AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Seeing as how Lauren kissed Blakebeforethe cruise, at the beginning of their first real date, mind you,” Joy said. “I don’t think she’s saying you did anything wrong, Bea.”
“Nope,” Lauren said. “When there’s chemistry, there’s chemistry.” She and Blake had it in spades, and she was too old to apologize for it.
“I have got to move here and find me a boyfriend,” Bessie said. “Lauren’s kissing on the first date. Joy hastwoboyfriends.” She shook her head. “I can franchise here, I’m pretty sure.”
“I donothave two boyfriends,” Joy said. “I can’t even believe I’m going out with one. I don’t live here.” She shook her head, some of the life she usually held leaving her face. “It’s all a disaster.”
“Start at the beginning,” Cass said. “I had no idea I’d miss so much while I was on my honeymoon.”
“Oh, you didn’t miss that much,” Lauren said.
Cass gave her a withering look. “You’re not done talking either, Missy. So get your story ready. You’re going right after Joy tells us about her dual-beaus.”
“If one more person says I have two boyfriends, I’m leaving!” Joy practically yelled. That caused everyone at the table to erupt into laughter, and though Joy was the last one to join in, she did eventually smile and laugh while she shook her head.
Lauren basked in the energy and friendship at the table, and she never wanted to leave it. Sometimes these women drove her crazy. Sometimes she got a little jealous of them and what they had that she didn’t. But no matter what, she always loved them, and they loved her, and she was so happy to have this place to belong among them.
Now, if she could figure out what to do with her life next, that would be great.
13
Blake pulled into the parking lot at The Mad Mango, and not two seconds later, Lauren emerged from the shop. He still got out of his SUV to meet her, grinning all the while. “Are we this connected?” he asked. “I hadn’t even put the car in park.”
“Bea saw you through the office window.” Lauren smiled at him and extended the pale pink smoothie toward him.
“Dang.” He took the drink. “Here I was thinking we had this incredible connection.”
Lauren gave him a heated look that made him laugh.
“You can admit it,” he teased.
“Admit what?” She set her smoothie on top of his vehicle and pulled her high ponytail tighter.
“We have an incredible connection.” In his opinion, at least, and he wasn’t usually far off when it came to women. He’d known his previous girlfriend wouldn’t last. They’d broken up through texting, for crying out loud.
His relationship with Lauren, though less than a month old, already felt wildly different than the one he’d had with Camille last year.
“Fine,” Lauren said. “We have an incredible connection. Happy now?”
“Not when you say it like that,” he shot back, clearly teasing her. She finally cracked and put the straw on her drink in her mouth. Blake watched her lips close around it, everything inside him now at last five hundred degrees.
They got in the car, and Lauren set her smoothie in the cup holder. “Thanks for driving me.”
“Anytime,” he said. She didn’t have a car here on the island, but when she went home with Joy in another month, she’d be driving back from Texas. “I almost hate to ask.” He looked at his back-up camera as he spoke. “But you’ve said precious little about your residency here in the great state of South Carolina.” He added quite the Southern twang to his words, hoping they wouldn’t rile her up.
He hadn’t asked again since the day he’d brought her lunch and found her outside with the cops. Three weeks ago now. Almost four, actually.
Lauren glanced over to him, and their eyes met for the briefest of moments. “I have a strategy,” she said.
“Oh?” He lifted his eyebrows. “I’m quite familiar with the word.”
“I’m sure you are,” she said dryly. “I’m just…I’m going to see if I can afford anything here first. If I can, then I’ll call my realtor in Sweet Water Falls. We’ll list my house, and I’ll make a plan for when I’ll go back to Texas to pack.”
“You’re flying home with Joy at the end of August still, right?”
“Yes,” she said. “We’ve already got that all strategized.”
“How many places do you need to look at to know if you can afford something here?”
