Page 99 of Forgotten Desires

Brynn grins. “You think you deserve my wifely duties, do you?”

“I did take you to Paris, get you a driver, drop your name a few times to some friends who have now hired your PR company,” I remind her playfully.

“Let’s not forget the ridiculous bag that was a down payment on a normal person’s house!”

“Sure, keep adding more on my list. Honestly, Bee, I’m starting to think that maybe you got the better end of the stick.”

She laughs softly, leaning back with her arms crossed. “You do, huh?”

“If we’re strictly going off the list.”

“Well,” she says, putting her fork down. Brynlee rises and moves to me. “I wouldn’t want you to get the short end of any stick.”

I push back a little from the table. “Love, I didn’t mean it.”

Brynlee’s eyes twinkle. “I think you did.”

“Come here.” I lean back in my chair and she straddles me.

“Like this?”

“Exactly like this.” I brush her red hair back and hold onto her jaw. “I didn’t mean any of it. You and me, here or in Sugarloaf, is everything to me. I never had a reason to come home before. So, I don’t need dinner or gifts or anything like that. I need you.”

She pulls her lower lip between her teeth and then leans close. “Then have me you shall.”

Then we clean the table a different way, one I’m all too happy to do nightly.

* * *

“Oh, shit,” Brynn says with a deep sigh as we enter the main street of town.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s Sugarloaf Day.”

“Sugarloaf Day?” I ask in confusion.

Brynn turns in the seat to face me. “It’s when the town celebrates the fact that we’re the best town ever. This whole weekend will turn into sort of a . . . celebration, and it’s a lot and now I’m worried because we’re here.”

“Why is that a bad thing?”

She smiles widely. “Well, with the trip to Paris, the stuff with Layla, and the surgery, I kind of forgot it was this weekend.”

“Well, it’s a good thing we’re here then.”

Her lips purse. “I don’t know that you’ll think it’s good, but it is for me, because this year I’m the queen. Which means I have to ride on the float.”

I burst out laughing. “I can’t wait to see this.”

If she could glare, I think this is what it would look like. “You will not laugh at me.”

“I promise I won’t, at least not when you can see it. Tell me, what does being the Sugarloaf Queen look like?”

“It’s purely ornamental. If I’m being honest, my brothers have it worse than I do. Asher has to work and basically babysit the teenage boys who always try something stupid. Rowan has to run the petting cow area, which he absolutely hates. Then, Grady judges the chili cookoff and last time, he ended up needing an EpiPen because the Arrowoods put peanut butter or something in their entry. He swore he wasn’t doing it again, but Addison demanded they have another go. Anyway, my part is just riding on the float holding sugar and a bread loaf.”

I really want to hear more about Grady and the chili, but I can’t stop picturing Brynn and what she’s supposed to hold in her hands. “I’m sorry, holding what?”

“Think of it like royalty having an orb, which is the sugar and then scepter, which is the loaf.”

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