Everyone turns their attention his way.
“What is it?” I ask.
Kyler slowly lifts one of the teacups out of the box. “Oh fuck. Sutton, I’m so sorry. They must’ve gotten damaged in transit.” He pulls out a second, and a third. “Every single one of these is broken.”
He looks genuinely horrified, like he’s about to be sick, but Sutton steps forward, her eyes softening as she takes the cup from Kyler’s hands.
“They’re supposed to be chipped,” she says gently. “That’s why I collect them.”
I watch as confusion ripples across Kyler’s face, quicklyreplaced by understanding. He glances my way, a silent question in his eyes. “Oh. Right. Okay.”
“She rescues them,” I explain, unable to keep the pride from my voice. “Things other people would throw away.”
Boone picks up another teacup, turning it carefully in his massive hands. “Huh. That’s…actually pretty cool.”
“They’re not really broken. They’re just chipped,” Sutton says, arranging the cups on the table with careful precision. “They can still serve a purpose and they all have a story.” She lifts one from the box. “This one came from an estate sale. The owner had passed, and nobody wanted her things.” She picks up another. “This blue one was in a thrift store, pushed to the back of a shelf all alone and I thought it was cute.”
I lean against the doorframe, watching her transform from the guarded woman I first met to someone completely in her element. The guys gather around the table, these giant athletes suddenly gentle as kittens, handling her treasures with surprising care.
“Why this one?” Bishop asks, pointing to a particularly damaged cup with a large chunk missing from its rim.
“That one,” Sutton says, taking it carefully from his hands, “survived a bar fight. I saw it happen. Some guy threw a chair, it hit the shelf behind the bar, and everything came crashing down. This was the only one that didn’t shatter completely.” She runs her finger along the jagged edge. “I asked Cal if I could keep it.”
The guys are all staring at her like she’s some kind of rare creature they’ve never encountered before. It’s written all over their faces. They get it now. They understand why I’ve been acting like a lovesick teenager. Why I can’t stop thinking about her.
“How many do you have?” Jake asks.
“Twenty-three,” Sutton answers. “So far.”
“Twenty-four,” I correct without thinking.
She turns to me, her brow furrowed. “What?”
“I, uh…” My neck heats up. “I found one. For you. It’s…it’s in the kitchen cabinet.”
Killian makes a whipping sound under his breath, and I resist the urge to elbow him in the ribs again.
“You bought me a teacup?” she asks slowly, like she’s trying to process this information.
“He buys everyone teacups,” Jake says quickly, trying to save me from my own embarrassment. “Got me one shaped like a football last Christmas.”
“No, he didn’t,” Boone counters, shoving Jake’s shoulder.
“You’re not helping,” Orry mutters.
Sutton’s lips curve into a soft smile that makes my heart do something ridiculous in my chest. “Can I see it?”
I point to the kitchen cabinet where I put it for her to find. Sutton sets down the cup in her hand and crosses the room to the cabinet, opens the door, and there it is, a small porcelain teacup with a delicate pink and yellow floral pattern, a hairline crack running from rim to base and a tiny chip just beneath the handle.
“Why does that look so familiar?” Killian asks.
“Because I didn’t buy it. It was our grandmother’s,” I explain, suddenly self-conscious under everyone’s stares. “Uh, I found it in a box of her things I had stored for my parents. It’s been sitting in a closet for years because I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away, but I didn’t know what to do with it either.”
Sutton carefully lifts it from the shelf, cradling it in her palms like it’s made of spun glass. Her eyes meet mine over the rim of the cup, something unspoken passing between us.
“It’s beautiful,” she whispers. “Thank you.”
I catch Killian and Bishop’s eyes over her head. They’reboth grinning as they give me a subtle nod that says“We get it now. She’s cool.”
