Nora: Where are you? Are you still coming over for game night?

Me: No I'm busy.

Liam: Busy? With what? You don't have any friends here besides us.

Nora: Omg. You didn't actually go hunting with Roxy and her brother, did you??

Liam: Dude. There's no way you're going to last out there with her brother.

Nora: Text the word "Pancake" if you need help.

Me: Pancake? Really?

I slip my phone back into my pocket as the girls walk back onto the patio. Delaney leads the way with a bowl of pasta, followed closely by Ellis, who carries a salad, and Juniper with a bottle of wine. They all snickering with each other about something.

"Can I help with anything?" I offer, rising from the table.

"Nope, that's alright," Juniper replies quickly as she walks past to the other side of the table setting the wine down.

"Actually, you can open the wine if you don't mind," Delaney says setting the bowl down in the middle of the table.

"Sure."

Ellis settles into the chair across from me, and Juniper goes to pull out the seat next to her. However, just as Juniper does so, Delaney slips into the seat.

"Oh, thanks, June," Delaney expresses her appreciation.

"Seriously?" Juniper raises an eyebrow in surprise as she looks down at Delaney.

Delaney looks up at her and explains, "Oh, I thought you could sit next to Wells, you know, since he's your friend."

"That's very considerate of you," Juniper says, as I start to uncork the wine. I try to wipe off the grin that's beginning to form on my face before anyone can notice. She looks up at me from where she stands, and then slowly walks around the table and takes her seat next to me.

"Well, I like to think I'm a considerate person," Delaney says with a quick smile.

I pop open the cork and grab Juniper's glass, pouring the wine into it. She gazes in my direction as I do, but she avoids making direct eye contact. She's been avoiding all eye contact since we left the lake. In fact, it feels like she's been avoiding me in general, and it's starting to frustrate me.

"Thanks," she says softly.

"You're welcome," I reply, handing her the glass. Our hand's brush, and she finally gives me about half a second worth of light brown eye contact.

Ellis clears her throat and wiggles her glass out in the air to me, waiting for me to fill it. "So, Wells, tell us about yourself," she asks as I turn my attention to her and start to fill her glass. "You have a girlfriend? A fiancé? A crazy ex-wife we should know about?"

"Oh my god, don't ask him that," Juniper interjects, taking a sizable gulp of her wine.

"Why not?" Ellis questions, her brows furrowing and her shoulders shrugging. "What if he has a crazy girlfriend who's about to come bursting through the doors?"

I huff a laugh. "Uh, no, not currently. No, not anymore. And no, never been married."

Juniper's eyes briefly flicker with curiosity as they dart towards me. Swiftly, she looks away, placing her wine glass on the table before serving herself from the bowl of pasta.

"Ex-fiancé, huh?" Delaney raises an intrigued eyebrow.

"Um, yeah," I confirm, grabbing the pasta bowl that Juniper passes to me and serving some on my plate. "Nothing too crazy though. It just didn't work out, I guess."

"I didn't know you had a fiancé," Juniper mumbles.

"It was years ago, way before I moved back to Seattle," I say trying to nonchalantly brush off the topic.

In reality, it feels like a lifetime ago. Back when I lived in New York, well before everything unfolded with my dad. We both thought it was what we wanted, but as time passed, it just became clear that we had grown into entirely different people with different desires and priorities.

"Well, her loss is our gain," Ellis says with a smile, her shoulder giving a slight pop.

"Wait so, how old are you?" Delaney questions.

I smile at her question. "I'm twenty-seven," I say, taking a sip of my wine.

"Can we please stop with the interrogation?" Juniper quickly adds.

"Okay, fine," Ellis says, rolling her eyes, "So, Wells, what's it like working with our Juniper Jenkins?" Her eyes twinkle with mischief.

Juniper rolls her eyes and lets out an exasperated sigh. "I didn't mean to ask him about me now."

"Why not?" Ellis asks with a shrug, "You're there working at his coffee shop every single day."

I lean back in my chair, cross my arms, and shoot a brief glance in Juniper's direction. She's currently giving Ellis a glare. Why would Ellis say that? Especially when Juniper hasn't been at the coffee shop all week. She is avoiding me, isn't she?

"Well, let's see," I start, releasing a sigh, "She's always late–,"

Juniper scoffs. "I am not."

A smirk tugs at my lips. "She hasn't turned in an article on time in three months—"

"That is not true!" She raises her voice, now looking at me intently. "You've been stealing them from me," she says, pointing her fork in my direction.

My smirk widens as I continue, "And she always comes in dressed like she's about to teach a class of preschoolers, all bright and colorful." I sneak a quick glance at her current outfit.

But today, she's dressed nothing like a preschool teacher. Today, she looks more like she belongs in a swimsuit magazine. When I brought them the gas can earlier, she had been wearing nothing but a little light yellow bikini, that's was very hard to ignore. Since then, she's slipped over a white short dress that's equally attention-grabbing.

"Oh my god, you kinda do dress like an elementary school teacher," Delaney observes, casting a glance in Juniper's direction. She rolls her eyes at Delaney and takes another generous sip of wine. "You dress like the TA I had last year."

"You're a teacher?" I ask Delaney.

"First grade." She grins.

"June's always dressed like Carrie Bradshaw ever since I can remember. She loves her colors and patterns," Ellis remarks, giving June a once-over.

"There's nothing wrong with the way I dress," Juniper says, her tone defensive as she twirls her pasta aggressively.

"Oh June, I love the way you dress," Ellis compliments.

"Same here," Delaney adds.

I look over at Juniper and smile. "I like the way you dress too."

She glances back at me and narrows her eyes, looking at me like I just told her I like eating horseradish by the spoonful. I clear my throat and quickly return my attention to my food, shoveling a mouthful of pasta into my mouth in an attempt to divert my attention elsewhere.

"So, Juniper's bad at her job then?" Delaney asks, her curiosity piqued.

"I'm not bad at my job!" Juniper defends herself, stabbing her fork into her pasta with frustration and grabbing her glass of wine. "Maybe we should go back to talking about Wells' ex-girlfriends," she mutters into her wine glass.

"Well not all the time, but occasionally, yes."

They both laugh and Ellis says, "That's probably because she wants to write books instead."

"That's not... No, I don't... I love my job," Juniper stammers and then winces, scrunching her nose.

"Oh, right. Yeah, the erotic novels," I chime in, spinning pasta around my fork and taking a bite. They all pause to look at me, Juniper clenching her jaw.

"I'm sorry, the what?" Delaney says, her laughter muffled behind her glass of wine.

Juniper shakes her head. "He doesn't know what he's talking about."

"The erotic novels she reads," I clarify.

"They're not erotic novels, Wells," Juniper corrects through gritted teeth, shaking her head. "They're romance books."

"Yes, because all romance books have at least six graphic sex scenes in them," I tease.

"How do you know that?" She quickly turns to face me, her eyes widening, her face flushing beet red. "Did you buy and read that book when we were at the bookstore?"

"Well, I had to find out what had you so intrigued," I admit.

Delaney looks between the two of us. "You guys went to the bookstore together?"

"No," Juniper says quickly looking over at Delaney. "I ran into Wells there." She then stops to look at me with a smirk. "What book were you there for again? 'How to Stop Feeling Like Shit'?"

"And you were there buying, what? 'Long Hard Ride,' right? Or no, wait, was it 'Rock Hard'?"

She responds with a single irritated chuckle, "No, I'm pretty sure that was your basket," she retorts, then drains the rest of her wine glass.

"Do you two spend time together outside of work?" Ellis asks, her fork pointing between us, curiosity dancing in her eyes.

"You know what?" Juniper says, rising from her seat, her flowy white dress swaying as she does. "I think we need more wine."

"Oh, you'll have to get some from the wine cellar downstairs," Ellis says to her as I watch Juniper head to the French doors leading into the house. "Oh, and get the bottle of Château St. Michelle," Ellis adds and Juniper gives a thumbs-up as she disappears inside.

Notes

This chapter was originally planned as a dual POV, but it ended up being a bit lengthy! I hope you all enjoyed it regardless. The next one should be out in just a few days!

Things are heating up in the next chapter!

Thank you everyone for reading, commenting, and voting! ❤️