“Oh, the shop. I live above it.”
“What do you want?” Kennedy asked.
“A beer, honestly.”
“Go to town,” Kennedy replied with a smile and pulled open the fridge with her free hand.
“Sorry; am I boring you? I tend to talk a lot about work when I get nervous.”
She looked inside the fridge and grabbed the first beer she saw.
“No, I’m not bored at all. I have no idea how to make candy. I assume there’s sugar involved and some kind of flavoring added to it.”
Kennedy took another sip of whatever she was drinking and walked back to the counter, leaving her to close the fridge and crack open her beer. River watched her fill her glass with gin and tonic water before Kennedy sat down at a stool, and she walked to the other side of the counter and took a drink.
“It’s more than that, but that’s the basic part of it, yes.”
“How did you get into it?”
“I’ve always wanted to do it,” River replied. “I went to school for it, worked in another place first to learn more, and left as soon as I could buy my own place. I’m really proud of it. I brought some candy with me this weekend if you want to try any.”
“Is it beer-flavored?” Kennedy asked with a sexy lifted eyebrow.
River swallowed because she shouldn’t be thinking of Kennedy Gannon’s eyebrow lift as sexy.
“None of it is. I didn’t bring any of that with me.”
“Then, maybe I will try some,” Kennedy said and took another drink. “Forgive me for not being a little more excited about this whole event. I don’t want to seem like one ofthosefamous people. I just got some bad news right before you got here, and well, now my publicist is mad at me because I broke out the booze before I was supposed to and didn’t give her the perfect Hollywood opening to her little show by meeting you and your girlfriend at the door. Also, I’m a little tipsy, so I’m saying things I shouldn’t say.”
River took a sip of her beer and said, “I signed one of those things, but even if I didn’t, I wouldn’t say anything to anyone anyway.”
Kennedy looked her up and down and said, “You really wouldn’t, would you?”
River shook her head.
“You don’t even want to be here, do you?”
“Not really, no,” she admitted. “Honestly, I’d rather be at my shop working. The weekends are my busiest times of the week.”
“Then, why did you come?”
“Lacey was excited about it.”
“You two have been together for…”
“A year and a half.”
“How does she like living over a candy shop? God, I’d be working out twenty-four seven if I lived over a candy shop. You mentioned fudge earlier, and now, I really want fudge.”
River chuckled and said, “I brought some of that, too. I didn’t know what to pack for this thing, so I brought jeans, T-shirts, a bathing suit just in case, and, like, half my carry-on bag is filled with stuff from the shop because I thought it might be a conversation starter.”
“You were obviously right about that.”
“Oh, and Lace doesn’t live with me,” she shared. “She has her own place.”
“Because she doesn’t want to have to work out twenty-four seven, either?” Kennedy teased.
River chuckled and said, “No, that’s not why. We’re just not there yet.”
