Page 103 of Unlikely to Stay
“Gym-y?”
Annie shrugged.“It was the best I could come up with on the fly.”
“Sadie?How much time?”
“A month?We can have it after Fourth of July.”
“Works for me.After all, it’s my gym.”
“Let’s throw the best baby shower in the history of the world.”
They stayed in the booth for about an hour more, hashing out all the details.By the time they were finished, CC was much more confident that the shower was going to work.“Well, girls.It’s been real, but I gotta jet,” CC said, crumbling up her napkin and tossing it on the table.
“Where are you headed to?”Sadie asked.
“I’m going to meet up at the clinic with Brant and then we’re going to see the latestAvengersmovie in Lakeview.”
“You’ve got a date,” Annie sing-songed.
“So?”
Sadie chuckled.“Going on a date with sexy Brant Billings.Willinglygoing into a medical clinic.You done caught the bug, sister.”
“What bug?”
“Thelovebug.”
CC rolled her eyes.“You two are ridiculous.”
“But you love us!”
“I do,” she said, returning her friends’ smiles.“But now I gotta go see about a guy.”
CC left the cool air of the café and walked into what felt like a four hundred degree oven.The weather she had enjoyed with Brant just two short days ago at Sophie’s Haven was long gone.Replacing the unusually mild day was a normal, hot as hell, Oklahoma June day.The sun bore down on the top of CC’s head and she swore she could see steam coming off the sidewalks.This was the Oklahoma weather she knew and hated.
Most people in town enjoyed the summer.Summer meant lake-goers bringing in more money to the town.Boating.Skiing.Fishing.To CC, it meant constant heat.Constant sweat.Constant battling the natural curl in her hair.She hated it.CC would much rather be sitting next to a fire pit in a hoodie and a pair of leggings, roasting a marshmallow over the flame.Fall…fall…was the best.Summer was not.
Luckily, the clinic was just up the road from Sadie’s.She had to move through the crowds of people on the streets of her town that were usually empty.That was another reason CC wasn’t a fan of summer.She knew her town needed the income the summer months brought.But she preferred her town during the quiet, calm months of fall and winter.The older she got, the less she liked people.
She finally opened the front door of the clinic and smiled at Patty, the receptionist.“Hey, Patty.Brant around?”
Patty smiled knowingly at CC.“Why?Do you need to see a doctor?Running a fever?Have a cough?”
CC laughed.“You know I’m not here because I’m sick, Patty.We’re going on a date.”
“Oh,Iknow that, dear.I just wanted to see if you’d admit it,” Patty said with a wink.“I’ll tell him you’re here.And just between you and me…be nice to him.He’s smitten.I don’t want his heart broken.”
“Trust me, Patty, I’m just as invested as he is.”
The receptionist nodded.“That’s what I wanted to hear.”
“What did you want to hear?”Brant asked, walking up to the receptionist’s desk and dropping a file next to the computer.
“That CC is running a buy one, get one free sale on all her Biolage hair products next week.I plan on stocking up.”
CC’s eyes widened at the lie that rolled off Patty’s tongue.Patty grinned and shrugged her shoulders.What a sneaky, sneaky woman.
“Is that so?Freckles, does Biolage have any products for men?I was thinking about maybe getting some new hair stuff.Make myself all fancy.”Brant sent her a wink that had her tingling all the way to her toes.