Page 69 of Unstoppable Love

“Nothing,” I croaked. My cheeks were still burning, but Dalton was grabbing a beer from the fridge and Jenny was eyeing Emily and me closely. I’d tell Lydia later.

“Oh, come on,” Lydia goaded, because she was no longer my best friend. “There’s only one thing that turns you as red as a tomato.”

“Don’t wanna hear it,” Dalton muttered and slammed the fridge. He glared at Lydia on his way out the door, and I turned back to her, catching her shiver.

Oh, dear God.

When she caught me looking at her, she winked.

“Your friend is nuts,” Emily whispered before slipping her arm out of mine. “Definitely nuts.”

“You don’t know the half of it.”

I forewent the wine in order to keep my senses.

We sat and ate.

Watched the game.

Gavin and Charles cheered as loud as if it were a regular-season game and they were in the stands. Jenny sipped a mimosa.

Josie took turns entertaining all the women with her dance moves and made a show of not only delivering cupcakes she and I frosted at halftime, but letting everyone know that while I helped, she did most of the work. To which her dad had responded, “Of course you did, sweetie.”

Although the hot pink mess of a pile of frosting falling off the tops of each made it clear.

Bryce showed up at halftime, taking off his cowboy hat at the door and swiping a hand through his hair. Conversation changed to his brewery and small petting zoo he’d opened earlier this summer. I hadn’t been there yet, intent on my plan to avoid all things Kelley-related, but hearing everyone talk about it, I couldn’t wait to see it.

He was apparently still building the back patio that would involve cornhole and shuffleboard games and trying to turn it all into a place where someone could come, eat burgers from Kelley Ranch meat, their kids could run with goats and chickens, and the parents could play games and watch TV and enjoy spending time on the land instead of in town.

It was during the fourth quarter when I filled my first glass of wine.

Time was ticking down, and my nerves were kicking up. The game would be over in fifteen game-time minutes, and in a few hours, Cameron would no doubt be walking through my front door.

It was definitely time to start settling the nerves that had been rattling through me like shaken marbles all afternoon. The family was fantastic, treating me like they always had, but there’d still be surreptitious looks all game. When Cameron was shown on the screen and Josie pointed him out to me, Gavin had given me a wink. When they scored a touchdown, and Cam was again shown even though he was on the sidelines, Jenny pointed him out to me.

Through it all, Dalton had watched, standing off to the side, not even bothering to sit, but I could feel his inspecting gaze, no doubt questioning whether I was good enough for his little brother.

Bryce plopped down on the couch next to me, jostling my arm and almost making me spill my fresh, and probably far too large, glass of pinot grigio.

“Sorry. My big brother told me you’re helping Cathy at Jumpin’ Beans. Want a second client?”

Even now knowing Cameron had at least talked to Caleb, I hadn’t expected Bryce to approach me in front of the entire family. “Um. Sure. We can talk about it.”

“I think it’s wonderful, what you’re doing,” Jenny chimed in. “Town’s changing. Growing. It’d be good to see the hard work going into that.”

Dalton grumbled something I couldn’t quite make out, and it was Charles who scowled this time. “Your mom’s right. Town’s changing, like it or not, and we all have to adapt.”

“City people should stay where they belong,” Dalton grumbled. “Don’t need more of them here.”

“I can agree with that,” I said. “But also, look at Emily?—”

“Don’t bring me into this,” she whisper-hissed at me.

“No.” I patted her leg. “It’s true, though. You want to live here because you like the small town, the farm, the land. That’s why others are moving out here, too. Homesteading, even on smaller land scales, is becoming much more popular. I think that’s why we’ve seen the growth. We’re close to a city to escape, but far enough out that people can feel like they’re living off the land.”

“City’s changing ordinances in respect to some of those things, too,” Gavin said. “Used to require more land even for chickens, but that’s changing. The whole new development we’re working on is minimum two acres of land for that purpose.”

“It doesn’t need to happen,” Dalton said. “New Haven is fine the way it is. We don’t need all that crap, or people, or more business or breweries.”

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