Page 35 of Forever Flirting

“Interesting…” she muttered nervously, making small talk, and not quite sure what to say to the woman while digging out her bank card.

“Why is that? Is Maestro not like that with you? He’s not quiet with you?”

“No,” Everly admitted, seeing the woman’s eyes light up with joy.

“Ohhh my,” Dixie clasped her hands together happily and beamed. “Harley, Delilah, and Marisol are going to love this, and I am so happy I get to be the one to tell Glory.”

“Glory Petersen?Glory isn’t a common name, and this is a small town. And what are you going to tell herexactly?”

“Nothing!” Dixie quipped, muffling a laugh – causing Everly to frown. “I’m just really happy to meet you, and hope to see you soon.”

“Sure,” she replied evasively, picking up the tray right away and walking back towards the table in the distance before throwing a casual glance over her shoulder, to see the woman was already texting someone.

As she set the tray down, she heard a ding from a phone and saw Alex pulling it out… groaning and rolling his eyes, before putting it down on the table – face down.

“Is she texting you?” Everly said bluntly, looking back over her shoulder. “What in the world? Do you have women everywhere that you’ve dabbled with? Good gravy – maybe this was a huge…”

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa…” Alex interrupted bluntly, flipping his phone over and sliding it across the table towards her. “I told you that I have no secrets from you, because I want this to work. I want to get to know you, so have a field day looking… and please excuse my friends.”

The phone was chiming obnoxiously between them, and Alex didn’t make a move to look at the illuminated screen – holding her gaze.

“I want you to know you can trust me,” he said openly, getting to his feet. “If you’ll watch Caleb – I’ll grab a fork and knife so I can cut his food up.”

… And he walked away from the table – leaving the phone.

Everly couldn’t help but glance at it… and gaped at the massive thread of text messages in the single group – and the context of them.

Who were these people?

OMGOSH! Maestro is here with a girlfriend!

DO WHAT!?!

Pics! – or it didn’t happen!

I’M ON MY WAY!

Shhh… no… they are talking and it’s sweet – she’s so pretty and he’s all googly-eyed like Alpo gets.

I do NOT get googly-eyed – it’s called a HOT STARE for my sexy wife.

Gosh, I love you pookie-bear…

… Harley?

Knock it off Hunter – this is a text thread. Tell us more about Maestro & his date. Are they kissing? How serious is it?

OMGOSH tell me he’s smooching some girl and he’s a 5D2MR+<3XO

What in the world is a 5D2MR+<3XO? Is that code for something?

… Algebra? Trigonometry?

Mrs. Darnell said I’d have to use that junk one of these days…

RIGHT?! Who knew?

No, you goobers… sheesh! Who’s the smarty pants now?

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