She chuckled and pointed at me. “Now you see why we’re busier than we’ve ever been. We have to start planning for our tenth-anniversary extravaganza in August, but we don’t even have time to do that.”
I finished filling the last hole and leaned the shovel I’d borrowed from her dad against the shed at the back of the property. “It sounds to me like a meeting tomorrow is necessary. I hope you guys can find a way to make it work. The town has a fondness for your fluffy cupcakes.”
So did I, but I wasn’t going to say that.
“Her cupcakes are all she cares about, other than Brady, of course,” she said as I helped her by the elbow across the driveway.
“And you,” I said, kneeling by her chair after she sat. “I bet she cares about you a lot, too.”
Her heavy sigh stole the laughter from her lips, and I regretted uttering that sentence immediately. “Sometimes she cares too much about me,” she whispered with her eyes on her lap.
Today, she wore a gorgeous red sundress with colorful daisies all over it in a willy-nilly pattern. I won’t lie. It made my dick twitch every time it swished around her to reveal tiny glimpses of her figure. It swayed with the natural motion of her body in a way that told me I’d be taking a cold shower at the first opportunity tonight. It wouldn’t matter, though. Every time I saw her, my lower half stood at attention. She was that damn beautiful. There was just something about the way she moved that told me she was a firestorm in bed. I wanted to know just how much, but I was smart enough to see that was likely never going to happen. This woman had too much on her plate and not enough forks or spoons to empty it.
“I don’t think that’s possible, sweetart.”
“Sweetart?” she asked, a brow in the air.
I smiled to let her know I was teasing. “Like the candy. They’re my favorite.”
“I know what they are, but it’s not a good term of endearment. Zero out of ten, do not recommend.”
I frowned but never broke eye contact with her. “I thought it was perfect. That tart I got the other day was as sweet as the woman who made it.”
“You should call Haylee that then,” she said dryly. “She’s the one who made it.”
I tried to hold in my laughter but failed when it came out on a snort. I held up my hand. “I stand corrected. The tart was as sweet as the woman who handed it to me.” I pointed at the house. “I’m going to go wash up and grab some cold drinks. When I come back, I’ll help you with the fence. Then we can start dinner when the work is done?”
“Sure,” she agreed, nodding her head along with me. “I’ll wait here.”
I stood and patted her shoulder on my way to the house. I hoped my face didn’t show my surprise when she grasped my hand with hers for a moment. I squeezed her shoulder once and then made my way up the stairs into the house. I stripped my shirt off on the way to the bedroom for a quick shower before I joined her again. It was going to be a cold shower for the simple reason I needed to cool my overheated libido for a few moments. I was smart enough to know the only way to quench it for the rest of my life was to be the one who laid down next to her every night, though.
The idea should have startled me more than the cold water, but it didn’t. I fell hard for Amber Larson the first time I met her. If only I knew where to go from here.
THE LAKE WAS GORGEOUS in the late afternoon sunshine. I had purposely waited until later to come out and see how Bishop was doing. As much as I wanted to enjoy his company, my brain knew it was smart not to enjoy it too much. That could result in catching feelings for someone I couldn’t afford to have. Down deep, I knew he was one of those good guys people talk about in this world. I’d met a few like him. Guys like my father, who willingly took in another mouth to feed because his daughter cried that her friend was hurting. Brady, who protects my best friend like she was a fragile porcelain doll who would break if you handled her too roughly. She wouldn’t. She had survived a knife attack at the hands of a deluded woman, but that wasn’t the point. The point was, Brady knew how strong Haylee was, and that was why he loved her the way he did. He had already experienced what it would feel like to lose her, and he was going to do everything in his power to keep her safe. With no family of her own other than me, Brady also knew she needed someone to prop her up in life. He was that kind of guy. Something told me Bishop was cut from the same cloth. That was the reason I had to be so desperately careful about how close I got to him.
I shook my head at the blue sky. Right now, I could use some propping up, but that was never going to happen, not after what happened with Rex.
“There you are,” a voice said behind me.
I spun quickly, having been lost in thought, and lost my balance. My arms pinwheeled in the air, but Bishop was too far away to catch me. I fell backward, directly into the cold water of Lake Pendle. I came up sputtering, water running down my face in rivulets and my lips sputtering to clear it from my mouth.
“Amber!” he
