Page 54 of Marriage (Red, White &) Blues

“What?” she asked all innocent and red faced. “You think I’d put up with the McCains without a good reason? Despite what his family thinks, Ididn’tmarry Corm for his money.”

Pen and I shrieked.

Sierra whooped.

And Wendy smiled while taking another drink.

“So does he?” Wendy asked. “Have a dirty side?”

“Ladies, those cookies tonight came from a bakery because after what we did in the kitchen, I couldn’t serve you the homemade ones.”

“Oooh…” Wendy clapped her hands together one time.

“He loves you,” Pen said. “He wants to make sure it’s good for you. That’s how the good ones are. I’d know.”

Sierra turned absolutely green at her comment.

Okay, whatever went down between Pete and Sierra, she wasn’t ready to talk about it. I understood that completely. To be the bigger person, I changed the subject. “When are you all coming to Vermont?”

Sierra shot me a silentthank you. I nodded once to show I’d seen her and got her.

“I’ll check our schedules and see what Ant and I can work out.” Then Pen cupped her mouth and yelled over to her husband, “Hey, Ant, we’re invited to Vermont.”

He, of course, smiled indulgently back. “We’ll see what works.”

The great thing about Stanton McCain, he meant it. Forget placating his wife, he lived to make her happy. If he said they’d see what worked, he meant it.

“Si?” I asked, and she shrugged.

“It’ll probably be in the spring. Work is crazy right now with the merger happening.” Sierra’s family owned Win-Mart. Located in all fifty states and thirteen countries around the world.Allof them. Their family were multi-millionaires, but unlike that other W-Mart, Win-Mart paid their employees a living wage. And from what I understood, this merger was huge for them. Buford Tires—yes,thatBuford Tires. How many of us grew up singing that jingle?When you’re on the road drivingbut your tire has gone flat, stop into Buford and we’ll fix it up like that.I can still picture those dancing tires from the commercial. Anyway, Buford tires will be sold exclusively in Win-Mart stores.

“What about you, Wendy?”

“Me?” The woman threw a hand to her chest.

“Uh, are you here in the girl huddle?” I waited for her answer.

She giggled. “I am.”

“Rights and privileges, herein.”

“I’ll talk to Corm.”

“Good,” I replied.

And that was that. From there on out we kept it light. Blake got along great with Ant, Cormac, and Pete. They sat in their man-huddle talking and laughing like they’d known each other for ages. When we reached the what I decided was the end of the night, I dangled the keys in front of Blake to grab his attention, then shoved them down my cleavage.

“Excuse me, gentlemen. It appears I’m going to have to call it a night.” He stood up, giving each man a back pat before he turned to me. Blake kissed me while fishing the keys out from between my boobs.

We walked out to the car, where he helped me into the passenger seat. “You’re sloshed, sweetheart. I’ll drive us home.”

“I’m not sloshed. Just horny.”

“You sound sloshed.”

“Not sloshed,” I protested. “If I’m sloshed, you won’t have sex with me when we get back to the house.”

“AmI having sex with you when we get back to the house?”

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