Titus stood quickly, dropping several twenty-dollar bills on the table and forcibly removing me from my chair. He held my hand tight and pulled me out the door, knowing I was one comment away from blowing my top. I trusted Titus to guide me, twisting my neck to shoot glares at the table of meddlers betting on my love life. They hooted and hollered like uncivilized old ladies, only making me angrier.
I hadn’t even gotten to make a wish and blow out my candle. Nor eat any of the delicious cake. When we’d hit the parking lot, our server came running out of the restaurant to hand Titus the cake in a to-go bag. Thank God for small mercies.
“Thank you!” I called after her.
At least there would be cake.
Titus put the cake in the truck and then lifted me up by the waist. He shook his head. “In your advanced age, I should get you a step stool.”
I smacked his arm and he went back to laughing. When he climbed in the driver’s side, I could only shake my head. “Are you telling me there’s been a town-wide bet for ten years about you and me and we didn’t even know about it? Damn. What else is going on that I should know about but don’t know about because people are hiding things from me?”
Titus paused before starting up the truck. “I’m sure they weren’t doing it to hurt you, Lia. Sometimes surprises can be fun.”
I frowned, studying him closely. “Sounds an awful lot like you have something you haven’t told me about.”
Titus shot me a look that nearly melted my panties. “Only secret I have is what I’m going to do with this cake and your naked body when we get back to your place, sweetheart.”
I had chocolate cake and a promise of a naked Titus in my near future.
And just like that, I was done asking questions and being mad.
19
Titus
Twenty-nine days of bliss.
I’d already lost track of all the orgasms I’d given Amelia. The number of strands I’d lost after she yanked on my hair and rolled her eyes back in her head. The number of times I’d told her how much I loved her. The number of encounters where she started off with a smart mouth and ended up sugary sweet once my lips touched her skin.
I was fuckin’ obsessed.
Which was why I was up early on a Saturday morning heading into town to grab a box of donuts and a gallon of coffee. Contrary to what I’d told her earlier, I had a secret project to work on, and I couldn’t do that while sleeping the day away. Besides, Hell Hotel was packed this weekend from all the tourists wanting to visit our apple orchards in the beautiful fall weather. Amelia would have her hands full and I’d only be in the way. Amelia irritated and stressed wasn’t something I wanted to stick around for if I could help it.
The roundabout into town was backed up due to Peggy Sue taking another one of her infamous trips around the founder’s statue. The crazy lady thought spending her morning circling the inside lane of the roundabout was a decent way to whittle away her last years on this green earth. Poppy had stopped her government-issued postal service truck in the outer lane to yell at Peggy Sue, thus backing up traffic all the way into town. Only problem was she could only get in half a sentence before Peggy Sue drove on by and Poppy had to wait for the next revolution to finish her thought. Welcome to Hell, where nothing was easy nor made sense to a logical mind.
I rolled my window down to catch the riveting action. If I was stuck in traffic, I might as well be entertained.
“You’re causing quite a—” Poppy started, pausing as Peggy Sue drove out of earshot. When the front bumper of her huge car came back around, Poppy kept going. “—scene, Peggy Sue! Stop it this instant!”
I tapped a thumb on my steering wheel and wished I’d had a cup of coffee at home before driving into town. Could have really used it—and a gallon of patience—right about then.
A honk had me looking in my rearview mirror. Bobby, the booking officer at Bain’s prison, climbed out of his car and hitched his pants up to unhealthy levels before striding over to assess the situation. I rolled my eyes. The addition of Bobby wouldn’t help a damn thing. Entertaining, yes. Helpful, no.
Apparently Peggy Sue had the same thought because even though Bobby was now walking in her lane, she didn’t bother to brake. In fact, seemed to me she floored it, that old Lincoln’s engine revving high. Poppy fluttered her arms in the air, her mouth gaping open, but no sound coming out. A pigeon flew above her right into the statue in the middle of the roundabout, too distracted by the sight of an elderly woman with neon green hair trying to take flight to bother with looking where he was going. Feathers rained down on the hood of the Lincoln, the same hood that almost clipped Bobby as it came around, narrowly missing the man by the grace of an overworked angel.
I started a slow golf clap, completely awed by the moves Bobby still had in him. I’ve never seen a guy with that size belly move so quick in my life. Bobby spun at the applause, his eyes still comically wide from his near-death experience. He bowed, sweeping his hat off his head in a flourish. Peggy Sue came around again and this time, she clipped his hand, sending his hat flying in the air. Poppy pounced, catching it for him and handing it back with a saucy wink that had me flashing back to what
