Page 7 of Playoffs & Promises

"Easy there. I want to try those."

"They'll taste just fine. Focus."

"Oh I'm focusing on the fact that you got into it with your hot neighbor again. Tell me again why the two of you haven't just given into the crazy chemistry you have?"

"There is no chemistry. Just pure hatred."

"Which is why you make him special lemon bars every day."

"What else am I supposed to do with the lemons?"

She glances at me out of the corner of her eye. "Maria, really?"

The car behind us honks, and I look up to see the light we'd stopped at has turned green.

"Eyes on the road!" I yell at her. "I don't even have a license and even I know that."

She shakes her head and with a wave to the car behind us and continues driving.

"He's just so aggravating," I tell her. "He gets lemon bars because he sucks."

"At what point does the Shakespeare quote about protesting apply?" Charlotte asks.

"Oh, shush."

"I'm just saying if you really hated him, you'd really cut him off from your bakery. As long as you keep making him those lemon bars, no one is going to believe you really hate him. If anything it makes it look like you have a huge crush on him."

My mouth falls open. "I so do not."

"It's like when I was in high school and would happen to have an extra grape pop on me during prep because I knew that Xavier O'Reilly liked it."

"This is nothing like that."

"Well if you two end up together I want the credit."

"I'll put it on a cake."

"Deal." She pulls her car into the bookstore's parking lot. "Just think about it. If you really don't like him and really don't want to sell to him, don't make him special."

She's completely right, and I tell her so, "You're right. It's about time I ban him from the bakery for real."

By the time we step inside The Book Garden, I leave thoughts of Lou behind. Instead, I set out the plate of Mexican wedding cookies I'd made.

Sofie comes over with cups to put by a pitcher of ice water on the table. "Oh are those in honor of the book we read?"

"That obvious?" I ask her.

"Well, it was a marriage of convenience book. The wedding was a big part of the story."

Lia snags one of the cookies off the plate. "But that would never happen in real life."

I can't help but lift an eyebrow as I stare at her. "Just a fake engagement?" I ask her.

"That was different." Lia's cheeks turn red, and she turns to Charlotte for saving. "You don't think someone would get married for an outrageous inheritance do you?"

Charlotte's eyes go big. "Why would you think I know what the rich do?"

Kim lets out a laugh as she sits down in one of the plush chairs arranged for the book club. A mixture of coffee tables and new end tables are within reach for us to put our snacks and drinks on, and we set up a laptop for Hannah to video call in. She joins in person whenever she can, but living in a different state makes it harder.

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