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“Do I need to call your brother?” I prompt because she’s being unreasonable as hell here. “Are ya off some sort of medication?”

“Have ya ever known me to need to be on medication, Dodger?”

“Sheriff,” I correct her. “And, no. However, you’re being irrational right now. Don’t go throwin’ pies in people’s faces and instead, come to me if someone isn’t payin’ for whatever.”

“I didn’t even see you.” My face skews. “Well…kinda.”

“The hell does that even mean, Adeline?”

“Well, I saw ya comin’ up,” she claims, then blows a curl away from her face. “I was gonna outbid her in the auction for you just to spite her, but then Mr. Drake came over and asked me if I was givin’ out samples to my half-eaten pies, and that sent me down a loop of just pure rage. He got me goin’ on and on and on about it until I heard Agnes call the auction, and then I got mad all over again. It was a whole thing.”

“Apparently,” I drone. “Glad to be a part of your petty.”

She stares back at me with an unimpressed expression. “Don’t go actin’ like ya care, Dodger. You’re just lucky ya get any attention at all.”

“Well, accordin’ to my auction, I get a lot of attention, AK, don’t I?”

“Did you?” she sasses back. “I couldn’t hear anything past Lucy and I goin’ at it.”

“Well, ya lost, so good job.”

Adeline smirks. “Well, I saved ya, didn’t I?”

“Don’t go turnin’ your petty pie stunt into you tryin’ to save me from lunch.”

“Well, either way, I did.”

“She still won, Adeline. Ya just prolonged it.”

“Not if she knows what’s good for her.”

My brows clamp together. “Is it riddle day today? Why are ya talkin’ like you don’t wanna say whatcha gotta say?”

“What do you wanna know, Dodger?” She leans back and prompts her body along the fender of my car. “I’m an open book.”

No, you ain’t.

The woman is either in damsel-in-distress mode or she’s harassing me with her jokes. There isn’t anything she’s open about when it comes to whether her flirting is because she likes to flirt with me or because she’s bored.

Or if she’s coming up with things to call me over to her house just to try to test my resolve.

Either way, the signs aren’t fully put up to not make a rookie mistake. And I’m not risking my position and what she needs—no matter how dumb it is—just because I’ve wanted something more.

“Turn around,” I instruct, so she can go on with helping Layla at the bake sale. “Before the girls send a search party out for ya.”

She smiles. “I need new friends.”

“They’re alright.”

“Would you like to be my new bestie?”

“No,” I choke out on a half-chuckle, half-groan. “You’re too much for me, Adeline.”

She frowns. “What does that mean?”

It means I won’t be wanting to just talk to you.

I’m going to want to do everything.