Stacking the Deck (A Betting on Romance Novel Book 2) by Cheri Allan Read Free Book Online Page B

reaching for imaginary aprons. Liz rolled her eyes and tossed a red onion into the cart.
    Dum. Dum. De-dum. Dum-de-dum-de-dum-de-DUM…
    “Oh, crap,” she said.
    Carter turned to look at her. “Is that your cell phone?” Liz nodded. “Unusual ring tone.”
    “I prefer to think of it as an early warning system.” Carter’s eyebrow did that wingy thing at her in question. “It’s my mother.”
    Her purse strap jingled again.
    “Aren’t you going to answer it?”
    “I can call her back.” Liz picked up a bulb of garlic and sniffed it. She looked at Carter. “What?”
    “Your mother is calling.”
    “I—” Oh, crap. That’s right. Carter didn’t have a mother. She’d died when he was little. Some terrible accident. Liz fought not to squirm under his gaze. She pulled out her phone. “Hi, Mom!”
    She gave Carter a cheery smile and braced herself for the volume. He’d think she were a cad if she held the phone at a safe distance from her ear like she usually did.
    “Elizabeth! I’m glad I caught you! How’s the weather? I hear you might be in for some rain this week! You can never trust the Weather Channel, though. They are so often wrong! Elizabeth?”
    “Yes?”
    “Oh, I thought I’d lost you! You’re so quiet!”
    “I’m in the grocery store, Mom.”
    “Where?”
    “The— nevermind. What do you need?” She glanced guiltily at Carter. “I mean, why are you calling?”
    “It’s your dad! He’s worried about the patio. He doesn’t want the pavers to have grass growing out of them. You know how awful that looks! Can you make sure they use that special sand that keeps the grass from growing?”
    “Special sand that keeps grass from growing? I’ve never heard—”
    “Polymeric,” said Carter as he threw a watermelon into the cart.
    A watermelon?
    Liz put her hand over the phone. “What?”
    “Polymeric sand. It keeps grass from growing between the pavers. Tell her it’s standard now for all our jobs unless the customer wants wider, greenscaped joints.”
    “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said to him.
    “Here.” He reached out. “Let me talk to her.”
    “I don’t think—” But he’d already grabbed the phone.
    “Mrs. Beacon? Hey! It’s Carter McIntyre. Yeah… I know, quite the coincidence that we’re both here.” He winked at Liz. “Listen, just so you know, I use polymeric sand all the time now… Yes.  It is a little more, but I know you and Mr. Beacon will be happy with the results… Absolutely... Any time… Sure... You take good care, too.”
    Carter handed back her phone, and Liz stared at him, shocked he’d managed to have a meaningful exchange of information with her mother in less than twenty seconds.
    “Mom?”
    “She hung up. She had to go. By the way, she says you need to eat more red meat. You’re looking pale.”
    “She did not.”
    “Okay. She didn’t, but I think we’ve spent enough time in the produce section. I need protein.”
    “Protein?”
    “Something other than bunny food.”
    Liz rolled her eyes. “Right.”
    She continued on, trying to focus on selecting whole grain bread and carrot sticks and 100-calorie, low-sodium pretzel packs, but Carter kept throwing in things like chips and sour cream dip. Bricks of cheese.
    Before long, Liz found herself reaching for manly things without even thinking. Big red slabs of meat. Potatoes. Bacon . Which didn’t even make sense, because hadn’t she and Grant sworn off nitrates? But there it was, lying in the cart with everything else. And, truly, the roast beef sandwiches weren’t anything without the bacon.
    Forty minutes later, they stood in line at the check-out, Carter throwing in Twizzlers from the candy rack and Liz pretending not to notice how ruggedly sexy he was as she casually flicked the end of her ponytail over her shoulder. More than once.
    She caught herself mid-flick and made herself reach for the jug of milk without any more flirtatious body