Baby Be Mine(Spinsters & Casanovas Series Book 1)(101)

She was confused. How could an avocado be beautiful? When Hunter explained the name to her, he said the plant was old and wrinkly, just like her. She just couldn’t understand it, but when she saw Fern give her a genuine smile, she returned the gesture. Fern seemed like a very nice person. Maybe she could get along very well with this girl.

Caroline was genuinely angry because Hunter had pushed her hand away, which really hurt her ego. So in retort, she pushed that anger towards Fern instead.

“Miss Fern, what planet are you from, saying an avocado is a beauty?” Caroline pretended to laugh innocently. “Avocado is merely a fruit. Plus, it’s old and wrinkly.”

Bang on again. Clarice wasn’t happy the blonde was saying she was old. She knew already that out of all three women sitting there, she was by far the oldest. So it shouldn’t really have this much effect on her, but somehow, she was feeling too sensitive today. She didn’t like Caroline.

“Fern thinks an avocado is a God-given beauty. Isn’t that right, Hunter?” Fern asked her friend again, to which he merely replied with a grunt and another cough. Fern shook her head and turned back to Clarice to smile at her before moving along to face Caroline. “An avocado is the elixir of beauty. Women use avocado for facemasks and everything. And Fern thought you would have known this. What planet are you from, Caroline?”

Caroline didn’t know how to respond. She was at a loss for words.

“No words?” Fern smirked at Caroline, knowing now that she’d beaten her enemy by one point.

Clarice wasn’t comfortable eating lunch with people she didn’t know. And why were those two fighting anyway? More importantly, though, where was her appetite today? The food didn’t taste horrible or anything. She forked the contents on her plate, feeling a sense of nausea coming on, but she closed her eyes and breathed slowly. She supposed she didn’t like Hunter sitting so close to her like this.

Hunter was unintentionally edging himself closer to Clarice still, as he could feel his seat being taken over by Caroline on his other side.

But the fact that his cousin was constantly looking at his avocado in an admiring and worrying way throughout their whole conversation didn’t sit well in his stomach. So to counteract this feeling and to lift the strained tension between Fern and Caroline, he asked, “So how did you two meet?”

“We met when she came to meet with one of our staff to talk about the conference in Queenstown,” Anton said, eyeing Clarice’s pale face with concern.

Clarice didn’t want to be reminded of how she and Anton had met. She just wanted to be alone with him to ask him about their time in Queenstown, if he could remember at all of course. But taking in his reaction now, all he showed was his normal icy face, the same he had on before they went to Queenstown.

“Do you know how I met Clarice?” Hunter teased, looking around at his audience.

Oh, dear heavens, Clarice prayed, jolting her thoughts to Hunter’s comment. Please don’t let that Casanova tell everyone about how I—

“She confessed her love to me,” Hunter finished her thoughts.

This statement had Anton dropping his fork, which hit the plate, then dropped to the floor.

Caroline fisted her hands beneath the table. Another challenge. Another target. When would Hunter stop seeing these women and start seeing the perfect woman right in front of him?

“Confession? What kind of confession?” Fern asked, not realizing the tension happening inside their small circle.

“I accidently delivered flowers to his house.” Clarice intercepted Hunter just in time before he started opening his big mouth and spouting out more lies about how she was delivering those flowers just to confess her undying love for him.