Color rose in Evie’s cheeks, though her glare stayed firmly in place. “The entire building can hear yourcomingsand goings,” Evie snapped back. She spotted Rush, and her eyes widened. “Oh. Hello, Sheriff,” she greeted in a much different voice. “Lily.” There was a world of meaning in thatLily.
“Rush, this is my sister Evelyn, or Evie for short,” Lily said. “Evie, you know Sheriff Callahan. Rush,” she added shyly. Another world of meaning in that word that Evie no doubt picked up on.Rush.
An image of the back of Rush’s dark hair bent between her spread thighs made her fan herself weakly.
Evie’s eyebrows skyrocketed. “Of course. Would you like to come in?” she asked politely enough, although Lily knew her sister’s thoughts almost as well as her own.
Promise I’ll explain it all later.
“Thank you, but I’d better get home.” He bent down and pressed a hard kiss to her lips. “Make sure you lock up.” His gaze lingered on Lily for a beat before he nodded at Luke, who was watching them all with lazy amusement. “Night.”
“Night, Sheriff, Lily. Evelyn,” Luke added mockingly.
Evie grabbed Lily’s wrist and pulled her inside to the sound of very masculine laughter in the hallway.
“Comings,” Lily said, half in awe, as she leaned against the door and eyed her sister’s pink cheeks. “That was a good one.”
“I hate him,” Evie said flatly, taking Lily’s coat and hanging it on the peg by the door with more force than necessary. “That man is a human peacock. All swagger and no substance. The kind who thinks smirking and abs are a personality.”
Lily tilted her head, studying her sister. “Funny. For someone you find so disgusting, you sure seemed… invested.”
Evie froze for half a second before shooting her a deadly glare. “Don’t even go there. Luke Holloway is irresponsible, reckless…” she sputtered, and Lily’s suspicions grew even more. “He’s absolutely theworst man.”
Lily watched her sister with open fascination. “Right, which explains why your face turned the color of the bow on your front door the second he saw you.”
Evie spun on her heel and stalked toward the kitchen. Lily trailed after, braced for a lecture, and stopped short. Flour dusted every counter, cookie cutters littered the table, and a bowl of red and green sprinkles had tipped onto its side, scattering across the floor like confetti. Trays of crookedstars and lopsided trees cooled by the oven while Bing Crosby crooned“It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.”The air smelled like butter and sugar—pure holiday comfort—but Evie’s scowl was anything but merry.
“Stress-baking?” Lily asked carefully.
Evie muttered something aboutpeacocksand yanked open the oven to slide in another tray. A wave of vanilla sweetness rolled out with the heat. “Yes. Sugar cookies. Rolling the dough is therapeutic.”
Lily plucked a still-warm star from the cooling rack and bit into it. “Mmm. Delicious.”
“Some people do yoga,” Evie said, shooting Lily a look, “and some of us bake.” She reached for a bowl of rainbow sprinkles and shook them over a tray of frosted snowmen a little too aggressively.
“Same thing,” Lily teased, licking the sugar off her thumb. “Inner peace, but yours is tastier.”
She eyed the dining table, noticing the unlit candles on the table and the pair of untouched wineglasses. Oof. Maybe that explained why her sister was breathing fire.
“How was your dinner with Dr. Pierce?” she asked, tugging her sleeves up and grabbing an apron from the peg on the wall to slip over her head. She washed her hands and turned around, ready for some therapy of her own.
Evie handed her the rolling pin. “Canceled.”
“Canceled?” Lily echoed, raising her brows. She spread more flour on the counter and plopped the dough onto it to roll. “On a Friday night?”
Evie picked up a heap of buttercream frosting on a knife, muttering, “Emergency board meeting that Dr. Pierce forgot to add to his calendar.”
“And you didn’t go with him?”
“He said he’d present my notes,” Evie said, frosting the snowmen.
“Oh, Evie,” Lily said, all teasing aside. “Why do you let him do that? You spent hours on those renovation notes, and now he gets to stand there and take credit… again.”
“It’s fine.” Evie sighed, moving on to sprinkling the bells with red-colored sugar. “He’s the library director. I work for him. That’s how it goes. I’m just… disappointed, that’s all.”
Again, Lily added silently, biting back the words she’d said a dozen times. Dr. Adrian Pierce—rumpled hair, smug bow tie, and all—knew exactly how to charm a room. He made any woman feel brilliant while pocketing the credit for her ideas. And Eviewasthe brilliant one. He kept using that.
He’s using you, Evie. You know he is.
