Page 65 of Four Steps to the Perfect Fake Date

Grunting, Mabel simply tucked into her food and ignored her granddaughter. Calvin flicked his gaze from the old woman over to Daphne, who rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“Where’s Dad?” she asked, tearing her eyes away from Calvin to look at her mother.

“He and Hugh are fixing the fence on the northern pasture. Two of the sheep got out this morning, and we had to spend three hours looking for them.”

“You should have just called me to bring Louie over,” Ellie said.

“We didn’t want to bother you,” Helen replied, helping herself to salad. “I know you’re busy with the wedding and the house plans.”

“Still. Louie is literally a sheepdog, Mom. He would have brought them back in ten minutes.”

Helen just laughed. “Maybe your father and I like the pain of doing it ourselves. It gave us something to do in our retirement.”

Ellie snorted, and Mabel laughed. Calvin ate quietly, listening. Eating a home-cooked meal surrounded by people with this much easy comfort with each other was unfamiliar. He wasn’t sure where he fitin, or whether he was enjoying himself or not. He still felt on edge on Daphne’s behalf, but there was a pleasantness to the company.

“Heard there were two break-ins last night,” Mabel said to him after a few moments. “The Deacons’ new restaurant and down at Barela Contracting.”

“Who’d you hear that from?” Calvin asked, brows arched.

“Whodidn’tI hear it from would be a shorter list,” Mabel replied with a sly tilt of her lips.

“You forget that this is Fernley,” Daphne chided. Her eyes were lit from within, and Calvin found himself staring at her for a beat too long.

“Right,” he said, dropping his gaze to his food. “There was probably a game of telephone going as soon as the thief broke the glass on Romano’s window.”

“So you think there’s only one thief?” Mabel prodded. “You think the two are connected? People are starting to worry, you know.”

“As long as you lock your doors at night, I don’t see why you should,” Calvin replied. “We’re still investigating, so I can’t tell you anything more than that.”

“Playing it close to your chest,” the old woman said, arching her brows. “Very mysterious, Sheriff.” She glanced at Daphne. “I can see why you like him so much.”

“I do notlikehim,” Daphne shot back, outraged.

Ellie laughed in her soup, and Helen just looked at her eldest daughter like she’d sprouted another nose. They, along with Mabel, laughed as a flush crept over Daphne’s face. When Daphne puffed her cheeks out in embarrassment and began to chuckle, Calvin realized this was the image of her family he’d always envisioned. They were close, they cared about each other, but they teased each other too.

An old wound ached inside him. Growing up, he’d wanted so badly to be part of something like this. He wanted a big family around him. People who gave two shits if he hurt himself, who knew each other’s business, who remembered his birthday. And all he’d had was a mother who cared more about moving on with her own life than taking careof him. He learned that he had to fend for himself or ruin himself in the process.

And ruin had been a real possibility.

“I don’tdislikehim,” Daphne amended, not meeting Calvin’s eye. Funny thing to say, considering what they’d been doing when the doorbell rang. “He’s a competent sheriff.”

“I might keel over from the praise,” Calvin put in before biting off a piece of soup-dipped bread.

Ellie and Mabel laughed, and Helen gave her elder daughter an indulgent smile. Daphne’s cheeks grew redder.

He wondered how Daphne had felt growing up with so many big personalities. Maybe she’d retreated into herself because they took up so much space. Maybe shrinking herself to fit the mold of the Good One had been easier than elbowing them out of the way so she could grow.

“I don’t dislike you either, Cupcake,” he said, and winked when her glare sliced across the table to him.

They finished their dinner, and Daphne’s family lingered only long enough to clean up and leave his place as tidy as they’d found it. He helped Daphne totter to the front door to say goodbye to her family, and they both let out a long sigh as he closed the door behind them.

“I love them,” Daphne said, “but they’re a lot.”

He laughed. “I’m starting to understand that,” he said, and helped her to the sofa. They sank down into the cushions as the gentle patter of the rain falling on the roof filled the silence. Finally, they were alone again.

Chapter 23

Daphne wasn’t prepared for Flint to lift her legs up and lay them across his lap. She fluffed the throw pillow behind her head and shot him a suspicious look. “What are you doing?”

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