“I sure love you.” She dodged his question neatly before she patted his arm and headed off to the table where her sisters sat.

Still, it was a week after that conversation with William, and Beth hadn’t seen Joe around town for a few days. She’d waved his way when she’d walked past the garage some days prior, but he’d been talking with a customer and she’d been on her way back to the salon so there hadn’t been time to stop.

So she clearly needed to take the next step and she said as much.

“Go get some, girl.” Lily spoke from her place in the chair. Tate was going over a few different styles of wedding hair. The date was a ways off, but it was fun and it made them all happy.

Tate cocked her head as she held a curl up and then shook her head. “Too foofy.”

“What’s foofy?” Anne sat on the other side of Lily as they all chatted.

“You know, dumb. Lily’s not a curls-up-near-her-face-in-a-fountain kind of girl.”

“Thank God or we’d have to taunt her.” Beth shrugged. “Back to me, hello. God, Lily, does everything have to be about you?” She winked and Lily laughed.

“Just go on down to that garage and lay some sugar on him.”

“He’s a giant. I’d have to pole vault to get him by surprise. I need to corner him somewhere.”

Tate glanced up, catching Beth’s gaze in the mirror a moment. “Why not at the garage? Okay so we know he’s too tall to surprise with a smooch, but you’re a total pest. Really, no one I know is better at cornering someone. Go over and say hey. I brought cookies today anyway.”

Beth grinned at Tate. “You did? Have I mentioned lately how much I love it that you’re like my baking fairy godmother?”

“Of course there’s cookies. I knew I could get rid of them somehow and this is for a very good cause. I like it when y’all are happy. And you want Joe so I’ll do all I can to help. I even set some aside for Matt. He’s coming with the babies to have lunch with me.”

Tate and Matt had two gorgeous children and another on the way. Matt’s mother, Polly Chase, worked with Matt, whose schedule changed at the fire station often, to deal with childcare so Tate could still work three days a week. Even on those three days, Polly or Matt would often show up with the kids and a lunch. Tate would brighten a thousand watts at the sight of them.

It thrilled Beth because no one she knew in the universe deserved that kind of happily ever after than Tate. And it made Beth ache for it herself.

She hugged her sister, kissing her cheek. She patted Lily’s shoulder as her friend gave her a thumbs-up. “I expect a full report back on the status of the Joe situation.”

“We all do,” Anne added.

“Right!” Beth gave herself the once-over in the mirror, touched up her lipstick and then grabbed the cookies, heading to the garage to deliver them.

Beth wasn’t surprised to see the other single women of Petal had noticed Joe. He was super hot in that bad-boy, works-with-his-hands, has-a-scruffy-beard way. In other words, her type.

The thing was, she wanted him. And so the Dollys and Steffies of the world needed to get that through their heads. Everyone in their family joked that Beth was the queen of stubborn.

Ha.

She was. Which meant all these other hoochies had to hit the damned road. She pulled her phone out and made a quick call.

Once that was done, Beth tossed her hair back and walked in, right past Dolly, who wore a questionably tight, extremely low-cut shirt as she thrust her knockers at Joe.

Buck saw her and barked, nearly skipping—cutest damned thing she ever saw, his little prancing dance—over. Joe sent a look her way, part pleased, part pleading to be freed from Dolly’s clutches.

“Hey, Buck.” She bent to scratch behind his floppy ear and straightened. “You ready, Joe?”

Joe blinked and then nodded. “Yes. Ready.”

Beth put the cookies on the counter and turned to Dolly with a smile. “Hey, Dolly, thanks for keeping Joe company until it was time for him to take me to lunch.”

“He never said anything to me.” Dolly tried to look triumphant but she just looked dumb. As usual.

“Why would he?” Beth laughed and turned to Joe, who’d grabbed his keys. Lunch was impromptu, but she didn’t want Buck here suffering, not that Joe would leave the dog there anyway. “Want me to grab Buck’s leash?”

Joe couldn’t help but be impressed by Beth. She breezed in, looking amazing. Especially in comparison with Dolly who apparently didn’t believe in the less-is-more philosophy.

The damned dog actually danced to her, barking happily. And she had cookies? He could totally take her to lunch just for that. Then she’d saved him from Dolly and made sure he understood she wanted Buck along?

Every time he ran into her, he had less and less defense against her charm. Because she was charming.

And really hot.

He handed the leash to Beth and turned back to Dolly, once again pushing the bill and the keys her way. “So like I said, I changed the oil and checked everything over.” He’d known, of course, that there was not a damned thing wrong with the car and that Dolly had been interested in him, not his mechanical skills. But he remembered what she’d been like in school and that had left him sour on her ever since.

Beth bent, chatting to the dog as she got him leashed. “Sorry, the cookies are triple chocolate and dogs can’t have chocolate. Which really sucks, Buck, because chocolate is awesome. But I promise to let you have some of my ham sandwich as a consolation prize.”