Page 129 of Seeking Two Lovers

“Must be nice to not have to worry about money,” she muttered.

We went back and forth, filling up the next ten minutes it took to get to the mall.

Within a matter of two hours, we’d taken three trips out to the car to unload our arms. On the fourth and final trip, my cell buzzed in my jeans’ back pocket.

Haley had a free hand and pulled it out for me. “It’s Mr. Yummy.”

A smile erupted on my face. “Answer it?”

“Hey, there, Mr. Yummy,” Haley said with a singsong voice. “How are you holding up?”

Blaine spoke to her while I dropped one arm load of bags to dig my keys from my purse.

“Mmm. Yeah, I hear ya,” Haley said, no longer as chipper.

I hit unlock and popped the trunk.

“Well, I want you to know that I’m available to help out in whatever way I can,” I heard Haley tell him. “If your sister decides she wants to stay out here in the Golden State, I’m thinking I’ll be looking for a roommate around the same time I lose my current one.”

Heat flooded my face. “Haley!” I hissed.

She winked. “Oh, I hear that too,” she told Blaine then blew me a kiss. “Yep. Hold on a sec…” My intrusive cousin handed over my cell.

“I’m going to kill you!” I whispered furiously, my palm covering my cell’s mic.

The bitch laughed while putting her bags into the trunk.

“Hey,” I said into my phone, my heart in my throat.

“Hey,” Blaine murmured, sounding a little more upbeat than when I’d left him earlier. “Would you mind coming with me to pick up Sarah at the airport?”

My chest squeezed up tight with delicious threads of happiness over the fact that he wanted me with him for such an intimate reunion. “Of course!”

“Grey had to go into work for an emergency meeting with one of his pain-in-the-ass customers.”

Second choice…

The bright smile on my face faded, and I climbed into the hot car, stabbing my keys at the ignition in my piece-of-shit car. “What time is her flight coming in?”

“Seven forty-five.”

Swallowing hard, I nodded and roared the engine to life. I tucked my cell between my ear and shoulder, cranking down the window to let some fresh air into the stifling interior.

“We’ll be there in a half-hour with all of Sarah’s stuff.”

“I’ll be here to help you unload. I got the sheets laundered and the bed all ready for her, so there really isn’t much more to do.”

We said our goodbyes, and I fought to keep my tone light and encouraging.

“What?” Haley asked the second I hung up.

I clicked my cell onto the magnetic holder I’d mounted onto the dashboard. “He asked me to go with him to get Sarah—but only because Grey got called into work.”

“You’re sure that’s the reason?”

I shrugged, but the thought had processed thoroughly in my head, and there was no escaping it.

“Don’t think too hard on it, Lily. He wanted you there enough to ask you.”