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I snort. “Thanks?”
“I’ll figure it out at some point,” she declares, winking and throwing me a smile before pushing on into the back of the store.
Once she’s gone, I let out a long, slow breath, glad she didn’t choose to prod me any further. I’m really good at keeping other people’s secrets but horrible at keeping my own.
And I am bursting at the seams to tell somebody about what happened between Jackson and me last night.
I hum quietly as my mind replays the sexiest little something I’ve ever had in my entire life for at least the thousandth time today. Jesus, no wonder Ruth picked up on my weirdness. I’ve been a blissed-out zombie all morning, bopping around in the back kitchen while preparing several dozen Christmas catering orders.
Last night really couldn’t have been any better. Sure, I could lament the fact that Jackson didn’t have a condom, and maybe I’ll wish for the rest of my life that we’d been able to actually get the full experience, because I bet sex with that man is insane. But damn if what we did together wasn’t still pretty spectacular.
And honestly, as someone who doesn’t hook up often, it was probably better that he didn’t have a condom. In a world where I’m hoping to take my good-girl hat off more often, it was a nice baby step rather than a full kerplunk into the pool.
The only thing I regret a bit was not leaving him my number when I slipped out of bed in the wee hours of the morning to get home and showered before my shift at Ruthie’s.
Cedar Point is fairly tiny, with only around 2,500 residents during the off season, and it only takes about thirty minutes to drive around the entire town. So, it was easy to walk the ten minutes back to Lucky’s to get my car and drive home. Cold, but easy.
Thankfully, Rusty is a heavy sleeper and wasn’t woken by my return home at o’dark thirty. I was able to quietly move through the house without him being any the wiser. It’s not that I need his permission to be out with a guy, but seriously, the last thing I want is my brother to know I was hooking up with some random tourist at the hotel.
That might be his style, but I’m pretty sure it’d break his brain if he found something like that out about me. In my defense, I’ve never had to deal with the conversation of dating or boys with my brother in my entire life. Ever.
When I was in high school and actually old enough to date, I wasn’t in the right headspace to think about the stupid boys I went to school with. I was too busy trying to recover from our family tragedy to even think about the immature shits who sat next to me in class.
Then, when I left for college, I had enough distance to do what I wanted without thinking about my brother at all. I dated a few guys but never seriously enough for them to come home with me for the holidays or meet my brother when he’d come visit. Everyone else was just a hookup, so definitely not something I would tell Rusty about.
So, even though it would be nice to be able to enjoy myself occasionally with a stud who’s only in town temporarily, I’d rather keep those tidbits about my sex life as much of a secret as possible.
After wrapping up my shift at Ruthie’s, the town bakery and the best place to work in the world, I make the short drive home. I stay in my parked car after I’ve pulled into the driveway, knowing I need to call Briar to share what happened.
And make sure she’s surviving her inevitable hangover.
“What.”
I laugh at the sound of her voice, gruff and unhappy, like my phone call is the most inconvenient thing to happen in her entire life.
“You alive over there, drunkaroo?”
She groans. “Barely.”
“You had one glass of wine, Briar. One.”
“I am very aware.”
Shaking my head, I tap the call over to speaker and set the phone on the dash.
“You either need to stop drinking wine or start working on your tolerance, girlfriend.”
“What do you think I was doing last night?”
“Getting drunk,” I reply. “You need to start drinking entire glasses of water with your wine, lady. Andy had to take your drink away.”
She chuckles and then groans. “Yeah, I know.” Then there’s an elongated pause. “Although, I must have gotten drunker than I thought because I think I remember somebody heading off in search of a one-night stand.”
I smile but don’t say anything.
“Abby.”
“Oh, are you talking to me?”
