Finding Julian by Shane Morgan Page A

before, a broad grin stretched across his face and Gavin morphed
into a cheerful person. “So, are you going to the annual dinner at the country
club in a few weeks?”
    I shook my head. “No. I don’t think I’ll
be here that long.”
    He frowned. “Why not?”
    I plucked the papers off the table and
stood. “I have to get back to my life in Manhattan. I’ve been putting it on
hold for too long.”
    He stood as well, walking behind me out
of Dunkin Donuts. “Is there someone you need to get back to?”
    That question was starting to annoy me.
    I slowed my steps and looked back at
him. “Does there have to be someone for me to go back to? Why can’t I just like
living in the city?”
    A sly grin appeared on his face. Gavin
tossed the remainder of his iced coffee in a trash bin and inched closer to me.
    “Looks to me like you’re simply running
away, Julian,” he whispered. “Maybe you actually like it here in Narragansett.
I think you’re already starting to feel comfortable but trying hard to convince
yourself otherwise.”
    I was about to dispute his remarks when
Seven came up behind me. “What’s going on?”
    Spinning at the sound of suspicion in
his voice, I stared at him for what seemed like a really long second before
answering, “Nothing.”
    “We were just talking about the annual
dinner,” Gavin piped in.
    Seven lit up with relief. “You’re
staying for the dinner?”
    “No, I’m not.”
    His face dropped. “Why not?”
    “I’m…” the words refused to come out. I
found it hard to look into his eyes and say I wasn’t going to stay in
Narragansett till then.
    “I’m heading back to work.” Gavin
excused himself.
    Seven glanced behind at him, watching as
he turned the corner towards the printery. Then he brought his gaze back to me.
He stuck one hand inside his jeans pocket and questioned me, “You were having
lunch with him?” There was a pang of jealousy within his tone. It fascinated
me.
    “No,” I quickly answered. “He just
happened to come by while I was here.” It sounded like I was trying to convince
a boyfriend I wasn’t cheating.
    A gratified smile formed on his lips and
he nodded approvingly. I started to walk past him back towards the office when
Seven touched my elbow, stopping me. “Aunt Bev asked me to take you shopping.”
    “Shopping?” My brows went up. “That’s
not necessary, I’m leaving soon—”
    “You’ve been saying that since the day
we met,” he stifled back a laugh. “Come one, I’ll take you to get some clothes.
You can’t keep wearing the same things over and over like this.”
    If I wasn’t too embarrassed about him
noticing I didn’t have much to wear, I would have been thrilled about him
noticing me at all. Clyde sure didn’t.
    Shaking my head, I came up with an
excuse. “Aunt Bev probably still needs to go over some things with me.”
    “Aunt Bev isn’t in the office,” he clued
me in. “She’s on her way to a location with our photographer to take some
pictures.”
    Humph . I doubted taking
pictures were really on the agenda for Aunt Bev and David.
    Feeling defeated, I agreed to let Seven
take me shopping. It was a favorite hobby of mine that always livened up my
day.
    He brought me to Isobel’s clothing store
on Bellevue Avenue. I browsed the racks while he wandered over to the men’s
section. Checking the tags, my eyes widened seeing they were way out of my
price range. I only had a hundred and thirty dollars left in my purse and
hardly enough in my bank account. I shouldn’t have let Seven convince me to get
new clothes. I couldn’t afford a single thing.
    “See something you like?” He came over
and stood beside me, eyeing the rack I was looking at.
    “No, let’s just go.” I made for the exit
but he clutched my elbow.
    “Why? Everything in here looks like
something you’d wear.”
    “What do you mean?”
     “This stuff is all…” he waved his
hand about, “simple. You’re a simple girl so I figured