Page 72 of Darlin'

I glower at her. "Are you done yet?"

"Never." She boops my nose, turns on her heel, and skips to the living room. "Alright folks, I shoddy the armchair. You know how I like to sprawl!"

Dragging my feet, my gaze darts to the couch. Beau on one end, Jesse on the other.

Meddling Miss Marlow strikes again.

"Get in here." Beau pats the middle cushion, removing the throw pillow. I swallow, meeting Jesse's scheming eyes. Oh no. "Sav? Why are you just standing there like a dumb tree? Come on; we've got movies to watch and snacks to eat."

"Sorry," I mutter, placing a plate of gingersnaps on the table. I hesitate for a second before nestling myself between Beau and Jesse. As soon as the blanket covers my legs, Jesse's hand finds my thigh. Bastard! I lurch forward, grabbing the plate of cookies and shoving them in Beau's face. "Try one!"

"Uh—okay." Beau takes a big bite, nodding as he mumbles, "Mmm...it's real good. You made these?"

"Jesse helped," I say, chewing on the inside of my cheek.

Is it obvious? Is Marlow right?!

"Can we start the movie already?" Jesse asks, yawning as his misfit fingers graze my inner thigh. "I might not last until the end."

"Yeah, you look tired," Marlow notes in a cheeky tone. "Baking sure does take a lot of you, huh?"

"You know it." Jesse smirks, unabashed, as he tries to feed me a Dorito. "Isn't that right, princess?"

"I hate you," I grunt in a whisper, chomping down and nearly biting his fingers off.

Jesse presses play, pinching my side. “Hate you too, princess.”

CHAPTER 22

The Highest Bid

"Dude,it's calledcatch,notdrop." Andy laughs as Zack stumbles backward and nearly trips over Carlos. He picks up the dusty baseball, huffing before tossing it back to Andy. The ball flies over the heads of a swarm of people zigzagging between booths and carnival games. Andy catches the ball in her mitt. "Not bad. Maybe you're more of a pitcher than a catcher.”

Zack rolls his eyes. "Yeah, regular old Kershaw over here."

Andy smiles at him. "You could be."

I get lost in a comforting daze as I watch Andy, Carlos, and Zack toss the ball back and forth. The boys look like boys. Like normal teens enjoying a beautiful sunny day. A few other kids gather around, and Andy invites them to play. It's a rare sight; Andy being kind. If only that kindness extended to those beyond the age of sixteen, maybe we'd actually get along. Maybe we'd even be friends.

"Hey!"

"Dang it!" I gasp, jolting in my chair as Jesse creeps up behind me. "Don't do that!" I swat at his thigh as he sits down beside me, grabbing one of the few remaining cookies from the platter. "Hey! This is the last batch. You eat it, you buy it."

"Yes, ma'am." Jesse sandwiches the cookie between his lips and tilts his hips up, prying out his wallet from his back pocket. He tosses two dollar bills on the table. "Happy?"

"Yes," I say, adding the bills to the money pouch. "So..." I face Jesse and wiggle my shoulders, grinning as he scarfs down the gingersnap. "Guess how much I've made today?"

"Mmm..." Jesse's lips twist up as he does some impressively fast calculations. "Around four hundred bucks?"

"Yup!" I beam. "Four hundred and four, to be exact. Well, four hundred and six now."

"See?" Jesse leans back into the lawn chair. "I told you that you'd kill it."

"We'rekilling it," I say, unable to take all the credit. "This was a fifty-fifty effort."

"More like seventy-thirty, but fine." Jesse smiles, popping the last bite in his mouth. A distant glimmer of nostalgia glistens in his depths as he sighs and scans the festivities surrounding us. "We got a good turnout this year. I was worried people might not show."

"Why wouldn't they show up?" I follow his sightline to the dozens of local families from neighboring towns. "Everyone seems to be having a blast."

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