Oh boy, she used a swear word. I’m assuming that means she’s bordering on angry now. The reason I say “bordering” is that she said “hell.” Now, if she said “fuck”…I would batten down the hatches and bear down, because I’d fear I could be murdered.
Hellis just a warning word.
Therefore, I continue forward with the plan, cautiously. “It means by the end of the summer, mark my words, you’ll be wearing my ring. I’m incredibly persuasive.” I wiggle my eyebrows for effect.
Rupert leans in and says, “He is. He once convinced me to run a half-marathon in my mum’s best Sunday dress…and heels.”
The blisters he had—they still haunt me in my dreams.
Staying beautifully defiant, she says, “Dream all you want, but it’s not going to happen. Now, if you’ll excuse me, unlike you, I have actual work to do.”
She underestimates the workload I have in front of me. Hello, lady, I have to convince you to marry me by the end of the summer. This is heavier than a full-time job.
This is an all-out battle.
She starts to walk away, so I test out a new nickname for her as I say, “Gossy, the British are coming and you have no idea what’s about to hit you.”
Ehh, the British are coming? I mean, not my best material, but I’m working on very minimal sleep here.
She glances over her shoulder as she walks away. “You’re delusional.”
When she walks into her house, Rupert turns to me and says, “Are you really going to want lemonade instead of tea?”
I stand from the grass, brush myself off, and say, “What am I, a barbarian? Fuck no, let’s get the tea brewing. We have some planning to do.”
Chapter Twelve
RENLEY
“Good morning,” Aunt Kitty says in a cheerful tone as she turns on the blender, a spray of juice and fruit lifting to the lid that she has a firm hold on. “Making you a smoothie with protein this morning. We need you fresh and ready.”
I take a seat at the kitchen table and start putting my walking shoes on.
“Why do you need me fresh and ready?”
“So that you can go turn that dilapidated candy store into a thriving metropolis,” she shouts over the blender. “You haven’t even been in the store since you got the keys.”
“Because why go in there and get my hopes up when we don’t have the money for it?” I shake my head. I’m not normally a negative person. In fact, I’m most often positive and turn challenges into opportunities. But this? We can’t borrow money, I can’t possibly earn that much through local work, so I just can’t see past the obvious. “It’s pointless. I’m going on my walk so I can figure out how to tell Mayor Sheffield that I can’t take care of the store.”
I take off out the front door and down the porch steps, my heart heavy as I make my way toward the sidewalk.
Opting out of headphones today because I want to just muster up a clear head, I make my way down the street toward the hiking path just as a body pushes off a tree and stands directly in my path.
“Jesus,” I say, hand to heart. My eyes meet up with Theo’s and for a moment, I’m stupidly captured by the thick stubble lining his jaw that he grew overnight.
“Good morning,” he says as he lifts a mug to his lips. “How did you sleep?”
“We’re not doing this,” I say as I move past him.
“Doing what?” he asks, matching my stride.
“This whole repartee of you asking me to marry you and me saying no.”
“I wasn’t going to ask you to marry me,” he says, taking a sip of what I can only assume is tea.
“Then what are you doing out here?”
“I was waiting for you to go on your walk so I could join you.”
