Bodie tried to think of something to say that might ease her embarrassment, but what? Her friends were wasting their time if him settling down with Sarah was their hope. Bodie wasn’t the sticking-around-in-one-place type, much less the marrying kind.

For that matter, he wasn’t marriage material. Certainly not for Sarah, who deserved so much better.

“That’s not what I meant,” she attempted to clarify, her face growing more flushed. “I, you, I mean—”

“It’s okay.” He knew what she had meant and he would have said more but the blue-haired butterfly rejoined them.

Rosie leaned over to give Sarah a hug before sitting down in the chair next to Bodie. “Did you get that gorgeous tree you were looking at?”

Fortunately for Sarah, the Butterflies joining her and Bodie was the perfect distraction from her blunder. She and Bodie both knew he wasn’t looking for a relationship. Neither was she. They’d only met a couple weeks ago.

Not to mention that Bodie planned to leave Pine Hill as soon as he finished her job. She held no false hopes that he might want to stay. Boring Richard hadn’t wanted to stay. Why would someone as travel-seasoned as Bodie want to stick around?

“Mr. Lewis,” Maybelle greeted as she returned to the table with her order, her blue eyes studying him as she sat down.

Bodie didn’t look the slightest bit intimidated by Maybelle’s stare. Leaned back in his chair, he held her gaze. “Maybelle.”

“I see you got my name right this time,” she said drily, as she arranged the items on her food tray.

“Yes, ma’am. I’m a quick learner.”

He made his claim with a smile that made an approaching Claudia exclaim, “Look! He really is a quick learner.”

“Or our Sarah is a good teacher,” Maybelle countered, her tone still dry, as if she wasn’t willing to give Bodie more credit than he deserved.

“Smiling never looked so good,” Rosie said with an appreciative sigh.

The Butterflies had bought a half dozen cookies and a cup of coffee apiece.

Bodie’s gaze shifted to Sarah questioningly.

Eyeing all three women innocently taking sips of their coffee in sync, Sarah shook her head. “You don’t want to know.”

He also probably didn’t want to know all the things he’d learn over the next several minutes.

Why Rosie and Claudia felt it necessary to tell him all about her was beyond Sarah. Once he’d flashed his smile a few more times, they had warmed up and were now recounting tales from her childhood she’d just as soon they kept to themselves.

Maybelle, on the other hand, sipped her coffee and watched him with suspicion.