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I rolled my eyes and sighed as I opened the door.
“My God, Joy, you look gorgeous in this swimsuit. I would totally do you!” Emmie shouted.
“Please tell me your apartment has thick walls,” I begged my cousin.
“You’re lucky I didn’t call over my neighbor, Rex. He would become your new best friend.”
“Em, you’re killing me. Now do you have a cover-up that I can borrow?”
“Nope,” she grinned.
“Then I need something more modest. Auntie Gladiola is probably going to be there,” I wailed.
“And so are all of the Avery sisters. You know Maddie and Zoe are going to be rocking the bikinis. Then there’s me. You have to wear this, otherwise you won’t fit in. JoJo, my bikini is gold, with the cutest little tassels,” Emmie grinned.
Chapter Seven
A dress.
A pretty yellow dress.
I’d never seen Joy in a dress before, and what a pretty picture she made.
A blush crawled up her chest to her neck and then hit her cheeks. “Am I overdressed? Should I go change?”
Her left hand twisted the material of her wide skirt.
“Why would you think that? You look beautiful.”
“You’re staring. I think I need to change.”
“What do you have in your hand? Do you need me to take that?”
“Oh, this? It’s just a little something I baked for you. It’s a new recipe I tried out for the first time. Miss Laverne said these were good, so hopefully you’ll like them.”
I reached out and snagged the box where it precariously rested on her left hand. “If you baked it, I know I’ll love it. What is it?”
“Mini shoofly pies. Or sometimes they’re called tarts. I had shoofly pie once when Great-Aunt Glad made it when I was a little girl. I remember really liking it.”
It was cute how shy she was being.
“Shall we get going?”
She nodded. “I don’t want you to miss getting back to work on time.”
“I took the rest of the day off.”
“You did? Just for our date?”
I nodded as I put my hand under her elbow to guide her down the porch steps. I’d never seen her wear heels before, and I wanted her to have just a little more stabilization. She gave me a look underneath her lashes and softly smiled.
When we got to my truck, I put the treats on the roof, then opened her door and helped her up into the high passenger seat. “This wasn’t made with women in mind.” She grinned at me.
“I think it was,” I disagreed. “It gives a big man a chance to get his hands on a woman when he helps her in.”
Her laugh made me laugh. “You have a point.”
I took the box off the roof and handed it to her after she was buckled in. When I got in, I immediately started driving, not wanting to waste any time getting to our destination.
