“But the therapy worked, didn’t it?” Taryn asked.
“Oh, yeah, it did. I just want a quick, cool shower and my bed,” Jorja answered.
Anna Rose got to her feet and picked up the tote bag. “Just call me Dr.Duquette. My door is always open for patients if they’re kin to me, but I’m getting the first cool shower. Don’t fall asleep before you get in there, because you both stink. And please turn off the candles before you come inside.”
“Will do,” Taryn said and stood up.
Jorja followed her lead. “I’ll help take care of them. Let’s put them on the porch. That way if it rains, they won’t be ruined.”
“Good idea,” Taryn said and glanced up at Clinton’s apartment again. The curtain in the living room fluttered just a little, and she wondered if hehadbeen watching them.
Chapter Twelve
What did that tree do to upset y’all last night?” Clinton asked the next morning when he arrived at the shop with Zoe in tow.
Anna Rose covered a yawn with her hand. “It’s therapy—less expensive than a bottle of whiskey and a lot less strain on the body the next morning.”
“Speak for yourself,” Jorja muttered. “My arms and back are sore this morning.”
“But you slept well, didn’t you?” Anna Rose asked.
“Yes, but don’t expect me to drink whiskey tonight,” Jorja smarted off.
Anna Rose scowled at Jorja. “Oh, honey, I’ve got a bottle of Jameson in my room. I thought we’d play a game of shots with cards instead of a pool table. Then, tomorrow morning, we’ll compare notes and see which one helps you sleep better.”
“Oh, hush,” Jorja hissed. “I’m not drinking with y’all. Tonight, I’ll still be so tired that I won’t even need to throw things at a tree, and I sure won’t need to get drunk.”
“You are welcome,” Anna Rose said with a fake smile.
“For what?” Jorja shot back at her.
“For helping you sleep like a baby,” Anna Rose told her.
“Speaking of a baby ...” Taryn slid off her stool and reached for Zoe when Clinton had taken her out of the carrier. The fresh smell of baby lotion caused her biological clock to tick loud enough that she didn’t even care that her cousins were arguing—again. “Good morning,precious darlin’. We need to tell your interim papa that the law doesn’t say you have to carry a baby in a bucket all the time.”
“Yes, he knows the law very well concerning babies, car seats, and all that,” Clinton answered, “but this interim papa is afraid that he might stumble with her when he’s coming down the steps. And if that happened, he could set her down on a step in the bucket and be less likely to hurt her when he fell.”
A visual of Clinton stumbling and falling to the bottom of the steep stairs leading up to his apartment popped into Taryn’s head and caused her to shiver. She hugged Zoe closer to her body and tried her best to get the image out of her mind. “Then carrier it is,” she finally said. “We don’t want you or this precious baby to get hurt.”
“So, I’m not precious?” Clinton teased. “I can fall down the steps and it’s okay?”
Or is he flirting?Taryn wondered.
“Of course you are precious,” Jorja answered. “We’d be lost in this shop without you.”
“Thank you for that,” Clinton said as he took his place on his barstool and slid a roll of bright yellow ribbon over to his side of the table. “And speaking of being in the shop, I’m probably going to be out on Thursday because I’ve got back-to-back appointments with vets coming. If they all show up, I’ll be gone most of the day.”
“We better cross our fingers we don’t have a funeral that day,” Taryn moaned. “Because the wedding on Friday night is all fresh flowers, and we can’t start making the arrangements until Thursday, or they won’t hold up.”
“I’ll be here on Friday to help with the finishing touches,” Clinton told them. “Thank goodness it’s not a huge wedding like we did last week. Only one bridesmaid and groomsman, and it’s an outside ceremony. We’ll need the bow hangers for folding chairs—not pews—and they have their own arch.”
Taryn didn’t want to talk about yellow pew bows, but she would have liked to visit with Clinton as one adult with another and seeabout these “vibes” she was sensing between them. She was sitting close enough to him that she could almost hear sparks sizzling, but he was acting so cool that she doubted if he even realized that there was chemistry between them.
Jorja rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. “Thank you, Jesus.”
For a split second, Taryn thought that Jorja was giving thanks for the fact that Clinton didn’t share all the chemistry that she felt. Then she realized that her cousin was grateful that this wedding wouldn’t be like the Kaitlin Chambers fiasco.
“So, no prayer bench or candles?” Anna Rose asked.
