I quit laughing abruptly, nearly swallowing my tongue.
Now it was Amelia’s turn to laugh at the look on my face. “Come on. Let’s eat, then we’ll have the sex talk.”
“Pretty sure my dad already covered that talk when I hit middle school.” I put some baked chicken in some kind of barbecue sauce on Amelia’s plate and handed it to her.
“Oh, I’m sure Mr. Jackson didn’t cover what I’m going to cover,” Amelia said slyly.
I had to adjust myself. But not discretely enough to get past Amelia. Unless we went back to hammer pants, there’d never be enough room for my dick when Amelia talked like that.
“Mmm…this is so good. I’m glad you outsourced dinner to Lenora. No offense,” Amelia added quickly.
I swallowed a huge bite of chicken. “It was actually Finnie who cooked the food and Lenora who packed it all. I mean, I wouldn’t mind cooking for you, but I want you to live a long time, so I figured outsourcing was best.”
Amelia popped a grape in her mouth. “So, what’s this project you’re working on?”
I frowned, heartbeat kick-starting at the question. “What project?”
“You told Vee you had a project you were doing on the weekends. Was that just to get out of her clutches?”
Understanding dawned. I’d have to be careful what I told her. “Well, it was to get out of an invitation I didn’t want from Vee, but it’s the truth. I’m working on something top secret.”
Amelia leaned over and pressed a grape into my mouth, her finger lingering on my lips. Her brown eyes flashed in the fire light. “Too secret to tell me? Your best friend?”
I chewed the grape slowly, enjoying the way Amelia seductively crawled over the blanket to sit on my lap. “Are you trying to seduce the secret out of me, Amelia Waldo?”
I fuckin' loved it. It wouldn’t work, but I sure didn’t mind her trying.
“Maybe…” she drawled, running her hands through my hair and making the goose bumps pop up all over my body. “Is it working?”
I ground my hips up into her backside. “Oh, it’s working all right.”
“Shit!”
We both turned our heads at the distant profanity coming from somewhere on the hillside to our left. The daylight was rapidly diminishing, so it was hard to see who was out there.
“Is that—” Amelia paused, whispering in my ear to remain undetected probably, though I was pretty sure our blazing bonfire would give us away. “Holy fucking seagulls, that’s Poppy leaving a sea cave!”
My face instantly scrunched into a scowl so foul Amelia giggled, pressing her face into my chest to smother the noise. I couldn’t help the natural reaction. Poppy was pushing retirement age and those cotton shirts she bought in bulk from JC Penney before they went under weren’t doing her ample bosom justice. What the hell was she doing in a sea cave at night?
If the town legend had anything to say about it, she was up to no good. The real question was, who was she in that cave with?
“Oh, glory days are here again,” Amelia practically sang.
“What are you talking about? I’m horrified. Maybe a little nauseous.”
Amelia shook her head so hard her hair went flying. I thought she may have turned on the purple vibrator currently jammed in her pocket, but turned out it was just her being excited.
“Are you kidding me? I’ve been waiting years to get something juicy on Poppy. Time to turn the tables on Ms. Gossip Spreader.” Amelia rubbed her hands together and I worried about the implications of an evil mind left to its own devices. “Now how can I use this to my advantage?”
“Maybe you should just tuck that information away for another day.” Sometimes—okay, a lot of the time—Amelia scared me.
She looked at me, her eyes glazed over in thought. “Yes. You’re absolutely right. I’ll save it for when I really need it.”
I tucked her hair back, touching the three stud earrings that lined the shell of her ear. “I think you’re pretty cute when you’re cooking up blackmail.” I smirked. “Get it? Blackmail? She’s a mail carrier?”
Amelia deadpanned me. “Ha. You’re real hilarious. Me thinks this vibrator won’t be seeing any action tonight after all.”
She made to get off my lap, but I pulled her back. “Not so fast, fire pants. We haven’t gotten to the dessert.”
One of Amelia’s perfectly sculpted eyebrows lifted. I had faith she’d be impressed once I told her what it was. I might get lucky after all tonight.
“Please note I object to being called fire pants, but I’m sticking around long enough to hear about this alleged dessert.”
She could lift her little nose in the air all she wanted. I knew the dangled carrot of dessert would grab her attention.
“I made it myself—”
“Well, shit,” she interrupted.
I pinched her side, making her yelp. “I can’t cook, but I can bake. And I made your favorite.”
Her face lit up like Santa himself came down the cliffside to hand her a miniature pony. “Chocolate brownies with peanut butter chips?”
“Yup!”
Amelia squealed and threw her arms around my neck, nearly cutting off my airways. Never doubt a man who’s spent years studying everything that makes a girl smile. I had so many little ways of impressing Amelia no one else would ever stand a chance to outshine me.
“Gimme!” She let go as quickly as she’d latched on, turning to the basket and pulling out the glass Tupperware container at the bottom.
I stilled her hands. “On one condition.”
She looked at me with wide brown eyes. “It’s chocolate and peanut butter, T. Name your condition and you know it’s yours.”
A satisfied smile crept onto my face. “You can have as much of it as you want, but I get to feed it to you.”
“Done!” She pushed my hand out of the way and popped the top off, shoving the container into my chest to start feeding her.
I went
