Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
I wasn’t surprised at all, but when he came back over to the booth twenty minutes later with a huge slushy lemonade and a takeaway box full of a gorgeous gourmet salad topped with grilled chicken, my heart nearly flapped out of my chest like a drunken pelican.
“For me?” I squeaked.
He nodded, his ears turning pink at the top. “Yeah, it’s no big deal. I just thought you’d be—”
“Thank you,” I said breathlessly. “That’s so thoughtful of you. How much do I owe you?” I reached for my wallet, but he snapped his head up to glare at me.
“Nothing. It’s… no. Nothing. Jesus. I bought you lunch because…” He clamped his lips closed and shook his head. “Because.” Brooks looked everywhere but at me. “Anyway… I should probably go. But here’s my cell number if you need anything. Just text me, okay?”
He shoved a scrap of paper into my hand and disappeared back into the crowd. I stared after him, sipping the blessedly cold lemonade and wondering how in the world I’d managed to fall for my best friend’s ex-boyfriend.
“He’s the sweetest thing ever,” Ava sighed. She stepped behind my table and dropped down onto one of the chairs. I felt the pinch of betrayal in my gut.
“Yeah. Uh, yeah. He… brought me lunch. He’s probably bringing it around to all the vendors.”
Ava looked up at me in confusion. “Paul brought you lunch? But I just finished eating with him at the Holly’s Kebabs stand, and he said he had to go back to the Johnsons’ to get some more work done on their barbecue sauce presentation.”
We stared at each other for a minute while the crossed wires sorted themselves out, and then we both laughed. “Oh my gosh,” Ava said, clapping a hand over her mouth. “Do you think Brooks would be very mad at me for thinking his boyfriend was sweet?”
I thought back to the night Brooks tasted my tonsils in Ava’s own basement. “No, I don’t think so. But I think… I’m pretty sure…” I was torn about confessing Brooks’s secret that Paul was faking it for the sake of Brooks’s reputation in town. It wasn’t my secret to tell, but at the same time, I didn’t want Ava to feel the least bit guilty for developing a crush on Paul. “You were right when we first got here. Paul’s not gay,” I finally said.
“You say that, but…” She trailed off as she spied the subject of our conversation running across the crowd toward the booth. Paul thrust something in his hand toward Ava.
“Your ChapStick,” he said through heaving breaths. He pulled out his inhaler and took a few puffs, then pushed his glasses up his sweaty nose. “I forgot I was carrying it for you.”
The three of us stared down at Ava’s generic drugstore lip balm with its torn label and Buy 3 Get 1 sticker.
Ava looked up at him like he’d just scaled Mt. Kilimanjaro for her. “Thank you so much. That’s so sweet of you, Paul.”
“Dude,” I couldn’t help but ask, “how far did you get before you remembered you had that in your pocket?”
“Oh,” he said, still sucking in oxygen. “Just to the end of the Johnsons’ driveway, so not all the way back.”
While Ava fussed over him and offered him some of my lemon slushy, I couldn’t help but blurt, “Paul, do you ever watch Drag Race?”
Paul blinked at me and tilted his head. “Like, with the cars?”
I lifted an eyebrow at Ava. “Yeah. Like that,” I muttered in time to hear a snort behind me. It was Brooks, carrying a drinks tray full of colorful icy concoctions. “Oooh! What do you have here? Ava gave my last drink away to someone more deserving.”
He set the tray down and began handing the first one to Ava. “Fuzzy Thickets. They’re nothing at all like Fuzzy Navels, but for some reason are named after them. They have vodka and—”
Before he could say another word, Paul and I both shouted, “No!” and flailed toward the drink as if it was a bomb waiting to go off. Bright orange liquid splashed from the clear plastic cup all over Paul’s short-sleeved button-down and onto his pristine white dress shorts.
Brooks stood frozen with his empty hand still outstretched. “Mind telling me what’s going on?” he asked calmly.
Paul was busy tutting over Ava as if she’d been the one to get doused in a Fuzzy Thicket instead of him. Brooks turned to me for an answer, and I winced. “It’s… just that…” I glanced at Ava.
“Oh for God’s sake,” she hissed. “I’m pregnant. Now hand me some napkins.”
Brooks reached back to the drinks tray to pull out the stack of napkins shoved under one of the drinks and handed it to her. “Are you sure?” He glanced worriedly at me. “Is… I mean… are you two…”