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She bit her lip and looked around at the mostly empty tables on the terrace. It was well after the lunch rush and before the dinner crowd arrived. “Well, okay.” She took the seat across from him, flapping her fake eyelashes so much it was going to give him a case of vertigo. Even so, he would endure the eager younger woman if it got him closer to his end goal.
He leaned in a bit. “How long have you lived here?”
“Gosh, my whole life,” she drawled.
“How long have you worked here?”
“Since high school. My momma owns this place.”
This was good news, Eric thought. “So, you know most people around here?”
“Yep.” She smiled. “At least all the locals. We get a lot of tourists in here. Are you visiting or moving here?” Her tone begged for him to say he was going to increase their population and not only by one.
Eric leaned back and gave her a dazzling smile. “I might be around for a while.”
Her bright violet eyes lit up.
“Can you recommend a good bakery?” He tried to keep it subtle. “I have a sweet tooth.” He didn’t lie. He was just good at controlling his cravings—all of them.
She clapped her hands together. “Oh my goodness, yes! Love Bites is the best place ever. When you eat there, I swear it’s like you leave feeling healthier even though you’re eating cupcakes. And don’t even get me going on Sorrel, the owner. She’s the nicest person I’ve ever met.”
“Did you say Sorrel?” an older woman seated at the next table over asked.
Eric gave this new player in his game his attention. That was enough for the white-haired woman to turn her chair toward them. “She is the sweetest thing.” She spoke with her hands, waving them all over the place. “I came down with a case of that terrible crud that was going around here a few months ago.” She turned to Carly. “Do you remember that? I thought I was going to cough up a lung. They almost had to put me on oxygen.”
Carly nodded gravely. “So many people were sick.”
The older woman slapped a hand across her large bosom. “That dear Sorrel brought me, and at least a dozen people I know, homemade soup, the likes of which I’ve never tasted. My golly was it amazing. She even spoon-fed me. How precious is that?”
Carly reached out to the woman and patted her hand. “That is the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard, but it doesn’t surprise me. That Sorrel is something special.”
“Amen. After that soup, I felt like a real person again. Not sure what was in it, but it cured me, I’ll tell you that.” The older woman swatted her knee.
Eric held up his hand. “Excuse me, did you say her soup cured you?”
“Well, yes, darlin’. A little TLC and food are good for the soul.”
“So, it wasn’t really the soup?” Eric confirmed.
The woman waved her hand in front of him. “You’re missing the point.”
“Which is?” Eric asked.
She leaned in conspiratorially. “There’s something about Sorrel.”
“Yes, ma’am, you’re right. You just have to try Love Bites and meet Sorrel,” Carly gushed.
“Sorrel! Sorrel!” another woman joined in who happened to be walking by. “Oh. My. Gosh. I. Love. Her. She saved me from marrying that two-timing louse Hunter Dupree last year. I’ll be forever grateful to her.”
Eric’s brow quirked. “How did she manage that?” He tried to sound like somebody more interested in gossip rather than a calculating bastard, which he knew he was.
Sorrel’s newest fan pulled up a chair right next to him. She gave him an appraising look before holding out her manicured hand. “I’m Sadie, by the way,” she said seductively.
Perfect. He had another admirer. He gave her hand a quick shake. He didn’t have time for female distractions. But he knew he had to play nice to get the information he needed. Though he had been hoping for more incriminating evidence, not a damn pep rally for the beautiful creature he couldn’t stop thinking about holding in his arms. Focus. “Nice to meet you, Sadie. Tell me your story.”
She sat up straight, showing off her posture, which in turn gave a better view of every curve she owned. No doubt she was looking for someone to replace the ex-fiancé. “Last year,” she began, “that pig Hunter and I went into Love Bites for our cake tasting, and after we tried the chocolate raspberry truffle cake—”
“Ooh, that’s one of my faves,” Carly interrupted.
All the women nodded in agreement.
Could Sorrel walk on water too? Eric wondered.
“Anyway,” Sadie continued, “Sorrel took both our hands, and as calm as an ocean breeze she said, ‘I think, Sadie, there’s something that Hunter needs to tell you.’ I thought for sure it was going to be that the idiot had wrecked another truck or some nonsense. However, after he spluttered for a few minutes, he confessed to sleeping with Bethany Jenkins not once, but pretty much the entire time we were engaged.” She slammed her fist on the table. “I can’t believe I was going to marry that fool. My daddy said he was a loser.”
