Page 111 of Whisper Sweet Nothings
“Great. Order me a piña colada and some nachos,” Rafe called out before jogging down to the courts.
“And we wonder why you always have a stomachache,” I said.
“Yeah, Lu’s got me eating real healthy at home, so I can splurge a little when I’m out.” He gave us a look to make sure we were in place before serving.
And the next forty-five minutes were a little bit shocking.
I shouldn’t have been surprised because everything Winnie did, she did well.
But she was good. Damn good.
And nobody held back once they realized what a good player she was.
In fact, she kind of kicked our asses, though she seemed clueless that she was a strong player.
Easton was clapping his hands together when we stepped off the courts.
“We’ve got ourselves a ringer, boys.” He gave me a questioning look as if I’d known and kept it a secret.
“I didn’t know she could play like that,” I said with a laugh before wrapping an arm over her shoulder and kissing her hair.
“Thanks. It’s been a while since I’ve played, but I’ve always loved it. And come on.” She gave me a sexy look. “Who doesn’t love a good pickleball outfit?”
Everyone laughed as we chatted for a little bit, and we all shared Rafe’s nachos before getting ready to leave.
“Hey, B,” I said, turning to Bridger. “I need a favor.”
“Shoot,” he said as he walked out to his car with us. Rafe and Easton had stayed back, since they were deep in conversation when we left.
“Edith asked Winnie to see if she could fix Oscar’s laptop, and we have it at the house. I’ve tried rebooting it a few times, but it’s frozen, and even with a hard reboot, it’s not doing anything. I thought maybe you could take a look at it?”
“Yeah. No problem.” He shrugged. “I can follow you to your place now. Emilia is working late, so I’ve got some time.”
“Thanks,” Winnie and I said at the same time.
We made the short drive home and walked inside. Winnie grabbed us all glasses of sparkling water with limes as we settled around the farmhouse table in the kitchen.
Bridger opened the laptop, and Winnie handed him a piece of paper with the password on it, and he got to work. My cousin was a brilliant man, and he knew his way around a computer.
“I wanted to talk to you anyway, and I thought Winnie could help me with something,” he said as he opened the top, hit the power button, and then waited for things to turn on.
“Oh, this sounds exciting.” Winnie rubbed her hands together mischievously.
Bridger started typing on the keyboard, some sort of weird gibberish that was way beyond my skill level. A window then popped up, and he continued typing before looking up. “I’m going to ask Emilia to marry me. And we know my track record with gifts isn’t the best, so I thought maybe being a romance author, you could help me out.”
I filled Winnie in on the fact that Bridger had owed Emilia an apology for accusing her of writing “The Taylor Tea,” and he’d sent her a toilet as an apology gift.
She winced. “Oh. That’s not really the best way to say ‘I’m sorry.’”
“Right. I know that now.” He rolled his eyes. “But I’m not really sure what the best way to ask someone to marry you is. She’s a sentimental lady. I want it to be special.”
“Well, the fact that you’re asking and you’re thinking about it is already the best start.” Winnie smiled.
I glanced over to see that Bridger had already gotten further along than I had on the laptop because it wasn’t frozen any longer.
“He’s got a shit ton of stuff on here, and I’m guessing he’s maxed on storage. Let me see if I can move things around a little. He should start saving things on the cloud.”
“Oh, that’s what I do,” Winnie said. “Can we get that set up for him, and I’ll put it on my account? He’ll never know how to do that on his own.”
