“Mmm. Sounds good to me.”
The burger jointthey found themselves at was one reminiscent of those found in the fifties. While the servers weren’t wearing roller-skates, they did have a uniform that seemed to fit the era.
Once they got their food, Tripp pulled open the tailgate and together they dug through their paper bags. Wendy held her burger with both hands. She kept the yellow paper wrapped around the lower half as she brought it to her mouth. Then she paused and gave him a strange look—one that mirrored his own. “What?” she demanded.
He arched a brow. “You gonna eat the paper, too?”
She lifted the burger and mimicked his expression right back. “Are you going to let all the contents of your burger fall into your lap?”
Tripp scoffed. “That’s never happened.”
“Your funeral,” she smiled sweetly. “Have you ever eaten a burger here before?”
“I’ve eaten plenty of burgers.”
“Here?” she clarified again.
“No,” he drawled. “But a burger is a burger.” And to prove his point, he made a show of unwrapping the burger in its entirety before lifting it to his mouth and taking a large bite. The action of biting down seemed to push some of the contents to the back end of the sandwich and he realized his mistake too late.
Lettuce, onion, and a pickle slipped free from the bun and landed in his lap with a plop. The mess was covered in the mayo-mustard concoction that had been slathered on the buns. He stared at the mess, blinking.
Wendy cackled.
His head snapped her way and his eyes narrowed. “That… has never… happened before.”
“I figured as much,” she mused. Then she took a big bite of her own sandwich. The paper wrapping seemed to keep the whole burger from falling apart. Yes, that was a strange way to think about a burger, but that was the only way to describe it. None of the contents in her sandwich shifted at all.
Tripp scooped the mess from his lap with a sigh and tossed it to the asphalt beneath his feet. Then he grabbed a couple napkins in order to clean up what he could. He’d set his burger on the wrapper at his side while he went through the whole painstaking process. Then he tried again, with the wrapper reattached to his burger. “I don’t know that I’m going to come back here again.”
Wendy snickered. “That’s a shame, because this place has a really good burger. Not that you’d know since your lap got most of it.”
His narrowed gaze seemed to only add to her amusement. “Next time, I’m choosing the place.”
She opened her mouth to speak but someone calling out his name had both of them turning their heads. A small group approached. Two men and three women.
Tripp grinned widely and hopped down from the truck. He clasped his hand with Jason and pulled him in for a hug. Then hedid the same with Tate. The twins pulled back and Tripp turned his attention to Wren, Faith, and Lydia. They each got a hug as well. When their curious gazes shifted to Wendy, he smiled broadly.
“Wendy, these are my friends. They live a couple towns over. This is Tate and Jason. And these are their sisters, Wren, Faith, and Lydia. Guys, this is Wendy, my… ah… friend.”
If Wendy was bothered by his slipup, she didn’t show it. She put her burger to the side and slipped from the tailgate until her feet were planted firmly on the ground. Her southern charm on full display, she held out her hand and smiled. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“So, Wendy, you been here long?” Tate questioned
She frowned. “Yes, a couple years now. Why?”
Tate was beside Tripp and he wrapped an arm around his shoulders to shake him playfully. “Because we’ve never met you. Tripp here is one of the most social people there is. I thought we knew everyone in his social circles. But I’ve never met you before.”
“That’s because we only met recently,” Tripp offered before she could say anything. The last thing he wanted was for Wendy to say it was because she’d despised him in the beginning.
Wendy gave him a look that made it clear she wasn’t above embarrassing him.
“Oh? That’s nice.” Lydia said, her eyes darting from Tripp to Wendy. He wouldn’t have been able to miss the inflection in her tone if he tried. Lydia was closest to his age and she’d thrown around hints that she wanted Tripp to ask her out, but thatwould never happen. Her brothers wouldn’t allow him within six feet of their sisters if they heard even a whisper that he wanted to ask one of them out. No one was more protective than the Dennison men.
Tate’s hold on him tightened. Yep, he’d heard it too.
Lydia turned her attention to Tripp and reached out to touch his forearm briefly. “Tate and Jason are entering the bronc riding contest in the rodeo. Are you going to be there?”
Wendy shifted closer to Tripp, so her arm brushed against his. It was as if she wanted to remind him that he was here with her. Nothing gave him more pleasure in that moment than seeing the way she was sizing Lydia up.
