“Hm.” When I peek at her, she’s nodding thoughtfully, bare feet propped against another chair. “Figures.”
I roll my eyes and take a large swig of my wine. “That’s all? I’m always full of good advice for you, and I get a thoughtful hum and snarky one word shot?”
“I’m thinking.”
“Think faster.”
She chuckles and rolls her head along the back of her chair toward me. “Weird how?”
I sigh and stare out over the expansive backyard at the big willow tree that Luke and I first hung out under. Rhett, Cade, Jasper, and Luke are out there playing bocce, throwing around balls and tossing back beers.
“Well, first he started off crabby, then he started coming around a bit. And I mean, okay, there was some sexual tension—but it was friendly enough. We talked at dinner or in the hot tub.”
One of Summer’s dark eyebrows arches in my direction. “Hot tub? What is this, high school? Has anyone told you that you can get pregnant in there?”
“Shut up. But now he talks in grunts. The only way we converse is via text message or the Post-it notes he leaves around the house.”
“He leaves you Post-it notes?” Her lips pop open in surprise.
I shrug. “Yeah. He’ll walk in when Luke and I are cleaning up after making a batch of cookies and say nothing about it. Just talk to Luke. But then in the morning he’ll leave a note by the coffee that says, Best cookies I’ve ever had.”
Summer laughs.
“Summer! Stop laughing and help me. What does that mean?”
Her head tips back, and I catch the guys glancing up at us. “It means he loves your cookies, Wils.”
I snort. “Of course. My cookies bring all the boys to the yard.”
Summer laughs harder, her wine sloshing in her glass as she does. “He did it all for the cookie,” she wheezes.
“Good lord. Can we please stop quoting awful songs and talk about my actual problem?”
She wipes at the tears on her cheeks as she straightens. “Okay. Okay. I’m honestly still just trying to wrap my head around this. Did you kiss him? I know you’re forward. Did you freak him out? He’s very . . . stern?”
“Way to take his side!”
Her eyes roll. “There are no sides. Tell me more about the notes.”
I sniffle and shoot her a dirty look. “Sure feels like it. Oooh. Poor innocent Cade who pushed me up against a hay bale and kissed me stupid.”
Summer rolls a hand, urging me to get over it and tell her more.
“Things like, Luke told me about his guitar lesson today. Thank you. Or, Please don’t paint the front porch. I don’t know how to take that though.”
“You painted the front porch?”
I scoff. Cade is such a stick in the mud sometimes. “We used paint to add details to the banisters. It looks cute. You’d swear I painted his front step Barbie pink or something.”
She eyes me like we both know I should have said no to Luke’s idea. But whatever. We can paint it over. It’s not like we killed someone or threw heads of lettuce out of my car.
“Basically, he comes home and we silently cook together. We eat dinner, and he mostly talks to Luke, avoids looking at me, says, Thanks, and then gets to work putting Luke to bed. I assume he’s exhausted after that and passes out. Truthfully, I don’t know how he does it. It’s way too much for one person to handle all on their own. But if I cook dinner, he gets all crabby. If I clean, he gets crabby. Oh! When he told me to stop doing laundry the other day, he said that I’m just the nanny, not the maid. So who the hell knows? Then he left me a note on the dryer that said, Thank you for your help.”
“It’s really kind of sweet. Like . . . for Cade?”
“Ugh. Is it though? He kissed me and then pulled away and said he shouldn’t have done that. He apologized. I’m trying not to be offended.”
“Have you tried talking to him?”
I blink at her. “Talking?”
“Yes. You know . . . where you use your mouth to create words that describe what’s going through your head.”
“Sounds weird. Sounds awkward. Don’t like it. Not approved by me.”
She gives me a disapproving look. I imagine it’s one she’ll use on her future children.
“Why can’t we just have sex for the next little bit and then high-five each other at the end?”
“And spend the rest of your lives running into each other because of me and Rhett?”
I turn my nose up. “We’re adults. I’m head over heels for Luke. Do you know how cool that kid is? It’ll be fine.”