Page 154 of Small Town Firsts
A serving fork and slotted spoon for vegetables would have to do.
Sage laughed when I handed her the spoon. “Remember when I moved into my place and couldn’t find the silverware?”
I flipped over a bucket and pulled over a box to serve as a makeshift table. “God, yes. We scoured your apartment. We even left the house to go to Target and buy another set.”
“Mom called to let me know the box was still sitting under the kitchen table.”
“Heaviest freaking box too.” I stopped at the kitchen sink and washed my hands and arms with soap.
“Of course, it had to have all my silverware and pots.”
I turned around and leaned against the counter as I dried my hands. “It took two of us to get it up those stairs.”
“And then it busted twenty feet from the door.” Sage transferred a healthy portion of the gravy-slathered chicken into my bowl. My stomach roared in reaction. She laughed and put on another spoonful. “Might need to zap it.”
I took the bowl and shoveled a dumpling into my mouth.
“Guess not.”
I grinned around a bite. “So good.”
“So are you going to tell me what’s up with Seth?”
I choked on a bite and stood to grab my Coke Zero out of the fridge. “Nothing’s going on.”
“Yeah, I believe that as much as Mitch’s promise of a Friday night off.”
“You get one?”
“Yeah, first Friday of never followed by when hell freezes over.”
I laughed and took a longer sip of my soda before sitting back behind the cardboard palace. I forked in a regular-sized bite and chewed slowly.
“While I appreciate you not talking with your mouth full, I’m not reframing the question.”
“He’s my best friend, Sage. It ain’t happening.”
“What isn’t?”
“Us. We aren’t happening.” That wasn’t what I’d meant to say at all, but Sage took the ball and ran with it as if I wasn’t talking crazy talk.
“Yeah, but you’re simply biding your time on the sidelines. From what I’ve seen lately, he’s finally gotten his hormones engaged.”
That was the problem. He was only acting on an unexpected case of hormones and some misplaced sense of duty. Laurie wanted a sibling and Seth never knew how to tell his daughter no. At least not about this kind of thing.
And he knew I loved that little girl as much as he did. Dirty pool with a side of emotional blackmail.
Oh, and couldn’t forget the left turn into naked time.
Nope.
But then he’d ruined it with a contract attached to my damn uterus.
My soda frothed over the top of the lip. I hadn’t realized I was squeezing the bottle so hard.
Sage instantly crossed the room for a paper towel. “Oh, yeah. Nothing going on.” She handed me a wad of them.
I crouched with a disgusted sound and mopped up the sticky mess before washing up and returning to our table.
