“Him? Of all people?Naked?”
“It’s gonna give me nightmares. He’s wrinkly ... everywhere. And not proportionate.” Dean looked like a five-year-old who’d seen a horror movie. His eyes were wide and his lipcurled with disgust. And I had to stifle a laugh. “Are you laughing at my trauma right now?” His jaw dropped.
“I’m not trying to, but it’s a rite of passage around here to be traumatized by Hugh being naked.”
He blinked. “What? Why?”
“Hugh makes poor choices. Like getting the Facebook group mixed up with one of those Google image searches. And another time, I offered to measure him to make sure he had the right pant size, and he thought he needed to strip down. I only saw the outline of things before I told him to pull his pants up, but yeah. He’s like that.”
“I don’t know if I feel better or worse that I’m not the only one who has wrinkly-ass trauma.”
I pressed my lips together to keep myself from laughing. I only spoke when I felt safe. “Welcome to Strawberry Springs, Dean.”
“You guys are fucking weird.”
“Oh, yeah. We are. It’s part of the charm.”
When I got home from the shop and saw someone with a massive pink cowboy hat on, I first wondered if Dean had decided to change up his look.
Then I realized the hat was on my sister.
“Brooke?” I asked. “H-hey. What are you doing here? Is everything okay?”
“Why do you automatically assume something’s wrong when I come see you?” She crossed her arms, her bottom lip poking out.
“You’re right. I just didn’t expect to see you.”
“Well, it’s not like you do much. I figured I would spice things up.” Sheshrugged.
“My life isn’t all that boring. I have this—” I gestured to my stomach. “Remember?”
She looked me up and down. “Trust me, Grace. It’s hard to miss.”
I bit down on a snarky response. “So, is this just a visit, or are you staying?”
Brooke flipped her hair over her shoulder. “I’ll be here for a few days. I have some big plans.”
“Big plans, huh?” My gaze traveled in the direction of the hallway where I knew Dean would be staying. “Well, in that case, you should know we have another guest.”
“What?” Brooke frowned. “Who?”
“Dean’s here for a little while.”
“Dean?You mean irresponsible baby daddy Dean?”
“He’s not irresponsible,” I said immediately.
“Oh, sure. Why is he here?”
“There was an issue with his hotel and?—”
“Let me guess, you just swooped in and offered him a place to stay? God, you aresogonna get taken advantage of.”
“How about you let me handle Dean, okay?” My voice came out harsh.
Brooke’s eyes went wide. “Whoa, touchy. Don’t come crying to me when this goes wrong. Anddon’tgive him my room.”
He didn’t want it anyway. “Trust me, I won’t. And his hotel issue could be resolved by now. He may not even come back.”