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“Ahh, well…that’s a great question,” I stammered, buying myself a few desperate seconds. “The boy bees are there to…meet other queens.”

“Meet them? I thought the queens never left home.” She frowned.

“Well, they do sometimes. Everyone has to go out sometimes to meet new people and make friends. Just like you came here and we’re friends, and you’re friends with the bees,” I said, smiling and thinking, except not like that at all.

“So the queens make friends with the boy bees?”

“Exactly.” I beamed, feeling a wash of relief⁠—

“And then what do they do? Do they play?” she probed earnestly, and I knew if I tried to avoid answering, it would only make her more curious.

“The boy bees…do whatever the queen wants. Whatever makes her happy,” I said, stapling my smile to my cheeks. “They probably do a bee-bow and give her hand a kiss. She’s the queen, after all.” With the full-blown lie—which I should’ve probably started with—I feigned a deep bow and then took Paisley’s hand and kissed the back of it. “Maybe they have some bee-tea and a little bit of honey.”

“A bee-bow!” Paisley squealed. “Do you think we could see it?”

“Probably not. I think they have to do it while they are flying,” I said just as the house came into view, and then Paisley took off, running to the house.

“A bee bow?” Lou drawled, folding her arms as she walked beside me again. “What do the boy bees really do?”

Better this conversation than our last one.

“The drone bees exist to impregnate virgin queens and then they get kicked out of the hive and left for dead,” I told her, picking up my pace.

“Wow.” Her eyes bulged. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Neither are they.”

When they said that honeybees were girls’ girls, they really meant it.

Fate wasn’t my friend when it came to Blaze Stevens.

In the house after we’d returned inside, I hadn’t had a single opportunity to sneak upstairs and get my vibrator. Either Blaze was in his room unpacking his things since Paisley had been the first focus. Or if he wasn’t upstairs, Paisley was following me around, asking me all kinds of questions about what to do with her new room.

And now, after an excruciatingly long day followed by pizza with Lou and Wade, my cousin and her husband had just walked out the door, starting the clock on the very short amount of time left to save myself from complete humiliation.

“All right, pumpkin. I think it’s time for bed,” Blaze said and scooped his daughter up.

“Do I have to?” she asked even as her head lolled against his chest, her eyes growing heavy.

“I think so.” He pressed his lips to her head.

My heart, my ovaries…everything stumbled at the sight. Lou was right; I’d agreed to stand right on the edge of a cliff, one that would be very easy to slip off if I wasn’t careful.

“Is there anything else you need?”

“Are there towels in the bathroom?” he asked with a low rasp. “I’m going to shower after I put her in bed.”

“Yeah—yes. In the top cabinet next to the shower.”

Do not picture Blaze naked. Do not picture Blaze naked in the shower. Do not picture Blaze naked and wet in your bed.

“Well, good night then. Let me know if you need anything else.” I’d almost made it to my new bedroom when he called to me.

“Harper.” He looked worried.

“Yeah?”

“We’re usually up pretty early…”