Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 83102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
“Proceeds go to children. Don’t be selfish. Here, give me that twenty, actually. Stacey says whoever has the most sales by lunchtime gets a prize.”
I point to the porcelain figurine of a cat playing with a ball of yarn that’s sitting in the center of the bake sale table. I don’t want it. Where would I put it? It looks like something a grandma keeps in a dusty china cabinet. Hell, Stacey probably pulled it out of her own dusty china cabinet this morning.
Still, I’m competitive and I want to win.
David withdraws the twenty, and I yank it out of his hand before he can think better of it. He chuckles as I pass him a brownie bar.
He can’t wait to take a bite and then proceeds to talk with his mouth full. “Heard you and Sawyer had a second date.”
“Who told you?” I slip the twenty into the stack of cash inside my apron pocket.
“Sawyer.”
I peer up at him to see he’s grinning like a fool.
“You don’t think it’s weird?” I press.
“Why would it be weird? Have you forgotten that I had to reconcile the fact that Matthew Mason was going to be my brother-in-law up until recently?” His face contorts with disgust. “You think I’m going to put up a stink about Sawyer? Talk about a fucking upgrade.”
“Language, David McCall,” Stacey snaps from down the table.
“Sorry, Ms. Wolfe.”
David and I both had Stacey as our tenth grade English teacher. She could make the burliest football player quake in his boots if he dared turn in an assignment one day late. Honestly, she still scares me a little.
“Heard he slept on Mom’s couch last night,” David goes on.
Sawyer fell asleep while the cookies were still in the oven, and once I was ready to head upstairs, he looked too cozy to disturb. I tugged off his boots and covered him with a big fuzzy blanket. When I woke up this morning, he was chatting with Queenie in the kitchen while they drank coffee together. His hair was all kinds of crazy and his shirt was rumpled. It didn’t matter though; he looked over and smiled at me, and I felt just as out of sorts as I had the night before.
“How do you like your eggs, Sawyer?” Queenie asked.
“Whatever’s easiest. I’m not picky.”
Queenie giggled and I rolled my eyes and Sawyer grinned, staring at me as I walked toward him and stole the coffee cup right out of his hand. “Give me that. I need it.”
“It’s black,” he warned just as I forced down an egregiously large sip. I pulled a face and handed it right back to him.
“That’s not black coffee, that’s tar. Queenie, how many scoops did you put in the machine?”
She waved her wooden spatula at me from the stove. “Listen, if you’re gonna criticize my coffee, you can march your butt down here and make it yourself.”
Sawyer and I raised our eyebrows at each other as we stifled our laughs. The whole thing felt dangerously easy, like he was already part of the McCall clan.
“Yes,” I tell David now, sounding unemotional about it. “He crashed on the couch because he was helping make cookies. End of story.”
“Sounds scandalous,” he teases before stepping back to allow a new customer to take his place. The bake sale ends in a few minutes, and people are making a mad dash for any last-minute items.
“What else did he tell you?!” I holler at my brother. “About our date?!”
David pulls a zipper across his lips before taking another huge bite of brownie, which is just plain annoying; shouldn’t his loyalty lie with me?!
While my first two dates with Sawyer were nothing short of vineyard-picnic-chocolate-mousse glorious, a part of me is wary about continuing down this path with him. Let’s take stock of why, shall we?
I’m only recently single. Actually, I’m still paying off my nonrefundable wedding dress, in fact. Where am I going to wear that now? Grocery shopping? Honestly, I should probably see if Matthew’s secretary wants to buy it off me seeing as she likes my taste when it comes to everything else for her wedding…
Anyway, besides my status as a newly minted single girl, there is the issue of Sawyer and me getting off to a weird start. That’s hardly a meet-cute we could share at our wedding. Yes, everyone! I participated in an espionage heartbreak attack on him and then accidentally let my feelings get in the way of the mission.
It’s not like it really matters. A few pierce-you-through-the-heart kisses does not a relationship make. I should not be entertaining the idea of texting him about a third date. It’s ludicrous.
Fortunately, the decision has been taken out of my hands for the moment. I’m busy tonight—couldn’t call him even if I wanted to. I have book club.