Page 100 of The Backup Bride Proposal

Johnny and Maureen were there, along with Erin and her husband, Jason, and their baby, JJ.

“Kane will be joining us for dinner tonight,” Maureen said.

Jason grinned, stood and walked over to Kane, shaking his hand. “Hey, man. Good to see you again.”

“You, too. How’s it going?”

“Busy as always. How’s the movie star thing?”

Kane shrugged. “Keeps me out of trouble.”

“Hi, Kane,” Erin said, offering up a knowing smile as she fed crackers to the baby, who grabbed them from his high chair.

“I can smell the meatballs from upstairs. I can’t wait—” Mae stopped when she caught sight of him. “Kane, what are you doing here?”

“Uh, Johnny saw me outside when I was running and invited me to dinner.” He offered up an apologetic half smile.

“Oh. Well, isn’t that nice?”

She’d changed from when he saw her earlier. Now she was in leggings and a sweatshirt, her hair pulled back in a loose bun. He wanted to hug her, kiss her, breathe her in, but he kept his distance because he distinctly got the “back off” vibes from her. He didn’t know why, but this wasn’t the place or time to question her.

Instead, he sat next to Johnny, who talked to him about the ranch and the horses, something he was always keen to chat about. He ate an amazing spaghetti and meatballs dinner, along with salad and freshly baked bread.

“This is excellent,” he said.

“Louise is quite the cook,” Maureen said. “She keeps us all well fed.”

“You’re very lucky.”

“Oh, don’t tell me that your catering services on set are starving you to death,” Erin said.

“Not at all. The food’s good. But there’s a lot to be said for a home-cooked meal.”

“I can’t imagine being away from home while you’re on location,” Jason said. “I’m sure it’s hard.”

“It can be. But I’ve seen some amazing places, so I can’t complain.”

Maureen and Johnny both asked him about some of the places he’d been, so he spent the rest of the meal telling them about his favorite location shoots. He’d noticed during dinner that Mae had been uncharacteristically quiet. She’d answer questions if she was asked, but she was normally so engaging that her being so introverted wasn’t like her at all.

Maybe she’d just had a bad day. Then again, maybe it was him being here that set her off. She hadn’t wanted to have lunch with him today. In fact, she’d been in a hurry to get away from him. Before he left tonight he intended to find out what was going on.

Except that after dinner Johnny had taken him out back to show him his horses. Jason had come with him, the reason he and Erin had stayed for dinner. One of the horses had a hoof infection that Jason had been tending to, and Jason had showed up after hours to check on the horse, a mare named Rosemary.

“She’s a beauty,” Kane said as Jason gave the mare her meds.

“She’s bella, sì.” Johnny swept his hand over her back. “Such a sweet girl.”

“She’ll be fine in about a week,” Jason said. “But you know you can call me anytime if something comes up.”

Johnny nodded. “I will. Grazie.”

“I’m…gonna head back inside to talk to Mae.”

Johnny and Jason barely acknowledged him with nods since they were deep in conversation about one of the other horses, so he made his way to the house.

He came in the back door, making his way into the dining room. Mae sat at the table with Erin, the two of them in animated conversation about something. Erin said something and Mae shook her head furiously.

“Nothing gets resolved until you talk,” Erin said.

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