Page 16 of The Best Friend Power Play

"What are you doing?" She gently elbows my arm out of the way. "I'm paying for this."

"No. Let me. Please."

"Absolutely not. You're my guest. And besides, you're cooking the meal. I can't let you pay for the ingredients."

"But if you cook the meal, then we'll all pay for it."

She smiles but doesn't relent. "I'm not letting you pay, Culver. End of story."

The person behind us in line clears their throat.

We turn around at the same time. It's Mr. Brennan, Comfort Bay's oldest resident at ninety-seven years young.

"I don't mind you two having a lover's quarrel, but Family Feud is starting in ten minutes. Do you think you'll be much longer?"

I take advantage of Hannah being distracted by Mr. Brennan and hand Doyle my credit card.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Brennan," Hannah says. "I'll just pay up, and then you'll be in your armchair watching Steve Harvey in no time."

"Done!" I say with a triumphant grin as Doyle hands back my card.

Hannah snaps her head between us a few times. Her eyes narrow. Her voice lowers. "Traitors. Both of you."

"Serves you right for being a flincher," Doyle shoots back, and I wish I could say he was joking around, but nope, the grudge he's harboring is real.

I scoop up the brown paper bag. "Thanks, Doyle. I'll check my schedule to see if I'm free for the festival." I turn around. "Sorry for the hold up, Mr. Brennan."

Once we're outside, Hannah links her arm through mine. "Thank you for paying."

"It's no problem."

"Are you sure?"

We turn to look at each other.

She's nibbling on her bottom lip, and I know what she's referring to. "Yes, I'm sure. I may have squandered more money than I want to think about, but I can still afford some ingredients for a meal."

"And disposable razors."

"Excuse me?"

"You paid for my razors, too."

"In that case, hopefully they were the cheap ones, otherwise that will put a dent in my finances."

I smile to let her know I'm kidding.

We start walking back to her place, still arm-in-arm.

Doyle can be a huge pain in the you-know-what, but one thing he said has stuck with me—that Hannah seemed excited about me coming here for the summer.

It's probably nothing.

Then again, it's a similar sign to the one Fraser pointed out.

And I did notice her cheeks get a little redder when Doyle said it.

But no.

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