could open any wider, but they did. “I knew Frank helped him, but I didn’t know he had to borrow off the farm to do it. Jesus.”
“Well, I found all the paperwork last night, and I … I didn’t understand him, not until then. So I marched over there and told him as much. Let’s just say, I didn’t make it home last night.” I waggled my brows. “I got the Roman candle I was denied on the Fourth.”
She made a face. “Ouch.”
I giggled. I was officially someone who giggled at leisure. “He blew it up like—” I made an explosion sound and gestured to my hips.
“Oh my God, stop,” she said on a laugh.
“It was all blam, blam, blam.”
“That’s it—we can’t be friends anymore. I’m embarrassed for you,” she said on a laugh, pretending to leave.
I grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
She narrowed her eyes at me in confusion. “I’m still trying to put this together. You. And Jake.”
I nodded, grinning with my lips together.
“You hate each other.”
“Turns out, we super don’t hate each other. Like at all.”
“Yeah, yeah, I think they’ve even got it in the back.” A laugh puffed out of her. “If you had a thought bubble over your head, it’d be full of doodly hearts. I do not even know what to do with you right now.”
“How about getting me a coffee?”
“I’m not your servant, ma’am,” she said too loud as she stood. “You can’t talk to me that way.” As she headed to the back, she cut me a smart look and said to Mr. Wheaton at the soda bar, “She can’t talk to me that way.”
He chewed his bacon, unfazed.
Immediately, my mind wandered back to Jake.
I daydreamed about what he was doing. Maybe he had the puppies with him. I wondered if he had a shirt on, and for once, I hoped he didn’t. Maybe he was feeding a calf with a bottle. My insides turned to goop at the thought. In my fantasy, I conveniently left him shirtless.
This, of course, wasn’t a thing he would be doing, but I put all that energy into the universe to manifest it anyway.
I sighed again with that dopey smile on my face, so preoccupied with my imagination—Jake conveniently slipped into something more comfortable, which turned out to be a pair of very tight boxer briefs—I didn’t see Chase until he slid into the booth where Presley had just been.
With a jolt out of my reverie, my cheeks flushed hot.
He wore an amused expression. “Where were you just then?”
“Oh, nowhere in particular.” I glanced around to see if anyone was watching. They were. “What are you doing here?”
“Breakfast, same as you. Mind if I join you?”
“If I say no, will it get weird?”
“Probably,” he said with a smirk as he unfurled his napkin roll.
When I laughed, I sounded like a stranger.
Maybe Jake was right. God, I hope he wasn’t right.
Swiftly, I changed the subject. “You’ll be happy to hear that Esther P. Higgenbottom has found some prime real estate in my bedroom. She can see the whole farm from the window.”
“Lucky her. That’s a view I wouldn’t mind myself.”
I was pretty sure he didn’t mean the farm. I made that weird laugh sound again.
Presley saved me, her weapon of choice in hand. She slid the coffee in front of me, her eyes on Chase and the fake waitress smile on her lips. “What can I get you to drink?”
“I’ll have coffee too, and the eggs Benedict.”
“Done.” She extended a hand for his menu. “And for you? We’re having a sausage special—two for the price of one.”
Her tone coupled with the expression on her face was so suggestive, I gave her a quit fucking with me look and snapped my menu shut. “I think I’ll have the Benedict too.”
She took my menu. “Oh, you’re gonna love it. The sauce is super hot and creamy today.” She winked and made the okay gesture with flair only a perv can pull off.
Chase watched us, clearing his throat to cover a laugh.
“She’s insufferable,” I said.
“She really is. How’d the Fourth end up?”
With me dry humping Jake in the barn. “Really well. We made enough that even Jake couldn’t argue.”
“That’s a first.”
“Tell me about it. How’s … everything at Patton?”
He shrugged. “Same old. Dad’s been out of town overseeing the farm in Washington, so he’s left me in charge.”
“And how do you like that?” I took a sip of my coffee.
“Is there any liking it? If I’m honest, the farm’s