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Abruptly, Hunter turned to her and his lip twisted up. “You just can’t keep your eyes off me.” He flexed one arm. “The first one is free—” He shook his finger at her. “—but I’m going to have to charge after this.” Casually, he turned back to the show and laughed at a hilarious part.
She laughed as well.
Hunter dug his hand into a bowl of popcorn and gobbled it up.
“Pig,” she teased.
He had that mischievous grin on his face. He grabbed another handful and shoved it in his mouth. Then he tried to talk through the food. “I’m not a pig.”
She laughed and playfully threw a piece of popcorn at him. “The joke never gets old, does it?”
“Want some?” he asked. Now he was pointing at his open mouth, which was stuffed with half-eaten popcorn.
She shoved his shoulder. “Okay, now you’re just disgusting.”
He laughed and took a big swig from his water.
It mystified her to think about how long she had known Hunter. They had started as children, moved on to teenagers, and now they were … what were they?
“I hear the gears grinding pretty hard in that head of yours. What are you thinking about?”
“Well, at least I have gears that are grinding at all,” she needled back.
He pointed at her and flashed a smile. “Word.”
She laughed, knowing that he used that vernacular because of Trey’s son Micah. All the Stones, even Kensi, used slang from Micah and his teenage friends and then burst out laughing because it sounded so ridiculous. In fact, their whole beach crew had started doing it.
“So what are you thinking about?” Hunter picked up the remote. “Wait. That you want to watch Hamilton again?”
She giggled.
“You were.”
She giggled harder at his obsession. “Find. The. Remote.”
He laughed and then tickled her. “Hey, we found it.”
She smiled at his antics and felt herself relax. After spending today going on and on with Hunter, she felt like they could talk about anything. “I will tell you another truth if you don’t get all weird about Roger.”
Hunter hesitated, then gave her an innocent look that said,I have no idea what you’re talking about.“The dude is fine. I mean, if you like him, then I like him.”
She laughed. “I wouldn’t say that statement is true. You’re really saying that if I like him, you’ll tolerate him for me.”
He lifted his hands and grinned. “You just took the words out of my mouth.” He leaned back on the couch and ran a hand through his hair. “Say what you’re going to say. I know Roger’s your boyfriend, and I know you need to talk, so just say what is on your mind.”
“Fine.” Her gaze moved to the sliding glass door. “I’m really grateful that you’re helping me do these garden boxes, but I don’t know if all the work is going to be worth it. Roger always talks about buying a new house that he doesn’t have to do any maintenance on.”
It was undoubtedly hard for Hunter to talk about this, but to his credit, he calmly nodded. “I can see how the dude would want a new house. This place needs a major overhaul.” He looked around and seemed to evaluate the interior. “If I were to overhaul this place, I would put in new electrical and new plumbing,” he said, standing and reaching down to her.
She took his hand and stood too.
Hunter grabbed the scooter for her, then led her along and opened the sliding glass door. It was dark outside, but the moon was bright. “I’d redo this fence out here, and I’d plant some fruit trees between the garden boxes, and then I’d also do strawberries beneath them. I might do some lemon trees and some orange trees.”
This wasn’t where she’d wanted to go with this conversation, but she followed him out onto the deck, listening to what he would do to the yard.
Hunter walked out onto the grass by the two boxes he had already assembled. “You see,” he said, pointing to the fence. “If we took out the fence, I know that Pastor Henry owns the other lot right next to this house. I’d buy that lot, and I’d probably put a shop there. But I would also expand this whole jungle garden we’ve got going on.” He flashed her a smile.
Cheryse loved his interest and the vision he was detailing for her. “I had no idea Pastor Henry owns the land next door.”
