Her expression falls flat as she holds on to the railing and stretches her quads. “No, I don’t need help.”
“Okay, but you know where to find me if you do. I’m here to help you in any way that I can.”
“No, pretty sure you came all the way to Massachusetts to remind me of a drunken mistake, day in and day out.”
“That too.” I step up on her first stair and lower my heels to the ground, stretching out my calf muscles. “So what are you up to today? Anything I could learn?”
“No, I’m headed to the candy store for the first time. Going to see what I’m dealing with.”
“I can take notes for you. I have impeccable penmanship.”
“Tilly’s going to help me, but thanks.”
“Okay, well, if you need anything, you know where to find me. Just slumbering right over there, in that cornflower-blue house.”
She glances over at it and says, “Would you classify that as cornflower?”
“Oh, easily. It was the first thing that came to my mind. I saw the house and said, that’s cornflower…unmistakable.”
“Are you always this…annoying?”
“I’d like to say no, but what you’re seeing is the real me. Now, if you want me to slide into my high-society persona, I can do that for you.”
“Oh, what’s he like?”
“Well, first of all, he goes by Theodore, not Theo.”
“Very formal, makes sense.”
“And he wears a suit and tie, has his hair slicked to the side, a pocket square adding a splash of color to his outfit. He’s considerably more eloquent, speaking in one-word answers, and he’d never, and I mean never, buy a kayak for a red-headed woman who probably has never held a paddle in her hands in her life. He’s boring, you wouldn’t want to be around him.”
“I don’t know, he seems reserved. I like that.”
“But then who’d attempt to push you out of your comfort zone? You need that healthy balance.”
“I have my aunt Kitty for that,” she says, glancing up at the house. “She pushes me almost too much.”
“You say that as if it’s a bad thing.”
“Perhaps it is,” she says and then shakes out her legs. “Okay, I’m going to go take a shower and get ready for the candy shop.”
“Yeah, smells like a good idea.”
Her expression morphs into shock, causing me to laugh. “That was rude.”
“Hey, you’re the one who chose the rules. If you allowed me to flirt, I’d have said something like, ‘Hey, love, do you need help washing your body? Because I have two hands ready to soap you up.’”
She shakes her head. “Goodbye, Theodore.”
I offer her a small wave. “Smell you later, Gossy.”
Chapter Sixteen
RENLEY
This is stupid. Why am I this nervous?
My hands are practically shaking as I pull the keys to the store out of my bag, my eyes latched on the wooden door covered in gold filigree in front of me.
