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“I was just thinking—I haven’t been to your place. Is it big? Small?” Her unspoken question hung in the air around her.Do I even need a house? Maybe I’ll just move in with you.
Not right now, Sage told herself. Of course not. She wouldn’t move in with Ty at this moment. Their relationship had been progressing, if slowly, but she wasn’t to the point of accepting a house key from him.
“You want to come to my place?” he asked.
“I’d like to see the castle, yes,” she teased. The breeze whispered gently in the backyard, and Sage sighed into it. “I do love Joy’s place. It feels so peaceful.”
“We’re still going to look at the place I found, right?” he asked, some measure of alarm in his tone. “You said you could go this weekend.”
“Sunday,” she confirmed.
“Do you want to have lunch at my place after?” he asked. “I’ll cook for you.”
She laughed, the sound bordering on a giggle. She pulled it back, because she didn’t want to come across as a giggly fifty-year-old. “You can cook?”
“Believe it or not, I can. I was voted best cook in my apartment in college.”
“Oh, wow,” she said between laughter. He chuckled with her, and Sage liked these easy conversations with him.
“So I’ll grab some fresh fish in the morning, and we’ll go see the place, and then come back to my house, and I’ll cook for you.”
“Sounds amazing.” Sage sighed as she heard the sliding glass door open. She twisted to see Lauren coming outside, and she said, “I have to go, sweetheart.”
“Have fun at Supper Club.”
“Sweetheart?” Lauren’s eyebrows didn’t rise quite as high as Sage had seen them before. She pulled out the chair next to Sage’s and sat. “I’m exhausted.”
“Yeah?” Sage reached over and covered Lauren’s hand with hers. “Why? Is your new client keeping you up at night?”
“Tommy’s new dog is keeping me up at night.” She threw Sage a dry look, but a moment later, a smile accompanied it. “He loves him though, and Chloe and Oscar will come around…eventually.”
Sage grinned at the mention of her two cats. “Thelma’s cats love Gypsy.”
“Well, Gypsy isn’t a puppy constantly trying to get them out from under the bed.” Lauren yawned, covering her mouth as she did. “I do love this house.”
“It was a keeper,” she said.
“Is the party out here?” Cass asked as she stepped outside too, and Sage turned to greet her too.
“No, we’re eating inside. I told Joy I’d set the table. She looked bushed too.” She retreated from the patio, afraid she might blurt out her news if she stayed. Inside, she made up the salad and pulled plates from the cupboard. She only had glasses and napkins to finish up with when the timer went off, and Sage left them for a moment to go check the food.
Everything looked browned and bubbly, and she smiled at the ooey gooey cheese on top of the lasagnas. She pushed a button to turn off the oven, and she lifted the tray out and slid it on the stovetop.
“Mm, smells good in here, Joy,” Bea called, and Sage quickly removed the oven mitts from her hands. She’d taken a few steps away from the food when Bea and Bessie came around the corner from the front door, and her heart brightened with their addition.
Sage loved her friends, and she once again felt like she’d made the right move by leaving Texas behind and becoming a resident of South Carolina.
“All right,” Joy said as she came down the hall leading to the bedrooms. “Who’s ready for some lasagna?”
“Oh, did you get these at Rudy’s?” Bea asked, stepping over to the steaming food.
Joy met Sage’s eyes, hers blank. Then she blinked and said, “Yep. Yes, I sure did.”
Sage didn’t care if Joy took credit for tonight’s dinner. She’d literally driven by a gourmet grocer and picked them out, then heated them in the oven. It wasn’t rocket science.
“Did you work today?” Bessie asked as she joined them. “I thought these took a long time to bake.”
Cass and Lauren came back into the house, and Cass said, “I brought wine, so I hope everyone is ready to talk.” She sing-songed the last word and nudged Sage, her smile huge.
