Tangled Web: A Small Town Romance (The Cortell Brothers Book 6) by Giulia Lagomarsino (an ebook reader txt) 📕

grudgingly came out and finally got my coat back from Kat. I hurriedly put it on and zipped it up. The girls walked out, looking at me strangely.

“Well, it was…nice to meet you,” Anna said.

Sofia grinned. “Yeah, not usually how you meet someone.”

“Hey, you really came through for us back there,” Kat added. “And you’re pretty good at racing with a shopping cart.”

I smiled slightly. “I’ll keep that in mind for future ventures.”

Andrew walked over, a huge grin on his face. “So, I leave you alone for a half hour and you’ve started a cart race through the store that ended in a hostage situation with my sisters.”

“Hey, I was just getting oranges. I have no idea how it spiraled out of control from there.”

He slung his arm around my shoulders and pointed me toward the double doors that led back into the store. “What do you say we get out of here?”

“I still need groceries.”

“Groceries first, then home.”

Home. I liked the sound of that. “Any chance this won’t end up on YouTube.”

“Nah, it’s very unlikely.”

I blew out a breath. “Thank goodness.”

“But there are already over three hundred likes on the town Facebook page.”

Andrew

We went in search of her shopping cart, finding it abandoned at the end of the snack aisle. Kat’s coat was still inside, along with a shitload of snacks.

“Did you have the munchies?”

“The only thing in the cart that’s mine are the oranges.”

“So, where did the rest of this stuff come from?”

“The girls. They tossed stuff in the cart as I hauled their heavy asses around the store.”

“You think we’re fat?” Kat said from behind me.

Lorelei sighed, shaking her head at Kat. “Of course I don’t think you’re fat. But have you ever tried pushing three grown-ass women around a store?”

“No,” Kat grumbled.

“Exactly. I’m going to be feeling that little escapade for days.”

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into me, inhaling her sweet scent. “I’ll make sure to massage every kink out of your body.”

Kat grinned. “Well, that sounds like fun, but you can’t have her yet.”

She reached forward and grabbed Lorelei’s hand, pulling her toward the group of women.

“Sorry, what?” Lorelei asked.

“Yeah, you’re going to have to come with us.”

“Um…why?”

“To be the mediator, of course.”

“But…I just came for groceries.”

“Andrew can do the shopping.”

“Hey—“

“We’ll only keep her for the afternoon,” Sofia said, grabbing Lorelei’s other arm. “Besides, with the amount of time you’ve been spending with her, we need to get to know her.”

I tried to argue, but before I could, they were dragging her away. Sighing, I looked down at the cart full of junk food and started down the aisle to put it back. I would keep some of it, but no one needed that much junk food.

“I’m surprised you let her go.”

I turned to see Robert walk up beside me.

“Let her go? She was dragged off like Sunday night dinner. Hey, have you had any trouble with Jack lately?” I asked curiously.

“You mean besides the seven parking tickets I’ve received in the past month?”

“Really?” My eyebrows shot up at that information. “I thought it was just me.”

“Hell no. Eric had a few fines, all bullshit, of course. He went into Joe’s shop and tried to fine him for a noise complaint. That didn’t pan out. He’ll do anything right now to stick it to us. Will and Josh are the only lucky ones.”

“Well, Will doesn’t live in town, so it’d be pretty hard to get him with anything. But why isn’t he going after Josh?”

He shrugged. “Beats me. Maybe he’s saving up for something bigger.”

I looked him over. He looked tired. Way more tired than I had ever seen him. “What’s going on? You look like you haven’t slept in days.”

“I haven’t,” he said, rubbing his hand over his tired face. “I just keep freaking out.”

“About what?”

“The baby.”

I nodded, completely understanding. When Kat lost the baby, it had hurt us all. I could see how he would be worried. “Well, that’s why we were trying to keep them all safe.”

“No, it’s not that. I mean…of course it scares me that what happened to Kat and Eric could happen to us, but that’s not the real problem.”

“Then what is?”

His jaw clenched and he stared off down the aisle. “I’m worried she’s still not gonna marry me.”

“Man, you don’t really believe that, do you? She’s crazy about you.”

“Then why does she keep pushing me away?”

“Because you keep pushing her.”

He huffed out a long breath. “I just…”

“She’s not gonna leave you,” I said firmly. “Trust me, Anna loves you. But if you keep pushing her, she’s going to push back.”

He slid his hands into his pockets and stared down at the ground. The slump of his shoulders and the circles under his eyes proved how badly this was affecting him.

“Look, just take it easy the next few days. Spend some time with Anna and just forget about marriage and all your worries. I promise, if you do that, she’ll come around some.”

He sighed and nodded. “You’re right. I just need to back off.”

I clapped him on the shoulder. “If you don’t believe your love is strong enough, how will she?”

He smirked. “Look at you being all romantic and shit.”

“Well, you know, having Lorelei in my life has changed things.”

“Yeah? So, is she the one?”

I grinned. I wasn’t sure, but I knew I wanted to find out. “We’ll see.”

I bought out half the store to fill Lorelei’s house, and then left all the groceries in the truck. They’d stay cold outside, and when Lorelei was ready to head home, I wouldn’t have to reload the truck. Home. Yeah, it sounded really fucking good. Not that I could assume that Lorelei would want me to live with her. Hell, we hadn’t known each other that long, and she was newly widowed. I couldn’t just throw that out there. But I faced bigger problems than whether or not I would move in with her. I had to figure out what to do about the little fact