“Ooooh, real estate listings. Excellent.”
Thea slurped her soup as Mabel’s eyes flicked over the numbers that told Thea what she already knew: even with a reduced labor cost, even if she was willing to be patient with the renovations, even if she put off work that could be delayed, she couldn’t afford it. A howl built in her chest, but she pushed it down. “You know, Faithy, if you’d come to yoga with us, we could hang out like this every Sunday.”
Faith gave an elegant shudder. “I don’t do yoga.”
Mabel snorted. “You are aware that ninety percent of the time we skip it and get donuts and coffee, right?”
Another twitch of Faith’s shoulders. “I also don’t do Sunday mornings.”
“Your loss.” Thea grabbed the budget sheets and folded them once, then twice, hiding that crushing total from sight.
“So.” Mabel picked a piece of lettuce off her sandwich. “Aiden, huh?”
“Yeah.” Thea cast her a sharp look, not sure what that tone meant. “Is that weird for you?”
Mabel gave an epic eye roll. “For the last time, we’ve always been just friends. He’s a great guy. He was just never going to bemygreat guy because I’d alreadymetmy great guy—I just hadn’t accepted that my great guy was actually my great guy yet.”
Faith raised her brows at Mabel’s tortured explanation.
“You missed out on so much relationship drama with those two,” Thea explained before turning back to Mabel. “And Aiden’s not the great guy for me either. He’s just my contractor. Or he would be if I could afford any of this. Which I can’t.” Another pang as her dream slipped further from her fingers.
“Ah, but he could be so much more though,” Mabel said smugly.
Thatpulled her mind off her house disappointment. “So much morewhat?”
“I may have been half-dead from misery at the time, but I saw the way you looked at him in Jamaica.”
“Oooh, how?” Faith leaned forward in interest.
Mabel looked past Thea to address Faith. “Like he was the jelly-filled donut in the middle of a box of glazed.”
“I prefer glazed,” Thea muttered, tossing her crumpled napkin into her empty bowl and intentionally missing Mabel’s point.
“Nobody prefers glazed, and you’re intentionally missing my point,” Mabel said. “You think he’s attractive.”
“Empirically, heisattractive.” Thea threw up her hands. “There are eighty-year-old nuns who consider tossing their wimples at him when he shows up to do repairs at Saint Mark’s.”
Mabel blinked. “He told you about his volunteer work?”
“He must’ve mentioned it at some point, yeah.” She shifted in her chair. “I mean, we’ve known each other forever.”
Mabel leaned back in her chair, eyeing Thea speculatively. “Hmm.”
“Oh stop.” She turned to Faith, who’d been suspiciously quiet during all this. “And what about you? Any weirdness from you?”
“Why, Thea Blackwell, are you asking if I’ve ever hooked up with Aiden?” Faith smiled a Mona Lisa smile and brushed her mass of wavy hair back from her face.
Blood rushed to Thea’s cheeks because yes, that’s exactly what she’d been asking. Aiden hadn’t given any indication that he’d slept with her best friend when she brought up Faith’s name the previous weekend, but then again he wasn’t known for bragging about his hookups. And if Faith actuallyhadslept with Aiden, that would definitely put a crimp in all her daydreams. But Faith just shrugged.
“It’s wild, but somehow I managed to resist the allure of the Murdoch cock. He’s all yours.” Faith serenely returned to her soup while a bolt of heat shot through Thea’s belly. “Anyway, one hookup with Aiden Murdoch hardly qualifies a girl to feel proprietary. If that was the case, half the female population of this town would be at war with the other half.”
“Gee, thanks,” she managed. “I’ll let him know he’s cleared to date me. I’m sure that’s the only thing stopping him.”
“Why shouldn’t he? You’re hot, babes.” Faith was the one who said it, but Mabel nodded along enthusiastically, bless them both.
“I mean, obviously I know I’m adorable,” Thea said matter-of-factly. “But I think he still sees me as the kid he had to rescue from the neighbor’s big scary dog when it got off the leash and started chasing people.”
“When was this?” Mabel asked in amusement.
