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“That wasn’t Sebastian,” she said, ignoring the shocked expression on Amy’s face as her head hung out from the truck window. “That was Sutton.”
Gracie flinched, her nose wrinkling in confusion. “He was driving his black BMW,” she argued. “That’s Sebastian’s car.”
“Sutton borrowed it, I guess. Maybe his car was in the shop, because he picked me up for dinner last night in his white Audi.”
That was enough. A weight seemed to lift from Gracie’s shoulders. “Oh. I didn’t realize you were seeing Sutton. When I saw you together and Sebastian’s car was there, I just assumed.”
“It’s a relatively new development. But nothing is going to come of it,” Lauren insisted. “Things didn’t go so well last night.”
Regular Gracie returned fully with a sympathetic tilt of her head. “I’m sorry to hear that. Sutton is a nice guy.”
“Thanks. But what about you?” Lauren asked the question lingering on her mind before fully thinking it through.
“What about me?”
Good question. She couldn’t very well say that Gracie seemed super jealous and she wanted to know what was going on with her and Sebastian. So while she wanted to ask, she wouldn’t. “I, uh, haven’t seen you much lately. You usually eat at the truck once or twice a week.”
“Oh,” Gracie said, her expression brightening. “I’m okay, it’s nothing. My stomach just hasn’t been great lately, so I’ve been sticking to chicken noodle soup and crackers. I think it’s just the stress of everything. I’ll be back, I promise.”
“I’m sorry you haven’t felt well. But whenever you’re ready, it’s on the house.”
Gracie smirked and crossed her arms over her chest. “Seriously? No. I didn’t become a multimillionaire to shaft my friends. I’ll be back, and I’ll pay in full,” she insisted. “I’ll talk to you two later.”
Lauren waved as the other woman continued down the street. That was a weird conversation. One that made her glad she hadn’t actually been with Sebastian that day at the Courtyard Shops. She certainly didn’t want to upset one of her friends and best customers.
“I’d really like to wrap all this up and get home at a decent time!” Amy shouted from the truck.
“Yeah, yeah,” Lauren said as she stepped back into the truck to finish breaking down for the night.
She hadn’t even shut the door when Amy spoke up. “So, I’m going to need more information about everything I heard just now.”
Lauren sighed. Her best friend had lured her back under false pretenses. She didn’t care when they got home, she just wanted information. “As long as we can talk and clean, then fine.” They both returned to their tasks and Lauren relayed the prior night’s revelations as succinctly as she could.
“So you’re saying that was Sutton, not Sebastian, that came by the truck that day?”
“Apparently.”
“And which one did you sleep with at the masquerade ball?”
“Sutton.” There was no question of that. Last night as she’d lain in bed thinking about the crazy situation, the pieces finally seemed to fall into place. Things with Sebastian had never made sense, but they’d suddenly changed that day when Sutton showed up in his place. That was when the potent chemistry that had been missing had returned with a vengeance. Things between them had been amazingly good since Sutton had stepped into his brother’s shoes.
At least until last night, when she’d learned it was all a lie.
“And which one is this at the window right now?”
Lauren spun around to look out the service window, where one of the Wingate twins was standing there with a bouquet in his hands looking ashamed. “Oh come on,” she lamented.
“So is that Sutton or Sebastian?”
Lauren felt the familiar butterflies in her stomach. The messy hair, the crooked smile. It was Sutton for sure. But why was he here at her truck after last night? Didn’t she make it perfectly clear that she needed some space?
With a groan, she walked back to the door and stepped into the street. “We’re closed for the night,” she said as she rounded the truck and he came into view.
He turned to her and she got a better look at the bouquet in his arms. It wasn’t a bouquet of flowers. It was a bundle of fresh herbs, like rosemary, thyme, parsley and basil. The perfect offering for a chef.
“I’m not here to order food,” Sutton told her. “I’m here to apologize.”
Lauren wasn’t sure what to do. He’d obviously put a lot of thought into a gift as he came to see her. And the way his eyes pleaded with her made her knees—and her resolve—start to soften beneath her. She’d never reacted to any man the way she reacted to Sutton. She wished she could turn it off, but despite it all, she still wanted him with a fiery passion she couldn’t deny. She supposed she could at least hear what he had to say.
