“Shut up,” I muttered, nudging her softly with my elbow.
“What was that?” Easton’s voice whispered over the back of my neck, so close I could feel the tantalizing heat of him.
“Nothing,” I muttered, helping Maggie into the cushiest chair we had, Sage arranging a throw pillow behind her like the world’s most bossy nurse. Maggie accepted it with a tolerant smile. Easton was too close, too big for my small space. Sage was looking at me with a knowing smirk as she flounced into a chair next to Maggie.
“Well, East, grab a book. Those are the loaners.” Sage pointed an imperious finger at the book stack.
“Poison Ivy, this wasn’t part of the deal,” East muttered, but he did as his sister asked and swiped up a book with a sigh. “I’ve seen the movie.” The whole table gasped. We all knew that was a cardinal sin. Movies were never as good as the books. Nobody would give him a hard time about it, but you were at least supposed to fake it.
“You agreed to come, so you’ll need to follow along. Oh, and we need snacks. Go with Lila and load us up. Right, Mags?” She smiled brightly at him.
That’s right. I want all of Lila’s creations today. Take my bookmark. I need stamps. I’m behind.” Maggie tried toreach for her purse, but she struggled since she was perched awkwardly on the chair. Easton’s jaw tightened, and he hurried to help.
“Let me. The bookmark? I’ll get it.” Sliding it out of her bag, he held it up triumphantly. “I’ll go with Lila and get you all the things.” Leaning forward, he kissed the top of her head as he levered himself to his six-plus feet of deliciousness.
It was another side of Easton Holt that I hadn’t seen before, which softened me. This tender part of him with Maggie. Turning away from the sight, I hurried back to my counter, even though I knew the hulking brute was hot on my heels. I could practically hear him thinking.
Sure enough, it only took a few moments before he opened his mouth. “So, what do these book club treats entail that my sister and Maggie keep going on about?”
I retreated behind the counter, forcing my hands to stay steady on the coffee machine as I fiddled with it unnecessarily. But every time I looked up, Easton’s eyes were there, watching. And for the first time all week, I wasn’t sure if that unsettled me or made me feel… safe.
He twirled the bookmark, leaning forward on the counter, his eyes pinned to mine as if he were studying me.
“Sure. I can do that.” I took a breath, then focused on the bakery case, pointing out the various specials related to the book theme and mentioning our coffee special. “The eclairs are really good today.”
“Those look amazing. You don’t do those normally.” He leaned forward to peer into the case, and I could just glimpse the scruff across his cheeks. I wondered how thatwould feel against my skin. Would he be a considerate lover or a selfish one?
I cleared my throat.“No. These are just for today. Next meeting I’ll have something different to keep it interesting, and during the week there might be themed surprises.” His brows lifted, and I couldn’t tell if he was impressed or thought maybe I was giving too much information. Some people weren’t as into it as I was, which I respected, but I’d been really trying not to apologize for my enthusiasm. For a while, I’d developed a bad habit of trying to be a less authentic version of myself, and now I was working on changing that. Be a truer self. Derek had always told me that people thought my ideas were dumb.
“Smart business. Creates rarity. I respect it.” A warm glow spread through me at his words, and my thighs clenched together. “Well, in that case, I’ll take three eclairs, three of the cookies,” he said, pointing to dino print cookies. “Got to keep memories alive.” Oh my God, was he… flirting? “And, one black coffee.”
Feeling flustered but laughing a little at him, I started gathering his order. “Good times. Costumes keep it fresh.” Shut up, Lila. I told myself, just as I shot him a saucy look over my shoulder while grabbing a tray for him, blush creeping in when I caught him staring right at my ass.
“So … you doing okay? After the other night?” he asked as I rang him up. “You haven’t called.”
I focused on stamping Maggie’s bookmark, adding a few extras since she missed out last week. “Sage helped me a lot, and we got the house cleaned up. Mia is scheduled in the mornings now. I appreciate you coming in,though. That was nice,” I paused awkwardly. He waited for a moment, watching me with those soft brown eyes of his that made me think of ginger cookies and cinnamon sugar. Hurriedly, I added, “Wade hasn’t been able to find anything yet, but …” I trailed off. “I’ll be up in a second, okay?”
“Sure.” He gave me an apologetic smile that told me he regretted asking, and he definitely noticed that I avoided his question about calling because his face settled into the grumpy mask that I was used to.
I wiped a hand over my eyes. Hell, I regretted him asking. That night still felt fresh to me. Yeah, it wasn’t a secret that Derek banged me around a bit, and as scared and shamed as I felt because of that… somehow this freaked me out more. Mainly because I couldn’t figure out who had broken in or what they wanted. Derek, at least, was a known face. Weirdly, that made it both easier and harder at the same time. I’d lost trust in him after he’d smacked me the first time, so I always knew another one was coming. This time, I thought I was safe, and it was snatched away from me. Now… even stepping into the house felt hard.
As far as calling Easton. Well, maybe I wanted him to ask formynumber. Why was that so much to ask for? This time around, I was determined to hold out and avoid mistakes. If Easton Holt wanted to go on a date, he could ask me.
“I’ve got the counter. You can go back up and hang with hot stuff.” Mia’s words startled me.
“Great. Thanks.”
Maggie was sipping her latte with a smile, Sage fussed with her scarf, and the rest of the club practically buzzed with the thrill of having another book club meeting, or maybe it was the fact that we’d managed to wrangle a man-Holt in the younger age bracket for them to ogle. Admittedly, that would be a draw. My book club was a certain demographic, and they weren’t shy about expressing their appreciation for the male form.
“Now this is art,” Maggie said, holding it up. The cinnamon-dusted footprint pressed into the center made the room chuckle with approval. “Almost too pretty to eat.”
That was blatantly untrue. It was just a simple cookie stamp since my skills didn’t extend to fancy royal icing decoration, but I appreciated the sentiment.
“Almost,” Sage agreed, stealing one for herself.
That was all it took. The ladies descended into chatter like actual velociraptors.
I shot Maggie a grin. “Always classy chaos here at my shop.”
