Luke: What does that mean?
Lucy: It’s romance book 101
Lucy: Grumpy sunshine always hits
Lucy: She softens his grump, he supports her sunshine
Nathan: How does this help me?
Lucy: You’re a golden retriever, so you probably need your opposite
Lucy: A really uptight woman who needs to loosen up a little
Nathan: Yeah? Do Graham
Lucy: He’s the smart, academic type so he gets the beautiful bombshell who sees past his nerdiness to the sweet man within
Graham: Not as complimentary as you intended
Lucy: Luke is a single dad, so as soon as he gets a nanny, they’ll fall in love
Jovie: Can we get a nanny, Dad?
Luke: Sorry, peanut. You don’t need one
Nathan: What about you, Luce?
Lucy: I’m the bookish heroine, so I get paired with a hot football player hiding out in a small town to avoid bad press
Nathan: Sweet
Nathan: You’re good at this
Reed: You know she’s not a Magic 8 Ball, right?
Nathan: Sorry, I can’t hear you
Nathan: I’m on the lookout for my uptight princess
Nathan: Gonna teach her how to really live
Reed: I need to block this chat
9
rose
The biggest downsideto working a job in customer service and being friendly with everyone all the time is the small percentage of men who take that friendliness as a personal invitation. Men who are sure my good attitude is flirtation and my smiles are for them alone.
Like the man standing in front of me, for example.
He walked in at five minutes to close on Saturday and ordered an iced London fog. Kind of a jerk move already, to be totally honest. But the guy gets worse at every turn.
“What are you doing after this, Rose?” His gaze lingers on my name tag, then does a full lap across my breasts. I’m suddenly grateful for the plain Perk Me Up apron that does nothing for my figure.
I would never try to pretend that everyone in Sunshine is a sweetheart and there are no bad apples here. But this guy is a tourist. I know because he’s told me twice already that he’s only in town forone more night. He doesn’t say “hint hint,” but he’s not being very subtle.
He looks to be in his mid-thirties, and I guess he’s attractive in an aggressive, Glen Powell kind of way. A little too slick and perfect for my taste.
