"I know! I'm thinking about lilacs, since it's a spring wedding …"
I moved away, rescued again, and made a mental note to do something nice for Eleanor. Bake her some Christmas cookies, maybe. I was low on baking supplies, though. I'd need to make a Super Target run. I started mentally compiling a shopping list, grinning at the memory of Jack's great-grandfather calling Target the "venison store."
When a person had just revived after being a statue for three hundred years, he had some catching up to do.
I wandered over to ask the trio of college girls wearing matching University of Central Florida sweatshirts if I could help them with something, but then the bells over my door chimed behind me. I took one look at the expression on the girls' faces and grinned.
"Hello, Jack," I said without even turning around.
It had to be him; very few people I knew could make faces go instantly wide-eyed and open-mouthed like Jack could.
I blinked. That wasn't actually true, though. Carlos, the sheriff's vampire brother, was seriously hot. Sheriff Susan was beautiful. Our friends Lucky, Austin, Dallas. Molly. Lauren. Dave. The Fae queen. The …
The list went on and on, didn't it? I was kind of the wren in a field of peacocks. And I was happy to realize that it didn't bother me at all.
Jack interrupted my epiphany by wrapping his arms around me from behind and pulling me to him, and then dropping a kiss on the top of my head. I swear at least one girl sighed.
I smiled and turned to face him.
"You know, you have to stop manhandling me at my place of business," I murmured, reaching up to touch his face.
His slow, wicked grin sent heat to my cheeks. "Whatever you say, sweetie pie."
"No." I rolled my eyes. He'd been playing at finding a pet name for me, and I'd hated all of them so far. "No pie, no cake, no cookies. No food names of any kind."
His gorgeous green eyes laughed down at me. "That rules out honey, my little dumpling."
"Argh. No honey, no dumplings." I raised up on my tiptoes to kiss his cheek. "Enough, already. We need to have a serious talk about that tree."
He blew out a breath. "I'd say, 'here we go again,' but I don't want to, because I'd be saying it every day, all day long."
"Good thing the music box is off visiting Molly, or it would be singing Connie Smith," Eleanor called out.
"Who?" Jack and I both looked at her.
She shook her head and tut-tutted. "One of Ruby's favorite singers. Mine, too. She sang a song called 'Once a Day' and … never mind."
The three girls I'd forgotten about as soon as Jack hugged me squeezed past us in the aisle. The leggiest andblondestof them glanced up at him from beneath her lashes, like I wasn't there at all.
"Do you want my Insta?" she murmured.
But he was so busy gazing down into my eyes that he never even heard her.
Ilovedthat in a boyfriend.
Feeling magnanimous, I smiled at her and shrugged. "He's not on social media."
Her mouth fell open, displaying perfect teeth. "Atall?"
"Sorry."
When I glanced back up at Jack, amber sparks were flashing in the dark green of his eyes. "Isn't it time for the shop to close? I haven't kissed you in hours," he said, his voice husky.
This time, all three of them sighed.
"Comeon," one of the other girls said, tugging at the blonde's arm. "You don't have a chance with this guy. He'ssotaken."
The blonde gave me a friendly smile and shrugged. "Can't blame a girl for trying. Lucky you."
