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“She can be very helpful. She helped me with a problem I was having with Ella. I couldn’t get that child to burp to save my life. She was crying up a storm due to gas, and your mom came in and turned her over and gave her a gentle push and now I can get her to burp on cue. Then she turned around, walked back out, and didn’t say a word.” Sera held her glass up in a toast. “So here’s to your kind but not nice mom. I’ve come to learn I’ll take kind over nice any day of the week.”
“I think we’re both kind and nice,” Hallie said. “We can be both, right?”
“As long as we know the difference.” Sylvie was the mayor of the town. She also had a daughter. Apparently this was a new-mom night out. Or in, for Seraphina. “Too many people mistake politeness for kindness.”
“Well, my mom could stand to learn a few manners.” She wondered where Major was. Probably with his father. She’d heard Armie talking to him and promising him that he could take as much time as he needed. Something had happened to Major’s father and the gossip hadn’t seemed to have gotten around yet. She thought about asking Seraphina since she seemed to know everything that went on in the town, but it seemed rude. It was obvious Major didn’t want to share his troubles with her.
She wanted to share hers with him, wanted to talk to him about the offer Gavin had put on the table today.
“I like her,” Sylvie admitted. “She’s forthright and honest, and she has some killer shoes. I wore the new Chanel suit I bought when Rene and I went to Dallas last month and we had the best discussion, Diane and I. She knows a lot about fashion.”
“Well, I like her boyfriend,” Hallie said with a sigh. “I can’t believe Gavin Jacks is staying here in our town. He walked into the café the other day and all the women nearly fainted. You should have seen Dixie tripping over her sneakers to get that man a latte. I didn’t know she knew how to make a latte. When I asked her for one she pointed to the cream and sugar and told me to make it myself. I guess you need a chiseled jawline to get Dixie’s attention.”
“He has that,” Seraphina agreed. “And he’s a nice man. He’s very easy to talk to. He likes tofu too much for my tastes, but otherwise he’s a doll. He even helped Harry in his shop the other day. Says he had to learn woodworking for a role. He knows so much.”
“He knows just enough to be dangerous,” Brynn pointed out. “We tend to learn a lot on sets. I know how to sew on buttons and I can hem like a pro, but I’m not a seamstress. And they’re not boyfriend and girlfriend. They’ve been friends for a long time. They help each other out.”
“I think that’s great. But they’re totally doing it,” Sera said with a wave of her hand.
Sylvie nodded. “Oh, yeah. I would bet those two go at it hard.”
Brynn had to laugh at the thought. “Not even once. They annoy each other. They fight way too much to ever even consider falling into bed.”
“Fighting is how Johnny and I usually rev our engines, if you know what I mean,” Hallie admitted. “You know we have two kids, so most of the time our wild date nights involve sucking down a couple of hurricanes at Guidry’s before we go home and fall asleep watching Netflix. But when he annoys me, he gets this look on his face and I can either smash a pie in it or my . . .”
“Hallie,” Sera said, her eyes wide.
Hallie blushed. “I was going to say my lips. Like kissing him. You have a dirty brain, Seraphina. Named after an angel and your mind goes there.”
Sylvie laughed. “Mine, too. Because it can be a heavenly experience.”
One her mom and Gavin definitely weren’t having, but it was nice the rumors weren’t about her for once. It wasn’t like she hadn’t wished her mom and Gavin would get together. When she was a kid, it had been all she wanted, and watching Gavin on the red carpet with gorgeous actresses had made her sad.
Seraphina turned Brynn’s way, her laser-like gaze focusing in. “Speaking of attractive men, how are things going with the deputy? I’ve heard he’s avoiding you.”
Well, at least the rumors were right for once. “And that should tell you how it’s going.”
Seraphina sat back, glass in hand. “He’s been through a lot, but everyone was talking about how you could make him smile.”
“I think he doesn’t see the value in what pretty much has to be a short-term relationship.”
