He stopped inches away from her. “You still think about that night. I know you do, Pax. And I’m going to make you admit it.”
She managed to take a much-needed breath as she crossed her arms over her chest and stared him down. “Is that a challenge?” she asked.
A smile curved up the corner of Sawyer’s mouth. “That’s not a challenge, sweetheart. That’s a promise.”
Paxton entered The Jazzy Bean and, spotting Shayla at the register, walked over to the counter, folded her arms on top of it, and dropped her head onto them.
“Let me take a wild guess,” Shayla said. “Bad day?”
Paxton’s response was a low growl. She lifted her head just enough to peer up at her friend. “You haven’t applied for a liquor license, have you?”
“Ah, no,” Shayla answered with a laugh. “The best I can do is an iced tea, and not the Long Island kind.”
“That’ll do,” Paxton said. “But hit me with some real sugar instead of the artificial stuff. I deserve it after the day I’ve had. Are the cookies ready?”
“They’re in the back,” Shayla said as she filled a clear plastic cup with ice and dispensed raspberry tea over it. “They aresoadorable, if I do say so myself. They’re shaped like fleur-de-lis, with ‘Saints’ scrolled across them in gold icing. They’re going to be a hit tonight.” She handed Paxton her iced tea. “But you can’t get the cookies until you tell me about your crappy day. You owe me the story behind that arctic air you and Sawyer brought in here at lunchtime.”
Shayla walked over to the small, rectangular window that led to the kitchen. “Lucinda,” she called to her cook, “I’m going to take twenty minutes.”
They walked outside to the same table Paxton and Sawyer had occupied earlier.
“I can’t stay long,” Paxton warned.
“I know,” Shayla said. “You need to help Belinda get ready for tonight. I’m sorry I won’t be able to make it. I promised Leslie I’d watch the girls. She and Gabriel have tickets for the game.”
Kristi and Cassidy Kirkland were Shayla’s young nieces—her deceased brother’s two adorable children. It was the intention of helping her sister-in-law raise the girls after her younger brother’s untimely death that had initially brought Shayla back to Gauthier. Even though her sister-in-law had remarried, Shayla still played a huge part in the girls’ lives.
“I’m hoping I’m too busy waiting on customers tonight to notice your absence,” Paxton told her.
“You will be. Gauthier takes care of its own. The folks here are going to support your mom.” Shayla reached over and grabbed the iced tea she’d poured for Paxton, taking a sip before setting it back on the table. “Now, what has you craving liquor in the afternoon?”
Paxton tipped her head back and released an aggravated sigh.
“A number of things, but this flood-protection project tops the list,” she lied. Straightening in her seat, she braced her hands on the table. “I prepared myself for mishaps. Everyone knows that it’s foolish to go into a job thinking that it will all go as planned, but I didn’t expect such a huge setback so soon.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Sawyer brought up a potential problem with the topography maps this morning, and I think maybe he’s right. If he is, it will throw everything completely off track.”
“Is this what you two were arguing about earlier?”
“Which time?” Paxton snorted.
“Pax,” Shayla said, admonishment coloring her tone. “Please don’t tell me you’ve been Mean Paxton the entire time you and Sawyer have been working together.”
“Excuse me, but who is Mean Paxton?”
“Oh, please. Give that innocent act a rest, girl. I know you. I’ll bet you spent all of last week giving Sawyer a hard time, and for no good reason.”
“I have not. We’ve gotten along just fine so far. He’s stayed out of my hair and I’ve stayed out of his. Until today, that is. And I do not have a mean side,” Paxton argued.
“You most certainly do have a mean side,” Shayla said. “And I don’t like the thought of you and Sawyer just ‘getting along.’ I was hoping there would be some sparks between you two. The good kind of sparks.”
Paxton’s head reared back. “Sparks?”
“Yes, sparks. You know, those tingly little bursts of magical feelings that happen when two people realize they would be perfect together?”
Paxton could not stop her jaw from dropping as she stared at her best friend.
