Page 57 of All Mine

Sloane picked up her phone and hit a button. “I’ll find out.”

“Hey,” she said into the phone, “Did Lewis sell?” She listened for a minute. “Jonah’s looking it up,” she said, glancing between Eden and me. “Okay, thanks.” She hung up. “He says there’s no record of a sale yet.”

“Maybe something happened with his family, and he rushed out?” Eden asked.

“He said that he didn’t have any.”

“Well, that’s depressing,” Eden said.

“I’ll take it as a learning experience,” I said.

“What up?” Adrian asked, coming up from behind and sliding his bulk into the booth, bumping me until I moved over. He had trimmed his bushy beard until he no longer resembled a mountain man.

“Well, you look almost respectable,” I said.

“But not quite respectable, right?”

“Couldn’t have that,” I said.

“No,” he said, drawing out the o.

“Who is she?” I asked.

“No woman,” he said, drumming the table with his index fingers. “It’s getting too damn hot out for all that hair.”

Adrian didn’t talk about women or much of anything. He’d had a high school sweetheart we all assumed he’d marry, but after graduation, he moved away instead until his father had a heart attack. Then Adrian returned, looking like a man who could survive dropped in the middle of nowhere with nothing but a bow knife and a hairpin. He said little about his time away from Hart Valley but stepped right in and took over for his dad without a complaint.

“You guys going to the town hall meeting tonight?” he asked.

“I can’t.” Eden grinned. “You have me working a double, boss man.”

“Don’t sass me, Beer Wench. You’re standing around gabbing with your friends like it’s some party.”

I smack Adrian on the arm, but Eden rolled her eyes and took the seat next to Sloane, across from Adrian.

“Better?” she asked.

He laughed.

“I see she fits in nicely,” I said.

“She’s becoming more like the two of you every day,” Adrian said.

“Her training is almost complete,” Sloane held her hands up in a steeple, diabolically tapping her fingers.

Somehow, I found a laugh. I loved these guys, and I didn’t need to put up with the likes of Camden Carter. Even if our last time together, he made love to me like it meant something to him. I’d obviously read more into it.

“Did you guys want anything?” Eden asked.

“You hadn’t even taken their order yet?” Adrian asked.

“It’s not like they pay,” Eden said.

“True,” Adrian said.

“Hey, you get a cut of the cupcakes you sell here,” I said. I’m not a freeloader.

“And I talk nice about the bar to everyone I meet,” Sloane said.

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