He nudges me with his spatula and when I look up at him, he says, “Isn’t our banter fun?”
I hate that I laugh. “You’re soooooo annoying.”
“Yeah, but you like it.”
Sadly, I do.
Chapter Thirty-One
THEO
“Special delivery,” Rupert says, coming into the shop, tote bags in hand.
“What are you doing here and what on earth do you have?” Renley asks as we both make our way from the bathroom, where we have just finished up cleaning for the night.
We stopped for a moment to have dinner, which was pizza—it was subpar. Then again, when you’ve had pizza in Italy, nothing quite compares. Afterward, we finished up chipping away at the glue and also peeled some siding off the bathroom wall that turned out to have wallpaper underneath.
We named the bathroom “The Onion” and then, during dinner, we found some fun onion wallpaper online that Renley could hang in there when all is said and done.
“I brought the bags that you requested,” Rupert says, holding out a bag to Renley.
“I didn’t request anything,” she says. She peeks into the bag and then lifts a questioning brow in my direction.
“Not what I heard,” Rupert says and then hands me a bag as well. “Have fun.” Then he snaps his fingers and says, “Kitty, on that horse. You’re galloping all the way home.”
“Yes, my liege,” Kitty says from the back of the shop, where we hear the distinct sound of horse hooves clopping across the pavement. How the hell is she making that sound?
“What is this about?” Renley asks as she looks up at me.
“A way to cool off after a long, hard day.”
She pulls out a bathing suit from her bag and stares me down.
“And maybe a shameless way to get to see you in a green polka-dot bikini?”
Hand on her hip, she nods toward my bag. “I’ll only go swimming if there is a Speedo in there. If I have to show skin, so do you.”
I smirk at her. “You’re in luck, it’s what I tend to wear.” I reach into my bag and pull out a pair of my favorite vintage-style trunks with giant red hearts on them.
They’re short.
They’re tight.
And they display my business.
“That’s not a Speedo.”
“No, but it’s close to it. Just you wait, you will get a full view of everything.”
“I don’t want a full view of everything.”
“Liar,” I say. “Now come on, you can change in ‘The Onion’ first and then I’ll change.”
“And then what?” she asks.
“Well, we take these towels, we walk down to the beach, and we get in the water.”
“I don’t swim in the ocean.”
