“He is really hot, isn’t he?” I whisper, even though everyone can hear me.
Elaine chuckles as Dermot says, “She’s only with me for my looks.”
“And his co?—”
His hand covers over my mouth, and I beam up at him as he laughs. “Cuddles. She means cuddles.”
“Oh, I’m sure,” Elaine teases, making Dermot blush even redder.
God, I love that he blushes.
We get our cheese, and as we head toward the next stall, he whispers in my ear, “You’re going to pay for that.”
I bat my eyes at him. “How so, Dr. Aldridge?”
His eyes narrow. “I’m going to spend my night getting you right there with my tongue but not letting you fall over the edge.”
I giggle like a fiend. “Oh, you say that like it’s a bad thing.”
He groans as he shakes his head. “Fuck, you drive me mental.”
“You love it, and you know it.”
He shakes his head, kissing my nose. “I do, and I would never deny that.”
thirteen
. . .
Dermot
“Dr. Aldridge,you mean to tell me all we needed to do was lure you out with a pretty girl and you’d grace us with your presence?” says Old Man Harrison, who is currently leaning against the skating rental cottage with his arm around Jessie Bryne.
“I almost don’t believe my eyes. Twice in one weekend? I usually have to fake an illness to see you!” exclaims Jessie Bryne, the monarch of Bryne’s Seasonal Stylings. Her words, not mine.
“Pa, leave him be,” Beau Harrison says, handing me the two pairs of skates I ordered for Maggie and me. “Hey there, Margaret.”
Beside me, Maggie makes a face. “Don’t Margaret me, Beau Harrison!”
He just laughs as Old Man Harrison says, “Make sure only to call her that when you’re cross with her. She don’t like it much.”
That has all of us chuckling softly as Maggie gives the old man a dark look. “That’s fine, Jimmy Dean Sausage—er, I mean Jimmy Dean Harrison.”
Old Man Harrison finds that even more hilarious and cackles as Jessie grins widely at us. “You know she’s trouble, right?”
“I am well aware, ma’am,” I say as Maggie winks at me. “Is Margaret your real name?”
“No. I don’t know why he does that. He’s weird.”
“Fine, I’ll call you Maeve Lane instead,” Beau calls to her, and she sticks out her tongue.
“And I’ll call you squishy butt!”
Beau goes white, glaring at the spitfire beside me. “Truce?”
“Truce,” she agrees, and I’m enjoying it all. I soak in how easily Maggie goes with the flow. She gives just as much as she gets. While everyone says hi to me first, it’s Maggie they interact with.
“Does your daddy know you are gallivanting around town with the town doctor?” Old Man Harrison asks, and Beau lets out a long sigh.
