Page 41 of The Trouble with Wanting

“I might even make it a new part of my workout routine. Normally I swim, and I mix in running here and there, but occasionally adding in a yoga class could be really fun.”

“Yay!” she squeals, pulling open the sliding door and stepping into the kitchen. “You should check out the studio I go to when you’re back to Boston. The teachers there are amazing.”

It’s the first time either of us has made reference to the fact that we don’t live far from each other back in New England. Sure, it’s a nugget of knowledge we both have—that we flew here together and will both wind up back in Beantown in the next few weeks.

But our friendship so far has felt rooted in Cedar Point, like it wouldn’t have bloomed past that in-air flirtation if we hadn’t been fortunate enough to be staying in the same town.

I’m surprised by how it feels, knowing I like her comment. It takes those little roots and begins to measure them to see if they’ll stretch out to grow something along the shores of the east coast, too.

“Good morning.” Bellamy’s husky hello from where she sits drinking a cup of coffee at the counter has both Ruby and me turning to take her in, in all of her hungover, not-a-morning-person, pajama’d glory.

“Morning!”

Bellamy winces. “I don’t know how you’re this chipper this early when I would kill to crawl back into bed.”

“Why are you up this early?”

My sister normally isn’t up until at least ten, so to see her down here at—I glance at the clock on the stove—just after eight is unusual.

“I promised Bishop I’d help him and Andy with that stuff at One Stop,” she says, yawning and then resting her head on an arm she has splayed across the countertop.

Crossing the kitchen to pour myself another cup of coffee, I let out a snort at the fact that my brother has managed to rope in additional bodies to assist the Marshall men with their buildout.

“Funny. I promised him the same thing.”

She groans, rolling her head to hide her face. “Well then what the hell am I doing getting up this early? I could be snuggled in bed right now.” She lets out some dramatic fake tears that have Ruby giggling from where she’s taken a seat next to her.

“What’s happening?”

I set a cup of coffee in front of Ruby, along with a little cup of creamer and a bowl of sugar, before opening the fridge to start pulling out the breakfast ingredients.

“The owner of the grocery store had a heart attack a while back and his son is struggling to finish an expansion they’d started working on.”

I chuck a package of bacon onto the counter, followed by a carton of eggs and the last few slices of bread.

“Bishop’s helping him and asked us to help, too. I’m such a sucker for the locals,” Bellamy says. Then she breaks into fake sobbing again. “I wish I’d said no.”

“Speaking of locals,” I say, bracing my hands on the counter and glaring at my sister. “Since when are you and Corinne making nice?”

Bells drops the sobbing bit and tries to smile at me. “I’m sorry, okay? She’s been around all summer and you know shit gets boring around here sometimes. I was desperate for a friend.”

“You couldn’t have found anybody else? Or, at the very least, not brought her out when you knew I was going to be around?”

My sister groans. “I get it, okay? Besides, after seeing how icky she was last night when you got there, I can certainly confirm that I have no intention of watching her act like that again.”

Then she fake gags. So dramatic.

I glance over at Ruby, who is watching us with a soft smile on her face, sipping her coffee and holding her mug in both hands. God, she’s adorable.

“But back to the real travesty of the day.” Bellamy begins to fake sob again. “Doing construction work on a Sunday morning in this heat.”

“I can go in your place.”

Bellamy’s ridiculous faux-wails stop again and she perks up, looking at Ruby like the woman has saved her life.

“Come on,” I interject. “Bellamy, don’t guilt Ruby into helping in your place.”

“I’m not!”

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