He squints slightly, like he’s seriously thinking about it. “Okay.”
“Really?”
He nods.
I squeal and clap for a solid three seconds before I realize what a loser I must look like. I stop and look over at him. “Thank you. Seriously.”
He nods again, and I take a breath. “Okay. Now, how can I compensate you for your work?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I don’t have much money to pay you. I was serious about the offer to give you free ice cream for life, if you want.”
He chuckles. “You don’t need to do that.”
“I insist. I’m not taking your help for free.”
“Why not? I’m offering it.”
“Because that’s what got me here in the first place.” It’s not till I say the words that I realize how pained I sound. It makes sense. It’s only been a handful of days since my breakup—and just a couple days after finding out that Ben stole from me. The pain is still raw, and I’m reeling, but I don’t want Gage to see what a mess I am on the inside.
I clear my throat. “Look, my ex used to help out at Sweet Cheeks when I first opened. I trusted him when he said he was happy to help me for free, but obviously he wasn’t, given that after we broke up, he stole from me.”
I glance off to the side, nervous about meeting Gage’s gaze after spilling all that. Even though he seems like a decent guy, I don’t know him well at all. What if he changes his mind down the line and wants something in return? Best to stop that from even being an issue.
I muster up the guts to look back at Gage. He looks like he wants to say something, but he stays quiet.
“I don’t feel comfortable working with you unless you let me do something for you in return,” I say. “It feels one-sided.”
“Okay. How about this: my cousin is pregnant, and her biggest craving right now is ice cream. I’d score some major points if I surprised her with some pints from Sweet Cheeks.”
I beam. “Done. Whatever ice cream flavor she wants, for the rest of her pregnancy, I’ll whip up for free, and you can bring them to her.”
“Really?”
“Absolutely. It’s the least I could do. And if there’s anything else that comes up that you can think of where I can help you, tell me. I mean it.”
He grins wide. “Okay. Thank you.”
“What’s she craving now?”
“Chocolate chip cookie dough. And cookies and cream. And sherbert. Pretty much every flavor of sherbert.”
“No problem.” I hop up to the standing freezer behind me, open the door, and fetch half a dozen quarts. “Here you go.”
Gage looks at the ice cream with wide eyes, then smiles. “She’s gonna love this.”
“You’re gonna be her favorite cousin, hands down.” I bag up the ice cream and hand it to him.
“I’ll drop this off to her, then come back tonight.”
“Tonight?”
“Yeah. We’ve got some sexy TikToks to film, remember? We need to get started ASAP if you want to hit half a million before the end of the summer.”
The smirk he flashes makes my throat go dry. Somehow, in the excitement of getting Gage to agree to help me, I forgot what I’ll have to do: be sexy. On camera. With him.
He takes the bag from my hand and walks to the door. “Don’t be nervous, Becca. This’ll be fun.”
