That idea made trepidation slip down her spine.

Turn around and go right back out of here. That was her first thought. Her first instinct.

But then he gave her a wink and leaned over, draping his arm across the back of the chair where Tori sat.

For some reason, that made Paige relax. So Josh and Tori were playing along? That was nice. And awkward. She felt bad. Her crazy family, and her own crazy commitment issues were causing Tori and Josh and Mitch to have to lie.

She sighed and made her way from behind the counter over to their table.

“Good morning.”

“Paige!” Tori bounced up from her chair and hugged Paige. “Hi!”

Paige squeezed her back with a huge smile. Tori Kramer, soon-to-be-Landry, was impossible not to like. She was sweet and kind and genuine and slightly awkward in a very adorable I-just-want-to-take-care-of-her way.

Over Tori’s shoulder, Paige noticed Josh watching them. He was smiling with an affectionate look that, if anyone had been looking, would have clearly said he was madly in love with Tori.

Paige let Tori go and grinned at her. “It’s so good to see you. But I didn’t know you were going to come over for the festival.”

“Oh, it’s the perfect reason to come see you,” Tori said, taking her seat again. “When Mitch said that he was—”

“When he said how much he missed her but that he needed to stay to make sure all the electrical worked once things kicked off, Tori wanted to head right over,” Josh interrupted, sitting forward.

Tori pressed her lips together and nodded, glancing at Mitch. “Right,” she said. Then giggled. “I couldn’t stay away from him another day though.”

“Aw, love you, Tori,” Mitch said. Then he pulled her in and kissed her.

It was just a quick peck on the lips, and his grin was full of mischief, but Josh’s grin fell away and his body tensed.

Tori blushed.

Paige thought about knocking the rest of Mitch’s coffee into his lap.

10

Of course, all of those reactions were what Mitch was going for.

“Dammit, Mitch,” Josh muttered, too low for anyone else to hear.

But Mitch was focused on Paige. And she realized that he was trying to see how she’d react.

With jealousy. That’s how she was reacting.

With stupid, makes-no-sense-because-she-knew-it-was-a-lie jealousy. Even more, she couldn’t feel jealous over a guy that she didn’t want anything long-term with. That was her call. That was her rule. That was her decision. She couldn’t be jealous over other women or how he spent his time or if he didn’t text or call her every day.

Even more, she never felt jealous. That was the truth. She had never met, dated, kissed, or even had a hookup with a guy she felt jealous about over anything.

She was going to have to get a handle on her emotions about this guy.

And it was definitely a red flag that her emotions were not handled even when she knew that he was just messing around.

Paige made herself sit back in her chair, cross her legs, and smile.

“Got to sell it,” Mitch said to his cousin.

“I’m keepin’ track,” Josh told him. “I’m going to make you pay for every one of those.”

“I’m so sorry,” Paige said. She kept her voice low too. The bakery was busy and there was a lot of noise, but this was Appleby. It sometimes felt like the walls and trees even had ears. “He’s helping me out and I realize it’s ridiculous.”

“It’s fine,” Tori said. “We’ve all got each other’s backs. Mitch told us what was up before we even headed over here.” She gave Josh a look. “You have nothing to worry about.”

Josh nodded and gave her a wink. Then he leaned in and took Paige’s hand in his on top of the table. “So, how are things at the yoga-cat café?”

Paige was surprised by the hand holding but she slid a glance at Mitch, knowing immediately what was going on. Mitch was looking at his cousin with his eyebrow arched.

Paige leaned in, closer to Josh too, feeling a touch of that same mischief that was in the air. “It’s good. Very… relaxing.”

Josh grinned and Paige completely understood what Tori saw in him. He was very good looking, but even more, he had a confident, laid-back charm about him that was definitely appealing.

“I mentioned she should look into otter yoga,” Mitch said from across the table.

Josh’s brows both arched. “You have otters?”

She laughed. “No.”

“But we do,” Mitch said.

Josh nodded. “Ah. Got it. Is that something you could do?” he asked Paige.

She shrugged. “I’d have to learn a lot about otters.”

“Otters are not going to lie still and just stretch out like the cats,” Tori said. “They’re pretty active. If your yoga class is distracted by the otters, they won’t be getting much meditation done.”

Paige laughed. “Noted.”

“Now, now,” Mitch said. He moved his hand to rest it across Tori’s shoulders rather than on the chair.

His big hand resting on the other woman made Paige’s eyes narrow and she had to tell herself to relax.

“Let’s not talk her out of things before we give it a fair try. I told her about the otter encounter and just said there wasn’t a yoga studio in Autre. Let’s not get excited about what won’t work.”

Josh looked interested in his cousin’s interest in yoga. He slid his chair closer to Paige’s.

Mitch’s eyes followed the movement and he did the same, sliding closer to Tori.

Paige almost grinned. Tori laughed lightly.

“Well, how do you feel about alpacas?” she asked. “We’re taking four back with us.”

Paige did laugh then, sharing a look with Mitch. “Four?”

Tori grinned. “We went to talk to Drew. The one he thought I should take back with me is just a baby. An orphan. His mom died about a month ago. They’ve been bottle-feeding him but they don’t really have the time to give him.”

Drew and his brother Dallas were young bachelor farmers. They raised the alpacas for their wool. They weren’t doing it because they wanted to spend all their time being fill-in moms, she was sure. They were nice guys but they had a huge farm to run, and whenever they had a runt kitten or found a stray, they called Paige rather than caring for it themselves.

“So, of course, they thought of you,” Paige teased.

She and Tori had absolutely bonded over their love of animals, especially cats. Tori had told her that she’d been called Cinderella in elementary school after her classmates found out she’d had a pet racoon, rabbits, even mice. All animals liked her. And vice versa. When she’d lived in Iowa, she’d collected “special needs” animals, including a pig that was afraid of thunder, an English bulldog that had been born with a cleft palate and had needed to be fed by hand, and a mountain lion she’d saved after it had been shot as a cub, along with a few “regular” animals like goats and dogs and a whole bunch of cats. She’d even had an alpaca that loved it when she sang to him. Paige had no reason to believe that the sweet veterinarian was any different now just because she lived in Louisiana. And clearly Josh was very willing to indulge her.