Summer Love_ A Steamy Small Town Romance Anthology - Piper Rayne Page 0,55

don’t believe that.” Gwen shook her head. “Do you really think Mack would have spent the afternoon helping you clean up the green beast if he didn’t think you had any potential? Why would he waste his time?”

“Obligation.” Mack was good at that.

“No. I’ve known him my whole life and he has zero time for fools. Seriously, even when we were young if he decided he didn’t like someone it was as if they ceased to exist. And he most definitely knows you exist.”

It had certainly felt that way the night they slept together. It was almost as if once he decided to bring her home, another side of him came out to play—he was tender, funny, sweet, sexy. All the things she knew he was deep down, underneath his layers of armour. For a brief, glittering moment she’d thought that maybe everything she’d dreamed could come true.

But that story about his sister’s failure… it had socked her right in the gut. Because he thought Zoey would make the same mistakes, that her impulsiveness would bring others down. And that hurt.

“Whatever happens,” Gwen said, wrapping an arm around Zoey’s shoulders, “know that you are one hundred percent awesome and Sweet on You is going to be a success. If he doesn’t want a slice of that, then that’s his issue.”

In spite of the hollow feeling in her gut, Zoey smiled. Running a business with her best friend was something to be celebrated and she couldn’t be more grateful to have Gwen in her corner.

“You got that right,” she said, sucking in a breath and giving herself a mental pick-me-up. “Let’s do this thing!”

Mack had never been surrounded by so much pink in all his life. The Young Women in Business expo was being held in the indoor sports stadium of the local high school. The building wasn’t much bigger than a basketball court, and had been filled with booths showcasing all kinds of female-run businesses, including artisanal goods like wine from a boutique vineyard and preserves from a local berry farm run by the granddaughters of a longstanding Patterson’s Bluff resident. There was a booth aimed at helping female entrepreneurs get startup funding and another for a city university encouraging more women to join the technology field.

Mack was happy to see folks of all kinds showing their support—the place was packed. Outside, however, was where he was most interested in. The Sweet on You food truck sat beside a farmer’s market tent selling produce and a pop-up from one of the local restaurants selling fancy paninis and salads.

The sight of the ugly green Volkswagen Westfalia lifted the corner of his lip. He had to hand to Zoey and Gwen, they were certainly selling it. There was a line out front and both wore huge smiles and matching yellow aprons. Zoey was working the espresso machine and Gwen was managing the register, and they moved in unison. As one man walked back towards the stadium, he bit into a piece of jelly slice and audibly moaned while his partner commented on how amazing the coffee was. Mack couldn’t have been prouder of them both.

He’d been stewing on what to do about patching things up with Zoey. He hated how they’d left things. Or rather, how he’d left things. Because Zoey had taken a leap and told him how she felt. She’d been honest and upfront, and he’d returned the favor by letting her believe he underestimated her when, in fact, it was simply his fear of losing her.

But he’d never been too good with words. He was better with his hands, with actions, but when it came to love sometimes you had to spit it out.

Did he love Zoey?

It was a thought he’d pondered a lot the last month. In a way, he’d always loved her. The times she’d been living on her own and he’d felt the responsibility to check in on her—that was love. The times he’d picked her up from a bar at one a.m. because she was tipsy and her brother was still working—that was love. All the times he’d watched her blow out birthday candles, wishing that everything she wanted would fall at her feet—that was love.

And the night they’d spent together when he’d cradled her body, shocked with how content and complete he felt—that, too, was love.

His fears about losing her were real, and the worry of it all going wrong and ruining his relationship with her and her brother hovered in his mind. But