His Hot Mess – The Deleted Scene

Head back to the beginning of Chris and Sadie’s romance with this exclusive deleted scene!

CHRIS

Casey dropped a glistening hot bratwurst on my bun. “You sure you don’t want to eat that plain?” She pointed her chin over to the side table with all the condiments.

Sadie was standing there, one hand on her hip, staring down at us intensely.

“There’s room for two,” I grumbled. I could see Casey swallowing down a smile, which only made me scowl harder.

I still couldn’t believe Lucy’s sister had argued with me about sausages. And that I’d taken the bait. Who gets pissed off about bratwurst? 

More importantly, why had I enjoyed getting pissed off about bratwurst?

The first time I’d met Sadie Mitchell she’d gone off on me too. I’d tried telling Lucy that calling Graydon on the phone would probably work just as well as the shit-ton of expensive fireworks I’d helped her buy. Graydon was a simple guy.

“You don’t know a thing about romance, do you?” Sadie had said. She’d been sitting behind me in the cab of my truck, and I could feel her there, making the back of my neck prickle with something warm and fuzzy. 

“Maybe not. But I know Graydon, and he’s easy to please. Fireworks are just a bunch of noise and lights.” 

Sadie had made this exasperated sound and I’d had to bite my cheek to keep from smiling. Provoking her was too much fun. Then I glanced at Lucy in the passenger seat. She was practically wringing her hands into a knot. She had a plan, and I didn’t know her well enough to know if she might chicken out like Jessica.

The woman who’d walked out on me. On our wedding day.

I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy, let alone my best friend Graydon, so I’d kept my mouth shut. 

Lucy had Sadie and I take care of the fireworks while she went out to find Graydon on the lake. How she’d known he’d be out there was beyond me. Sadie and I had stopped arguing long enough at least to get them all set off. It was a complicated bit of work, lighting all of them in sequence, and we’d worked silently, smoke billowing around us, running to the side and covering our ears as each one went off. By the end we were sweating our asses off, breathing hard next to each other. But somehow I hadn’t noticed the effort, only the way her face lit up under those lights. She hugged me at the end, which had stunned me into even more silence.

Now, as I strode over to the condiment table, I tried not to remember the way Sadie had felt against me as she rose up on her tiptoes to wrap her arms around my neck; the soft press of her breasts on my chest and the tickle of her hair at my neck. 

She tossed those same soft brown waves over her shoulder now as she stared at the condiments, still not making a move for any of them.

“It’s mustard, not a multiple choice test,” I said, coming up behind her.

Sadie whipped her face up to me and scowled, drawing my attention to the sprinkle of little freckles on her nose. They were irritatingly cute. Just like her.

She lifted her chin. “It’s an important decision. You can’t undress a hot dog once you’ve put everything on it. Unless you strip everything off and start again.”

That combination of words was deeply confusing to my lower parts. Undressing. Stripping everything off.

Hot dog.

I had to lean over her to grab the sauerkraut, and when I did, I caught a whiff of her shampoo—some kind of tropical flower smell—mingling with the bratwurst.Another deeply confusing set of stimuli that made warmth go to my abdomen…and also made my stomach growl. 

I was hungry, that was all.

“These aren’t hot dogs.” My voice was gruff. “You know what I mean. What kind of sausage fanatic calls a bratwurst a hot dog anyway?” I moved onto the mustard. “Especially after you just insisted you knew so much about them?”

“You’re unbelievable.” Sadie shook her head. “I love sausages, okay?”

I coughed—carefully into my shoulder—to disguise the laughter.

“I love to eat sausages—” she tried. 

Her eyes widened.

“Please, keep going.” I set the bottle of mustard back down.

“Oh my God.” She pressed a hand to her forehead, but I saw the way she pinched her mouth closed. She was trying to keep from laughing too.

I didn’t like the way that heat spread lower, knowing she was smiling.

Finally she squirted some mustard up and down her sausage. 

This time I had to look away. How the absolute fuck was I finding her putting condiments on a hot dog—sorry, sausage—a turn on?

“You know”–Sadie grabbed the sauerkraut tongs–“if we were in the city right now, I’d make you go on a tour with me of the best sausage places, followed by the very worst, and then I’d give you a multiple choice exam. No, actually, I’d make you write an essay. Then we’d know who the real sausage expert is.”

I had to close my eyes and will myself not to react to that one. When I opened them, I said, “Tell you what. If you ever catch me in New York City, I’d let you have the win.”

“What, you never go there?”

“Never.”

“Purely a small town boy, huh?”

“No, I just prefer peace and quiet.” That part was true. When I’d gone on my trip after things ended with Jessica, my favorite places weren’t the big cities and their museums and galleries. It was the wide open spaces, the cliffs, the oceans, the stars; the villages and islands and beaches. Those were the places I’d loved.

Something about that thought must have traveled to my face because Sadie studied me for a moment as if wanting to ask me more. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear with her free hand and even opened her mouth, making my eyes go to her soft, pink lips.

But then someone else slipped in between us to begin dressing their bun, effectively cutting off our conversation.

Good. I swallowed, turning from the table. I was enjoying that way too much, and enjoying the company of Sadie Fulham was a dangerous thing. The last thing I needed was to stray from the rigid simplicity of my life with feelings like the ones she stoked in me.

I grabbed a beer from the cooler by the deck railing, then settled down on an empty stretch of bench at a long table on the side of the deck. 

Across from me and a bit over, Logan and his girlfriend Ophelia were deep in conversation. It was fine—I didn’t feel like making small talk with anyone. They looked up as I sat and gave me a friendly hello, then went back to chatting, giving each other the kind of back and forth look that very clearly said they only had eyes for each other. And were probably about five minutes from sneaking out of here to do something about it.I got a sudden twisting in my chest. 

Were Jessica and I ever like that? I tried my very fucking hardest not to go back and think about my ex-fiancé, but something about that conversation with Sadie had cracked open the vault inside of me I worked so hard to keep closed. I don’t remember ever stroking Jessica’s cheek with my thumb the way Logan was doing with Ophelia right now. I don’t even remember the quiet contentment I saw between Gray and Lucy over on the couch, 

Graydon beaming at Lucy as she leaned up against him.I scowled and turned my attention to my beer. I cracked it open and tossed back half of it, needing to clear my mind. The cool bubbles on my tongue were a good palate cleanser.

This would be my one and only drink tonight before I snuck off myself—on my own. In fact, I’d go right after I finished my food. I was finally about to take a bite when the scent of tropical flowers hit my nostrils.I held my breath as Sadie breezed past me, nearly about to relax again when she spun on her heel and turned back. 

She sat down on the bench, only kept her legs facing out. “Okay, I’m only going to say this because I don’t live here and I’ll probably never see you again. But I will say you do know how to dress a sausage.”

I stared at her a moment, looked down at my food, then back at her. “Is that a compliment?”

“Not at all. I just approve of your toppings. Most people overdo it on the ketchup, and you were sparing with it.”

“It’s too sweet. Unnecessary with the sweetness of the meat.”

“Exactly!” Then she seemed to realize she’d agreed with me and frowned. She moved to get up.

“When are you going back?” I asked, surprising myself. I didn’t want her to get up. 

“Tomorrow.”

Why did my stomach drop with disappointment? What did I care about Lucy’s sister going back to New York? 

Still, I couldn’t help the follow-up thoughts my idiot brain shot at me. Is she going back to her boyfriend? If she isn’t there must be a line of guys waiting to date her.My stomach clenched.

“Seeing as we’re never seeing each other again,” I said, “you’re welcome to sit here,” I said.

“Is that the only reason? Because we’ll never see each other again?”

“Well, yeah, I said I liked peace and quiet. But I’m willing to give it up for a few minutes.”

Her mouth opened, then closed again. Then she swung her legs around as if this was a challenge, slipping them under the table. 

She was sitting close enough to me that I felt her presence on my skin. The sensation was like something warm spreading over me.

Then she opened her mouth and positioned her sausage in front of it.

As I stared at her perfect lips closing around it, all I could do was thank every goddamned thing above I wouldn’t see her again. 

Because fuck me, she was perfect.  

***

Thank you for reading this exclusive deleted scene! Ready to dive back into the Jewel Lakes Series? Book Four, Twice Burned, is up next! Grab it here: geni.us/twiceburned.