Page 103 of Just Act Natural

She gestures at a small painting of abstract flowers. It’s a tumult of joyful color and will suit Eliza to a tee.

I lift it off the wall. “You’re good at this.”

“Yup. And I was thinking this—” She moves to a small wooden jewelry rack and carefully removes something. She holds it up to me, revealing three green stones on a delicate gold chain. “For your grandma. Kind of representing you and your brothers.”

She thought about my grandma? I don’t deserve this generous woman.

“I don’t know if she likes jewelry though…”

“She’ll love it, princess.” I swoop in to give her a brief, heated kiss on the mouth, then kiss my way over to her ear. “Thank you.”

“Aw, PDA.” Wren leans in the pass-through archway wearing a purple apron like she wore when she barged into thebike shop last week. “Are you guys coming to the lake with us?”

“They’re in,” Hope confirms.

“It’s been a long time since I had an ex worth getting mad at, but my new life’s goal is to pull a Lila.” She gazes up at the ceiling with a dreamy expression. “Maybe I’ll save it for Callahan.”

Lila ticks her head to the side, swaying a touch so her shoulder presses against mine. “What does ‘pull a Lila’ mean?”

“You know.” Wren’s enormous grin reminds me of Rhett’s. “Throw up on some jerk’s shoes.”

Groaning, Lila spins to press her forehead against my chest. “Does everybody know about that?”

Hope meets my eyes. “Uh, there might be some talk about it.”

That’s small-town speak foreverybody knows.

I run my free hand up and down Lila’s back. I wouldn’t expect the witnesses to keep quiet about her run-in with her ex, but I didn’t think it would come back to haunt her so quickly.

“This has been fun.” She tilts her head to look up at me. “Can I stow away in your luggage and go home with you?”

Yes, please!

“You’re my new role model,” Wren says. “We’re proud of you.”

Lila turns. “It wasn’t premeditated.”

“When I tell the story it was.” A bell rings somewhere on the bakery side of the building. Wren points at us as she backs away. “I’ll text you the details for the lake day.”

“Do I move?” Lila asks. “Do I change my name? What’s the protocol here?”

“You own it,” Hope says. “I saw Ada and Isabel in Delish yesterday, and they said you’re their new hero. Amy and Jodi can’t get enough of the story.”

“It’s not really how I wanted to be recognized in this town. ‘Hey, aren’t you that girl who puked on a guy?’”

“You can always explain that you told him off first,” I tell her. “It was impressive in context.”

“Not helping.”

“That’s something to be proud of,” Hope says. “He needed telling off.”

Lila takes the things she picked out for my family and sets them on the counter. “When I give my presentation, everyone on the town council will be thinking about how I threw up on a tourist on Maple Street.”

“It was for the greater good.”

“So satisfying to watch,” I add. Hope high fives me.

Lila glares. “That’s deeply disgusting.”

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