“Idon’t understand how he makes this taste so fucking good.” I groan, wiping powdered sugar off my fingers from my last bite of carrot cake.
Gwen giggles, finishing off her brownie. “When Gage first opened his bakery, I came in every single morning before my shift. My bank account was not happy with me for that decision, so I had to stop, but it was hard.”
“I would absolutely have gone broke if I lived here.”
“Gage is one of Holt’s brothers. The youngest, actually.”
“He has like six of them, right?”
“Five. There are six Basil kids in total. All boys, if you can believe it, and all adopted. I’m sure you already know Holt’s the oldest.”
“Yeah, he told me a bit about his family. His parents must be saints.”
“Muriel and Stan are two of the best people I’ve ever met. They were some of the first to learn sign language when Charlie and I moved here.”
“Aw. That makes me like them even more, and I don’teven know them. All of Holt’s siblings live in Pine Creek Falls, right?”
“Yep. Nicholas, or Nix, is the next oldest. He teaches the high school art class. Reese and Camden are twins. They run the ranch now that Stan and Muriel have semi-retired.”
“How do you semi-retire, and what kind of ranch?”
“They refuse to stop helping, even though they have a ton of ranch hands now. They run mostly cattle, but they breed horses too.”
“All I’m imagining is Holt on a horse with his cowboy hat and chaps.” I groan at the fantasy.
“Keep it in your pants over there.”
I burst out laughing, which makes Gwen laugh too.
“The last two are Xander, who owns the mechanic shop, and Gage, who you’ve met already.”
“I come from a pretty large family, though we’re not all blood related, and I still can’t imagine growing up with that many siblings. Is it weird that I find Holt even sexier being the oldest of the bunch?”
“No, there’s something behind your birth order and how compatible you are with your partner.”
“Huh. I might have to look into that.”
“So are you two a thing now?” she asks. We walk side by side down Main Street toward a boutique Gwen told me we needed to explore. Apparently, it has the widest assortment of off-the-wall shit you could imagine.
“As much as we can be, I suppose.”
“What does that mean?”
“There’s an end date on this thing we’re doing. I’m supposed to leave in a couple of weeks.”
Gwen winces. “Right. I keep forgetting that you don’t actually live here. It feels like I’ve known you forever. Is that weird?”
“If it is, then I’m weird too for feeling the same way. Idon’t make friends that easily. If you haven’t noticed, I can be a bit prickly.”
She laughs. “I actually like that about you. You’re straightforward without being mean about it.”
“God, I hate people who use ‘I’m just being honest’ as a way to be mean. Like, no. You’re being a jerk and trying to play it off like you’re telling the truth.”
“Yes! That drives me crazy. It’s the same thing when people start a sentence with ‘no offense, but.’ The next words out of their mouth are guaranteed to be offensive.”
“So true.”
Gwen stops in front of a shop called Curious Curios. From the outside, it looks like your average boutique with tchotchkes in the window to pique your interest.
