Page 40 of Gossip Game

So fucking right.

He risked another glance back. Ainsley’s head was already bobbing to the side as the two-year-old drifted off to sleep. Maisy was regaling Charlotte about her friend whose guinea pig was also named Charlie. Charlotte smiled adoringly at everything his niece said.

For a reputed pampered society princess, she had no problem going one-on-one with kids. He’d noticed that the day she’d interacted with Dalton and his family. Her interest was genuine. Her concern was real. All he had to do was remember those moments in the elevator when she nearly passed out imagining her niece or nephew suffering through what Dalton had.

“Mm-hmm.”

His sister’s muttering had his attention shifting.

“What?” he demanded when she aimed a knowing smile in his direction.

I love her, Alex mouthed.

“Shut up and drive.”

Alex laughed loudly this time as Noah focused on the familiar mountains rising ahead of them. Better to concentrate on something concrete than the crazy feelings churning deep in his gut. Especially since he was pretty sure he’d fallen in love with Charlotte Davis three years ago in a London hotel room, talking the night away, munching on crisps and falling asleep to a decades-old chick flick.

He was so screwed.

Forty-five minutes later, Alex exited the highway onto the main drag through his little hometown. Like one of Pavlov’s dogs, Maisy began chirping about lunch at DQ.

“No DQ today,” Alex told her. “You’ll have plenty of junk food at the football game tonight.”

“But Mommmmm,” Maisy wailed as the DQ came into view.

Noah did a double take at the ice cream store’s marquee, declaring today as “Noah Hudson Day.” The marquees for the bank and the Tractor Supply announced the same thing.

“What the hell is Noah Hudson Day?” He looked over at his sister.

Alex sported a huge grin. “Surprise!”

Maisy echoed her mother. “Surprise, Uncle Noah! We get to wear your jersey to the game tonight. The one from when Gramps was your coach.”

Noah’s teeth began to hurt, his jaw was clenched so tight. “Alex?”

“You didn’t think you were coming home just for Meemaw’s birthday, did you?”

“Uh, yeah, I did.”

His sister imitated her daughters and bounced in her seat. “Then it’s the perfect surprise.”

“Dammit, Alex,” he growled. “I hate surprises.”

“I know. That’s what makes this one so much fun.” She took pity on him. “They are renaming the football stadium in your honor tonight.”

What the actual fuck?

“No one asked me if they could do that.”

“Because you would have said no. You’re way too modest, by the way. It’s happening though, little brother. Face it. You’re the biggest star to come out of our football program. The whole county is turning out for the ceremony tonight.”

When they rounded the corner leading up to the home where he’d grown up, Noah spotted a convoy of television vans parked outside the post office. His gut clenched.

“Don’t tell me the media is covering this?”

“Of course they are, silly. Lest you forget, stuff like this is big news in small towns.”

Noah whipped his head around to stare at Charlotte. Her expression was unreadable—except for her teeth buried in her bottom lip. Dammit. What had he dragged her into?

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