messed up on this one.”
“Roman got me a date?” Anna asked, her voice nearly a whisper. “And Babushka is involved?”
The fake icicles decorating the edge of the room might as well have been stabbing her in the chest. This was bad. Really bad.
“I got you a date,” Roman confirmed, strutting up behind Sadie and slipping his arm around her waist. “He’ll be here any minute. Seeing as how you’re my favorite sister, it’s for your own good. You’re welcome.”
“I’m your only sister,” Anna huffed. She might have had a history of iffy relationships, but she absolutely did not do the blind date thing. Especially when the blind date was put together by her brother with the blessing of their slightly nutty—and not in the testicular sense—grandmother.
Sadie glowered at him over her shoulder. “You’re in so much trouble.”
The muscles in his arms bunched as he squeezed her against him and nuzzled her ear. “I like being in trouble with you. Besides, you have to blame Babushka.” Roman shrugged. “It’s mostly her fault.”
“Why do you say that?” Anna asked.
“She put me in charge this time.” He grinned.
“You’re joking,” Anna said, wishing looks could really kill. Or seriously maim.
He shook his head. “I don’t joke.”
Heather wrapped her arm around Anna’s shoulder. “I’ll play interference if you need me to. I’m sure Jase will toss this guy out if I ask him nicely.”
Yes, because getting another brother involved in her love life was such a good idea.
That was a negative, for the record.
The Dvornakovs were not the kind of family a person would want involved in decisions related to their personal dating life. Or really, any part of their lives. They meddled, and they did it epically. Which was why Anna didn’t make it a point to get relationship-y around them.
The fine hair on the back of her neck tingled.
“Who is he?” she asked, the words coming out as more of a croak.
“Don’t flip out,” Roman said.
Those were the words a brother used to—in fact—make his sister flip out.
“She’s freaking out,” Heather said out of the corner of her mouth.
“Look, he’s here.” Roman shifted his gaze toward the entry of the ballroom.
Anna’s entire expression froze in place. She resisted the urge to adjust her girdle as quarterback legend and golden boy Drake Walsh strolled into her world, settling right back into the hole he’d only recently drilled into her heart.
Seriously?
Grr, no. Drake was not her date. They’d already decided that when she’d broken it off with him. Their goals in love and in life did not align. He may have been from Denver and he may have visited often, but he lived in Miami. She lived in Denver, and when she’d offered to give up her flower shop and move to Miami, he’d said…no.