Page 47 of Bottle Rocket
“To be fair, the jam making included sex.”
She waved that away. “That’s because you sexualized the peaches.”
A shocked laugh slipped out of his throat. Before he could refute that, she straddled his lap. Her hair flew around her face. She slapped her hat back onto her head, turning it backwards again.
“Thank you,” she said. “Thank you for teaching me. Seeing my little creations lined up in my kitchen, I haven’t felt that way since—” She shook her head.
He was walloped by the desire to paint her like this. Backwards hat, peach stain on her tank top, dappled by sunlight through the leaves of the tree. She was the most beautiful creature he’d ever held in his hands. It was so overwhelming, his feelings for her. His heart was beating a weird tattoo in his chest. His stomach hurt. His palms ached.
She needed to know. They needed to talk about this. Come up with a plan. A plan that wasn’t, “Hey, let’s fuck when you drive through town.”
He loved her. Still.
“Rosie, I think I l—”
She frowned, panic flitting through her eyes, and stopped his words with a kiss. “No. Not yet,” she murmured against his lips.
Surprise and pain washed through him, but he nodded. She stuffed another bite of jam and bread into his mouth as if he didn’t get the picture.
He got the picture. She wasn’t ready for that conversation yet.
She’d found a hobby that made her happy. She could be a jam-making fiend. She could stop feeling like that blank slate.
And she absolutely did not want Leo to kill her vibe with talk of love and the future. That message came through loud and clear.
Chapter Eleven
The windowat the Lady Robin’s Independence Day Pop-up Party had a display of red and blue lingerie on glossy, white, faceless mannequins. The mannequins were holding peaches and American flags, except for one that was holding an eggplant.
Rosie laughed as she studied the display. It was clever, sexy, and trendy. She spotted her brother and his boyfriend crossing the street to reach the temporary Lady Robin’s storefront. She and Benji used to try to plan their trips to these pop-up shops so they wouldn’t be there at the same time. Rosie had figured there was nothing quite as awkward as seeing your older sister purchase dildos from your other older sister, but, eventually, it became too much trouble to arrange. Benji wasn’t shy about sex, so there was no reason Rosie should be either.
Benji sidled up to her, slinging his arm over her shoulder. “I’m here to meet your boy toy.”
“What?” She didn’t like the sound of that. Leo was in there selling his art. She’d forgotten that Sasha had let that slip in their group text.
“I can’t wait.”
William mouthed, “I’m sorry,” to her, and she sighed.
“That’s a new Wren Rebello piece,” Benji said, pointing to a mannequin wearing a blue jock with gold straps. “She gave me an early promo for my Instagram.”
“That’s cool.” Rosie followed Benji’s lingerie influencer Instagram account, but she rarely opened the app. It wasn’t exactly fun seeing the exciting stuff everyone was doing when she was sitting at home being boring. Though, she had posted a picture of her cute jars of jam yesterday. It was proof (to herself, at least) that the Summer of Rosie had been somewhat successful.
Maybe she could be a jam influencer. A jam influencer by day and a pegging queen by night. She had hobbies now.
“Let’s go inside. Babe, do you have our shopping list?” Benji asked William.
William held up an actual itemized list. It was long. Benji pulled Rosie into the shop.
Rosie went to all the Lady Robin’s Intimate Implement pop-up shops, but none of them had ever been like this one. It kind of felt like patriotism had thrown up in the space, but there were also sex toys everywhere. It was fabulous and irreverent and so perfectly Lady Robin’s.
Leo was at a busy table toward the back of the shop, surrounded by shoppers. She would say hello to him soon. In the meantime, Benji skipped off with William to look at a display of Fleshjacks, and Rosie found Sasha, who was manning a table of Lady Robin’s newest small-batch dildos.
Rosie gave her sister a hug. “This is amazing, Sasha. You guys outdid yourselves.”
“Thank you. Robin let me name these after fireworks.” Sasha gestured over the display of silicone toys in front of her. She started at one end and tapped each dildo, telling Rosie the name. “Saturn Missile, Bombette, Chrysanthemum, and Silver Salute.”
“They’re pretty.” They were all covered in different glittery patterns with a dark base color, like a galaxy, or, Rosie supposed, like fireworks. She picked up the Bombette. It was short and fat with a wicked curved head. The design on it was dark navy blue with shiny red sparkles. “I want this one.”
