Page 46 of Recipe for Rivals

“Why?” Dusty asked.

“Who knows. You coming?”

“Yeah, man. I’ll be there.”

“Sweet. How was your game? Sorry I couldn’t make it. Jack bought like sixty armoires and I had to help him get them to the workshop.”

“Sixty?”

“Probably more like eight.”

“The game was good. Listen, I’ve got Nova Walker and her daughter Alice in the truck, so I better run.”

Tucker was silent. “Cool. Hi, y’all. I’ll let you go.”

“Bye,” Dusty said, then reached forward to hang up and switch the music back on. He glanced at me. “Will I see you there tomorrow?”

“Maybe,” I said, looking out the window as we passed a farm and turned onto the highway. If my internal compass was correct, we were heading toward Beeler. I’d only been there once, but I’d heard it spoken about regularly. Really, I didn’t know what time their church ended anyway, so I had no idea if we’d run into each other in the diner.

“I thought you didn’t work on the weekends.”

“I’m not.” How much to tell him? He clearly didn’t like Chad, and I didn’t want him thinking this was a date. But he was likely to jump to conclusions if he saw us there together tomorrow. “I’m meeting with Chad Lincoln. Just helping him out with a menu thing.”

“Menu thing,” he repeated, shooting a side eye glance at me. “You aren’t helping him with the Battle of the Badges, are you?”

“How do you know about that?”

Dusty laughed, rubbing his hand over his face. “You are, aren’t you?”

“Maybe.”

“Hey, Alice,” Dusty said, looking in the rearview mirror. “Is your mom cooking for the cops?”

I wanted to jump in and tell her she didn’t need to answer, then smack Dusty for trying to bring her into the conversation. She hated being called on.

“Yes,” she said quietly.

I whipped my head around to look back at her, more surprised that she’d answered than anything else.

“What?” she asked, giving me her little impish smile. Her cheeks were scarlet. “You were talking to Aunt Gigi about it yesterday.”

I hadn’t realized she’d overheard. “It’s nothing. I’m just helping because Chad doesn’t want to lose again.”

“He’s going to be disappointed.”

I scoffed. “Ouch.”

“It’s nothing on you, Nova. I just happen to know the competition.”

“Then it’s completely on me. Who am I up against?”

He flashed his white teeth in a perfect smile. “Me.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

DUSTY

KnowingChad Lincoln had his nasty little claws in Nova made me want to hurl a football at his face. The guy was not good news. When he’d been talking to her before, I hadn’t been too worried because Nova seemed smart enough to sniff out danger like him. I could see, plain as day, he was playing the long game with her. It was smart. She was super clear about not wanting to date, so he didn’t date her. He just found other ways to spend time with her.