Page 34 of Sunshine
“I will fire you!”
She pauses at that, turns to me, and her eyes widening, says, “Oh, you like him.”
I swallow. Hard. It’s too soon to like him. I don’t even know him.
“Pfft, no.”
“You do.”
“I said no. It’s just… I kinda did something awful to him and I don’t want to see him right now.”
“That’s a lie. I can always tell. Youdowant to see him.” She releases the back door handle, and plops onto the old milking stool by the door. “Spill.”
“Nope. No way.” I turn and head back into the kitchen, but like the little elf she could be mistaken as, she darts in after me passing my form and stopping me dead in my tracks, holding me by the arms.
“Tess! Spill.”
“I may have canceled his lumber order last week while pretending to be his wife. And today… I syphoned all the diesel out of his equipment.”
Her eyes widen further but not in shock at the awful thing I’ve done, no, they practically sparkle. “You didn’t?” Her lips curve up slightly.
Swallowing again, I nod.
“And he knows it was you?”
I shrug. Anyone else would be horrified at my behavior, but not Paige. Paige is my best friend for good reason. We are shenanigan sisters.
“I’m sure he suspects.” I point at her. “But he can’t prove it and you’re sworn to secrecy!”
She holds her hands up, palms out. “Fine, fine.”
“And I did fix the lumber issue.” I give my lip a quick nibble before explaining. “Basically, I just had it delayed a little to put him in his place.” I lift my chin. “He got his order, it just arrived at a more decent hour.”
She looks past me for a second, her own lip catching between her perfect white teeth. “But what happened?”
“Well, he stormed over here all angry-biker-like and I played innocent. And then… um…” My eyes shift down to my teacup on the table. “We kissed.”
“Youwhat?” Her voice comes out in a screechy-excited way before her hand goes to her mouth.
Moving around her, I pour more tea into my cup. I need more than another cup of tea for this conversation, but it’s too early to break out Gran’s whiskey. “Hekissedmeactually,” I say adding milk and sugar to my cup.
“I don’t think he meant to do it. I think he was just really pissed off and thought it would piss me off. Which it kinda did…” I scrunch my face, embarrassed. “But then… Oh, god, Paige, he’s a really good kisser. He canoodled the angry grouch right out of me! So much so, I sabotaged him again… er…for revenge.” I freeze when I realize my friend isn’t responding. Instead, she’s staring past me like she’s seen a ghost or something.
“Are you listening to me?”
“He’s very handsome, Tess, actually, handsome as a descriptor is too damn stuffy for him. He’s smokin’ hot! He looks like Tank?—”
My brow knits and I cut her off. “Long, yes. How would you—?” I spin before I finish my sentence, my ankle barely protesting, and see Case coming through the thigh-high back gate. At first I only blink, attempting to see him through my best friend’s eyes, but then I notice he’s carrying some two-by-fours over his shoulder.
I yelp a moment, jumping further into the cottage, grabbing at my friend and attempting to pull her back so she won’t be visible through the windows. Of course, she doesn’t budge or remove her eyes from him.
My tiny pixie-like best friend is suddenly immovable. And then, just when I accept I’m going to need to use more force, she moves, just not in the direction I want her to. She’s—oh, damn.
Paige heads straight for the back door.
“Stop!” I whisper-yell, but she doesn’t even offer me a bit of hope by slowing. Nope, she bowls forward and sure enough… I slap a hand over my eyes.
“Well, hullo, neighbor,” she says in a flirty tone that both embarrasses and makes me a tiny bit jealous. “Awfully nice of you to drop by. What do you have there?”
