Page 100 of Enticing Her Love

Daphne rolled her eyes and pushed to her feet, but she was smiling at her precocious little girl who once could do little more than scowl.

“I like presents, too,” Sutton said, and immediately regretted it, because her mind zipped back to Flynn and the beautiful gifts he’d given her. The sting of what he’d written on that notepad came rushing back, and she tried to shove it down deep and focus on her nieces. “Hadley, since you want to be a writer like your daddy, w—I got you these journals to write in.” I, I, I. Not we!

“Thank you! Look, Mama! Elephants!” She showed her journals to Daphne, who gushed over them and mouthed Thank you, to Sutton.

“Joey, I know you don’t wear much jewelry, but I thought you might like this. It’s a necklace that can also be worn as a bracelet, and if you don’t want to wear it, you can just hang the charms in your bedroom or something.” She handed the leather cord necklace with the charms to Joey.

“A skateboard and a motorcycle and a camera charm! I love it! Thank you!” Joey hugged her again. “Look, Tara!” She put it on and showed it off to everyone else. “Can we go play, Grandma?”

“Of course, honey,” her mother said, and Joey and Hadley hurried toward the living room. “Sutton, honey, we were waiting for you to eat dinner. Who’s hungry?”

Everyone else said they were, and they headed into the kitchen. The counters were littered with platters of food and several bottles of wine. There were pigs in a blanket, skewers of grilled chicken and vegetables, miniature sandwiches, pasta salad, Greek salad, chips and salsa, and three different types of heart-shaped cookies.

“This looks great, Mom,” Sutton said as everyone loaded up their plates.

“Thank you for thinking of Joey. That was a really nice necklace,” Tara said. “Where did you find it?”

“Flynn and I went to this—” Shitshitshit.

All eyes turned to her. Leni looked amused. The others looked as shocked as Sutton felt betrayed by her loose lips.

“I found them at an arts and crafts festival,” Sutton said. “There were so many vendors, and the buildings—”

“Hold on, Sutton, dear,” her grandmother said. “You’re going to have to rewind to the part about you going there with your jungle boy.”

“He’s not my jungle boy, and this is Indi’s night. We’re not here to talk about me.” Sutton took a bite of a cookie.

“Oh nonono, Sutton,” Indi said. “My day is tomorrow. Tonight I’m just carrying out a long-held tradition of not screwing my soon-to-be husband the night before the wedding.”

“Yeah, and we want to know about you and your hunky boss,” Jules said.

“Are you two dating? Or did you go to the craft fair as friends?” Tara asked.

“Good question.” Daphne pointed a skewer at Sutton. “Are we talking enemies to friends or enemies to lovers?”

Sutton put down the cookie. “I’m going to need wine for this conversation.”

“I’ve got you.” Leni poured a full glass of wine and handed it to her.

Sutton guzzled half the glass, trying to figure out what to say and where to start.

“I think it’s safe to say our Jane climbed Tarzan’s vine,” her grandmother said with a smirk.

Sutton closed her eyes for a beat, trying to figure out where to start, knowing they’d pester her until they got the full scoop. The sooner she got it out, the sooner they could move on. “I might have slept with him in the rainforest.”

“Might have?” Leni scoffed. “I’m pretty sure you and Flynn scared the animals.”

“I knew it!” Jules exclaimed. “I could tell by how nicely you talked about him on our video call. I’m so happy for you!”

“Don’t be,” Sutton said flatly. “He’s not what he seems.”

“I thought you said he wasn’t a jerk to you in the rainforest,” Tara said.

The truth brought a pang of longing. “He wasn’t. We got really close while we were there, but we knew we couldn’t keep seeing each other after we came back because he’s my boss. We tried to stay away from each other, but we ended up texting or talking every night for hours. Then Leni and I ran into him a few weeks ago when he was out with his brothers and sister for his birthday. We got together that night, and we’ve spent every night together since then.”

“That sounds promising,” her mother said.

“I thought so. We meshed, you know? Everything with us was in sync. I really thought we had something special. I’ve never felt that way with anyone, and with him, the most unlikely person on the planet, it just happened. He said and did the nicest things. But…” She shook her head. She didn’t want to say it. Saying it would make it real, and part of her still didn’t want to believe it. Another part of her, she realized with surprise, wanted to protect Flynn, and that upset her even more.