Page 59 of Choosing You

“Are you sure you don’t just have a gambling problem?” he teased.

“Now who’s being funny?”

“Well, sorry we can no longer entertain the town. I’m hoping to slip under the radar tomorrow and simply enjoy a festival as an attendee and not a participant for everyone to make fun of.”

“Oh, stop. You know it was all in good fun. We were rooting for you the entire time,” she said with a sweet smile. “Although it seems a little anticlimactic that we won’t get to see you kiss her and catch her at the booth. That would have been the best way to end that chapter.” Jade turned when Levi walked over and almost purred when he wrapped an arm around her waist.

“Is she giving you a hard time?” Levi asked with a grin.

“No more than usual,” Will said, but he was grinning too.

“I was just telling him we’re all bummed that we’re not going to have anything to bet on this year. I was certain that this was going to be the festival where he got the girl!”

Levi shook his head and laughed softly. “But he already got the girl, so…victory.”

“But the town’s been so involved!” she cried softly. “It just would have been nice if…”

“Jade? Honey? Let it go,” Levi said, kissing her on the head. “And just for the record,” he said to Will, “the town is just fine with the way things turned out.”

Now he chuckled. “Thanks. I appreciate that.”

“And for what it’s worth, I honestly never put two and two together and realized it was Sloane you were looking for. For all the togetherness this family has, there were times she was in and out of here without most of us seeing her. So…sorry.”

It was a relief to hear someone admit it.

Shaking Levi’s hand, he said, “No worries. And I appreciate you saying that.”

“I saw the reels she made for the garage,” Jade said before they walked away. “She does good work. We didn’t talk about that too much—work is a taboo subject when we’re out having fun—but I can almost guarantee she’d have a lot of clients if she decided she wanted to do a little more freelance work. I told her she should talk to her cousin here about possibly working with him. Just FYI…”

“You’re amazing, Jade. You know that, right?”

She beamed at the compliment. “Of course I do,” she teased and then kissed him on the cheek. “Now go get the girl and go home. I’m sure we’ve talked her ear off and she needs someone to kiss it and make it better.”

He straightened and grinned. “I’m just the man for the job.”

ChapterTen

“What a great night!” Sloane said with a happy sigh as they walked through Will’s front door. “This was way more fun than I thought it would be.” She kicked off her shoes and went over and flopped down on the couch. “Sometimes I forget how amazing my family can be. So supportive. So nice. So funny. I hate that Billie and Marcus left early, but she was up at four a.m. to get some baking done. I could never do anything like that. I enjoy sleep too much.”

“Yeah. I don’t know how she does it,” he said as he kicked off his own shoes.

“And, just so you know, everybody loved you.” Smiling up at him, all she could think of was how handsome he was. “All night, my cousins were singing your praises. My brothers thought you were freaking awesome—their words—and rambled on and on and on about your knowledge of cars. I mean, I’m glad they enjoyed listening to all of it, but I started to glaze over after a little bit. Did you try any of the sliders? Oh my God, they were so freaking good!”

She was babbling and she knew it, but she couldn’t help it. It had been a great night and, for the first time in weeks, she felt completely relaxed—in a way that hadn’t directly involved Will and his bed. Just the thought of those two things had her sliding him a sexy grin.

Sitting down beside her, Will pulled her close as he wrapped his arm around her. “I’m glad you had fun. It was definitely a great night.”

“Mm-hmm…”

“The Ridge is going to become a very popular spot in town. We’ve been needing a place like that for ages.”

“Mmm…” she purred, gently rubbing her hand over his chest.

“And did I tell you? Levi apologized to me for not telling me who you were all this time. He said he honestly didn’t know it was you, so maybe it wasn’t exactly an apology, but I appreciated the acknowledgment. It’s good to know we’re all friends and can hang out together either just for fun or to celebrate something.

“Mm-hmm…” she hummed again and then sat straight up. “Oh, man!”

His eyes went a little wide. “What? What’s the matter?”

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