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He waggled his eyebrows back at her. “Then you should definitely get a turn, but I was thinking more about breakfast for now. We might not be in too much of a hurry, but it wouldn’t surprise me if some of the guys show up here this morning.”
“Oh!” Tori could feel the heat in her cheeks. “You’re right. I didn’t think about that. We should definitely keep our clothes on and just eat breakfast.”
Xander fixed scrambled eggs and toast for her, just the way she liked them. When he sat down to join her, she smiled when she saw that he’d made one of those small steaks to go with his.
“I see you’re still doing what you can to keep your strength up?”
“I am. Between the bar and keeping you happy, I’m working hard.”
“If it’s any consolation, you’re doing a great job at both.”
He nodded. “Are you happy?”
“Oh, Xander! I’ve never been this happy before in my life.” Her smile faded. “Are you?”
His smile answered her before his words could. “Same, sprite. Not only have I never been this happy, but I didn’t even know it was possible.”
“Aww. You say the sweetest things.”
“I’m just telling you the truth.” He blew out a sigh. “And as much as I’d like to stay here in our little bubble, loving on each other, we should probably figure out what all we need to do.”
Tori set her fork down. “You mean who we need to see – who we need to catch up with?”
He nodded.
“Well, I don’t know about you, but I made it easy on myself. I’ve told everyone that I’m thrilled that they’re here, but I’m going to be crazy busy. So, if they want to see me, they’ll need to come into the bar.”
He gave her a knowing smile. “You really are smarter than the rest of us put together, aren’t you?”
She raised her eyebrows. “Why do you say that?”
He chuckled. “Because you play on the fact that everyone sees you as ditzy little Tori. You know that they won’t want to put too much pressure on you – so you let them believe that you can’t handle it all.”
She tried to feign an innocent smile but couldn’t quite manage it and instead, dissolved into giggles. “You make it sound bad. I don’t mean to manipulate people; it’s not like that. It’s just that I know how they see me, so I let them believe it.” She shrugged. “They’re happy because they think they’re right, and I’m happy because no one expects too much of me.”
Xander nodded. “Like I said – smarter than the rest of us put together.”
“I’d say it’s more a case of knowing how to manage myself.”
“Whatever you say, sprite. But to answer your question, I obviously wasn’t as smart as you. I said that I’d do my best to catch up with Slade, and with Jacob. I mean, of course, I’ve chatted with most of them, and said that I’m looking forward to seeing them, but they mostly understand that we’re going to be busy. But Slade and I always manage to carve some time out, and Jacob’s been after me for a while now.”
Tori gave him a puzzled look.
“Not in a bad way, it’s just that I haven’t really spoken to him since we left Napa. We’ve texted here and there, but I know he’ll want to check in properly.”
“Well, if you want to do that this morning, you can drop me off at the bar and I can get on with things there. The staff are all coming in – and Tino said he’d drop the pizzas off. If you drop me off, you can take the truck and do all the catching up that you want to.”
He frowned at her. “We really do need to get a second vehicle, don’t we?”
She shrugged. “I reckon that’s a problem for next week; we have enough to deal with for now.”
“I won’t need the truck to see Slade; he and Willow are staying over here at the Lodge at Four Mile Creek.”
Tori grinned. “Well, if you want some boy time with him, you guys can go to the café or wherever you like and maybe Willow will want to hang out at the bar with me.”
“I don’t think there’s any maybe about that, do you? From what Slade told me, Willow can’t wait to see you – and to see what you’ve done with the place.”
“What we’ve done with it.”
