It’s not one o’clock yet, and I see Arlo and Sage serving their last customers of the day through the window, so I wave at them and go check in on Liv.
“Hey, loverboy. Wait, isthatwhat you’re wearing?” Liv assesses my ripped jeans and old college T-shirt and finds them wanting.
“Why is everyone treating this like a date? We’re going to be working hard to put the classroom together. It’s going to be hot and sweaty. Hence the outfit.”
“Hot and sweaty, huh?”
I roll my eyes. “Chicago was so much easier. Don’t be a Nosy McNoserson, or else I might move back.”
She laughs. “You wouldn’t, not now that you’re addicted to my sandwiches.”
“Damn you.” She’s so right, and to prove it, she gives me a bag with the two sandwiches I asked her to make for Arlo and me.
“I’ve added some cookies too. Just give me the sister of the year award right now.” She flicks her hair and bats her eyelashes. I go around the counter and give her a hug.
“Thank you, Livy.”
“Yeah, yeah, now get out of my bakery so I can close up. I have an afternoon of ice cream and romantic flicks coming up. You better not come home too early…or at all.”
As I cross the road, feeling a lightness on my feet I haven’t felt in a while, I start to wonder if the girls are right. Do I have a chance with Arlo?
There’s attraction there, for sure. But more? Who’d want to take in a single dad with a young kid?
None of the guys I tried to date after Clive stuck around once they found out I came in a buy-one-get-one-free deal.
I put that particular thought aside as I walk into Birchcraft. Arlo and I haven’t had more than a kiss, so to think about a relationship is getting a little too far ahead, even for me.
“Thank you for coming to help,” Sage says, closing the door behind me and flipping the sign to closed.
“It’s my pleasure. Liv is planning an afternoon of dairy-induced coma and movies, so I think I’d have been kicked out of the house anyway.”
“I really wish I could stay, but my shenanigans are needed this weekend,” he says.
“I’m not sure I dare ask.”
“He’s loaded his car with so much junk I don’t think there’s space for a spare pair of pants in there,” Arlo says. “And when I say junk, I mean the dick kind of junk. I’d give up my right hand to witness him explain that to the police if he gets stopped on the way.”
Sage laughs. “Shit, that happened once. Best blowjob of my life.”
And with that thought, he leaves Arlo and me alone in the store.
I never thought I had a teacher kink, but after Sage’s blowjob story, all I can think about is getting on my knees for Arlo in his classroom.
He coughs to get my attention. When I look at him, his eyes are on the growing bulge in my jeans, and there’s a hint of a blush.
I show him the sandwich bags to save him from feeling embarrassed about checking me out, but I’m definitely not embarrassed to be caught with an erection.
We eat the sandwiches and save the cookies for later, which Arlo promises we can have with the best coffee ever.
“You’ve already done a lot of work here. This won’t take long,” I say, comparing the current layout of the room with my memory from the other day. There were definitely a lot more boxes against the walls.
“It’s been a busy week. Sage ordered all the supplies for the classes, so we need to unpack those and move the furniture, but that’s mostly it.”
He goes to the office and comes back with a laptop. A moment later, drum beats fill the room, and I recognize the song immediately. Ace of Base, “The Sign.” The same song that welcomed me into Stillwater weeks ago.
At the time, it felt like an omen. Now it feels like a promise.
Arlo isn’t wearing his Birchcraft apron anymore, and he’s changed from the work polo shirt into a worn T-shirt that has a few holes in the hem.
