eyes immediately going to Lucy’s ass. I rolled my eyes. Was this woman some kind of seductress?
“Who is she?” I hissed.
“I’d like to know that too,” Carter said with a grin.
“Is she from Chicago?” I asked.
“What?” Robert asked, his gaze swinging back to meet mine. “No, she’s not…Anna, I swear, this isn’t what it looks like.”
“Hi, I’m Carter.”
“Lucy,” she said, holding out her hand. She turned to Robert one last time and winked. My eyes widened in shock. I couldn’t stop staring at Carter and Lucy, flirting in front of us. It was like a bad train wreck, and apparently Robert felt the same way because he couldn’t stop watching either. Oh, God. She must be an ex, and now she was back and flirting with Carter in front of him, and I was just standing here like an idiot. I spun around and tossed my money on the counter, grabbing my donuts and coffee.
“I need to go,” I said, trying to skirt around Carter just as he made a grab for Lucy’s ass. She moved backward out of his reach, tripping over my shoe and falling backward. Robert’s arms shot out to grab her, his hands falling in the most unfortunate places. The door opened again, and a hulk of a man entered, along with Joe. The man’s eyes went wide as he saw Robert’s hands on the woman. What the hell was it with this woman that every man in the place wanted her?
“Hunter, this is not what it looks like,” Robert started, but just as he righted Lucy, Hunter went crashing into him, slamming him into the wall with a sickening thud.
The bakery was a mess. Tables were overturned and chairs were broken. Hunter, Carter, and Robert all sat on the floor along the wall with ice packs provided by Mary Anne. The sheriff was taking statements as half the town watched. At least, it felt like half the town. All of Derek’s brothers were there, along with Kat and Derek’s girlfriend, Claire, whom I hadn’t actually met yet.
“Nice job following your own plan,” Robert hissed at Hunter.
“Hey, you had your hands wrapped around my woman’s ass, and her tits shoved in your face. You didn’t exactly follow the plan either.”
“What plan?” I asked.
Robert sighed, “My brother and his friend had this brilliant idea to take Corduroy out of the running.”
“Yeah, and if you had followed that plan, we wouldn’t be sitting here right now,” Hunter shot back.
“Wait, why would you need to take Carter out of the running?” I asked in confusion.
“I didn’t,” Robert insisted. “They had this whole convoluted plan. It didn’t even make sense.”
“It made perfect sense. You just don’t understand how women work.”
“Right, says the man that sat outside his girlfriend’s place for two weeks instead of talking to her.”
“Hey, it worked.”
They were like little boys in the bodies of grown men. “I still don’t understand why you needed to take Carter out of the running.”
“I’d like to know that too,” Carter said, rubbing at the bruise on his jaw.
Hunter leaned forward and looked at me. “If you were here with Carter all the time, and Robert was in Chicago, he’d have every opportunity to spend extra time with you. And while he’s doing that, he’s going to try and sway you in his direction. I’ve seen it done before,” he shrugged.
“There’s just one problem with your theory. I don’t want to be with Carter.”
“Hey,” Carter objected. “I’m a great catch.”
“And you also manipulated me at Thanksgiving. I’m still not even sure what the point of that whole thing was.”
He shrugged slightly. “Just thought I’d remind you of why you two shouldn’t be together.”
“See?” Hunter pointed at Carter. “He admits that he would try to get you away from Robert.”
“Okay, I would understand why Derek would want to help Robert, but why are you so involved?” I asked Hunter. “I don’t even know you.”
“Call it boredom.”
“Boredom.”
He shrugged. “When you play with guns all day, it’s hard to come to a small town and just sit around all day.”
“Alright,” Jack walked up, checking over his notes. “So, I’ve talked to everyone that witnessed the incident, and I’ve reviewed the Facebook footage-“
“The Facebook footage?”
Jack grinned. “Oh yeah. Joe caught the whole thing on camera. It seems to be a thing with his family, documenting all major events on Facebook for the whole town to witness. He even attached a little hashtag for you.”
Robert groaned beside me. “Please tell me it’s not #HighSchoolSweetheartsForever.”