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Paige rubbed her forehead and turned back to the flowers. She couldn’t keep overanalyzing this or she was going to go mental.
Before the last twenty minutes, she’d been doing so damn well too.
“I did,” Charli said. “Unfortunately, the last few minutes haven’t been much fun.”
Colt moved to stand next to Paige and took her elbow, drawing her definitively away from the flowers and against his side. “Why’s that?” He brushed a kiss over her hair and kept hold on her arm as if it was the most natural thing in the world. “Not ready to come back to work yet? Get a little too much sun?”
Paige nudged him back. Was he really that clueless?
Probably. He was a male, after all. A spectacularly endowed one, but that only left him less to work with up top during sticky situations.
Charli stared at them. “You’re really going to stand there and grope her in front of me?”
“That’s not groping.” Colt hooked his arm around her waist and tipped up her face, placing a soft, chaste kiss on her lips. “Closer to groping,” he acknowledged. “Still not there yet. Point is, I can do this whenever I want. And I will be.”
“Don’t be so sure of that,” Paige said under her breath, hating that he’d scrambled her pulse so effortlessly when she was still annoyed with him.
“I hope you are okay with it,” Colt continued. “We don’t want to hurt you. But we’re also not going to hide.”
“Drama and an impassioned speech before opening. It’s gonna be a banner day.” Shaking her head, Charli slid off the counter. “I have stuff to do.”
“Problem?”
“No. But there will be if you have ulterior motives that will hurt Paige.”
“Like what?”
“Like, oh, getting me back for falling for your brother.”
Paige watched his face for a reaction. That was something she hadn’t been brave enough to address herself. But either he was the world’s greatest actor or he was genuinely flummoxed by Charli’s statement. “What? Why would I do that?”
Charli crossed her arms. “You tell me. The timing’s a little suspicious, if you ask me. This happens to occur the very day Wade and I get married, even though before then you hated each other.”
“We didn’t hate each other.” Colt’s hold on Paige subtly tightened. “At least I didn’t hate her.”
“I’ve never hated you more than I do right now,” Paige muttered, sighing at his soft chuckle.
So freaking dense, thy name is male.
Though obviously she was a bit dense too, because she could’ve broken free at any time and yet she hadn’t moved. She liked being held a bit too much.
Charli’s eyes narrowed. “If you came here to talk to me about continuing…this, she already told me.”
“I did, but I also wanted to ask after your honeymoon.”
“Because that’s not awkward either.”
“Look, this is all awkward. I figure the easiest way for it not to be is to be open and honest about everything. I’m not of a mind to sneak around like I’m sixteen, and I know Paige and Drake aren’t either. You and Wade are happily married, and we’ve all moved on. I just wanted to make sure we’re all—”
Charli flapped her hands, cutting him off. “One big happy dysfunctional family. Yeah, I get it. Everything’s just dandy and we’re all so mature. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to catch up on.” She strode into the front of the store, letting the door they rarely shut between the rooms bang closed.
“Well, that went well.” The corner of Colt’s mouth ticked up as he stuck his hand in his pocket and produced a breakfast bar. “This is the other reason I came by.”
She frowned. “You’re hungry?”
“Absolutely.” He gripped the end of her braid to tip back her head but her hand on his chest stopped him. “This is for you, though. You didn’t eat much this morning. Thought you might need some additional energy.”
“Don’t be sweet right now. It’ll make me forget I’m pissed at you.”
