Page 54 of Rosie and the Beast Next Door

“No, I—”

“Haydn and Lia got hurt.”

“They’re fine. It’s that—”

“Jules is—”

“Rosie! I’m pretty sure I saw Dad in town.”

“Oh.” Now my heart raced for an entirely different reason. Crap. Dad was supposed to stay out of sight and only go into town when Bennett was out to sea. “You also thought you saw him last year. And the year before.”

“I did.” Bennett frowned. “Or at least, I think I did. It’s been a long time. He might have changed.”

“Maybe he wants to reconcile,” I said, sounding a little too hopeful. If I could get Bennett on board, he’d help me convince the others. Then all these secrets could go away, and we could be on our way to becoming one, big, happy family.

“No. Dad being here would mean nothing good. If you see him, stay far away.”

My hope deflated.

He looped an arm around my shoulders, and we walked toward the parking lot together. “How was practice? I heard that you and a certain someone were pretty close.”

I elbowed him in the side, and he let out an oof. “Practice went well, in case you were wondering.”

He pulled his arm even tighter around my neck and rubbed his knuckles into my skull. “I just figured, romantic that you are, you’d want to talk about the kissing first.”

“Haydn!” My brothers always did this. Teased the living daylights out of me whenever I had a boyfriend. “We haven’t kissed. Yet.” But actually, that should be on the table, right? I hadn’t kissed that many guys before—what with there being so few single guys in Winterhaven, and me being busy running my boutique. The thought of kissing Dylan wasn’t horrible. We’d almost done it that one night, even. Maybe it would be good practice, actually, before I was on deck with Max.

“Oh, come on. You can tell us about it.”

“Us? I’m only talking to you.”

He pulled out his phone. “Not once I put this in the group chat.”

“Don’t you dare.”

“I promised to keep them updated about you.”

I reached out to snag his phone, but he jumped back before I could. He held the phone over his head where I couldn’t reach it.

He had voice-to-text on, and was saying, “Rosie has a boyfriend. It’s Dylan Savage. She wants to date him. She wants to kiss him. She wants to—”

“Don’t listen to him! It’s a lie! LALALA!” I tried to yell over him. I managed to knock his elbow down, and he fumbled the phone in his hands.

But then he smiled at me victoriously. “Sent.”

I huffed out a laugh, and then Bennett started laughing too as he stared down at his phone. Mine vibrated with the incoming message, and I pulled it from my back pocket.

Bennett:Rosie has a listen. Friend. Him a lie. It’s Savage. She lala to date lala marry—”

The question marks rolled in instantly, which only made us laugh harder.

“I’m hungry,” I said. “Want to come to my place for a quick dinner before my shift, and we can leave them hanging a little longer?”

“That’s evil.”

“I have leftover lasagna …”

“I’m in,” he said. “And you can give me a play by play of—”

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