Page 32 of A Dream for Daphne

“Whatever comes in a bag. Yep. That stuff.” He shivered and she laughed. She had a feeling there was a story behind it, but she was more interested in the fact that he’d managed to relax her in a few short minutes.

“I’ll know not to bring it around you,” she said.

“Meaning I’ll see you again?” he asked

She was getting ahead of herself here. “Maybe,” she said. “Who knows?”

“We will,” he said. “I’m good at predicting things.”

“I hope you aren’t predicting we are going to end up in your bed again.”

“Not today,” he said. “Not unless you want to or you tell me you’re ready. Cards are on the table and you get to pick them up and hold them to your chest as long and as tight as you want.”

“Really?”

“Cross my heart,” he said, doing the action. He was totally adorable and she wondered how she was going to resist his charm.

“Guess we’ll have to see how things go then,” she said.

“I’ll take anything I can get,” he said, grinning again.

11

GOOD MEMORIES

“Do you want me to light the grill now or just talk first?” he asked once he’d gotten Daphne a drink and he snagged a beer. “I can eat whenever.”

“How about we talk first,” she said. “I’m not going anywhere, but I’m not in a hurry either.”

“Works for me,” he said. “I’m a flexible type of guy.”

“Good to know,” she said. “I’ve not been around many like that. Not that I date much either.”

“Why don’t we start with how you know my cousin Easton and Laurel, then we can move on to how you ended up in this area from Texas.”

“They kind of go together,” she said. “You don’t even know my last name.”

“You’re right,” he said. “I don’t. Are you going to share it?”

“It’s Allen. Daphne Allen. My brother is Aster Allen. He works for Blossoms and with Laurel.”

“Ahhhh,” he said. “That makes more sense. I’ve never met your brother but have heard a bit about him. He is dating Raine Scarsdale I believe. I went to school with River.”

“They got engaged over the weekend.”

“Good for them,” he said. “The Scarsdales, Bloom sisters, and Easton and I. We were looked down on in school.”

“Why is that?” she asked.

“Well, I’m sure you know about the history of Blossoms, right?”

He wasn’t going to tell it and sound like a chick. Not that he even knew much more than those girls had a hard life and turned nothing into everything.

“Most of it,” she said. “I also know about Raine. How her parents were working poor, I guess. I don’t know. I don’t think like that. They had all the right things in life by the sounds of it. All those kids turned out well. Brooks is an investigator with the state police, River is a doctor and Raine is a teacher. Aster and me, we didn’t even go to college.”

“Neither did I,” he said. “My parents raised Easton. He didn’t have the greatest life and it’s not my story to tell. But he was out to prove he could do what he wanted and distance himself from what people said. Me, it wasn’t a money thing as much as what my father did for a living. I always knew I was taking it over. But there are small narrow minds at times and my father’s business started out mowing lawns and caring for properties.”

“So that is not what it’s like today?” she asked.

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