“Sold,” Cameron said with a smile. “Do I need to give you my number and stuff?”
Lacey smiled back and replied, “Yeah, so that you get the text to confirm.”
“Okay. Well, let’s do that, then.”
CHAPTER 23
River
Ken: What’s the flavor of the day today?
River stared down at her phone and smiled. She hadn’t seen Kennedy since Sunday. It was Wednesday now. Every day since, though, Kennedy had sent her a text asking about the flavor of the day, which wasn’t something River actually did or sold. River was the kind of person who always wanted to have the bestsellers on the floor, but other than that, she made whatever she wanted to make that day, and that could be testing a new flavor or making three different ones.
River Ervin: Nothing new today. I ran out of something yesterday, so I’m making that now, and I’ll start on the cherry chocolate fudge in a bit.
She hit send before she could think too much about it and got back to work. When Michaela got there to open the shop, River took a break to focus on payroll, which was her least favorite part of running a business, and then checked her phone for a reply when she finished. Kennedy had sent her the flavor-of-the-day text three times in total, and she’d replied to each one, but Kennedy hadn’t messaged back after her reply on MondayorTuesday. River didn’t get it. If Kennedy was starting a conversation, why not continue it? Hell, maybe she really did just want to know what River was making because she wasplanning on stopping by and buying something. River wished and didn’t wish for that at the same time.
Since coming back from the weirdest double date weekend, she and Lacey had been in this really awkward spot where they needed to talk, they both knew that, but neither of them was brave enough to bring anything up. They’d agreed to see each other this Friday, but River felt like she had a dentist appointment coming up more than she had a date night with her girlfriend, which wasn’t fair to Lacey at all.
“Hey, why does your face look like that?” Calista asked when she walked in. “Also, I brought lunch.” She held up a bag. “Salads.”
“Why did you bringsalads?”
“Because Ashton and I are trying to be as healthy as possible. We might be bringing a little person into the world, so we want to be around a long time for them, and we were eating like crap. Also, my wife is making me.” Calista set the bag on the desk. “You eat like crap, too, so just have the damn salad. There’s at least chicken on it. It’s grilled, but dip it in the dressing I got you on the side, and you’ll be fine. Back to you. Why do you look sad?”
“I don’t look sad.”
“Yes, you do,” Calista argued as she pulled a salad container out of the bag and set it on the desk before she walked over to one of the refrigerators to pull out a bottle of water. “What happened? You said the weekend wasfine. We haven’t really talked much since, but was it not fine?”
“No, it…” River paused. “God, how do I even describe it?”
“I don’t know, but now I’m really curious. I have about a hundred questions. Like, were they just as hot as they are on screen? Were they nice, or total assholes?”
“They were fine.”
“Yeah, there’s that word again.” Calista squinted at her and sat down on the desk next to her. “What happened? Did you and Lacey notreconnect?”
“Does a shower where we didn’t actually touch each other count?”
“No. And how do you even do that? Was it some kind of locker room shower with a dozen showerheads or something?”
“No, it was a regular shower, and we clumsily danced around each other in there.”
“River, you were in what was probably a mansion with your girlfriend for the weekend, and you two didn’t have sex? Ashton and I would have gotten naked in every room in that place.”
“You’re forgetting that we weren’t alone,” River replied. “And since there were cameras, too, if we’d done that, pretty sure they’d just call it porn.”
“What is going on with you two?”
“We need to break up,” she said.
“Needto?”
“It’s just not there anymore. I know that now, so if the weekend did anything for me, it’s that.”
“I’m sorry, River. What happened?”
“Kennedy Gannon.”
