Page 64 of Resisting Fate (Hope Falls: Brewed Awakenings 3)

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Audrey smoothedthe sheet mask over her forehead and on her chin. She hadn’t heard from Josh so unfortunately tonight wasn’t going to be a movie night. Instead of feeling sorry for herself, she’d decided to do some self-care. She’d taken a long bath, put on her most comfortable pjs and applied a collagen infused, vitamin C, coconut gel mask that purported to hydrate, tighten and reenergize her skin. Which she needed.

In her twenties, her four in the morning wake-up calls and six to seven days per week schedule hadn’t shown on her face. But now that she was in her thirties, they were starting to take a toll.

Once the mask was in place she went to the kitchen and grabbed the cookies out of the oven. Lucy did a figure eight between her feet as she set them to cool on a rack on the butcher block island.

From the time Audrey was a teenager, she’d baked every Sunday. It was something she’d taken over from her mom once she got too sick.

Cora Wells was an advocate for healthy eating, but she believed in balance. Every Sunday she would bake a treat as a reward for getting through the week. But before any of the girls could indulge in the baked goodness, their mom would put on the radio and they’d all have a dance party to preemptively burn off the calories. Once their mom got too ill to do the baking, Audrey had taken over. They still had dance parties, but their mom would lay in bed and Audrey and her sisters would dance around her.

That tradition was Audrey’s way of keeping her mom’s spirit alive. The baking, not the dance parties. She’d tried to do it by herself but dancing alone just wasn’t the same. She wished that Josh was there and they could add slow dance Sunday to their movie tradition.

And actually, Sunday baking nights was how Audrey and Josh’s movie nights had begun. After living in Hope Falls for about a year, she’d texted Josh that she’d made too many chocolate chip cookies and asked if he wanted her to bag them up and bring them to him the next day.

Had she been using it as an excuse to talk to him? Abso-freaking-lutely. And it worked even better than she’d planned. He messaged right back that he’d just left Sunday dinner and cookies sounded awesome and then he showed up with a movie.

It wasn’t like they watched a movie every Sunday, but usually they did at least once a month. At least they had before all the singles week stuff had happened. Since then, there had been no movie nights. But, on the flip side, they had spent the night together and had sex. So, she guessed it was a tradeoff.

She’d just put the last cookie on the cooling rack when she heard the door. She figured it was Viv coming over to ask if Audrey could open tomorrow. Sometimes when her sister had a big ask, she would stop by since they only lived a block away from each other. Her reasoning was that it was harder for Audrey to say no if she saw her beg in person. The truth was, Audrey couldn’t say no to her sister in person, in text, or probably in smoke signal. If Viv or any of her other sisters needed her, she was there.

When she opened the door, she was shocked to see Josh standing on the other side and he wasn’t alone. Thor was beside him. He’d usually texted before he came over for movie night.

She smiled and the mask began to slip off her face. “Hi!”

“Am I interrupting something?” he asked.

“No. I was just…” Depressed because I wasn’t going to see you tonight so I was trying to distract myself by putting on a face mask. “Trying a new facemask Viv recommended.”

That wasn’t a lie. Viv had been the one to tell Audrey about the mask.

She leaned over and petted Thor on his head. He sniffed her hand and started licking it, probably smelling the cookie dough. Butterflies were flitting around her stomach as she kept her attention focused on Thor.

Josh was here. At her house. And he’d shown up unannounced. That was the textbook definition of a booty call.

“Well, if you’re not busy, I was thinking tonight would be a good Stepbrothers night.”

Or not. Audrey lifted her head, glad that she had a face mask in place to conceal the disappointment she felt after thinking for a brief, glorious second, that he was here for an encore of their night at the cabin. Although looking at the context clues, she should have known better. Did people bring dogs to booty calls? Probably not.

“Sure, yeah. Um, do you think he’ll be okay with the cats?”

The only reason Audrey hadn’t brought Thor home the day he showed up at the shelter was because she’d been worried about how Lucy and Frank would do with him.

“I think so. He’s fine with Bullet and Batman.”

“Oh, right, okay.” Audrey opened the door and Thor walked right in.

Lucy showed zero fear and wobbled right over to meet him. Thor laid down in a submissive position and the cat proceeded to sniff all over his face. Once the sniffing was done, the bathing commenced. Lucy licked all over Thor’s face and ears and neck. Thor seemed pleased as punch with the attention.

Frank was less welcoming. He sat perched on the top of the built-in bookshelf next to the television giving Thor a death stare.

“Something smells delicious.” Josh inhaled. “Double chocolate chip?”

“Yep. But they aren’t ready yet. They’re cooling.” After she double-checked that the animals were all getting along, or at least not having any issues, she said, “Um, let me go take this off.”

She rushed down the hall into the bathroom and when she saw her reflection she gasped. Her Grateful Dead T-shirt, that had been her mother’s, had a hole in the armpit. Her sweats were three sizes too big; they’d been hand me downs from Viv who had them because one of her many suitors left them at her house. Her hair was piled up in a messy bun on top of her head and the pièce de résistance, the white sheet mask that made her look like Michael Myers from Halloween.

After removing the mask, she considered changing, but worried that it would be too obvious. She didn’t want to look like she was trying too hard. Usually, when she and Josh had movie nights together, she went for an effortlessly casual look. She wore cute, athleisure wear that matched. This ensemble screamed depressed woman who had given up.

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