Page 37 of Thirst For Me
“You want me to believe,” I say, heart pounding, starting to sweat for no reason buther, “that you didn’t plan this whole scheme with June Spencer to fuck with me?”
She answers, “I really don’t care what you believe, Mason.” But her cheeks are flushed pink. She’s breathing too hard.
“What I believe,” I tell her, “is that you walked into my bar and tried to seduce me because June put you up to it.”
She laughs softly, green eyes sparking with anger. “Then you are absolutely delusional.”
But I can feel her defenses wavering. Either there’s some truth to what I’ve said, or she’s wondering if there is.
“You’re telling me that June didn’t put you up to it?”
“Put me up towhat? I’m here to run my smoothie bar. That’s all.”
I take a deep breath, trying to reel in the electric current and the prickling heat and the fuckingwantthat pours off me like warm maple syrup. I wonder if she feels it, too.
The way she stares at me like every hair on her body is standing on end suggests that she does.
“No.” It comes out of me like a cough, an allergic reaction. This can’t be happening.
I can’t be this stupid.
I can’tstillwant this woman.
Sierra glances at her employee, then studies me, incredulous. “What do you mean,no?”
“I need you to leave,” I growl.
Her employee steps forward and clears her throat. “Excuse me, but who madeyouthe boss of Orchard Cove?”
I ignore her, focused only on Sierra. “How much will it cost me?”
She blinks at me, clearly stunned.
“I’ll pay you,” I tell her. “To pack up your little shop, immediately, and clear out of my town.”
Chapter 8
Sierra
“You’re late.” This is the first thing June Spencer says to me that evening, when I finally meet her.
After a long day setting up the smoothie bar, I was exhausted—and still reeling from mythreerun-ins with Mason—when Sophie and I arrived at the address June gave Soph this morning. The sign on the driveway saidTwisted Tree Orchard and Cider Co.
June never mentioned that she owns an orchard and a cider company.
She told me that she owned a local farm, and a waterfront building at the town pier, and my only research into it centered around the pier building itself and Sunshine Fest.
Major oversight.
Pretty obvious now why June and the Grants don’t like each other: they’re direct competitors. Like, live-next-door-to-each-other-and-run-extremely-similar-businesses direct.
An obnoxiously flirtatious staffer who turned out to be June’s nephew and orchard manager, Lee, finally located June for us after much searching, and now Sophie and I are trying to keep up with the older woman’s strides as she leads us deeper into the propertyand around her cider tasting house—a different layout than the one owned by Mason’s family but a similar vibe, right down to the abundant use of wood and flora and the “craft farmhouse” feel.
“I invited you here,” June goes on crustily, “because you’re a female entrepreneur with wonderful potential, kind of like a younger me. I wouldn’t have if I knew you’d be late.”
Soph and I exchange a look.Is this me in forty years?
I amgrouchyas an old woman.
