“Yes, but I said it so much more nicely.” Charlotte grinned irrepressibly.
“You’re incorrigible.”
“And that’s why you love me and are going to tell me everything.”
Grace sighed. “What else is everyone saying?”
“Did he really watch Lily for two hours while you delivered the McAllister cake?”
“Yes.”
“How did that go? Does he have any experience with small kids?”
“I didn’t ask him. As for how it went, she drew him a hawk and a nest with baby hawks in it. And he said he found chatting with Lily delightful.”
Charlotte took a sip of the strong coffee. Made a face. Set it down. “Did he ask you out?”
“No!”
“Did he flirt with you?”
Grace answered a shade less certainly, “No.” Then, “I don’t know. It’s not like I have any experience with men flirting with me. Liam and I were way past flirting by about sixth grade and no boy in high school looked twice at me because I was Liam’s girl.”
Charlotte tsked. “I forget sometimes how you skipped the whole dating thing and went straight to true love ever after. Tell me this. Did Reno look at you?”
“Like, in a certain way?” Grace frowned. “How is a flirting look different from a regular look?”
Charlotte responded with, “You tell me how he looks at you, and I’ll tell you if he’s flirting,”
Grace chose her words carefully because the full truth required her to admit she’d been keeping track of how he looked at her. “He looks at me like he’s deciding whether or not to say something he’s thinking.”
Charlotte sat very still, which was the loudest thing she ever did.
Grace took a sip of her own coffee, relishing the dark roast’s bitter punch. “I’m not looking for romance.”
“You’re still allowed to notice that a man noticing you.”
“Mm.”
“Don’t Mm me. We’re not the Steele brothers.”
Grace laughed in spite of herself. Even gregarious Reno mm’ed now and then.
“I love you, Grace. I’ve loved you since we were in kindergarten. I’m not trying to push you at any man.”
“I know.”
“But I will note . . . and the noting is the most I will do . . . that you work from dawn till dark then come home to this isolated cabin every day.”
“I’m not alone. And in case you haven’t noticed, Lily has a pretty big personality and is a full-time job in her own right.”
“Yes, but working, raising a child, sleeping, and eating, are all you do. Most folks would say that’s not much of a life.”
Grace didn’t know how to answer that, and thankfully, Charlotte let it sit. Thunder rumbled low in the distance, but the rain still held off.
Charlotte opened her mouth to speak but Grace cut her off gently. “Whatever you’re about to say next, I’ve given myself the whole speech in my head already.”
“Then I won’t make a speech out of it.”
