Page 158 of Charlie

"I wish you the best of luck." She hands me the bag, bowing her head slightly before turning and disappearing behind a curtain.

"That was a little strange," I murmur once we're back outside.

"What books did you get?" Lach asks, steering us across the street.

"One on interior design, one on gardening in Scotland, and the third is on the history of the Outer Hebrides."

"Taking your future job seriously, I see," Jack teases, his eyes soft.

"Speaking of that, we haven't talked about salary. I have a list of things I'll need to buy, and it would be nice to know my budget."

"There are a lot of things we haven't talked about," he grumbles.

I ignore him and pull him into an ice cream shop, hoping the change of scenery will make him forget his train of thought.

"What's your favorite flavor?" Jack asks, studying the cooler in front of us.

"Wait!" Lach butts in, "Let's guess. The person that wins gets to introduce Charlie to Ann."

"Bloody hell," Jack mutters, giving Lach a dirty look. He looks me up and down, then back at the ice cream. "Strawberry."

"Cam?" Lach says, saving his guess for last.

"Hm. Butter pecan." He looks at me for approval, but I don't give anything away.

"I'm guessing the flavors here are different from the flavors in the States, so I'm going to guess which one you're going to order. Is that fair?" Lach asks, looking around at all of us.

I'm starting to think Ann must be far more important than I realized if he's putting this much thought into such a simple thing. Both guys nod, giving him the go-ahead.

He squints at the tags, reading them through before guessing. "The coffee toffee fudge brownie chunk."

"Ding ding ding!" I throw my arms around him and kiss the upturned corner of his mouth.

"Wait a damn minute," Cam says, sliding his arms around us. "How did you know that?"

Lach shakes his head. "Lucky guess."

"Nothing is luck with you," Jack objects, "I know you analyzed this just as much as you do everything else. How'd you guess?"

"She likes being filled with lots of?—"

Cam coughs, drowning out Lach's words.

"So, I figured she'd like her ice cream filled with lots of stuff, too."

Motherfucker. "Did you just boil my daddy issues down to a flavor of ice cream?" I ask, swatting him on the arm.

"Who said you have daddy issues?"

"Nobody. I kind of just assumed based on stereotypes, I guess."

"ADHD issues, maybe."

All of us look at him like he's on drugs.

He shrugs. "Three of us are just enough to drown out the chaos in your head, aren't we?" He asks, tapping my temple with the tip of his finger.

Realization slowly dawns on me. I've never been able to focus on sex, but I always thought it was because Rob was so selfish in bed. My thoughts are cut off by the man behind the counter asking us for our order.

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