Whitney sighed. A project with Drew? About alpacas? Okay, well, she was launching a new snack bar with fox footprints on them and she’d had alpacas and goats at her dessert tasting. Who was she to judge?
Deal, she texted back. Soon.
Definitely.
Whitney sat back in her chair. Well, that had not gone the way she’d expected. She chewed her bottom lip. There was one other woman who she would like to have drinks—or cookies—with. It was more of a longshot than Piper, who she saw every day and had gotten to know better over the past few months the guys had been in town. They at least had Hot Cakes and the guys in common. But there was one other option, and she really was in the mood to go out and be social.
She could just go home, of course. She always wanted to go home and see Didi. And take her heels and bra off. And now Cam was there and that made it even more enticing. Plus the house always smelled amazing now. A combination of cleaning products, which she knew were homemade by his mother because she’d overheard the guys joking about it one day, and food. Usually baked goods, but he also made casseroles and he’d talked Didi into burgers at an actual decent dinnertime the other night. They ate at Maggie’s most nights, but they ate at home every once in a while. And they always saved Whitney some food. They either brought her a plate from Maggie’s or they saved her some of whatever they made. So the house always smelled very homey when she walked in.
She was really getting used to having Cam around.
Not just because of the housekeeping/cooking/caregiving tasks.
But not not because of those.
Throw in some naked baking and/or orgasms and she’d never let him leave.
Hell, she’d be okay with him just walking around without his shirt on a regular basis.
Huh, it seemingly took just a few minutes of free time with her to-do list crossed off and her brain immediately, happily, shifted into another gear all together.
But she couldn’t just go home and throw herself at Cam.
Probably.
Until later. When Didi was in bed.
No, she scolded herself. Not even then.
She’d made a big deal out of the fact that she didn’t want to do the relationship thing, and then he’d made a big deal out of supporting her in that and she should really let him. And respect that. And stuff.
Free time was obviously a problem. If she had too much time to think about things other than Hot Cakes, she got into trouble. She needed to keep busy.
She took a breath and pulled up Paige’s number in her phone.
Paige was quite a bit younger but she was very… Whitney wasn’t sure of the word. Mature sounded dumb. She was, of course, but there was something else about Paige that made her seem older than her just-turned-twenty-two years. It was her calm spirituality. Or something. Paige was just very sure of herself, who she was, what she wanted. She did yoga and collected cats and was a vegetarian in a little town in Iowa where that was regarded as a bit strange. But she did it all with a smile and a general disregard for what others thought of her.
She was just… calm. She was very soothing.
It was why Whitney loved her yoga classes and just enjoyed talking with Paige whenever she had the chance.
Whitney probably needed more soothing in her life.
So she should definitely invite Paige for drinks and a girls’ night out with her.
Whitney typed and hit send quickly before she could think about it too hard.
Hi! It’s Whitney. Wondering if you’d be up for having a drink tonight?
Again, the two-minute lag time between sending and receiving a response felt like years.
Hi! I’m so sorry, Whitney! I have plans tonight. I would love to do it another time.
Oh, no problem. It’s last minute, I know, Whitney typed back quickly.
I can’t believe you’re asking me to go out on the ONE night that my friend is back in town from Louisiana and can get together! Paige texted back.
It’s fine! Whitney assured her. You should see your friend.
She moved to Louisiana because she fell in love a few months ago. Paige sent an eye-rolling emoji at that.
Whitney had to laugh. Paige was really not into falling in love and people upending their lives to be with Their One True Love.
Paige loved to date and didn’t sit home on the weekends unless she wanted to. But she did not get serious. Every time someone asked her when she was going to settle down, or worse, get married, she got another cat.
We can do it another time, Whitney replied. Maybe Paige would talk her out of all these mushy, semi-in-love feelings she was having for Cam.
Would that be a good thing? Or not?
Tori is a vet, Paige went on. She’s the one who took care of all my cats. Lol! So she’s looking at my new stray for me. She’s here to collect her own animals and take them back to Louisiana with her.
Whitney smiled. Seriously, no problem.
Well, she did bring her boyfriend and his HOT cousin with her. Paige sent a smiley face emoji with the tongue hanging out and then a fire emoji. So I’m not exactly upset. She included a winking emoji.
Whitney laughed. Have fun!
Oh, I will! This Louisiana drawl is doing it for me. Paige sent a grinning emoji. But I really want to go out with you sometime soon, okay?
Whitney nodded. She wanted to do this too. She had rain checks for two girls’ nights out now. That was a lot more than she’d had an hour ago. For sure. And then I can hear all about how things went with this guy. She hesitated before sending that, but that was the kind of stuff women talked about on girls’ nights out, right? She finally pushed
