AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Thank you so much.I do need something to wear.What are you wearing?”
“Something nice, but not too fancy.Toby still vomits sometimes after I feed him, so...But still, this is going to be so fun!Girls bedroom fashion show!Can I do your hair?Not that it needs doing.It’s beautiful as it is, not frizz central like mine.”
The bell chimed with another customer and I didn’t want to share Jenny, at least, not for this moment.
“Can we still be friends when I move back to the UK?”I blurted out, suddenly terrified of losing our friendship.
I seemed to be incapable of resisting anyone in her family.Must have been something in the Callahan genes.
Her face softened, and she pulled me in for a big, squeezy hug.“I’d be so mad if we didn’t keep in touch,” she said into my hair.She smelled of sugar and fresh bread, and, not for the first time, it struck me how lucky Toby was to have her for a mother.
I considered what was here, and what waited for me back home, and I promised myself that I’d read Seb’s letter when we closed up the bakery for the day.
ChapterEighteen
We’d made a good amount of money for the day.Laurie was going to beverypleased.
Jenny swept the floor while I finished cashing up.As I reconciled the day’s takings on card and cash, and locked the notes and coins in the safe, she snapped lids on containers of cookies and muffins.
“I couldn’t have done it without you.”
She grinned.“You could.Just maybe much slower.”
“No, I genuinely couldn’t.Drinks when things quiet down?”
“Absolutely.”Her smile was tired, but happy.“I’ve enjoyed today.Feeling like a functional member of society again.”
I folded up my own apron, hung it on the peg by the back door.“I’m sorry that society ever made you feel you weren’t.Even if you never get another job, Jenny, you still belong in society.You’re raising one of its future residents, after all.”
She huffed.“I wish you’d been here when I came back to town a year ago.You’d have put all those gossipy bitches in their place.Iknowyou would have.”
I squeezed her arm.“I’d have been delighted to.No one puts a gossipy bitch in their place like a British person.”
We shared a smile for a second, and then Jenny’s phone chirped.“Rick’s here to pick me up.And you, if you want.I drove his truck here earlier, but he needed it today to cart around some oak for a hardwood floor he’s doing a couple towns over.”
Every iota of my being ran hot and cold with excitement, but I managed to say, “Oh, cool.”
Jenny snorted.“Never go into acting, okay?C’mon, we’ve slaved away all day.”
She opened the door, and I busied myself making sure I had all the right keys and switching the lights off.My heart pounded at lightning speed.I hadn’t seen Rick since yesterday’s addictive make-out session.
“Hey!”Jenny called out to her brother.
I locked up and finally turned to look at him.He wore a short-sleeved gray tee, tattoos on full display on his arms, and just the sight of all that tanned, inked skin combined with his unruly golden hair and hazelnut brown eyes made me weak at the knees.It might’ve been a cliché, but that didn’t stop it from being true.
“Ladies,” he said, leaning slightly out of the truck, one arm folded on the open window.“How’d it go?”
“Your sister is a dream in human form, and she belongs to me now,” I stated simply, hooking my arm around Jenny’s shoulders.
“What she said,” Jenny agreed.
“Well, I sure am gonna see a reduction in my utility bills.”He grinned, and his dimple flashed.I needed to stop being so goofy over him.
Although, now we’d made out… And now that I wasprobablyattending a wedding with him.Was there any point in dialing it back?Should I just put both feet in and swim with the current?
I wanted to.
“Nah, you’d miss Toby and me too much,” Jenny sassed, as she opened the back door of the truck and hopped in.
