Page 51 of Say You Will

“Next time, we should have a chef prep the pumpkin for us.”

“Are you kidding me? That was the best part.”

My work phone vibrates, and I reach in my coat pocket. “Hey, Bronwyn. What’s up?”

“Are you with Henry?”

I look at my phone in consternation. How would she know? The man only kissed me this afternoon for the first time.

“I wouldn’t saywith….”

“His location tracker says he’s only about ten minutes from the grocery store. And since you’re not here, either, I assumed the two of you must have run out for errands together.”

“Oh.” I laugh weakly. She meant “with” literally. As in, sitting beside him right now.

Her whole family uses their own security app that keeps them dialed in to each other’s location. She said they turn them offsometimes, but, for the most part, they’re all up in each other’s business all the time. I’m grateful it never occurred to my mother to use something like that.

The McRaes have a lot of security measures that might appear to be excessive to outsiders. Before we found our pumpkins, Henry had tossed a navy cardigan on like some kind of sexy Mr. Rogers, but beneath that cardigan he’s wearing a holster with a handgun in it. If the SUV we’re sitting in isn’t armored, I’d be shocked.

“Yes. I’m with Henry. You’re on speaker.”

“Perfect. Henry?”

“Bronwyn,” he drawls.

“If I text you a short list, can you stop by the store for me?”

“I’m certain you have staff for that.”

“Henry,” Bronwyn scolds.

The corner of his lip twitches. He is such a . . .rascal. It’s a silly, old-fashioned word. Something his grandma would say, but, good heavens, he teases like crazy. He likes to get people all flustered and annoyed, and half the time the people around him don’t even realize he’s doing it on purpose.

He twists his lips to the side briefly, then says, “For once, I’m not trying to be an ass. Franki needs a break.”

I look away in embarrassment. I never complained, but instead of feeling better with activity, my joint pain has gotten steadily worse today. I didn’t think he noticed.

After a brief silence, Bronwyn says hurriedly, “Sorry. Ugh. I’m an idiot. It’s no problem. I’ll have one of the housekeepers run out.”

“We’ll do it,” I say.

Henry looks my way, his brow furrowed.

He’s right that I need to give my knees a rest, but I also want to go to the store. I hesitate for a moment because the biggest part of me wants to pretend that I can always do what most peoplemy age do. I’m also terrified that after this shopping trip, Henry will stop flirting with me.

But this is me, and, honestly, what is the point in having him attracted to me if I have to hide huge parts of who I am? So, I say it. “Any normal-sized grocery store will have either an electric scooter or a wheelchair. As long as Henry doesn’t mind if he has to give me a push.”

He looks pleased with my solution and gives me a nod. “No problem. You know your own body and what you need.”

If he weren’t driving, I’d launch myself at him and kiss him all over his sweet face.

“Are you sure?” Bronwyn asks doubtfully. “I didn’t think about how many hours you spent in the car and then whatever the two of you were already doing.”

“Send me the list, Bronwyn. I mean it. I’ll be very angry if you don’t.”

Bronwyn has a smile in her voice when she says, “You don’t sound angry. You sound like a preschool teacher offering to feed me cupcakes.”

Well, that’s annoying.“I’ll feed you something else. Something not a cupcake, and you won’t like it.”

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