“Later,” I grumbled.
“Just tell me when.”
It took my heartbeats a while to settle into an evener rhythm. For a spiteful second, I contemplated flirting with Dexter, but his smell didn’t do it for me.
As though he’d sensed me thinking about his scent, he took a long whiff of the air, and his sunburnt forehead grooved. “Shit.”
I frowned. “What?”
He focused on his food. “So, I heard you all have big parties planned for Saturday.”
“That we do.” Adalyn’s eyes sparked like twin sapphires. “If you guys stick around Beaver Creek for the long weekend, then I hope you’ll join us.”
“Join you for what?” Amanda asked.
Adalyn took a sip of her beer. “Our bachelorette and bachelor parties.”
“Oh, how fun!” Amanda looked over at Ness, who put her fork down and patted her mouth, glancing over at Lucas.
“Maybe we could try to come back.”
Lucas stiffened, because clearly, she meant with Sarah.
August must’ve said something to Ness through their bond, because she raised her face toward his. She bit her lip and grimaced. He leaned over and kissed the grimace from her lips. Even though they didn’t start playing tonsil hockey, I looked toward Liam to see his reaction. Found his eyes on them. Did he still have a thing for her?
“I don’t have anything planned this weekend. Maybe I’ll join your bachelorette party.” Dexter grabbed a piece of cornbread and sponged up his plate.
Adalyn smirked. “You mean, the bachelor party?”
“Nah. I meant the bachelorette party.”
Matt snorted while Amanda rolled her eyes and said, “I doubt the girls want you around, Dex.”
His gaze skimmed mine as though to ferret out whether this was true.
I leaned back in my chair. “You’re welcome to come to the girls’ party—”
“Which will be way more fun than the guys’,” Adalyn tossed in.
“But then, you’ll have to partake in all our games,” I finished with a teasing smile.
Dexter grinned and hooked his arm around the back of his chair. “Yeah? What sort of games are we talking?”
My smile got wider as I imagined him picking out cards from my bright pink deck of dares.
“Hey, Knickknack”—Lucas was suddenly in my face—“I’m ready to work on my letter.”
I frowned. “Right,rightnow?”
“Inspiration just hit, and I need to discuss it.”
Ness asked, “What letter?”
“The one you’ll be ferrying back to my girl tonight.” Lucas grabbed my plate. “Let me get that for you.”
Was this really about his note or was this an intervention? Sighing, I indulged him and followed him to the couches. After we sat, he took out his folded piece of paper. I speared some roasted butternut squash and chewed on it as I read over the bullet points he’d added at the bottom. Not full lines, but at least he’d given me a few extra things to work with.
When I looked up at him to ask for a pen, I caught him staring over his shoulder at Liam.
