Noah’s voice and inappropriate thoughts jumped into his head but he just smiled. “Know how to play Red Dead Redemption?”
“No.”
“I’ll show you. It’s fun.”
At the baking aisle, she stopped his cart with a gentle tug. “Do you have brown sugar?”
“No.”
She pulled the cart down the aisle. “It’s the secret ingredient.”
“To life?”
She looked back over her shoulder. “Ha. You’re funny. But no. To the marinara.”
His skepticism must have shown because she set a bag in the cart then put her hands on her hips. “If we’re going to be friends, you need to trust me. At least on this.”
“Is that a rule?”
She nodded. “A hard-and-fast one. Agreed?” She held out her hand.
“You know,” he said, an idea forming in his mind on how to keep his brain and heart on the straight and narrow. “We’re creating a how-to guide of sorts.”
She laughed, still holding her hand out. “A what?”
“Activities, hard-and-fast rules.” He shook her hand, held it for a moment, ignoring the pins and needles feeling as their skin brushed together. Yes. A guide was a great idea. He dropped her hand. “A guide. To staying just friends.”
Now she grinned a wide toothy grin. “Uh-oh, are you so impressed with my Saturday-night outfit that we need a guide to keep you from falling in love with me? Is it the color of my sweatsuit or the fact that it says ‘Brat’ on my butt?”
His gaze widened. “I wasn’t looking at your butt.” He was very curious now though. Shit. He was making things worse.
Hailey put her hand on his bicep. “You make me laugh, Wes. I’m joking, there’s nothing written on my butt. A guide could be fun, especially if you illustrate it.”
God. He really liked her, how it felt to be around her. She was happy and hopeful. It made him feel the same without any of the pressure to try and be more.
“When are we making this marinara?”
They continued through the aisle and he wasn’t surprised when she grabbed a box of cookies. This time he stopped. “Do you need an intervention?”
Hailey’s gaze narrowed. “There’s lettuce in my basket.”
“To sell to customers.”
“I’m surrounded by salad all day. Trust me, I get my fruit and veggie quota. Life without cookies is just dumb.”
“I might have to see about getting that put on a plaque,” he said, surprised that he fell into teasing her so easily.
Maybe it was because he missed his sister. Everyone got on Ari’s case about not knowing what she wanted out of life. She spent her days trying everything to figure it out. Even when they didn’t see each other much, they always got along. This easy back-and-forth with Hailey reminded him of how easy it was to be around Ari. Because she never expected anything from anyone. She just accepted them as they were. She sure as hell hadn’t learned that from their father. She was the only one who knew about his dream of designing and selling games.
Hailey was digging around in the purse she had slung across her chest. “Speaking of such things, check this out.” She lifted a card close to his face.
“You got business cards. That’s fantastic. They’re great. Very on brand.”
“That’s a very marketing thing to say. On brand. Yes. They suit me and By the Cup. My cousin introduced me to her book club, which is actually just a gossip, wine-drinking club. Two of them, sisters, made these for me as a welcome-to-California gift.”
“They’re fantastic. That was a nice gesture on their part.”
She’d started to walk but stopped and looked up at him with an earnest expression that made him want to pull her into a hug. “People have been so nice to me since I got here. You included. Thank you.”
“You’re pretty easy to be nice to. Besides, you need someone to monitor your sugar intake.”
Slapping his arm, she laughed and walked forward. “Maybe we just need to up yours.”
“I did introduce you to the chocolate cake. Oh, Tara will probably be there tomorrow. I was thinking you could chat with her about cross-marketing.”
The store announced they were closing in fifteen minutes. Wes looked at his phone. He never took this long to shop. By now, he was usually home with everything put away.
Hailey lifted her basket out of his cart. She looked down at the items in it. “I derailed your shopping, didn’t I?”
She had. But he wasn’t sorry. “It’s okay. I have most of what I needed.” Several things he didn’t. “Do you want me to bring up the cross-promo idea with Tara tomorrow?”