Page 12 of The Wedding Favor

“I just hope I’m not the one whose demise you’re planning.” She shivered dramatically. “Have mercy on me. I have a kid. And a husband. And two cats. They need me.”

“Like I would tell you,” I said with a sneer. “Must keep the element of surprise on my side.”

“So”—she rocked back on her heels—“are we gonna talk about you disappearing into that supply closet? Or the fact that Abe Ramos joined you?”

“Nope.” Ellie was a friend, as well as my boss. Not only that, her brother was married to my sister so we were kind of related. I liked her a lot, but she was also very good friends with Mae. Anything I told her would be sent via text in less than fifteen seconds.

Ellie grinned. “You know, I think you would have made a good pirate back in the day.”

“What?” Her train of thought really needed to come with a map.

She shrugged. “I just think you’d have been an awesome lady pirate.”

“You’ve been reading those books again, haven’t you?”

“Yes,” she said excitedly. “They’re so good. I don’t know why I waited so long to read them. That Alicia Knight knows how to write.”

The books in question belonged to Mae, who was a not-so-secret lover of romance novels. She thought it was a secret. It was just a very poorly kept one. They’d been passed on to Ellie about the same time her now-husband, Gil, moved to town (and by town, I mean, he moved directly into her house where the two of them had to live together for six months even though he was a stranger. It was complicated. It would take a book to explain it all).

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“I’ll bring you one.” She waved at a customer who’d just walked in.

“I don’t want to read—” She walked off before I could even finish the sentence.

My phone vibrated again. With a grimace, I sat down at the counter and read the message.

Aidan: No rush but we need to know soon. Unless you don’t have a plus one? Which is fine.

I started to reply and then hesitated. I did have a plus one… unless last night in the closet had all been a fever dream. Maybe I just imagined Abe offering. After all, I’d been upset and wielding a jar of pickles. He could have volunteered just to get out of that closet in one piece.

But it wasn’t just that. As much as I wanted to show up to the wedding with a hot date, I didn’t know how to tell Aidan. When it came to our friendship, I’d never spoken about the guys I dated; it hadn’t felt right. As far as he knew, I spent my weekends putting together cat puzzles and knitting clothes for Grammie’s stone porch goose. Of course, I went on a date here or there. But there had been no serious relationships since Aidan. The thought of giving someone that kind of control over my heart again was terrifying.

Biting my lip, I stared down at his message.

“You okay there?”

I turned slowly to find Abe beside me. He had on a pale blue t-shirt that had seen many, many wash cycles and a pair of equally worn jeans. A smudge of black marked the sleeve of his shirt. He was very… sweaty. It glistened on his forehead and his cheeks were flushed. He’d probably walked over from his shop in the heat. One would think that the morning sun couldn’t be as bad as afternoon sun in Texas, but one would be super wrong.

Al’s Auto Shop was situated a street over from the Sit-n-Eat. Keith, who’d once owned Al’s, had closed it up and retired to Florida a couple of years ago. Through the Two Harts gossip mafia, I’d heard that once Abe decided to move back so his daughter Hallie could spend time with her grandparents, the opportunity to buy Al’s had fallen into his lap. Abe already had two successful shops in Colorado, so he contacted Keith. The two had struck a deal and Abe was now the proud owner of Al’s.

Incidentally, no one named Al had ever owned the place.

“You look deep in thought.” He slid onto a stool next to me.

“You look like you’re just out of a Bikram yoga class. I did not take you for a downward dog sort of guy.”

He chuckled. “Hey, now, I lived in California for a while. I’ve taken a yoga class or two. Sometimes I even wear my hair in bun.”

I gasped. “A manbun? What will the neighbors say when they see that?”

He smirked. “Oh, they have. Mostly, they stared.”

Then he lifted the bottom of his shirt and wiped off his forehead. It was quick but still plenty of time for me to catch a glimpse of tanned, tattooed stomach. If he mowed the lawn without his shirt on, I could see why the neighbors stared.

He wasn’t ripped exactly. Don’t get me wrong, it was a very nice view, just not a twelve-pack made of protein powder and a thousand daily crunches. There was enough meat on him to say he enjoyed eating, but he was lean enough to show he stayed active. Unlike Aidan, who was all sharp edges and long limbs.

I bet Abe would be nice to cuddle with…