Page 73 of Shortcake
His laugh boomed through the kitchen, vibrating the air between us. It made my stomach fizzle like a shaken can of soda. “Theremightbe photographic evidence of my long, shaggy hair and Phish phase.”
“Nooooo. You were a Phish fan?” I jumped up and down, squealing in delight. “Please, please, please tell me there’s a photo of you with a tie-dyed shirt and Birkenstock sandals somewhere.”
He took another pull of his beer and shrugged nonchalantly. “I guess you’ll never know.”
“Please, I’ll give you anything. You want to see a horrendous photo of me from tap class in a frilly, sequined outfit? Or maybe the picture of me when I thought I could cut my own bangs when I was nine?”
“Hmmmm.” He tapped his forefinger to his chin. “Those are very tempting. I bet little Addy was quite the little hell-raiser.”
“Not so different from adult Addy, huh?”
Conrad shook his head slowly. “You’re not a hell-raiser. You’re a business owner. You’ve got to be settled and responsible to be successful in that.”
I pushed my bottom lip out into a pout. “I know that’s supposed to be a compliment, but I can’t help but feel like you’re implying I’ve lost my badass edge.”
“Oh, come on. Is being badass really all it’s cracked up to be?”
I gaped in a mocked hurt expression. “Yes. Yes, it is. I have a reputation to maintain here in town as a troublemaker! No one wants to come drink at the bar owned by a good girl in a polo shirt and khakis.” His eyes flicked down to his own, pressed pair of khakis that despite sitting for hours in dinner, still didn’t have a single wrinkle.
Nevertheless, his smile stayed in place. “Listen, nothing’s more badass than someone who keeps the books, places orders, organizes events, and opens and maintains their own business.That’smetal.”
He tapped the edge of his beer bottle to mine and with a bounce of his eyebrows, we both drained the last of our beer.
I narrowed my eyes at him, swallowing and wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.
“I can’t help but think you’re just trying to steer the conversation away from this alleged photo of you that exists as a Phish fan. Stop dodging the question and tell me, what do you need from me for an even exchange of this photo?”
He held my eyes for a beat longer than comfortable, his smile relaxing. But his eyes, I could see the thoughts churning like an ocean before a storm in those cloaked eyes of his. When he took a step into me, he leaned down, his rough fingertips cautiously curving around my hip.
In a rough whisper, he asked, “You really want to see that photo?”
I nodded, not trusting my voice to answer him.
“Then what I want in exchange… is for you to call your sister.”
ChapterTwelve
Conrad
The next night, I dropped Harper off at a girl named Mia’s house. After thoroughly humiliating my daughter by walking her to the door to meet Mia’s parents and make sure they would be there with the kids all night, I was back behind the wheel, getting ready to pull out of Mia’s driveway. An all-caps text came through from Harper, yelling about how I’d thoroughly embarrassed her.
Tough shit, kiddo. That’s what happens when you break the rules.
I texted her back:This is the price of broken trust. It’ll take more than a few days and some unpacked boxes to win it back.
I hit send, then typed inI love you.
Thankfully, her response came in quickly.Luv u 2
I smiled and pulled out of the driveway to make my way back home.
I hadn’t seen Addy all day. Granted, I was up at six, ran my regular route of four miles, and neither Harper nor Addy were up by the time I left for work at seven-thirty. Not that that was any surprise. Harper would likely sleep in until noon without me there to drag her out of bed, and Addy…
Actually, I didn’tknowAddy’s sleeping habits. Except that maybe she was a light sleeper. That would explain why she caught me the morning I’d tried to slip out after our night together. I’d barely made any noise, and yet she had woken up and caught me.
Thank God for that. As great as our one night having sex was… it was that second night, the botched dinner that had always stuck with me.
But for all I knew, Addy was a morning person… awake before me and out the door before I left for my morning run every day.
