“I don’t really want tea today,” Ryan said, looking too big for the small, ornate chair he sat down on at a table in Tea for Two. “I’m getting sick of it.”

“You don’t have to drink tea. You can drink coffee,” Carol told him, frowning at her brother. “It’s not like we only serve tea here “

“I know. I was just saying.”

“Well, your saying sounding like complaining. If you want to hang out somewhere else, you can.”

“But then I’d never see you guys. You never seem to be anywhere else now.”

Emma chuckled at Ryan’s aggrieved comment, but in a way he was right. For the last three months, ever since the place had opened, they’d spent more time as a group at Tea for Two than anywhere else.

She wasn’t anywhere close of getting tired of it, though. She loved the little shop like it was her own.

Noah came in with Ginny just then—they’d been having lunch downtown with Nan earlier—and he gave her a special smile when he saw her. He came over, pulled a chair up very close to hers, and sat down in it, wrapping an arm around her.

“Let’s try to keep the PDA to a minimum today,” Ginny said, flopping down in another empty chair between Ryan and Patrick. “I’m in a no-touching-men mood, and it’s likely to be contagious.”

“What happened?” Carol asked. She’d put a plate of freshly made muffins on the table before she’d sat down.

“Bad date,” Ginny muttered, making a face. “Really bad date.”

Ryan glanced over, looking like he was about to say something, but then he must have changed his mind.

Noah frowned. “Anything I should be concerned about?”

“No. Not that bad.” Ginny gave him a little smile. “Nothing to get all big-brotherly about.”

“Okay. Good.”

“Maybe you should go on a Man-Fast,” Patrick suggested, glancing up from his phone. He’d spent most of his time here looking at emails, but he’d obviously been listening to the conversation. “It didn’t work out for Emma, but maybe the principle is still worth considering.”

Emma reached over to punch her brother softly because his tone had been very dry.

Ryan snorted. “Right. That will be the day. Ginny Hart on a Man-Fast.”

Ginny narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m more likely to do that than you are to manage a Woman-Fast, so I don’t know what you’re scoffing at.”

“Why would I fast from women?” Ryan asked with a lazy smile, leaning back again. “I like them. And they like me.”

While the rest of them laughed, Ginny rolled her eyes and muttered, “Not all of them.”

Again, Ryan opened his mouth like he would say something, but then he must have stopped himself again.

Emma didn’t know why that was, but it made her curious.

She wondered when Ryan would get to the point when he was tired of playing the field. He was showing no signs of it yet.

And she also wondered what he’d wanted to say to Ginny but hadn’t.

“It’s a lot better with just one woman,” Noah put in, leaning over to brush his lips against Emma’s hair. “I speak from experience in this.”

Emma felt rather sappy as she gazed up at him. He was as all-in with this relationship as he’d been with his career, and it was obviously making him a lot happier.

There was no way to doubt his love for her. It never even crossed her mind anymore.

He was going to be there when she woke up—every day for the rest of her life.

“God save me from that,” Ryan groaned.

“One day it will happen to you,” Carol told him. “And then what will you do?”

“Run like hell, probably.”

Carol shook her head.

Ginny cleared her throat. “Nan was quoting verses about marriage to Noah today at lunch.” It was a sudden shift of subject, like she hadn’t wanted to continue the previous teasing of Ryan. “So he has that to worry about.”

“I’m not worried,” Noah said with a very pleased smile.

Emma looked at his face, and then she looked at her friends. She felt her cheeks grow a little warm, but the truth was just this.

She wasn’t a bit worried either.

One day, not too long from now, Noah was going to ask her to marry him.

And she was going to say yes.

***

Author’s Note

 

The next book in the Tea for Two series will be , about Ryan and Ginny and a contest they think up to prove who’s more popular with the opposite sex. It will come out in September. If you’d like to be alerted about the preorder and if you’d like to receive a prequel story I wrote for the series about when they were kids, you can sign up for the Tea for Two newsletter .

 

In the meantime, my next release will be a novella in the anthology, which comes out on June 27. It’s a fun, sexy friends-to-lovers romance, and it’s part of five-novella anthology about billionaire brothers that’s on sale for just $.99. An excerpt from my novella can be found on the following pages.

 

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