Page 30 of When You Blush
“I don’t mind,” she says, offering me a small smile. “How have you been, Blake?”
Missing you, Harper.
“It’s been busy but good. And you?”
“Same. I saw you yesterday morning, but you didn’t see me.”
“Getting in the truck?” I ask, and she nods. “I saw you.”
Yeah, sugar, I saw you get in a truck with another man, and I didn’t yank you out and kiss you until you couldn’t remember anyone but me.
“Ava’s been driving me to and from work for the most part,” she says and sidesteps a log. “But she was sick yesterday, so Tucker picked me up. He’s the oldest of us, and he’s usually a pain in my ass, but he was useful yesterday.”
She snorts, and it makes me smile. “How was he useful?”
“Well, he found me a car to buy, so I don’t have to use the Hendrix Family Taxi service anymore.”
“You have my number,” I remind her, but she shakes her head.
“I’m thirty, for fuck’s sake. I needed a car. I justdidn’t want to take the time to go to a dealership and dick around with it. That’s theworst.I’d much rather be doingthison my day off. Or literally anything else, including the dentist. But Tuck gets big brother props for taking that off my plate.”
“Tucker Hendrix?” I ask, and she nods and looks up at me.
“Do you know him?”
“I’ve met him, but Brooks knows him pretty well,” I reply. “And he’s joined us at the Wolf Den here and there. So Ava’s a Hendrix.”
“Yeah.” She nods, and we start up the steepest hill on this hike, but she doesn’t break her stride. “So I spent yesterday afternoon in downtown Bitterroot Valley, and it’s adorable. There’s a new clean-kitchen restaurant that’sto die for.”
“I know. I haven’t been yet.”
And it’s way more complicated than I care to explore with her right now.
“Juliet isso nice,” Harper continues. “She’s the owner. Anyway, the food is great, and maybe Birdie would like it there. Dani and Bridger can take her without worrying.”
I can’t resist. I reach over to brush my hand down the back of her thick ponytail.
It makes my chest tight that she thought of my cupcake when she saw the clean kitchen.
“I’m sure they’d love that. What else did you see?”
“I’m in love with the bookstore. Like, I wouldmarrythat bookstore if I could. It’s sofun, Blake. And sopretty, and I don’t always love girly, frilly things, but it’s not over the top, you know?”
My lips twitch. I’m so fucking proud of my baby sister.
“And the owner? Holy shit, she’s gorgeous. Talk about pretty without being over the top. She walks in heels like I walk in these hiking shoes. It’s baffling. And I’m a little jealous.”
“You’re jealous of her heels?”
“That she can walk in them,” she clarifies, looking honestly mystified, and it’s fucking adorable. Her perfect face is clean of makeup and dewy from our hike, and Christ, I want to kiss those plump lips.
I just want her.
Icraveher.
“And then,” she carries on, completely unaware that I’m dying a slow death over here, “this other woman walked in with the prettiest red hair, and her accent isso sexy, and I was like, what universe am I even in?”
I nod and gesture for her to keep hiking. “So you enjoyed the bookstore and made some new friends. What else?”
