“Yeah. You’re already forcing me to go out tonight, so I have to do some things to leave the office on time. Go on. Don’t worry about your lunch running over: you’ve more than earned it.”
And then Sutton and I go to a deli where she asks me a dozen questions about my art and my business. Still, the entire time, I can only think about the fact that, tonight, Graham is coming to the Seabreeze, and he almost smiled, and most importantly, of the way he looked at me when I hugged him.
EIGHTEEN
“You should really just move down here,” Claire says, smiling at Sutton as we sit at the bar. “Then you wouldn’t have to do the back and forth nonstop just to see your favorite sister in the whole wide world.”
“Uh uh uh!” Sutton says, eyes going wide and shaking a finger at her sister. “No. No way, don’t you say that.”
“What? Iamyour favorite sister. We all know that, Sutton. It’s okay to admit it,” she says, reaching over to pat her sister’s hand.
“You can’t make me choose. If Sloane found out, I’d be screwed.” Sloane is the oldest of the Donovan sisters and definitely the most intimidating.
“Oh, she would totally kill you in your sleep for the mere disrespect,” Claire says, a happy smile on her lips, completely unfazed. “But she just moved to the middle of nowhere, so really, she can’t even blame you for wanting to live at the beach instead of the woods.”
“I am very muchnota middle-of-nowhere kind of girl,” Sutton agrees reluctantly with a nod. “I need Wawas and coffee shops and a variety of grocery store options within ten miles.”
“And that’s why moving to be close to yourfavorite sisteris the right choice. I can name four grocery stores that take ten minutes or less to drive to.”
Sutton glares, but instead of arguing, she smiles and turns to me.
Well,thatcan’t be good.
“Let’s stop talking about this and instead talk about how when I came into the office today,” she starts, and my stomach drops. I thought it was strange Sutton didn’t ask me about Graham when we had lunch together, considering she is a Donovan and thus inherently nosy, but I should have known she was saving it. “June was clinging to her hot boss, and it looked like I had interrupted something.”
The blissful calm before the storm lasts a mere moment before Claire breaks it with a shriek.
“What?!” Her eyes go wide as she turns to me, then to her sister, aghast. “Why am I only hearing this now? I spent all afternoon with you!” Lainey stands behind the bar, an eyebrow lifted as she dries a glass, quiet but fully entertained.
“Because I wanted to get the full experience of watching all of your reactions,” Sutton says as if it’s the obvious answer. “And with the panicked look on June’s face, I know I made the right choice.”
“You were clinging to your boss?” Lainey asks, the edges of her lips tipping up.
“I knew this was going to happen! Itoldyou that you had a crush on him! Itoldyou there was no way you could separate things!” Claire says, slapping her hands on the bar top.
She doesn’t look accusatory, more gleeful than anything. I nervously glance around the bar. It isn’t terribly quiet. Miles and Grant are in the corner chatting, and I donotneed my brother hearing this.
“Everyone has a crush on Graham. Have you seen him?” Sutton asks, and a bolt of something far too close to jealousy cracks through me. I stuffthatdown, deciding to dissect it later. Or, even better, never.
“I wasn’t clinging to him,” I say. Sutton raises an eyebrow, and I roll my eyes. “Not in the way Sutton is implying. I had just gotten the notification for my first sale, and he was the only person around, so I was excited and hugged him.” The excuse feels hollow, though I stick to it.
“And then you two just gazed longingly into each other’s eyes?” Sutton asks, her perfectly shaped eyebrow lifting with challenge.
“No!” I say, shaking my head. “That’s not what happened.”
“Sure, it wasn’t.” Sutton takes a sip of her drink, watching me over the rim of her glass with a smile in her eyes. I desperately fight the urge to rise to the bait. Maybe if I grey rock her, it will be less of an interesting topic and?—
“You should fuck him again,” Claire says, sending that theory out the window.
“Totally,” Sutton agrees before I can argue, nodding. “He’s super-hot.”
“I desperately need to lay eyes on this man, the way you both keep talking about him,” Lainey says, and Claire nods emphatically.
“Somehow, June convinced him to come in so that he might be here tonight,” Sutton promises.
“Yes,” Lainey says, pumping her fist. When I glare at her, she slides a drink toward me, which I accept even though my lifelong best friend is clearly betraying me. I’m going home with her tonight for a sleepover, and since she lives in the small apartment behind the bar, I’m okay to drink as much as I want.
“I highly doubt he’sactuallygoing to come in,” I say after a moment.
