Page 54 of Kiss and Tell

Lucy had insisted on buying every single Storm a tiny trinket from Nashville since they were, as she said, “carrying her load” at the farm.

Lucy’s eyes twinkled as she reached for the backpack sitting on the floor near her. “I know you’re joking, but I better check.”

He and Miles exchanged amused glances as she pulled out a pile of shot glasses, magnets, bags of hot peanuts, bottles of barbeque sauce for Aunt Claire and Mila, and a large bottle of Tennessee whiskey for her cousins to share. Lucy appeared to do a mental checklist as she tried to remember which souvenir went to which family member. She frowned for a second before she dug back into the bag, finally pulling out a guitar pick.

“Phew. Thought I’d lost the pick Billy asked me to get for him.” Lucy started tossing everything back in her bag.

“Billy?” Miles asked.

“Yeah. You met him when we were filming. He works in the brewery.”

“Tall, thin guy, blond hair?” Joey asked.

Lucy nodded. “That’s him. He started playing guitar in high school. We were dating at the time, and he insisted on learning my favorite song, ‘Just the Way You Are.’ The Bruno Mars song, not the Billy Joel one. He’s got a really great singing voice. He plays at the brewery tasting room one Saturday a month.”

Joey frowned. “You dated Billy?”

Lucy nodded. “Yeah, for most of our junior year.”

“Was he your first boyfriend?” Miles asked, his arms crossed. He didn’t appear pleased to discover Lucy was working with an ex. Joey could relate. He’d never been a particularly jealous guy…until now.

Lucy added another scoop of the macaroni and cheese to her plate, oblivious to their sudden black looks. “Yeah, he was.”

Miles must have realized he’d asked the wrong question because he went back in with a follow-up. “As in, yourfirst timefirst boyfriend?”

Lucy blushed and giggled. “Well, yeah. But things didn’t work out. In the end, we realized we were better off as friends, so we split the summer before we were seniors.”

“And now he works at the brewery?” Joey asked.

Lucy’s smile began to fade under their third degree. “To be fair, he’s always worked at the farm, started part-time when he was a sophomore. After he graduated, he came on full-time.”

Miles leaned back in his chair. “And that’s not awkward?”

Lucy’s nose crinkled up adorably whenever she was confused. “Why would it be awkward?” She paused a second before her expression cleared. “Oh, you mean because we had sex? No, it’s not awkward. For one thing, it’s ancient history, and for another, I was serious about us being great friends.”

“Is he dating anyone? Married?” Joey hoped she’d throw them a bone because, while she didn’t have a problem working with her former lover, he wasn’t so sure he felt the same way.

“Nope. He’s single.”

Joey blew out a slow breath, trying to get his shit together, knowing his reaction was super misplaced. Especially since he and Lucy hadn’t kissed since their first day on the road, and it wasn’t like they were a couple. While he’d flirted with her nonstop, he’d been hesitant to push the envelope until Miles was on board.

He was trying to follow Tony’s advice by being patient, while showing his friend just how well the three of them fit together. There were moments—like now—when he felt like he was making progress. Because Miles was as hot under the collar about Lucy and her ex working together as he was. Unfortunately, so far, those optimistic glimpses had been too few and far between.

Miles ran a hand over his head, and Joey got the sense he was doing the same mental exercises—talking himself off the ledge before he said something stupid.

“Do you work with any other exes we should know about?” Miles was going for levity, but his husky, almost grunting tone belied the forced smile.

Lucy laughed and shook her head. “Nope. Only Billy. My other ex lives in Chicago.”

“Other…” Joey repeated quietly. “You’ve only dated two men?”

Lucy gave him an exasperated look. “You’ve seen where I live, Joey. It’s not like there are available guys hanging out on every street corner. I grew up in a small town, so I know every single man in Gracemont who’s my age. The pickings are slim, believe me.”

“So who was the other ex?” Joey was aware they hadn’t really engaged in the standard past relationships conversation yet.

Which might be the only topic they’d missed in the past few days, because God knew they’d talked about every other thing under the sun. Joey would have bet money that he had already learned everything there was to know about Miles, but damn if Lucy hadn’t drawn out no less than twenty new stories about his best friend’s childhood, his most embarrassing moments, as well as his philosophies about life and death that Joey had never heard.

“Marco,” Lucy replied. “He was also a Gracemont guy, but we didn’t start dating until after graduation. I didn’t go out a lot socially after high school because I was helping take care of Grandma, and then Granddaddy. I went to Whiskey Abbey on my twenty-third birthday and Marco was there. We ran into each other around town from time to time, and we were always friendly, but that night he asked me to dance. Then he called me the next day and invited me to the movies. We dated for a couple years.”

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