Page 57 of See It Through

“All right then.” For Caleb, that was that. He was a man of his word, and he was taking me at mine. I appreciated that about him. Plus, the last thing I wanted to do was let him down again. Actually, no—the last thing was letting Hannah down. Caleb came in a close second.

Jesse shuffled closer to me. “Are you going with Aunt Hannah to the rodeo?”

I glanced at Hannah then back to the boy. “She hasn’t invited me. Think that means she doesn’t want me to go?”

Jesse’s head whipped to his aunt. “You don’t want Remi to go to the rodeo?”

She rolled her eyes. “Maybe I haven’t gotten a chance to ask him.”

“Well, you should,” he declared.

Caleb interrupted, rapping his heavy knuckles on the table. “Come on, kid. Let’s go get some grub.”

When they left, Hannah smirked at me, clearly amused. Something told me it had nothing to do with my lack of rodeo invitation.

“What’s got you smiling, Hannah Kelly?”

“Did you just perform some manly passing of the baton—me being the baton—with my brother right in front of me?”

Laughing, I reached across the table to nab her fork. It happened to be loaded with pancakes, so she tried to steal it back, but I managed to get it in my mouth before she could. To make up for it, I returned the fork along with a piece of my bacon.

She ate it, but she did so with a deep scowl aimed right at me.

“A while back, Caleb asked me to take it easy on you. That was him checking in, making sure I was keeping my promise.”

“Hmph.” She folded her arms across her chest. “I guess you lied then.”

My brow dipped. “What? In what way?”

A devious curl started at the corners of her mouth. “Do you call what you did to me last night taking it easy? I don’t remember it that way, but—”

Barking a laugh, I tossed my napkin at her. “Fucking menace,” I muttered. “You had me worried.”

She grinned. “Good. Can’t let you get too comfortable.”

“Always on my toes with you.”

Her teeth dug into her bottom lip, biting back a smile. She really was pretty. I was glad I hadn’t noticed back when we were teens. Caleb wouldn’t have been as easygoing if I’d been crushing on his fifteen-year-old sister. That, and it would’ve been a lot harder to leave.

“I meant it, you know.” Locking eyes with her, I grew serious. “I know you’ve had a huge upheaval with Graham passing, and Cay said there was an ex who did you wrong. I’m not going to be another cause of you hurting. I need you to tell me if you see that happening and I don’t notice.”

She swallowed hard. “We’re just having fun, aren’t we?”

It didn’t feel like the right word for what we were sharing, but I didn’t know what else it could be.

So, even though my skin pricked with unease, I agreed. It was all I could do. “For as long as you want to, sweetheart.”

Chapter Twenty-four

Remington

I showed up atthe Kellys for dinner once again. This time, it was Connell Kelly who’d extended the invitation. We’d run into each other in town, he’d treated me to a cup of coffee like we were old friends, then told me what time the meal would be served. The Kellys weren’t much for ceremony, and I liked that about them. I never questioned where I stood with any of them.

When I’d met Caleb back in kindergarten, he’d told me his granddad lived right next door. With a couple acres between the two houses, his definition of next door definitely hadn’t fit with what I’d imagined. First time I’d visited, he’d taken me for a ride on his side-by-side to his granddad’s house, showing me howcloseit was.

For a kid who had thousands of acres to his family’s name, I guessed two or three was nothing.

I was sitting on the back patio, sipping a beer while Connell grilled, when Hannah and Phoebe arrived. Hannah marched straight up to Connell and laid a kiss on his cheek. He squeezed her shoulders and told her he’d missed her. No doubt they’d seen each other in the last few days, but I also didn’t doubt he’d genuinely missed his granddaughter.

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