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I stopped to gawk at her.

“What? It was hot,” she said. “And it’s better than fucking him for no reason at all. And the finger dexterity…” She made a chef’s kiss gesture.

I shook my head, laughing.

“I love it when a guy has an obscure hobby,” she said. “Speaking of jobs, I got a new side hustle for you.”

“Oh, what?”

“Signing up for class-action lawsuits.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Really?”

“Yeah, there’s a website and everything. You just look for what products you’ve used and sign up. A pickle lawsuit just paid my car payment.”

I laughed.

“I’m not kidding,” she said, shoving Splenda into a caddy.

“Okay, I’ll check it out. I need everything I can get.”

My phone rang and I set my box of salt down and answered. It was Mike.

“Hey,” I said.

“Where you at?”

“Work still,” I said, wiping the shakers down with a rag.

“So the cabin trip in a few weeks… Tony wants me to go up a couple days early.”

“Oh,” I said. “For what?”

“Repairs. He wants the water heater replaced and the doorbell isn’t working I guess.”

“I can’t take the extra days off work, and I don’t think my car—”

“No, no, Chris can take you. He has to work too.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I already asked him. Carpool up with him and then you come home with me.”

I nodded. “Okay.”

“Dinner tomorrow?”

“Sure.”

“All right. I’ll let you go. I love you.”

I froze. He’d never said that to me before. I didn’t know what to say back.

“Okay… thanks,” I said. And I hung up.

Lexi eyed me. “Did he just tell you he loves you?”

I turned stiffly. “Yeah.”