Page 8 of Hot for the Jerk

Gabrielle nodded.“That’s right.I swooned a little when he said that.That’s a good man right there.Increasing your wife’s chances of winning by entering for something you don’t even want yourself.”Her eyes went all soft, and she glanced off into space for a moment.

I cleared my throat.“There are two baskets, right?”

That seemed to bounce her back to reality.“Right.Pick another one.”

My feet also really fucking hurt, and I wanted to get the fuck out of the city and back on the island.Clint returned with empty arms, but not for long.He loaded up another box, then took off again toward the truck.He was just as eager as I was to get back to the island.So I plunged my hand back into the bucket and searched around for another oddly crumpled piece of paper.This time, I found one that was folded like a paper crane and pulled it out.“Amber Roth.”

Gabrielle’s eyes formed thin slits for a moment before popping open wide.“Another memorable one.She was this tiny, little redhead.Very feisty.Bit of a tomboy vibe from her.Even shook my hand.Did all the talking while her stoic man just stood silently behind her like a bodyguard.”

I shrugged and handed her both pieces of paper.“Cool.How do we go about getting in touch with them?”

“I’ve coordinated with the front desk of the convention center to hold the baskets for them.I’ll give them a call, let them know they won and that they can come and pick them up.”

“Cool.”

Clint returned again, and the two of us got to work taking down the rest of our table.Even though we had significantly less stock than on Friday, it still took us multiple trips to the truck to load up everything.We came over in two vehicles.He came over in his pickup while I drove the big cube truck with all of our stock.That way, we could take the pickup to the hotel and leave the cube truck in the convention center parking lot.But now, we had to travel back to the island separately.

“You get going to the ferry,” I said to him after we triple-checked that we didn’t leave anything behind at our table.About two-thirds of all the vendors were already packed up and gone.A few stragglers remained, including the women of Westhaven Winery.“Go home to Talia and Brooke.I’m sure they miss you.”

My oldest brother’s eyes turned wary.“You sure?I don’t mind waiting.”

“They could cancel sailings at anytime.Better to get in line and maybe get on, than miss the last sailing altogether.Go.I’ll see you at home.”

He hesitated for another moment, then finally bobbed his head, gave me a swift hug, tugged the collar of his jacket tighter around his neck, and was gone.

A grunt behind me had me turning around, only to see one Ms.Raina Aaronson struggling to close the legs of her upturned table.

The devil on my shoulder told me to revel in her frustration and sit back with a bucket of popcorn, but the angel—that little fucker—on the other shoulder, had my feet moving toward her.“Here,” I said, sliding the little metal ring toward the center of the “V” of the table legs on the other side so they could hinge closed.

Her growl was not quiet at all and made a smile threaten my mouth.“I knew that.”She did the same thing to the other side of the table, successfully collapsing the legs so that the now-flat table could be stacked against the wall with the rest of them.

Gabrielle returned from outside.“Clint leave?”she asked me, bending down to pick up a box of what appeared to be full bottles of wine.

I swooped in.“Here, let me get that for you,” I said, taking it from her arms.“Yeah, I told him to go get in line for the ferry.With this nasty weather, they could cancel sailings at any point.”

She grabbed a case of empty wine bottles, and I followed her outside to their waiting cube truck, the same style as ours.“Yeah, I want to get on the road too.”

“You should have hitched a ride with Clint.Or did you bring two vehicles as well?”

“Yeah, we brought two.I’ll take the truck back, and Raina will follow in the CRV.We just wanted a smaller vehicle to take to the hotel.Maneuvering this beast in the city is a pain.”

“That’s exactly what we did.”

Together, we headed back in to finish loading up their stuff.Raina was trying to murder me with her ice queen stare as I amicably chatted with her cousin and effortlessly carried two full boxes of wine bottles—that’s twenty-four bottles—to their truck.

“Looks like you’re locked and loaded,” I said, once the last box was shoved into the cube truck.“You need a hand with anything else?”

Gabrielle was all smiles as she shook her head.“I think we’re good.Thank you, Jagger.”Her gaze fell on the baskets.“Oh shit, I need to run these to the front desk.”

I already had them in my arms.“Allow me.You get to the ferry.You’ve got kids at home.It’s all good.”

“You’re sure?”Her eyes slid to Raina who looked close to exploding like a tiny, redheaded volcano.

“Of course.”I made sure my smile was extra big for Gabrielle.“You called or texted the basket winners though, right?”

“I did, yeah.They both said they’ll come down to pick them up tomorrow.”

“Perfect.Then my job is easy.”I gave her another almost-flirty smile.“Safe sail back.I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to get out of the city.”

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