She grabbed him around the wrist as they struggled. “You mean, ring finger, you dumbass.”
“You’d like to get your hands on my ring finger, wouldn’t you,” Brady said, still grinning.
MacKenzie growled something feral, and the squabbling intensified as she tried to poke him in the eyes with her spice-encrusted finger too.
Unable to hide my laughter, I asked Mark, “Should we intervene before they end up in the emergency room?”
He was already shaking his head. “Cole’s got it.”
And sure enough, Brady’s best friend was wading in to separate them by tugging Brady up and out of his seat. “Come on, you two. Remember what happened at the opening of Carter Bistro downtown?”
Immediately Brady and Mac stopped trying to injure each other and actually looked a little sheepish.
“I can’t feel my tongue,” Brady mumbled as Cole helped him away from the table.
“That’s probably a nice change of pace for you, bigmouth,” Mac called sweetly. Then her eyes widened and she belched loudly.
“Ladylike, as always,” Brady teased. But he was nearly to the front door and too far away for Mac to maim.
I turned to Mark. “Well, that was fun.”
He smiled. “You know, it actually was. You want to stay for some food or are you heading out?”
Did I want to stay and have dinner with Mark Mercer?
We were co-workers. Besides, it was okay to have a beer and some chicken wings on a Tuesday night at the same table with someone you knew. This wasn’t a date.
“Food sounds good,” I replied. “I worked up an appetite watching my brother make a fool of himself.”
Mark laughed. “Yeah, me too. I’ll grab us some menus.”
As he approached the counter to grab the laminated copies, I didn’t let myself think about how nice it was to spend time with Mark outside of work. Or how comfortable I felt around him. Or the way his butt looked in his dark-wash denim.
Muttering a soft curse, I looked away.
This wasn’t a big deal, I told myself sternly.
Mark and I were friends.
And I was determined to keep us that way.
eleven
MARK
It was around four thirty in the afternoon, and I was in the Apple House giving a batch of undersized apples a final wash and sort before loading them into the press when I heard Candace cursing behind me.
I turned to see her struggling to wheel the outdoor heaters over to the seating area in preparation for her event tonight.
After shutting off the water, I dried my hands and made my way to her. “Hey, want some help with that?”
Straightening, she blew a strand of wayward brown hair out of her face. “God, yes.”
She had on a chunky mustard-colored cardigan over her navy-blue Judd’s Orchard tee shirt and some light-wash jeans. The weather had been chilly for the last two days, which was typical for autumn in North Carolina. The season was a mixed bag. Some October days were similar to those in the summer months, just without all the humidity, or they could be rainy and cold with a wind so fierce it could rip the hat right off your head. About midway through the month, we were somewhere in between. Mild, sunny days with evenings that grew cold as the sun melted behind the hills.
Candace was preparing for her wine-and-pumpkin-decorating event taking place tonight. The temperature would dip down into the fifties before the end of it, sothe attendees would appreciate the four freestanding outdoor heaters when the sun finally set.
“Sure thing,” I said.
