“I knew there’d be repairs—things break, Aspen.”
“Yeah, and I’m half-tempted to call my brother to fly here and take a look or take it over to the shop himself.”
Getting defensive, I put my hand on my hip. “And do what? I’m handling it.”
“Cora,” she says with a little less bite, “that guy is a chauvinistic pig, and I guarantee he’s charging us whatever he wants and?—”
“And Talon is no better!” I cry out, my cheeks heated with embarrassment and anger as I look anywhere but at my friend.
“What happened?”
“Besides another snarky comment on my post today?”
“Which I still don’t think is from Talon,” she says pointedly as she takes a sip of her drink.
“I’d already called Oscar to come look at it and Talon drove by—he wanted to help.”
“That was nice of him.”
“Yeah, really nice. He told me I needed a new flux capacitor.”
Aspen snorts and then looks at me with wide, innocent eyes. “What? It’s funny. And that’s a great movie.”
“It would have been funnyif we were friends.But we’re not and I don’t appreciate him making fun of me.”
“Okay,” she says, holding up a hand in surrender. “I get it. Is that all he said?”
Crossing my arms defensively, I admit, “He said we just need a new battery.”
“And what did you say?”
“I don’t know. I was upset, but I still told Oscar that I thought that might be the problem, but he didn’t think so. Now I’m grouchy and hungry and, and… Thanks.” I sigh as Aspen hands me a plate of pasta and a fork. “You’re an angel.”
“I don’t know about that, but I have my moments.”
“I wouldn’t be able to do this without you.” I wave my hand around the house as if that could encompass what Aspen’s friendship has meant to me.
“Yes, you would’ve.” She shrugs and holds her glass out to me. “It’s just way more fun this way.”
“I’ll cheers to that.”
9
TALON
“Would you mind if I take Navy to lunch?” I ask my sister as casually as I can. She looks up from the spreadsheet in front of her, tilting her head to the side and not bothering to hide her smirk. The woman is brilliant and, for some strange reason, loves numbers. I’m good if I have to figure something out in the garage, but I’d rather have a root canal than stare at accounting all day.
“Any place in particular?” she asks coyly, and I roll my eyes.
“I thought it would be nice to take her to the Taste of Magnolia.”
“Too scared to go by yourself?” Bristol teases, and I shrug a shoulder because there’s some truth to that.
“I’d like to think Cora won’t bite my head off with Navy there.”
“You’re using my daughter as a buffer?”
“Yes.”
