Page 35 of Honeycombs & Homecomings

“I insist,” she said.

He gave her a brief nod. “I’m very much obliged.”

She pointed to Caroline. “My cousin, Caroline, will wrap these up for you.” She turned to Jessie. “Can you give him a receipt, please? The security guards are serious about thefts this year.”

Jessie nodded and turned to the iPad she was using to take payments on.

She waved goodbye to Brandon, then stepped aside and grabbed Cash’s arm, dragging him with her.

“What was that?” she hissed under her breath.

“What was what?” Cash gave a little two-fingered wave to the Warners with a winning smile.

“You were kind of rude to him,” she said.

“No, I wasn’t.”

She leveled a gaze at him.

He grinned. She was cute when she was angry. She never really got angry when they were kids. He could count all the times she got angry on one hand, and he still wasn’t even sure they counted. “He was coming on to you. You’re my fiancée. What am I supposed to do? Act like I don’t mind that?”

“No, he wasn’t. He was being kind.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “And you’re not my fiancé, we’re faking, remember?”

All right, he could admit that the guy hadn’t been blatant, but he definitely liked what he was seeing. And he couldn’t even blame him for that. The twins were stunning. And not necessarily in the same way. Identical they might be, but Allie had a way of dressing her looks up that never really crossed Jo’s mind. Jo was more subtle with her hair, makeup, and clothes than Allie. Except for today. Because today she was channeling Allie.

“I need that man to like us because I very much want to keep putting our hives on our—his property.” Her eyes welled with tears. She fisted her hands and took a deep breath. She would not let those tears fall.

She’d never let them fall.

Never let anyone see her cry—and he wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t even cry by herself. For as long as he’d known her, she’d assigned herself the job of being the tough one, of being a protector.

Cash put his hands up in surrender. She wouldn’t cry, but he wouldn’t put it past her to slug him in the jaw. “All right, I’m sorry.”

Her fist loosened, and she straightened her fingers. “Thank you. Now, let’s get this travesty of a farce over with.”

Cash swallowed hard. Farce. He hated it when she used that word to talk about them.

Jo started back to the Warners when a familiar couple of voices called from the line. “Cash!”

Cash glanced back. Two of his pals from high school, Mike and Walt waved, each with an arm wrapped around a woman, both of who Cash recognized but couldn’t name.

Jo whirled around as he waved back.

Chapter 12

“Cash!”

Jo’s stomach did a free fall as she spun back to the line. Walt and Mike, two longtime friends, stood with their girlfriends in line, waving at Cash. And Cash waved back. Was this some kind of test? Had she done something terrible in a past life? She jumped forward and grabbed Cash’s hand, yanking it down.

She stepped forward. “Yes, we take cash,” she said.

Mike and Walt’s faces dropped, each looking more confused than they ever had during their math tests back in high school.

Cash leaned closer. “I’ll go talk to them.” He ducked out the back.

“Where’s he going,” Cynthia asked.

“He’s . . . going to help some customers.” That’d work.

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