“From the sound of it, you’re not very close with him.”
“I am not. Rather, I distinctly hope he gets his dick caught in his zipper. On the daily.”
She winces. “Ouch, that’s a pretty serious punishment.”
“That’s mild compared to what I really want to do.”
“Knock, knock, food delivery,” Rupert says as he surprises us with a bag of food.
“Food delivery?” Renley asks.
“Correct. I was outside, soaking up some sun, when your aunt Kitty asked me what was for dinner. Given Theo asked me the same thing, I thought, why not feed everyone, so, dinner is on me. Bon appétit.”
He sets the bag down and then takes off, leaving us alone once again.
Renley eyes the bag. “What do you think is in there?”
“Honestly, no goddamn clue. He’s not much of a cook, so I’m fairly sure we should be frightened.”
“Should I look?”
“Better you than me.”
Her beautiful eyes search mine. “Why better me than you?”
“I don’t know.” I shrug. “Just seemed like the right thing to say.”
She shakes her head and grabs the bag. Her brow raises when she sees inside it.
“What’s in there?”
She reaches into the bag and starts pulling things out. “Chocolate-covered strawberries, wine, and whipped cream. Seems awfully…romantic.”
All of a sudden, the lights in the store dim and instrumental music plays from the back.
“Theo…”
I hold up my hands. “I swear, I didn’t have anything to do with this.”
“So you didn’t text your little butler friend and have him bring you all of this and set up an evening for two?”
“No, I didn’t.” When she continues to look at me, I add, “I swear, I didn’t say anything about this. I asked for dinner, but I was hoping for a chicken roast or something like that. I never asked for wine, whipped cream, and chocolate-covered strawberries.” I gesture around the room. “And also, we don’t know anything about this shop. How did he change the lighting and add the music? He had help, and that help was probably the lady with a hobby horse between her legs.”
“Are you saying that your butler and my aunt are in cahoots?”
“I don’t know, but it’s looking suspicious. Also if you’re going to call Rupert my butler, then we’ll need to call your aunt something.”
“Like what?”
“Something horse-ish. Uh…stallion, mustang, steed…oh, filly. My butler, your gelding.”
“That works for me.”
“Great, now back to the conversation at hand. My butler and your gelding are in cahoots. I bet they’ve been planning this allday and now that it’s happened, they’re off somewhere cackling that their evil plan worked.”
“Who said it worked?”
“Oh, because I plan on sitting here with you, under the dim lights, listening to this music while eating chocolate-covered strawberries and drinking wine.”
