“Yes you are,” Cari said. She reached over and put her hand on Randi’s forearm. “I’m so glad you’re on my team.”
Eden couldn’t take her eyes off Cari’s hand. Something bubbled up inside her that she couldn’t quite name. She’d always been protective of Randi because she was so friendly. A few times that had led to women taking advantage of Randi’s kindness, but this felt different.
Their server brought their drinks and Eden took a long drink of her beer. She cleared her throat in hopes of calming her now pounding heart. “What did you think of the bookstore, Cari?”
“I loved the vibe,” Cari replied.
“That’s all Ginger,” Eden said. “She is passionate about books, authors, and readers. It doesn’t matter to her if you’ve sold ten books or ten thousand, she considers it an honor to bring you to her customers.”
“She was very accommodating,” Randi said. “She didn’t even bat an eye when I suggested moving everything up nearer to the front.”
“So, you have a thing for redheads?” Cari asked, taking a sip of her drink.
Eden could see curiosity in Cari’s eyes as she stared at Randi over the rim of her glass.
“Not really,” Randi said. “We”—she looked at Eden with raised brows—“appreciate nice hair, don’t we?”
Eden grinned. Why did this feel like an inside joke between them and give her such pleasure? “That we do, even though I still think it makes us sound shallow.”
Randi shook her head and smirked.
“It doesn’t make you shallow,” Cari said. “We are all attracted to certain things. One of yours is hair. When we first meet someone it’s what we see, but we see more once we engage.”
“Thanks for saying that,” Randi said. “Eden tends to stress out over things she can’t really control.”
“Oh yeah?” Eden replied. “Then I guess you can’t control your weakness for a woman with red hair.”
Randi smirked. “And you seem to prefer blondes.”
“Not true!” Eden protested. “The last couple of women I dated happened to be blond.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” Randi turned to Cari. “Do you have a type?”
“Mmm, I don’t know.” Cari glanced over at Eden. “I may have a thing for blondes, too.”
Eden forced a smile. She was getting the strangest vibe from Cari. It was as if she was vying for Randi’s attention. “I don’tknow anyone who has prettier blond hair than my bestie.” She looked over at Randi and gave her a genuine smile.
“Thank you.” Randi took a sip of her drink.
“I understand that you’ve decided to stay here in Dallas and work on your next book,” Eden said.
“Yeah, it’s been nice living with my sister and her family,” Cari said. “I can work on my book all day while the kids are at school.”
“You know, Ginger is single,” Eden said. “Maybe she’d be a nice distraction while you’re here.” She glanced over at Randi and saw a look of surprise on her face.
“Mmm, I think my new friends at HLR will be enough of a distraction for now,” Cari said. “I’m going to like popping in and seeing what Randi’s working on with my books.”
Eden saw Randi smile at Cari and could tell the woman was interested in her best friend. This could be a disaster waiting to happen.
“Oh, I mentioned the game night to my sister,” Cari said. “She thought it sounded like fun and wondered if she could join us.”
“That would be great!” Randi exclaimed. “We need more players. Let’s see, that would give us six. We could do three teams of two or two teams of three. What do you think, Eden?”
“Yeah, that would be just right. We’d love to have her join us.”
“Maybe Eden and I shouldn’t be on the same team,” Randi suggested. “We always win and no one wants to play with us after that.”
“Listen to your trash talk!” Cari exclaimed with a laugh.
